Posts
Our trip to Derby was planned with 2 reasons in mind. I had heard of the 20 ft tides with boats left high and dry and a little of the McCarthy family history occurred up there. The mental image of the place was long sandy beaches with a little town perched beside the water. The reality was much different. The town itself is quite widely spaced so although there are a reasonable amount of shops, there is quite a difference between them.
The pier had no sand at all just mud flats and mangroves. The tide certainly goes out a long way but mud is mud. Not particularly attractive no matter what the lighting is like.
The family history search was slightly successful. When I asked who to contact for the Derby Historical Society, the grinned and said. “It’s history, mate.” Remarkably, they give you a key and directions to a small museum for a gold coin donation. The instructions were simple. “Down this street and cross over the main street. You can’t miss it. And make sure you lock the door behind you and bring back the key.” Nothing to sign. All done on an honesty system.
The museum was a house from the very early days. Lots of bits and pieces from various periods but nothing relevant to the period my great grandfather was the copper up there from 1903 to 1910. We dropped the key back at tourist info and headed down to the local hospital. The counter guy said they had some early photos on the walls there.
My sister, Debra, had given me instructions on 2 photos to look for hoping we might get some notes on who was who in the shots. I had almost given up hope when Liz saw the edge of a photo behind a room divider. And there it was. One of the photos I was looking for. Unfortunately it had no extra information but it carries a reference number we will have to track down. How lucky for me that I let Liz out of the toot at Hammersley Gorge a couple of days earlier?
Photo 1 Yep. That would be mud and one leg of the pier
Photo 2 The prison boab tree
Photo 3 A clearer view of the opening. Is this how prisons got the name cooler?
Photo 4 One of these blokes is my Great Grandfather
cool
dark
aloof
comforting
reducing objects to simple shapes
flowers fences and people
just a plain flat shape
no complications, easy
shadows are not harmed by being stomped upon
they remain the same ambiguous shape
most visible upon sunshiny days
the yin to the suns yang
balance
the sun is hiding this morning
my shadows are gone
my many forms
I walk along the sidewalk
my own shadows merge
I am the flowers
I am the leaves
I am the fence
I am the pole
I am the sign
I am the person
I’m a little behind on the blog so this is from late last week when we started to head to Derby. Some of you may have seen it on the news.
To make way for a road straightening in Kununurra, this magnificent boab tree had to be moved and being as it’s 750 years old, someone decided to donate it to Kings Park in Perth. The only catch was it had to be moved 3,000 k’s to get it there.
Initially we would have missed it but their weight calculation was out by half so they had to get a bigger rig to move it. At 8 meters wide it covered both lanes of traffic and also had to get across some single lane bridges.
We didn’t quite make the rest area so we had to pull over to let it past. Both ahead and behind us were single lane bridges and I had hoped to be able to photograph it on the bridge ahead. Never mind, it still looks impressive.
For those unfamiliar with boab trees, they are quite stunning. The trunks swell to hold water in the dry conditions so they get very skinny challenged as they get older. The branches are quite stunted so they look like a modern artists version of a tree.
Being such a relatively young tree, it’s expected to last at least another 750 years which probably means it will be around to see the Libs regain Government. (Sorry. I couldn’t help that one.)
These are from our picnic near the beach in town. The friend we went with grew up in Wollongong so knew the best spots to go and where to buy the best fish and chips. We had originally planned to go and visit the science museum but the kids pretty tired from walking around the temple all morning so decided to save that for another trip.
Apparently, these cannons were put in to defend Wollongong from a potential Japanese attack during WW2. My friend remembered refusing to have photos taken of her astride the cannon back when she got married in 1985!
My daughter took this next photo of her friend. It really captures her friend's nature perfectly.
Perfect hills for rolling down.
No escape from WYD pilgrims even in Wollongong! This lot were from Santa Ana, Califorrnia and were pretty tuneless.
All tuckered out and ready to go home.
et à fleur de colline.
N'est pas dans le château orgueilleux dominant le village mais bien dans cette statue de la vierge à l'enfant placée prés des rives du lot
Having arrived at Tom Price, I couldn’t resist heading out to Hammersley Gorge. It was a favoured place to go to on the only day off per week back then. Not that we went there often. At 70 k from town and on the dirt, you had to decide if you wanted to shake the car to bits to get there.
These days they have some rudimentary steps leading down to the water. I maybe wrong but I don’t recall having this feature to assist entry to the gorge in the 70’s. I do remember a couple of guys building a two man esky for work dos. To get it into the gorge took 4 guys because it was as big as a family fridge and held plenty. Happily, it was a lot easier to get it back out of there as far as the weight of the beer went though it looks like it might have been a tad tricky climbing out with a skinful.
As you can see from the photos it’s a beautiful place. I
have never known it to dry up and also never seen it in flood. I can imagine it
really gets going with some rainfall especially with the heavy showers they get
here. The houses in town don’t have gutters on the roof because the volume of
rain is too much for them to cope.
Photo 1 Looking down on the gorge
Photo 2 the obligatory dunny shot
Photo 3 the gorge has a series of shallow pools the water works its way down through
Photo 4 Look. A lock on the outside of the toilet
Photo 5 Liz falling victim to me being able to lock her in.
This update has taken a while to get around to due to mixed emotions. I used to live in Tom Price back in the early 70’s, firstly planting lots of trees in the new town, and then I secured an Electrical Fitters Apprenticeship which I served at Tom Price with the last 6 months at Paraburdoo. Lots of memories here. Usually good ones. It’s amazing how the bad stuff gets buried with time while the good stuff just gets better and better.
To start with the town has grown and those seedlings I helped plant 35 years ago are looking sensational. I can’t tell you how proud I was to see the magnificent parks that were originally just red dirt paddocks. Man they look good.
Instead of one dirt road out of town, you have 2 dirt roads and an excellent sealed road so Liz didn’t have to “Do dirt”. Well sort of. We did end up going to Hammersley Gorge which had about 70 k of the red stuff. I might give it an entry of it’s own. I certainly have enough pictures of it to cover a report.
We took a mine tour and I was simply gob smacked. Instead of producing 2 million tons a year they are currently attempting to ship 20 million tonnes per year and will do so when a couple of upgrades are complete. They have moved on from the original mountain and are currently working the southern ridge. The predicted life span of the town is another 10 years which, funnily enough, is what they quoted all those years ago.
Wages and conditions are VERY attractive and I wouldn’t mind getting a job back there. Haul truck drivers start on an 80k salary and move to 120k with longevity. Not bad for a driving job that has only 3 gears. Forward, reverse, and neutral. How hard can it be? I have driven the things before when I was an apprentice and you soon get used to the size.
It's a great place to live in the modern era. With the advent
of live TV plus DVD’s, video games, and the Internet, things don’t look so
isolated these days.
With company rents of $300......
wait for it
Photo 1 the fruit of my labors
Photo 2 the old drive-in movies. They still run them occasionally when there is a projectionist in town.
Photo 3 the southern ridge. It used to be a bit of a hill in the 70's.
Photo 4 a little gecko found on Mt Nameless. These little guys run of their back legs if they get scared.
Yes, that was the mystery location of the Chinese temple in my other photos. I took the kids on a little overnight trip down there. We had planned to holiday a bit further afield but my husband was unable to take leave from work because he works in an area affected by the World (Catholic) Youth Day (week!) mayhem in Sydney. Wollongong was just the right distance (51km from Sydney) for a trip on my own with the kids. It is also one of those places that I had always meant to go to but never got around to probably because it is so close to home. The idea of staying at the temple was really serendipitous. I had always been intrigued by the sight of the temple which we often pass on our way further south. It kind of just appears out of nowhere beside the freeway in the middle of an industrial area. I didn't even know you could stay there until I looked at the website on Sunday to see about visiting during the day. I thought it would be an interesting cultural experience for the kids who are already quite interested in Chinese culture through their Kung Fu associations.
On the way down on Monday, we stopped off for a few hours to visit an old friend of mine who lives in a little seaside village called Scarborough. This entailed driving over the incredibly scenic but hair-raising Sea Cliff Bridge. We had a lovely lunch at my friends place and then took all the kids to the beach. We deliberately didn't let them change into swimsuits as we didn't want them going in swimming in mid-Winter. This didn't stop them though! Two got soaked in their clothes and my son just stripped off all his clothes and went in naked!
The sun goes down pretty early in Scarborough because of the escarpment so we headed off for Wollongong and the Nan Tien Temple shortly after 5pm, arriving just in time for dinner. This was held in the Dining Hall in the middle of the temple complex and was a vegetarian Chinese steamboat meal eaten with the Buddhist 'reverends' (I would have called them nuns). The food was delicious although the kids mainly filled up on rice and fruit. The reverends were very impressed at the kids attempts to use chop sticks (even though their technique was terrible). A couple of friends also joined us for dinner and to spend the night at the Pilgrim Lodge.
Here are some pictures of the Lodge.
Entrance to Pilgrim Lodge:
I hadn't known what to expect when I booked it but it was really very comfortable, ie, the rooms just like motel rooms and quite reasonably priced. The dinner was also great value at $10 for adults and $5 for kids.
The next morning we had breakfast in the dining room. The kids were thrilled at this as they again got to serve themselves and they had quite an interesting selection of food including cereal, fruit, mini croissants, milo etc. We then spent the entire morning wandering around the temple complex. There was so much to see and the kids had a great time playing and also had an opportunity to participate in temple activities such as placing candles on the altar of one temple, learning to pray to the Buddha, ringing bells and joining in a calligraphy class. The reverends recognised us from dinner the previous night so gave the kids special attention. Most were Chinese (from various countries including one we spoke to who was from Malaysia) but there were also quite a few Westerners working at the complex and even one Western reverend.
Here are some more photos we took.
Waiting for temple to open:
In the gardens near the Lodge:
One thing I loved about the temple was how open it was to the surrounding community. Apart from the accommodation in the lodge and the meals which are open to everyone, they also run things like meditation and cooking classes, HSC study camps, baby blessings etc etc. They also have plans to build a university which will host students from all over the world. It is great that something like this exists in Wollongong which is really a very traditional, working class Aussie kind of place.
More on the 'Gong itself to follow.
Il y a de merveilleux petits jardins tenus par les habitants d'Estaing. On accède à ces jardins par des marches étroites sans rambarde posées en affleurement de la muraille de pierre.
