Through Balanda Eyes

Christmas in Victoria

Rain Hail Snow! Not the summer Christmas conditions I remember as a child.

On the week before Christmas we stayed with family in Geelong and visited the fairy park in Anakie.

This place is like a time capsule stolen from some sparsely forested hillside in Bavaria and teleported to a tinder dry and fire scarred rural town in drought stricken Victoria.
I remember visiting there years ago when I was a kid. I think it was already quite old back in the seventies bypassed by the major tourist routs, I expected it to have become run down and neglected since then.
It was a pleasant supprize to find the park had been well maintained despite apparent lack of visitors.

Although there were some very obvious characters peering at us from various vantage points I had a sense of unseen presence amongst the rocks on this hill. Maybe the accumulation of mythical european stories were mingling with indigenous forces?

The surrounding countryside had been burned and there was little cover of edible foliage for Koalas on any of the surrounding hills. I thought this was a result of the recent fires but was told the fire had been over one year ago!
The land is so dry that the plant life hadn't even begun to recover and much of the land looked charred. No wonder this little fella was hanging around so close to people.

Drought
The belarine countryside has been well affected by drought and the abundance of empty lakes and dams makes this quite obvious.

Some of Geelongs storm water flows into the Barwon River via a lake which is usually full of water fowl of all sorts. Unfortunately the extended dry spell has caused the lake to dry out leaving some very deep cracks in the hard mud and much of the local wildlife without a home. (We nearly skittled a snake necked turtle as we drove by the lake).

A pretty consequence of recent fires was this lovely display of Grass trees which burst into flower about a month ago and are still sporting some magnificent spikes.





In contrast to my home in Darwin where schools grounds keepers pump megalitres of water through 6ft high sprinklers on hot windy days; The people of Victoria are now well aware of the effects of our changing climate. There is no denying the lack of water down here. People can be seen carrying tubs of bath water which they pour carefully on to their favorite plants in the hope of saving them from a dehydrated death.
Water is scarce and food production is suffering but still the urban sprawl continues as our government presses on with it's policy of population growth for the sake of the economy.