Eastern Bluetongue Lizard..

A surprising find for our dog Bondi in our yard was this Bluetongue Lizard. A decidedly warm and windy day today has brought it out onto our porch. Most likely looking for some water, maybe some of Bondi's food and to come out into the warmth of the sun.

At first, when I heard this funny barking from Bondi I thought it might be a Tiger Snake. Familiar with such a bark as a kid when growing up out in the country side..we had a few of these Lizards and some snakes in that time. A quick check of the back porch before stepping out the door is always a good idea on a hot night/day. You just never know what you might find!

Today was a real life lesson of The Magic School Bus for the kids... where "Liz", the class lizard, is missing! Even her habitat is gone! Where did she go? To the HERPETARIUM of course!! The class forms a rescue party. But to find Liz, they need to learn what it is like to be a reptile. The person watching the show or reading the book gets to join the Magic School Bus gang.

Friday's History Lesson: Station Pier, Port Melbourne...

Station Pier Today

Station Pier in the year 1910. Immigrants arriving in Melbourne.

History of Station Pier : Originally called Railway Pier, it was officially opened on 12 September 1854 and the 150th anniversary was celebrated in September 2004.
The pier played a pivotal role in Victorians’ lives from the time it was opened, particularly for the arrival of gold seekers and settlers throughout the mid to late 1800s.
In 1861, the original pier was extended, to more than 661 metres (2171 feet). Eventually, the original pier could not accommodate the increasingly large and more powerful steamships of the early twentieth century so it was realigned, extended further and renamed Station Pier.
The pier is heritage listed and the gatehouse at the entrance is of significant heritage and cultural importance.


The Gatehouse, Station Pier.
Comings and goings: In August 1899, the first contingent of troops headed for the Boer War in South Africa left from Station Pier. In October 1914, 16 ships left Port Melbourne carrying troops, horses and supplies as part of Australia’s contingent for the Great War (World War I). Station Pier was also the place of return for the military hospital ships.

HMS IMPLACABLE, FEB 1946

The 1940s saw many troops embark for the Middle East, Britain and Singapore for World War II service.
Station Pier is intrinsically linked to Melbourne’s rich multicultural society with an average 61,000 overseas passengers arriving on an annual basis in Port Melbourne between 1949 and 1966. For many post-World War II immigrants Station Pier symbolises where their new life began.

HMAS Doomba, 1940. This ship was a training vessel aswell as a minesweeper.

Today, the pier has more than 500,000 local, interstate and overseas visitors, including migrant family and friends' reunions.

There is so much romance involved in the history of shipping, in the history of what went on, and what goes on today beside the waters at Station Pier. You really have to be there to acknowledge the fact. Sit, have a coffee, enjoy some seafood from some of the fine eateries just down from the Pier and observe....you won't be disappointed!

Wednesday...

Well, the year is already beginning to wind up..yes, I know, it IS only October still BUT...the shops would have us think it is December already..namely, December 25th!! Yes CHRISTMAS... today I seen Christmas Trees set up in our local Myers store here, right where you walk in. A few weeks ago I was at Coles and they had whole row of Christmas stuff there, lollies, wrapping paper, Christmas Stockings filled with chocolates and what not..well.... it is enough to confuse any kid right? Gahhhh... there ARE other things coming up BEFORE Christmas...like graduation at school, school fetes, a Walk-athon, some excursions to the Botanical Gardens..things like that.

Guess I better get a move on and buy some Christmas gifts..until then....I will build myself..very slowly, a tree made from my favourite Beverage... recycling of course!!!

KIDS WRITE ABOUT THE SEA...funny stuff!!!

1) This is a picture of an octopus.It has eight testicles. (Kelly age 6)
2) Oysters' balls are called pearls. (James age 6)
3) If you are surrounded by sea you are an Island. If you don't have sea all round you, you are incontinent. ( Wayne age 7)
4) Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily Richardson. She's not my friend no more. (Kylie age 6)
5) A dolphin breaths through an asshole on the top of its head. (Billy age 8)
6) My uncle goes out in his boat with pots, and comes back with crabs. (Millie age 6)
7) When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to cross the ocean. Sometimes, when the wind didn't blow, the sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would have been better off eating beans. (William age 7)
8) I like mermaids. They are beautiful, and I like their shiny tails. And how on earth do mermaids get pregnant? Like, really?(Helen age 6)
9) Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves under the sea where I think they have to plug themselves into chargers. (Christopher age 7)
10) On holidays my Mom went water skiing. She fell off when she was going very fast. She says she won't do it again because water fired right up her fat ass. (Jule age 7)

Well, the other night, Mia got out of the bath after having been in there for about half an hour. She held her hands up high in the air exclaiming, "Muuum, my hands.....they look like poppy's!!" We all fell on the floor laughing... I had a pic to upload to blogger but it wouldn't let me..gahhh!!

Have a great week.

FRIDAYS HISTORY LESSON: MILDURA.... Lock 11

The Lock was designed and built in the 1920s and 1930s to provide pools for irrigation and allow for boats to move along the Murray River year-round regardless of water levels. Today the locks allow paddleboats, houseboats, cruise and recreational craft to move up and down the river. (There is a strange looking handle bar like device in the middle of the grass there..do you see it? This was the device that was made redundant that would have been seen in operation up until the 1970's which used to operate the Lock.)

Mildura Weir and Lock 11 are separated by an island, and are popular places for pelicans and locals who fish for carp, perch, cod and bream. Walking from one side of the river, just over the little metal walk bridge and stepping onto the other side takes you from Victoria to New South Wales. Actually, if you were to step one foot in the water you would have one foot in NSW and the other in Victoria.

Once an important trading route, the Murray River was busy with boats carrying supplies to and carting wool from the region's stations and homesteads. Today visitors can board an historic paddle steamer or paddleboat in the river towns of Mildura and Wentworth to experience this traditional form of travel and find out more about riverboat history. It truly is spectacular and romanic!!


To see the Lock in opertation just clink on my photobucket link HERE. It sure is amazing!!!

More vacation pics...

View Larger Map
First Leg of our trip (Move the left arrow to see where we end up)
Leaving Halls Gap Camping Grounds. More Wild flowers. Sarah at McKenzie Falls. Where we dropped our fruit in the bin outside Mildura.
View from our campm spot at Apex Park Mildura, right on the Murray River.
Sandy beach area on side of the River, to the right of our camping spot.

Last Wednesday we travelled from home out to the Western Highway. We travelled up to Ballarat , Goldfield Country. Here we got to stretch our legs and buy some rolls and some chooks to eat later on. The chooks were put on ice in the esky and we ate some fruit and rice crackers. Back onto the Freeway we travelled up to Arrarat. We stopped to top up the fuel and jot down the mileage per litre of petrol. The trip between Ballarat and Arrarat was great. We got to see some awesome farm houses, tiny towns that if you blink you would miss, usually marked with a sign out the front of a pub and no houses! We passed a place called Green lake...we think it was named so because well, there was no water in the thing..just green weeds...sad, a reflection of the drought I guess.

From Arrarat we drove to Pomonal, a really tiny town with a shop, a school, a gorgeous little church and a nice park to stretch our legs in. From here we got to Halls Gap in the Grampians National Park Region..all the while taking in the lovely scenery and the vast array of wonderful animals...some of them had met their fete with vehicles on the roads though :(

View Larger Map

After our wonderful time in Halls Gap, we went on our way to Mildura. We drove to Stawell and travelled up the Henty Highway, through Victoria's Wheat Belt. Then we hit the Murray Outback when we stopped at Ouyen for a break. A popular stop for those travelling by car or bus from Mildura or to Melbourne. From Ouyen it was a good run to Mildura..going through some oddly named towns yet again. Before we got to Mildura, we got rid of some fruit we had on board..we were not able to take this into Mildura as this is a place where fruit fly had been eradicated. You can take fruit from there, but not to there. More Mildura pics on my Friday's History Post....

Halls Gap, The Grampians, Victoria..

Well, we are on vacation at the moment and we have been in Halls Gap in Victoria's Grampian's Area. The image above is taken from the front of our tent. A mother Kangaroo with a joey in her pouch. Just before we left the area this morning, this kangaroo came right up to our tent enclosure.
Nicholas and Mia at McKenzie Falls, 20km's from our camp site.
Wildflowers, just some of the lovely array that can be seen in this pre historic like setting.
Tom and Nick at McKenzie Falls.
McKenzie Falls from atop, there are many walking tracks to go on, appoximately 50 I think. More data later, we are now in Mildura.

Outta The Mouths of Babes...

Well, after much harping and carrying on..about 2 weeks worth, I caved in and took Sarah to get her ears pierced. The first day we tried to get them done at the pharmacy they only had one lady there that could do it. "No thanks" I said. Two at a time only. Why? Because when I got mine done as a kid there was only one girl and one piercing gun. The gun miss fired and the earring got stuck in my EARRRRRRRRR!!!! Yikes..so then she had to do it again and then pierce the other ear..bugger that!!
Second day we went to another pharmacy and I said I wouldn't get it done unless two people and two guns were involved, BINGO, they had it all there. So, it went very well, Sarah got to hold onto cute bear that had its ears pierced (Bet that didn't hurt the bear either eh?). 1,2,3 it was done. Outside the pharmacy there was free craft making stall for kids, school holiday time and all that..and so, Sarah forgot the pain and the heat in her ears. She was kicking goals after that!
We had to dab the area with the alcohol and turn the earrings about a few times a day. Classic line from Sarah was, "Mu-uum, we need to dab my ears with that stinky stuff again, less I get a INFATUATION". LOL, "That'd be an infection Sarah". So cute..my nurse in training :)

Last night I had some weird dreams, especially after I woke to find Mia in the loungeroom at 2am. She thought the sun was up, but it was just the neighbours new fleuro light in their laundry that they keep on all night for their kids as a nightlight and it shins all the way through to our living area and kitchen area. I had someone reading my cards in my dream and the lady said, "Trust those who say it with their eyes, not what they say with their bodies". What??? Not sure what that meant..but it was a pleasant dream anyhow....

FRIDAY'S HISTORY POST: SAILOR'S FALLS.

Today my cousin met up with me at Sailor's Falls. This is where we exchanged kids...you know, Tomas went to her place up the bush and her little girl who is my Nicholas' age came to stay and entertain my other three kiddies.
This place is just such a hidden treasure. If you were not truly searching for it you would all but drive right by it.
Situated about 50 minutes drive out of Melbourne, towards the lovely Mineral Springs area of Dayelsford is Sailor's Falls. 5 kilometres shy of Dayelsford to be exact. Sailor' Falls was originally known as Tunnel Falls(More about that later).
The story behind the name of this magical place is that there was once a group of sailors who jumped ship in the 1850's. They had come to Australia to seek their fortune in the Gold Rush. They discovered this lovely creek an tried their fortune at mining the stream. What they did discover was that this creek ran into a 15metre drop water fall, and that the area was indeed rich in minerals.

Sodium Bicarbonate waters can be found in the Northern Spring Outlet.

In the 1850's, Miners tunneled in beneath the waterfalls for the rich content of the various rock formations. Sub-basaltic deep lead alluvial sediments to be exact. The tunnel and trestle supports were still present below the falls up until the 1920's.

Now, the place i a lovely picnic place and a loos top. You can walk right down to the falls and there are many tracks to go for long all day walks from the picnic area itself.
See, the magic is in the eyes of the beholder...and the smell..... naturally glorious!

Happenings..

It has been a hectic holiday already! We have been to Gisborne and back a few times and I have exchanged kids twice with my cousin. The weather today was glorious up in Gisborne and we had a picnic and a play in the fresh air. We went to Scienceworks the other day and we had the kids' friends here too. All up I had 7 kids playing here a few days ago. My 4, my cousin's kid and two friends A***** and Z******.You would think there would have been fights going on but there were none. All played well together and the boys especially loved creating Bionicles together.
Bondi got fixed at the vets yesterday and he is doing well, a very good patient he is... not pulling out his stitches as yet.
Trying to keep up with people's blogs is a challenge right now, but all will return to normal when school goes back for Term 4..