Travelog for: Paula

Well, last but not least today we went to Lucknow again. This is honestly Sara's first trip to Lucknow where she's actually stopping and having a look around. She's always just drove on through, this time she decided to learn a bit more about the tiny little town and have us learn some more history about the town... there's a little walk around through the farmland so you can learn a bit more about the mining industry...


Then of course, first things first we walked over to the giant mine shafts one on each side of the road... here I am in front of them...



...then we got to learn a bit about the history of Lucknow and the mining that was happening when it was up and running way back in the 1940's...




Since the writing on the sign is very small, I'll write out what it says...
The photo shows the village and mining activity in Lucknow about 1900.

The Bathurst to Orange road, bounded by palin fences, cuts through the village. The Tangye Dam, in the foreground, stored water for the stam boilers and batteries. Immediately behind the dam you can see the cyanide processing site. On the let is the Reform Mine poppet head, with the Phoenix Mine poppet head located on the hillside behind.

The Lucknow school buildings can be identified on the ridge line at right. Mamhead, with it's striped awning, is located in the centre.

...and here I am in front of the Tangye Dam that was mentioned in the information that we just read... this actually really surprised Sara since she never thought there was a dam that ran through this town... especially this much since were in such a drought right now, it was quite surprising actually...

...it was pretty warm today, I was tempted to take a dip in the water, but then decided against it as it probably wasn't as clean as I thought it would be (mainly because of the drought of course).

...almost done with the walk through now (it wasn't too long anyways) here was another information sign... to show you the backdrop of what it looked like where we were here's what it looks like... and now here's the information from the sign...




...again since the writing is quite small I'll type out what the sign reads so you can have a read yourself:
In May 1951, only a few months after Australia's first gold rush started at Ophir, gold was found at present day Lucknow. The Wentworth Goldfield (named after the early land owner WC Wentworth) was initially an alluvial field, but the wealth of the lode lay underground. A comprehensive network of mines was established during the late 1800's, the remnants of the mining operations still dominating the Lucknow village landscape.

During the late 1880's, a series of dams was constructed along Fredericks Valley Creek to provide water storage for the mines. The bluestone walls of these structures are still evident. To the east of Emu Swamp Road, the 'Boat Dam' was constructed and used by the Lucknow village community for recreation. Swimming, rowing and boat regattas were held on the dam.

By the early 1900's the mines had flooded due to the rising water table, and much of the goldfield was abandoned. A resurgence in mining occurred during the 1930's but by the 1940's the boom years of Lucknow and its mines were over. Today Lucknow services the surrounding rural community, its poppet heads and mullock heaps remaining as testimony to the village's historic mining history.

...as you can see there's not much to Lucknow since the mining left in the 40's so a lot of it is just farm land, there are a LOT of sheep... as you see everywhere in Australia - especially since Australia seems to be known for it's sheep and it's wool... we saw a lot of sheep... they all seemed pretty happy! :-) oh, and we even got to see some Australian wood ducks... Sara loves these ducks, she calls them "fancy ducks" because of their brown head...



...well... there's not much more to see in this area, and it was getting quite late and quite warm so we decided to head back to the car... on the way back to the car we stopped and got to see some real aboriginal paintings...


...well I hope you enjoyed my little trek outside of town... I'll post more again soon there's more interesting and historical stuff to learn about rural Australia. :-) Write again soon!

The time has come, and I've moved onto my next host, I'm off to Victoria... I wonder what I'll see there... :-) Write again soon when I'm at my next host mum! <3

Hi mum!

I arrived in Casterton last week. Sam has been super busy so the 1st few days were very quiet. It was raining lots so I couldn’t really go out exploring. When the sun finally came out Sam took me for a drive.

Sam lives 35kms away from the town of Casterton. There are lots of pine tree forests all around her house and rough roads/tracks. Here I am looking up a track with pine trees on both sides. These trees have been growing for 7 years. In another 7 years time they will be cut down and taken to the mill to be turned into timber for houses, furniture etc.



Here I am sitting in a pine tree. They are very prickly, smell great and Sam tells me people use them for Christmas trees!



This is another pine tree farm. These tress have been growing for about 1 year!



The Glenelg River runs past Sam’s farm. It is one of Victoria's longest rivers, starting in the Grampians and winds it way towards the South Australian border where it runs into the ocean.



There isn't alot of water in the river. It's is Spring time in Australia now, heading into a very hot summer. This river hasn't dried up yet but last year it got close to not having any water in it. During winter there was lots of water here, it nearly ran over the top of the bridge!



Welcome to Casterton! A small country town with a population of approximately 2,300.



A local artist made this sculpture from corrugated iron. It is of Jack Gleeson and his dog Kelpie who is a sheep dog. Casterton is famous for it's Kelpie festival every year.



Here you can read about Jack Gleeson who is in the photo above.



Casterton has a few walking tracks. We didn’t have time to go exploring but here is a map of one of the tracks.



Well that was my day. Will write again soon.

Hello Again!

I met a Lizard today, actually I met several. Sam isn't quite sure if they are Blue Tongue Lizards or Stumpy Tailed Lizards, she get confused with the 2 as they are similar unless they open their mouth, if she see a blue tongue then she knows which lizard it is. They are everywhere out here! Quite often on hot days you will see them laying on the roads/tracks soaking up the sunshine.





I also met a SHEEP!!!!! Sam had to pick a cow up from the farmer down the road and in the holding yard was a ram who was waiting to be shorn.

Hi

Today (Saturday) was a family day out at a local country fair. I saw lots of Horses, Tractors, old farm machinery and cows.

Hello!

This is what happens when Sam doesn’t check her mail for a few days! Somewhere under there was a toyvoyager.



Ahaa, Chester popped his head out to say hi.



We were told we might see a space satellite travelling across. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see anything.

Sam had to get her car fixed today so she took her son and us to the playground.







Relaxing in the sun smelling the pretty flowers. Sam tell me they are weeds and grow everywhere!



We then stopped at a few information plaques and learnt about the town of Casterton.







1 more week in Casterton before i continue my journey around Australia. Sam say's there is something special happening here next week. Ooohhh, i wonder what it could be.

Love Paula.

Hello

Today 3 travellers came to stay. I was sooooo excited to see Bellatrix and Jonas again, aren't i lucky to spend a little more time with them before i continue my journey. I also met Bally who seems rather freindly.

Hi!

Today we had a party! A small Halloween party. We had to have it today as i am leaving tomorrow and i certainly didn't want to miss out on the fun.
Sam found some costumes for us and decorated the table for us.

Here we are in costume.
Bellatrix the mermaid. Jonas the jester. Bally the wizard. Me the princess. Chester the superhero. Don't we look great?!?!



And here we are eating donuts. We danced to spooky music and had alot of fun.



I am ready to continue my journey around Australia.I will write again when i arrive at my next destination. Bye!

We are very sorry for the delay in posting. There have been camera issues, illness and busy-ness galore around here. Until the camera issues are fixed, here's an idea of what I've been up to:
* Helping to cook
* Checking out the grass (luckily its summer, so the grass is green and growing well
* Spring cleaning
* Reading
* Wrapping Christmas presents!
Will do a proper update soon... and hopefully the camera will get sorted out as there's a big weekend coming....... Stay tuned!

You'll never guess what - I've been hot air ballooning this weekend!

We had to get up bright and early - even before the sun came up and drive out into the countryside (which considering Canberra is Australia's national capital didn't take all that much time at all!)
We got to see a beautiful sunrise while they were checking the wind direction to find the best place to take off from.


Once we'd found a launching site it was time to set up the balloon. The envelope (the balloon part) was huge and we were happy to see that we had a rainbow coloured one.


It took a while to get the balloon ready to go up.


All of a sudden it was time to leap (literally!) into the basket and we began to float up into the air. It was amazing how much we could see and hear from up there! We could see kangaroos jumping through the sheep paddocks and even hear dogs barking as we passed over head!






Soon it was time to come back down again, although it only seemed like we'd just taken off. Time flies when you're having fun!


While the balloon was being packed up I took the opportunity to check out the grass in an Australian sheep paddock. The drought hasn't been kind to my relatives in this part of the world...


After packing up the balloon we headed back into town for our champagne breakfast, before going home for a mid-day nap!

Today we did something my host has never before done on one of her many trips to Canberra (she goes about 5-6 times a year normally). We went to the National Botanical Gardens for some exersize and to enjoy the sunshine.

Look at this beautiful flower. My host was very excited as she's never seen one in real life before. It's called a Stuart Desert Pea and is the state floral emblem of South Australia. I think its gorgeous!


A large part of the gardens is a rain forest. It was nice to get out of the heat for a while and into the shade.




Look at this strange creature - a big bad banksia man! (Really its just a banksia flower gone to seed, but a famous author called May Gibbs used it as a villain in her books - Bec read it to Boone & Beak when they visited)


Even with all the beautiful plants and flowers to explore I had to take some time to play on the grass. This is the life!


Here we have some beautiful flannel flowers...


some gum nut blossoms...


and miniature grevillia flowers.


We're not sure what these grass like plants are called, but in the background is one of Canberra's most famous landmarks - Black Mountain Tower. You can see it from most places in central Canberra! (Its a bit like the Fernsehturm in Berlin!)

Paula headed off over the Pacific to her new host in the USA.
Bon Voyage Paula!!

I arrived in Pennsylvania today, it's a bit gloomy outside and cold too, but hopefully I will have a fun time soon.

I arrived today with my new host, her name is Sam.
She has a few other toy voyagers with her right now and they greeted me upon arrival.

I can't wait to see what I get to do here in Pennsylvania.