Visiting Geelong

Just thought I'd add a few words and some photos from the week I spent in Geelong with Work attending the an indigenous ministry conference.

The highlight of the conference was getting opportunity to listen to the Key Note Speaker Mr Harley Eagle. Harley is an expert on trauma experienced by First Nations people. A very caring and understanding man I wish I'd been able to attend every session but I had some other responsibilities during some of his talk. Here's a brief clip of Harley playing flute. 

Sorry this post isn't about what I was officially there to do, I'll have to skip that commentary. 

Now back to me talking about my own simple life.

I was fortunate to be visiting Geelong for work, accompanying a group of people to a conference, but there wasn't a great deal of actual work involved. My role was driver, gofer, carer and administrative fixit boy. 

Being a relatively small group and due to the fact that the organizers had taken responsibility for basic services the workload was ligher than usual although as usual I was required to be on call 24/7 so there wasn't much free time. I attended the meetings and assisted people with personal needs that weren't covered by the organizers but thankfully meals, agenda, minutes, video and camera duties were all taken care of. 

Geelong Grammar - By appearances it really is all that!

The venue was Geelong Grammar! Being a public school boy I had never actually seen a school like this. Fair Dinkum! It's like something out of a movie about the British aristocracy in the 19th century! The school was surrounded by immaculately cared for gardens and perfectly trimmed hedges! The sports oval was covered in a 1cm high flush of perfect green turf that springs back when you step on it... (Oops I wasn't supposed to step on the grass).

Being school holidays this was the time for maintenance at the school, a huge team of people were busy trimming bushes, polishing windows and applying the annual coat of paint to the sports pavilion. Yes that's right, they paint everything once a year!  

Dining Hall

When I first entered the dining hall I thought I was in Hogwarts!

The Grammar is located in Corio, before you get into Geelong in a space between the heavily industrialized North Shore and the wetlands on Hovell's Creek.

Approaching the school you might think you're headed to a wasteland but if you go for a short walk toward the coast you can find a great little trail that follows Hovell's creek past Lime Burner's Lagoon and some fairly under appreciated wetlands.

Romulus - Where I left him

Lime Burner's Lagoon Jetty

My busy schedule for the week didn't allow much exploring but I managed to bring my bike (Romulus) down from Melbourne so cycled the coastal trail before breakfast and after dinner each day. The weather varied from quite cool to very bloody hot (43C) 

Romulus beside Hovell's creek trail sign. (with bullet hole)

A brief break allowed me time to visit an old work friend who brought me to his home which is nestled in a quiet little corner of North Shore. He'd moved there with his partner to participate in a community development program are Norlane called Urban Seed. Apparently the program has morphed a little since its inception. Funding avenues may have changed but at it's core, I am told, is a decent group of people who are committed to sustaining a vibrant and caring community. Norlane is in a part of Victoria that has experienced decades of economic hardship. 

I enjoyed visiting North Shore. At first glance it doesn't look like much, just a few streets of old houses caught between the refinery and various other dockside industries. In fact it was quite a nice place, a quiet corner close to the sea, and not too far from town. 

In the shadow of what can appear to be a crumbling industrialized wasteland, are little pockets and sanctuaries that give hope and allow life to flourish. There was quite a lot of bird life to be found in the shrubs and wetlands, people came to fish or to walk and I even saw a few hares in the paddocks. 

These are the moments I seek. The 'Thin Spaces'.

View of You Yangs from Hovell's creek

I hope to get back there some time to visit the Church they have converted into a community hub, meet some of the people who have devoted themselves to the project and explore some forgotten corners of the bay if I can. 

Jetty @ Limeburner's lagoon

Southern state shuffle

We have just returned from our annual pilgrimage to Victoria to visit family and once again we've exhausted the budget and worn out our shoes trying to squeeze as much as possible into our 8 day excursion. 

Departure this year was marred by the loss of a loved pet and as usual my nonchalant attitude and chaotic approach to preparing inspired no confidence from the rest of the family. My bike ride a few days earlier left me with severe sunburn which resulted in blisters and the destruction of one or two layers of skin. Wearing shoes to ride must have burst a few blood vessels under the nail of my left big toe which created swelling and a bloody sore toe until the bruising finally appeared! I'd already lost the big toenail on my right foot from the same problem while on the Great Vic Bike Ride! I hate wearing shoes!

At least on this trip I did managed to pack my case (7 kg carry on luggage) more than an hour before departure... Quite prudent preparation time for me.

Gross Eh?

Although the main purpose of our trips down South is to visit family we always try to fit in some tourist stuff. After all, our options are fairly limited in Darwin. This particular trip was action packed and left little time for sitting around. While in Victoria we managed to visit the Children's farm at Bundoora Park, Melbourne Aquarium and the Werribee open range Zoo but the highlights for me this year  (besides seeing our families) were Trees Adventure in Belgrave and Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.

Trees Adventure

A fraction of the course including Mountain Ash in the background

The Great Oak Home Tree

Trees Adventure at Glen Harrow Park was a great bonding experience with my daughter. Climbing on a network of cables right up in the tree tops of high above the ground! It was awesome and felt quite safe. The carabiner locking system ensured we were locked on to a safety cable at all times. Actually once you allow the harness to take your weight a few times the whole fear of being so far above the ground seemed to disappear and we just got into moving along the obstacle course and riding the awesome flying fox zip lines! Unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera and I didn't want to take my camera phone up so high so we only got photos at ground level. 

Ballarat - Sovereign Hill

The trip to Ballarat turned out to be jam packed! It's a long story but a trip to meet some friends of Bill W for an anniversary weekend turned into two days of family reunion and exploring the 1850's goldfields reconstruction at Sovereign Hill.

We left Melbourne early and were in Ballarat by 10am. It turned out that the gathering just happened to be in a hall opposite the Eureaka Stockade memorial right by the Museum of Australian Democracy.

Unfortunately we didn't have the time to explore the museum but I was beginning to feel inspired by the sense of rebellion which radiated out of the Ballarat Goldfields and spurred the beginnings of democracy in Australia. (Once again another long story which I'd love to look more deeply into, i.e. the 'Australian' national identity, how we identify with rebellious characters but tend toward the bureaucratic and authoritarian colonial authority model of governance... etc... etc...)

Sovereign Hill

Two days in Sovereign hill was a real treat! It's a working replica of an 1850s gold town and an opportunity to see some of the crafts, technologies and social conditions of that era. I didn't notice any mention of the Aboriginal history of the area and I do intend to look into it, but will have to leave that for another time. There was a very Eurocentric theme to the place, I wondered how accurate this was but I accepted the narrative for the sake of soaking up the atmosphere they had gone to so much trouble to create. It was a peculiar setting, there were quite a few references and examples of the Chinese presence on the gold fields but very few opportunities to hear about the Chinese experience from Chinese guides who seemed to work exclusively with the Chinese tourists. It was like an apartheid tour experience. I wonder what the Chinese guides were telling their tour groups? 

I may have had a slight error of judgement when I booed the Redcoats. Who'd of thunk they'd have so many keen supporters? If ever there were a time and place for rebellion against imperialism I woulda thought This was a good one. Just goes to show how complicit Australians have become! Some even swore allegiance to the Queen! Don't they know it's satire!?!

 

Coming from Darwin where everything is new and made of concrete I was spellbound by the woodwork, the old brick and timber buildings, the craftsmanship and the beauty of natural materials and the use of old techniques for constructing everything from wagon wheels to gold ingots! 

Gold! Yep we had a go at panning for gold in the creek. Unfortunately for the rest of the family, as soon as I got a pan in my hand, my obsessive nature took over and I wouldn't leave until I'd gathered enough specks of gold in my collector jar to leave no doubt what I'd come for! (The jar, property of my daughter, was left on the plane home!) 

Dinner on Saturday night turned into an unexpected gathering and a reunion with friends and family, some of whom I was once very close with and haven't seen for at least 15 years! Too many experiences to describe! 

Our last 3 days were spent in Geelong and actually by then we were pooped! We've found an amazing place to stay down there, not too far from family, spacious and with a playground and a pond full of ducks to sit and watch while we unwind! After so much running around the duck pond was our favorite retreat, we could have stayed there another few days.

We are now finally back home in Darwin. We arrived at midnight on the day that cyclone Lam hit the Arnhem coast. 

One of the kids lost an expensive electronic device in transit... 

Friends at Elcho are stranded with no running water, no sewerage and no electricity...

The house smells of mold, our bank balance is in the red...

We missed our home but have no extended family here, there's a sense of loss emanating from most quarters, it's often that way.

Slowly we ease back into the jagged rhythm of Darwin life.

Simplify

Right now here in Darwin we are experiencing the eye of category 1 Cyclone Carlos. Prior to the development of the tropical low and the accompanying 'very' wet (Over 400mm in 24 hours) weather I was busy getting on with simplifying my life and leaving the blogging world behind me. Just give it up, cold turkey like a bad habit or addiction... (I'm sure Thoreau wouldn't have spent his days blogging...! He'd probably have some great derogatory description for those who waste their time on such egocentric nonsense)

Instead of blogging mindless 'twitter' I have been reading 'Walden' by Henry David Thoreau and spending my days exploring, walking, paddling, planting etc... and loving it! But now I'm housebound, taking shelter from Carlos, the Wind and the Rain,and I'm too close to the computer to resist.

Here's some things I've seen over the past month or so.


(A great train headed south)


(A walk through the mangroves amongst the Mud-skippers)


(A mossy wonderland)


(Wild Ginger on a hillside in Litchfield National Park)


(Giant Myrtle Beach trees in a sacred gully in the Otways)


(Paddling a swollen river in Geelong)


(A living sculpture of plants and food in Collingwood)


(A magical era of bicycle innovation and invention)

Over the past month I have enjoyed some really wonderful experiences. I have shared most of these with the ones I love and we have felt blessed to live in a place that has so much natural beauty and to have the right to travel freely to almost any place we like in this country. 

I have also seen the continued trauma and pain suffered by Asylum Seekers and the lack of compassion shown by our Governments, media and many members of our society toward these vulnerable people. 

I have seen the continuation of racist policies and sanctioned discrimination against Indigenous people in the Northern Territory and I have seen the destruction and defilement of places that are incredibly dear to me.

It's a busy time in this life and everything seems to be moving way too fast. I resolved at the end of last year to make better use of my time and not bother too much with useless things. The more practical the better and there's no point to prattling on about it. I may find that while tapping away on this keyboard I have missed a perfect opportunity to learn to knit, sharpen a tool, identify a plant, skin a rabbit or grow a bean! Right now I could be writing a letter to a certain Shire Council challenging them on their decision to allow developers to channel their stinking festering drain pipes from their environmentally disastrous housing estate straight into the Plenty River that I love!
Maybe if I'd had just one spare day I could have spent it collecting all the shit that has washed through those drains and dumped it in the nearest showroom of that housing estate? Now that would have been time well spent!


(The destruction of the fields where I used to roam)

I took my boy out to the fields so he could experience the fresh air, the smell of the grass and to feel the dry bark and clay under his feet just as I did when I was his age! Alas I was too late! They have taken it all away!

A few moments around coastal Victoria

Although nearly a week has passed since we returned from ‘Down South’ I’ve got a bunch of pictures and memories I need to store so I thought I’d continue to share a bit of the story here.

We had some fantastic walks exploring the bush reserves and beaches around Western Port Bay but after just 2 great days it was time to return to Melbourne and Geelong to spend Christmas with Family.

On Boxing Day there was a special day with Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends! Of course we'd booked more than a month in advance so as not to miss out. My kids love Thomas and I think the romance of Steam Engines has rubbed off on us quasi adults too! I forgot to mention that just two hours after arriving in Melbourne we went to a miniature railway where we rode on small scale trains for the afternoon.


(Eltham Miniature Railway)


(Salty, Thomas and one of the Big green trains at Queensclif)


(Green loco Queenscliff)


(Thomas The Tank Engine)
Just a couple of nights in Geelong and we were headed off down to the Otway ranges to stay in a cottage at a place called Barwon Downs. It was fantastic! So many native birds! While most of Victoria is still recovering from drought, the Otways remain lush and wet and full of life! It was so beautiful there amongst the eucalypts and the smells were out of this world! There's something special about the scent of wet eucalypts! Even the grass gave off a wonderful perfume!



(Blue-winged Parot aka Grass Parot, Barwon Downs)


(Tiger Snake, Barwon Downs)

We had a ball there, just hanging out with the trees and the birds and horses, a chook and a few cows oh and on the last day... A LARGE TIGER SNAKE! There are some great bicycle tracks through the Otways including a mountain bike track that is apparently one of the worlds best!


(Otway Fly)


(Otway Fly)

Next time I hope we can cycle the Beechy Rail Trail.

After leaving Barwon Downs we headed back to Geelong and visited the National Wool Museum on our last day before coming back to Darwin. I really enjoyed the museum particularly the weaving looms and the old Factory workers cottage.


(Weaver's cottage, National Wool Museum)



(Small weaving loom, National Wool Museum)

We experienced so many great things on this trip but right now I'm too tired to post about all that! Especially since our computer blew up while we were away and I am having a hell of a time downloading photos or even typing on an under powered make-do laptop that's running VISTA and keeps Blaaaagh!