We had always planned to head back to Lara for a few weeks around Christmas for a catch up with family and friends.
First thing on the agenda when we arrived back in Lara was
to attend our grandson Lochie’s graduation from primary school.
All the grade 6 kids were presented with
their certificates and then they entertained the crowd with their production of
the musical Hairspray. How time flies
with the first of the grand children completed primary school.
Talking about time flying, Christmas seems to come and go quicker every year and this year
was certainly no exception. We were back
in Geelong for Christmas and had a lovely Christmas lunch with Karen, Harley,
Lochie and Sophie at their place. We
then topped up on Christmas tea with Leann and Clayton and some of the Trotter
and Jolly families at Kylies place in Avalon.
Thank God for a day of rest on boxing day and then another Christmas
lunch with my family at my sister Diane's place down at Bambra. My brother
Barry's son Adam had smoked up a leg of pork from a pig that Trent and Rhys prepared, and Trent cooked up some fresh scallops that he and a mate gathered
fresh from the sea.
Judy and Diane made
a beautiful selection of sweets which topped the meal off very well. Like most Aussie Christmas lunches, this one
finished up in a game of backyard cricket.
The following day saw us packing the caravan again and
heading off to Laanecoorie which is on the Loddon river south west of
Bendigo.
The lake is ideal for water
skiing and as the temperature was up around 37 degrees, it didn't take long for
Clayton to get his boat into the water and towing everybody around on the tube,
we all had a great time cooling off.
With
15 hungry mouths to feed every night, meal times became a real community effort. Chicken schnitzels, BBQ chops, spaghetti bolognaise
were the first few meals. Once we got settled into it and the weather cooled
off a bit, the Oz-pig came out with the camp oven and we amazed ourselves with
what could be cooked in that. Everything
from beef stew, roast pork and roast beef. Brendan decided that double recipe chocolate self saucing pudding would
probably work OK in the camp oven as well.
That started it for deserts and the next night Clayton did golden syrup dumplings
which worked out just as well.
Brendan's son Tyhe was telling us how he had learnt to cook
pizza omelette at school so we talked him in to cooking it for breakfast. Wow, Tyhe's pizza omelette was a great hit
with everyone in our camp so it was on for breakfast again the next morning.
Leann and Judy turned their hand to pizza which Clayton
cooked in the parks pizza oven, these pizzas would put Pizza Hut to shame.
With the historic town of Maldon only about 25 minutes drive
away, a ride on the steam train from Maldon to Castlemaine was high on the
list. We had lunch at the take away shop
in the main street of Maldon and we all voted them to be the absolute best
chips that any of us had ever eaten anywhere.
They were cooked to perfection, crunchy on the outside and soft on the
inside and above all not greasy. Right
next door is the Maldon home made ice creamery.
Once again, possibly the best ice cream you could have with too many
flavours to choose from. I can certainly
recommend the Bailies Irish Coffee, but the choc orange, banana and strawberry
also come highly recommended.
The train
departs Maldon at 2.30 pm and we sat in their refurbished first class carriage
and enjoyed a coffee from the on board bar.
The trip is 18 kilometres and takes just under an hour as it is only a
light gauge track so the speed limit most of the way if only 15 miles per
hour. The train stops briefly at
Muckleford Station which is about half way and then it is all down hill into
Castlemaine from there. As most people
would have gathered from reading our blog, I have a fascination for old steam
engines, so I took the time to climb up into the driving compartment to have a
look while we were waiting for the return journey. Much to my surprise, Clayton chatted to the
station master and the train driver and convinced them to let me ride back to
Maldon with them in the engine.
Well I
couldn't get back on fast enough, and I spent the next hour amongst the steam
and the smoke learning how a real steam engine works. What an awesome trip and an unforgettable
experience to get amongst all that steel and raw power as the J class 549
locomotive went under full steam to tow those carriages up the first 1 in 40
gradient out of Castlemaine. We stopped
again at Muckleford station on the way back, and as we were running ahead of
time, the driver got off to do a "tyre check". This gave me a chance to walk around the loco
with him and of course ask many questions.
Back on board again and steamed back into Maldon. I was surprised just how much work goes on in
the driving compartment, with the
fireman trying to keep the water in the boiler at the right level, the
steam pressure up around 160 psi and the right amount of fuel on the fire so
there is not too much smoke but enough to keep that steam pressure up for when
the driver pours on full power. All this
time the driver is busy with his levers and wheels controlling how much steam
is used and how much power that steam produces in the engines all at the same
time using the brakes to control the down hill speed and using that steam
whistle to warn cars as they approach level crossings. Wow, you couldn't have wiped the smile off my
face nor the smell of soot off my cloths, what an experience.
Further information on J549 locomotive can be found at http://www.australiansteam.com/J549.htm
Maryborough is another country town close by and we were
surprised at how big this town is. It
has all the facilities, and unlike a lot of other smaller country towns, this
one seems to be thriving. The girls had
a great day shopping and away from the dust out at the lake.
We moved on from Laanecoorie to Barham and it was great to
get back onto a lovely grassed site again and be so close to the Murray river
. After 2 days of cleaning out the dust
from the caravan and endless loads of washing, we got the boat blown up again
and into the water. Our first trip down
the river saw us land 2 good size yellow belly.
As usual, I caught the first one but Judy trumped me again by pulling in
another one half again as big as mine.
It was good to actually get amongst some eatable fish again after all
the stinking carp that we caught at Laanecoorie.
One of the things that I find interesting while looking
around the country are infrastructure projects that are being undertaken to
either preserve or regenerate areas that have been degraded through one means
or another. The last few times we have
visited Barham we have noticed some extensive earth works and bridge building
just north of the town but haven't taken
the time to find out what it is all about.
Having a bit more time now we drove in to have a look and found out that
it is the Koondrook–Perricoota Forest flood enhancement project which is now complete. This is an $80 million project to deliver
environmental water to more than 17,000 hectares of forest to restore the
health of the River Murray and the unique River Red Gums of that forest. This major infrastructure project, located on the
River Murray between Echuca/Moama and Barham involves a series of
channels and regulators built to efficiently deliver environmental water
entitlements to water more than 17,000 hectares of forest.
The project has included the construction of a 3.8 kilometre
inlet channel and a 43 kilometre series of levees and control regulators to
enable water to be diverted into the creek system that feeds and drains the
forest while protecting the surrounding farm land from artificial flooding.
Water from Torrumbarry Weir pool will be directed into
natural flood runners within the 33,000 hectare forest with up to 52 per cent
or 17,000 hectares of forests being able to be inundated before water is
returned to the River Murray system. This enables the water to be reused for
other purposes further downstream.
We met a lady in the caravan park who worked on the project
as an advisor on flora and fauna and she told us how they found many aboriginal
burial sites where they had to work with the local aboriginal tribal elders to
ensure that these sites are preserved.
This lady is a zoologist and had nothing but good things to say about
the project. We also spoke to other
locals and farmers about the project and they were very critical of all the
money being spent on the project. Like
always, there are 2 sides to every story.
It must be difficult for governments to commit large amounts of money to
these projects when there are so many people in need of the basics.
We drove from Barham to Swan Hill on a back road through Murrabit
and Benjeroop. We couldn’t help notice
earth bund walls around a lot of the houses so I started asking some
questions. How quickly we forget things
that happen. In January 2011 there was a
huge rain event as never seen before which flooded Central and North Western
Victoria.
One thing they have done is to develop an irrigation museum
and have a fully rebuilt Hornsby Gas Suction engine and an irrigation pump
which was first started again on the 12/12/12 which was exactly 100 years to
the day that the engine first arrived in Australia.
With
the weather being around 47 degrees, we took advantage of the air conditioner
in the car and took a drive around Lake Boga.
This lake was completely dry during the last drought but has recovered
well with all the water that is now available for environmental flow. The water from the rivers and channels is so expensive for the farmers to buy so a lot of them have stopped irrigating
and sold their water allocations off back to the government. This has also happened around the Benjeroop
farming community where farmers have just sold their water rights and walked
off the land. The lake looks great and the ski
club have taken advantage of it with a floating water park.
After
a week at Barham, we traveled just 28 kilometres and moved on to Cohuana for a few days beside Gunbower Creek. Unfortunately our luck with fishing didn’t
change, but we did manage to catch a small feed of yabbies.
From
Barham we headed back to Geelong to tie up a few final loose ends and then off
to the west where we plan to be in Perth by September.
I
have been very surprised at how many people follow us on our blog. One of those people is Jo at Westprint in
Nhill. Westprint specialise in outback maps, books and other interesting information for the Aussie traveler. They do a newsletter every week called the
Friday Five which advertises some of the products they have for sale , but also
prints stories from other travelers as well as 5 jokes at the end for a weekly
laugh. They published some of the
stories from our blog in January which we were excited to see.
To get onto their mailing list, check out their website at http://westprint.com.au/ it is an interesting read and a good laugh as well.
