Western District awash

The farm fence was submerged this week by all the rain here in the Coleraine area. Hibernating snakes all got a wet wake up and a sheep was swimming down the street in Casterton.

This image is the same place as the one above, taken from the bridge the next day with all the flotsam caught in the fence wire. Bit of work ahead to replace it all. At least the dams and tanks are all full.
This image of the nearby Nigretta Falls

is from The Age and please do click this link to it's entry World Of Waterfalls. Not only did flying kangaroos wreck their rental and inspire them to publish several images of kangas leaping across their bows but they went in November when the falls were dry - here is their image of that:

World Of Waterfalls I wish they could see it now.

Koalarama

On my way home from shopping [in Hamilton, Victoria 3300 the heart of the wonderful and woolly Western District]

eventually he left the road ...

and went up a tree.

That was all cute and groovy and I mooched further toward home only to find

a tortoise on the road. sigh. of course I had to pick it up and put it safely away from the hurtling logging trucks which most certainly would not swerve to avoid a fatal end.
If Copperwitch [hi Coppy] was writing this post she would make it hilarious. She shops at Southland which probably has koalas and tortoises too.I can only sigh.

Casterton's Annual Kelpie Muster

Well darling readers I was there this morning for the 20th annual shebang and this pic is the actual muster where skilled working dogs compete on the banks of the Glenelg River. Below are the other competitors mounted and waiting with their dogs.

Dogs dogs woof woof it was dog city from far and wide you wouldn't believe the range of number plates from distant places. The next pic is my friend Julie Honey and her famous clever dog FLASH a rare Miniature Kelpie - he's the one in the red bow tie winning the Kelpie Egg&Spoon Race in the main Street.

I mainly shopped the muster - the stubby holder, bumper sticker and food food food. Tomorrow is the great auction of talented dogs where they go for thou$and$.  I don't really need a pet but I may be a sucker for the concurrent auction of a special edition VicRoads rego plate with a Kelpie on it. Watch the freeways my friends. Woof Woof.

I went to Casterton

It is only 30 kms up the road and very pretty in Autumn.
Dame Mary Gilmore, the woman on our $10 banknote lived in Casterton, Victoria in 1907 when this substantial hotel was designed and built.
However, she escaped and the hotel is now closed down. Young Mary Jean Gilmore had been taken by her husband to the Strathdownie sheep station and if I look up I can actually see the Strathdownie road from my window.  Vistas can be good out here in The Western District.
When that hotel was absolutely thriving in a wealthy community 30 years on, it got some neighbouring buildings in a completely different style.
Murrell's Shoes is charming example of Art Deco and has not been ruined:

It bravely faces the stonkingly Art Deco Casterton Town Hall. Totally Style Moderne in every way.

That dog-on-a-rock is there because Casterton [named for a place in Ireland] is the home of The Kelpie muster - an event where $12,000 has been paid for one dog [I wonder though, how mixed the seller's emotions were as he left without his clever doggie].  Those red dogs which are so focussed on sheep herding originated in the Victorian Casterton when it was noted by her Scotsman owner that "one of Kelpie's pups" would be just as clever at moving sheep as she was. There are A LOT of sheep around here.

No Kelpies needed at No Place For Sheep however. A most excellent Australian blog I commend to you. Follow the link to vent your spleen on Bananaby Joyce, Donald "7/11" Trump or the witless Tara Brown who has been in a slummy Beirut slammer for much more than 60 Minutes.

The Quarrymen rock the west

Yesterday I got this image of a western district quarry when I went there to order some driveway surfacing.
It was beyond fascinating and sorry to say it is also beyond my descriptive capability to do the thrill any justice. Of course there was a huge huge tiered hole in the earth and many trucks. Actually there was every truck ever used by three generations of quarrymen. They could sell tickets it was so amazing. However, the guy asked me not to reveal the location "if you put that photo on the internet". I hope you like it as much as I do.  It's the earth's crust, people.

Australia Day in Hamilton 3300

Does your local carwash have a sign asking you to NOT leave any EXCESS hay clogging the drains?

HAY.

I love the country.

Cape Bridgewater, 3305 Vic.

St. Stephen's Day having lunch at the cafe on the beach with my friend Stephen and a walk through the fascinating rocky limestone tundra with mystical wind turbines all round. Packed with visitors and hikers and all wonderful - read this and then GO there.

Yulecart 3301

I hope your weekend was as funny as mine. I saw the Yulecart Agricultural Show. There were ponies of course and inside the Heritage listed bluestone hall there were roses and wool.

The hall was built by the community using bluestone recycled from Strathkellar Homestead. The names on the prizewinning exhibits were the same dozen as on the boards displaying those who served in the 1914 war and the 1939 war. There's a continuity out here in the country.

Wildlife and wild life.

That yearling is not supposed to be in my yard, but safely behind the fence across the road. The owner does not live on the property so I had to go to the pub "G&T please" to find out he lives miles up the road, go there [.05] and back. Life in the country is different.
I have moved house since the trucks in the rain post 8 weeks ago on 4th June, not that it has stopped raining. Into my last house, my final address of so very many addresses, on 20th June.  I am experiencing involuntary spontaneous smiles.
No unpacking yet, just clearing.
My new challenge is snakes. They are everywhere. Each new encounter slightly less shocking so that by this morning when I lifted a sheet of wallboard in the shed, I just put it down again and hope the snake went back to hibernating.
This image is yesterday's baby snake with it's head, sadly, flattened by that sharpened spade on the left.

I am waiting on Acme Mail Order to bring me six VibraRandom repeller stakes - only one is needed apparently, but I take no prisoners when I act.

The 'snakes here' sign is to keep the imminent shed-clearing guys from forgetting that baby snakes bite too. The large parents, are of course somewhere on the property, yet to surprise anyone. The stakes emit vibrations through the earth that snakes can sense via their jaws as danger, and hopefully relocate. It is supposed to also repel rodents, ants and rabbits.
The team of three who are coming to clear out the shed estimated two days and multiple trips to the Transfer Station.  I have prepared a first-aid kit and written out the phone number of the nearby hospital as well as the police station between here and it, so I can alert the cop that should I streak through his town with a snakebitten shed-clearer I shall be doing 140 kph -

like that.

We all know that being completely prepared for an event, surely guarantees it won't happen.
Tourniquets are out, pressure bandage is the way. The snakes are, of course, lethal Tiger Snakes.
There are benign reptiles as well:
Raking up the debris after slashing and burning blackberries on the roadside, I uncovered a large Blue-Tongue Lizard curled-up and hibernating I assume. The fire rolled right over the top without affecting it.  Later while mowing rough grass I mowed over the top of it's twin and thankfully it was not harmed either although when picked up, the tongue shot out in a cobalt blaze designed to strike fear into my heart. They are not called blue-tongues for nothing, it is such an intense shade and obviously works as a deterrent because I really don't want to see it again.
Next week the local highlight is dogs and dags at SHEEPVENTION and I shall be there.

Beyond the windscreen today

Those are my snaps of some of the trucks which hurtled along the B160 today making no speed allowance for the pouring rain. There were 20 in the first 40 kms of my trip, and the ratio continued over the entire 220 kms I drove. Most of them were actually logging trucks but I couldn't photograph any of those as they all took up too much of the road and were doing about 120 kms ph.

Manager of The Port of Portland, Victoria, Malcolm Geier said woodchip truck movements in and out of the port would total 290,790 by the end of the 2015 financial year. 
From Portland to Japan to make Hello Kitty lav paper probably.
"Australia is Open For Business"

 I'm out here, so you don't have to be.

over the hood

West out of Lake Bolac Victoria in a brief burst of sunshine in a day that otherwise just rained and rained, and here comes the 77th logging truck of the day.
They roar east, they roar West. After 6pm with no light but pouring rain, 22 of them hurtled past me in the 40 kilometres East of Skipton alone.
Please do follow the link for the story of the great twister of 2006.
I am out there, so you don't have to be.

The Western District today

approaching Dunkeld and seeing Gariwerd loom a different colour every time is always thrilling and I think of the Jardwadjali and Djab Wurrung people who lived here 500 years ago and how mystical it would have seemed to them, as it certainly does to me today.

after 500 kms the sign toward home also seems fairly mystical

500 kms of long straight flat road needed enlivenment

and yet I live to see another sunset.

My Western District Day

... comprised driving for 3 hours and meeting this roadside welcoming committee of Merinos in MERINO Victoria 3310
which is a lovely place. The pub has a movie theatre, beat that Melbourne.
Then I drove another 3 hours at 100 kms p.h. and am so weary I am doing this FFS.

wind turbines Mt Mercer

My days are lately spent on this road over the Fagg farm on Mt Mercer where there are 50 wonderful white wind turbines. 50.

they are BIG

If Wordsworth the poet had been wandering along this road and came upon a host of snowy wind turbines, those daffs that dazzled him would have been history.

Bat-immobile

Clearly Batmobiles do not function in daylight on
Nepean Highway, Moorabbin.

My photo, c.1990, using Nikon SLR and I could just spit for missing the front end like that. 
While I am in some other world, the car is now at Movieworld QLD.
Anton Furst got the Oscar award for his production design on the 1989 Tim Burton batmovie and this particular vehicle.

Things are quiet Chez O'Dyne, out in the paddocks looking after 3 cats (and one can open doors), and a very furry dog which is shedding it's coat. Apparently German Shepherd people refer to this as "blowing their coat". It's everywhere and the ducted vacuuming just blew up.
Mainly it's quiet because I am recovering from being 'flamed' by a grouchy relative who doesn't approve of my posts.
If you are reading this you must be on the list of bloggers allowed by the last time AOD went under the radar.
Life is too brief to be bothered with people who bring nothing but aggravation.
Batman thinks so as well. He has left his busted Batmobile to the pit crew above and flown away. Haunted creatures of the night and aren't we all.

behind every successful man

Over at Twuntr, Scott Clarke  aka @Winetosser posits beautifully:

Peta: How did you handle the press?
Tony: I ran away.
Peta: You what?
Tony: I ran away and they chased me. It was cool. I won!

Peta: Did you say anything to them?
Tony: Nuh
Peta: Anything?
Tony: I might have told them
 to fuck off but they were chasing me. 





In this image, his Chief Of Staff Ms Peta*Credlin, is watching her PM giving a speech during the previous election campaign.

This is my photo. The stiletto heeled shoe came out of the ComCar first and alone, then the foot went into it. I liked her right from that moment.
Of course she is a Western District girl. They had driven that day from a Ferntree Gully speech to a 1pm Ballarat Party faithful gathering by invite.
See how tall she is - TA has to look up to her. Between these two photos they had a heads-together exchange, and before, he looked over at me to see if I was snapping them so I didn't.

Then The Candidate strides up a bluestone lane to a crowd waiting outside The Mining Exchange where local LIB members are waiting at an invitation-only occasion. HE immediately embraced the cardigan women waving placards protesting about puppy farms. It was genius for the next day front page Ballarat Courier, with him holding them and them holding small fluffy doglets.  Then he disappeared into the venue. The choice of ignoring several other organised banner wavers for the doggy sweeties was clearly arranged by cellphone well before he even turned that historic corner.
I would love to be that Malcolm Tucker puppeteer. I wonder if Ms Peta swears at Mr Rabbit?
I'd love to do that too.
Her husband is Bri Loughnane the LIB Party Director. It can't be easy. Do follow that link to a LIB refugee joke website he authorised and which will no doubt be taken down any minute.
UPDATE 25/10: it has it was, it's gone. the cartoon refugee boats LIB joke has gone. weasels. Now the schoolboy snipers pretend to be leaders they remove evidence of their nasty side.

not keen Keane

I get the bus. 
I got a MYKI on the first day it was sold in Ballarat in the winter of 2009. On arriving home I telephoned to register it and spoke with ‘Luke’. He gave me various security code numbers which I noted, but registering online-use proved too difficult for him to achieve and we both gave up. I should have realised how important this was.
I topped it’s balance up by $20 only days ago and used it normally on Tuesday 22nd January.
On Thursday 24th it was stone dead unusable. I bought a Daily ticket to travel.
On arriving home I went online to deal with my various MYKI numbers and ‘register’. 
No deal because ‘your MYKI has expired’.
I start from first-base to re-register and purchase online. DOB, address and phone are required in order to catch a bus. After giving all that, I got – ‘we already have that name’, ‘that email’ etc.

It would seem that I was supposed to organise my online use, and a new card, with transfer of my $20 balance, sometime before Wednesday 23rd January. 
 Where was that written? 
 How many thousands of similar balances are now in limbo?
‘Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium Pty Ltd (Kamco) is the Melbourne-based company

‘Kamco is wholly owned by Keane International Incorporated, a privately owned IT services company

From their ‘Overview’ page:
‘Employing more than 100 people in Melbourne, Australia, Kamco also boasts a dedicated team of software developers and testers in Hyderabad, India 
From their FAQ page: ‘Kamco is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. It also uses a dedicated development and testing team operating out of Hyderabad, India.’

‘Keane has been in operation since 1965, employing more than 10,000 people across 11 countries.
Kamco was formed in 2005 to bid for the New Ticketing Solution.

‘Kamco is a single purpose entity, established to build and operate the myki ticketing system on behalf of the State Government of Victoria.

In July 2005 Kamco was awarded the contract to build, operate and maintain the NTS (myki) system. Kamco is contracted to run the myki system for 10 years following implementation. Key among those subcontractors has been Giesecke-Devrient, which provides the cards and ACS Solutions Switzerland, which provides the software, maintenance, and: 1,000 ticket vending machines, 12,200 fare payment machines, 2,500 bus driver consoles, 1,000 tram driver consoles, 1,500 hand held devices for Transit Inspectors, 220 train station gates, 220 ticket office terminals, and 900 retail terminals'.  (for those 94,000 square miles of State - Ed.)

Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium Pty Ltd (Kamco) is at Level 14, 628 Bourke Street, Melbourne.
 I would like Level 14 at 628 Bourke to go down in history as the site of 

the Second Eureka Stockade.

Flaky over food

Trying to be vegetarian when eating-out with friends, one is often drawn to order the fish plate, and very frequently that would be called 'flake' and occasionally some other names like Butterfish.
Trying not to be a hypocrite, this New Year I resolve to stop ordering it under any name.
Shark is over-fished apparently, and author Tim Winton, oddly for a surfer, is campaigning to save them. Did you know that the gummy shark, a.k.a. 'flake' is absolutely harmless, and poses no threat to humans?
The trade constrictions caused by World War 2 prevented Australian manufacturers getting cod-liver oil from Canada, so they began using sharks as their source. 'Give your growing child Shark-Liver Oil' was never shouted at the market though. 'Get some shark and chips' isn't either.
I have always loved the c.1960 fibreglass shark signs mounted over fish shops across Victoria. There is one in GlenHuntly Road, GlenHuntly I saw from a tram one time, and the one in my wonderful photo above is on a beach strip in East Gippsland.  I love that photo. A shark surrounded by 'fairy' lights.

UPDATE: thanks to Donkey Blog for alerting me to the wonderful 1939 Style Moderne Fish Creek Hotel, which has a huge fish sculpture laying across it's parapet. (click hotel link above for excellent images, then visit Donkey for a post on something I know so well it made me laugh to tears)

call me Kerouac ...

I took that top photo of Cape Liptrap, from Venus Bay, before we got lost and saw the lighthouse from much much closer.
A big snake slithered right across our walking track when we had barely stopped laughing over the very relaxed fox which sat in the middle of the track regarding us calmly before dragging itself upright and slouching away as if it thought we required it to do so, and would rather not. 
At Archies Creek (near Wonthaggi) we admired the brilliant art show at The Royal Hotel, by Bliss Hill blogger.
After that we added That's So Pants to the expedition and she
 guided us to the Marlo hotel right on the beach where we lunched on their sunny deck while a happy pelican was gliding around overhead. Please do stay tuned-in for What I Did On My Holiday, Part II

walking the doglet

Walking the dog at 7AM on The Steve Moneghetti Track, a newish name for the path around Lake Wendouree. It is stinking hot at 36C / 102F and I just loathe people who don't think about dogpaws on HOT HOT footpaths like the bricked ones in Rye 3941 which are hell for dogs.