Remembering Gallipoli.

Well - Betty is looking good. She's spruced up inside and out, all we need now is someone to come and look at her and take a liking. But it's not happening, despite the fact she's showing at the top of two very good websites, and is being seen by a lot of people. Maybe I'm expecting too much, it really needs someone who wants to do what we have done, and maybe there are not a lot of them out there!





Yesterday David and I went into town by train to the Anzac Day parade, it takes about an hour to get there after it stops at every lamppost. But it's better than driving any day, parking would be difficult any day and there would be none available at all on Anzac day.
There must have been about half a million people lining the streets, they were 12 deep outside Flinders St Station, where we were stood. We were right opposite St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, on the corner of Swanston  and Flinders Streets, in the older part of the city.



The parade started at 9am, just before we arrived, and went on until 12-30, with not a lot of space in between. There were thousands marching, including many young people and children, many of whom wore their grandfather's and father's medals from the two world wars.
There were also many veterans, some from the second world war, of course they must have been in their late eighties to have fought then.
Often they had to be supported by younger members of their family, but they were determined to march.

Vietnam Veterans were very well represented, as were the later wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition the current forces were out in force, there is a navy training ship here and they also were on parade, and very smart they were too.
A large contingent of RAAF passed us, most of them carrying the Aussie flags.

 There were at least twenty  bands, local brass bands, children's drum bands, school bands, as well as military bands. Some of them went round up to four times, including this drum band,  joining the parade at intervals of about three hundred metres.

 I did get a bit nostalgic when the brass bands came past, I've been in so many of these parades over the years. Maybe I may be at the Remembrance Day parade this year at home.

 There were mounted troops too, dressed as for the first war, nice too see them honouring the old contemptibles.
Anzac Day is to commemorate the landing at Gallipoli, 98 years ago on the day,they have a dawn service as that's the time that the first landings took place. As with a lot of the battles of the first war, the Australians and New Zealanders were thrown into a bloodbath, and after a number of days they were forced to retreat, with huge numbers of casualties.






Dave and I had a great time, the crowd was very friendly, cheering and clapping the older veterans, and the young children's bands. Children and shorter people were pushed to the front, so that everyone could see, and there was no pushing and pulling as we see with some crowds. Everyone was so good natured.









A number of old vehicles were also in the parade, some military and some just old, from between the wars. But all carried veterans who waved to the crowds.





After the parade we took a walk along the river Yarra, it's changed a lot since I last did it thirty years ago, as has the modern skyline of the financial district.
There were buskers and street artists along the south bank, including this chap who was painted as a gargoyle, and he was good. He was great with the kids, not at all frightening.
Once again I will leave you with a couple of pics.......

On the road again

Our enforced stop at Robinvale was not an idle one, as we had to take everything out of the car, including all my woodwork, it was a great opportunity to clean up the back. It had not been done in all the time we had been travelling, some 20 months now. And it was rather dirty, the red dust gets everywhere, but I managed to borrow a vacuum cleaner from the camp owner and it made short work of it.
Also, and I didn't find out until after the car had been fixed, the camp owner's wife had been in Mildura on the Saturday and had picked up a new petrol pump for us. So after the car had been picked up by the garage early on Monday it was fixed by lunchtime!



But we still had the job of putting everything back into the car, so that took the afternoon, and we set off again on the Tuesday morning, to Bendigo. Just for the one night, so that we could prepare Barbara and Dave for us dropping in on them!
Bendigo is another lovely city, (here they call any small town over 20,000 population a city!), established in the late 1800s gold rush, and I think they still mine a little gold here. Again very rich in architecture, the civic building, the banks and the pubs are superb.
This fountain is the hub of the city, in the centre of  the main street, with a lovely park behind.

Everywhere we go we see war memorials, all built after the great war, 1914-18. All were built by public subscription,  all contain the names of those who gave their lives, and most have been updated regularly as further wars have been fought.
Some are very simply, just a stone perhaps, but richer towns build quite elaborate mausoleums, as has happened here in Bendigo.

Just across the road is a hotel, built in the French style with mansard roof. Not only is it impressive from the outside, but the interior is really beautiful with wide staircases and large reception lounges. On the first floor balcony that surrounds the front and side of the building there is a very classy restaurant.







Then across the road again is a large orangery, full of exotic flowers and other plants, set again in yet another park.

Being a bit short on time, as we needed to get down to Melbourne to sell Betty, we had no time to take in the other attractions of Bendigo unfortunately. Maybe we'll get back here someday.

If it had to happen........

it couldn't have happened in a nicer place!
We had stopped for coffee in a little town called Robinvale, around 90kms from Mildura along the Murray River, and as we left the town up the hill Betty started to splutter. We pulled off the road, and she died, and wouldn't start again. So we called the RAC, who took 20 minutes to agree where we were, (despite the fact that we said clearly 2kms Swan Hill side of Robinvale!!) then sent a man who took ten minutes to arrive.





He agreed with my diagnosis, it is the fuel pump, but it's Saturday, and nothing can happen till Monday, and even then it may take another day to get another pump. So we may be stuck here till Wednesday! In the meantime, as the mechanic has to get in from the top, everything, including all my woodwork, has to be removed from the back of the car, a day's job in itself! And it all has to be put back when he's done his job.
But as I said, it is a lovely place, we have a cabin on the side of the Murray, just 1km from the town, an easy walk.





Coming down to Mildura from Broken Hill a couple of days ago we moved into Victoria, and as we crossed the Darling and then the Murray we came over some very old bridges. This one is over the Darling at Wentworth, and was built in the early 1900s.  The centre portion lifts to let the old paddle steamers through, must still do as there are some still running, including the "Old Ruby", recently renovated and looking good.






We were in Mildura for two reasons, one to do our housekeeping, and the second to meet up with a couple we had met in Port Augusta and the Flinders, Bob and Jenny Utber.





Unfortunately Bob was away, but Jenny took us along to an art gallery / restaurant for a night out. And a great night it was too, an excellent meal and a blues band, Dog Gone South from Melbourne, played as we ate. And they were good, but not as good as the solo guitarist, also a blues player, Phil Manning. I understand he is world famous, he has played with Muddy Waters and the like, and he is seriously good.
We had a great night, sorry about the pics, but I don't like using flash when people are playing.

Earlier I had taken a pic of the confluence of the Murray and the Darling at sunset in Wentworth, it really is beautiful when the water is dead calm.

Heroes and artists.

Broken Hill was once one of the richest cities in Australia, it probably still is, as the mines are still producing. Consequently many of the buildings are quite beautiful, not least the Town Hall, built in 1890 in South Australian Italianate style, and the Post Office, from 1889, prominently placed on the corner of the main street.





 Just across the road is the Palace Hotel, one of 73 pubs and hotels from the late 1800s and one of the few that are still trading as such.A lovely building, the interior is decorated with murals and ceiling paintings that some may think would rival the Sistine Chapel!
 It was here that some of the scenes from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a cult movie, were shot.






Just outside the city, at the airport, is the largest base for the Royal Flying Doctor service. It is here that much of the aircraft servicing takes place, the furthest Beechcraft  in this picture has been  brought here from Tasmania. Each aircraft costs $7m, a propeller costs $40,000, so it is an expensive business keeping these birds in the air.
The service was started by the Rev John Flynn in 1928, who leased a fabric and timber bi-plane for two shillings a mile.






He also encouraged Alfred Traeger to invent the pedal powered raidio, which enabled people living in isolated stations to call for help, and indeed enabled the "School of the Air" to be established shortly afterwards.
Broken Hill RFDS serves an area larger than Britain, not only for emergencies, but doctors, dentists and nurses are flown out to small outback villages to take clinics on a weekly basis. They also fly transfers from local hospitals to the main hospitals in capital cities. In emergencies they often have to land on small gravel bush airfields or even roads to pick up patiemts.

For many years each station and village has had an emergency medicine chest that can be accessed in an emergency, in consultation with an RFDS doctor over the telephone. It is said that it is easier to talk to a doctor in the bush than it is to see one in a large city!
A lot of their funding comes from donations, and we have seen many events to raise funds as we have travelled around the country.


Later we visited a couple of art galleries, one showing the work Of Kevin (Pro) Hart, and the other that of an ex miner who paints in minerals by grinding them up and gluing onto timber. Many of his works are local scenes and buildings, and are really good considering his medium.




Just outside the city are the Broken Hill Sculptures, commissioned in 1993. A lonely hilltop, the haunt of wedge tailed eagles and wallabies, was chosen as the site and transformed into an artwork of international standing.
The artists travelled from all over the world to work on the 53 tonnes of sandstone erected on the site, which overlooks the city in the distance.
This one, of a horse head, was sculpted by a man from Tsibilsi, Georgia.









Others such as this one of the sun and the moon, were by an Aztec Indian from Mexico. The surrounding plains are quite beautiful, and we can well see why this site was chosen for these artworks.

Mad Max and a Mad? Yorkshireman.

There are few places on earth that one can see an unbroken horizon, other than at sea. Some thirty Kms from Broken hill, Mundi Mundi is one of them, and from the top of a small rise we could see for many miles.
This is Mad Max 2 country, the film was made here and a very large set was constructed in the centre of this picture, alas now removed. And that's not the only film that was made here, a lot of other 'apocalyptic' type films have been shot on these plains too.
Nearby is Silverton, a silver mining town from the 1800s, now almost extinct.

There is, however, a "Mad Max" museum, with memorabilia of all three of the films, but mainly of the second. It is run by an expat Yorkshireman, Adrian Bennett, who came here some years ago on holiday specifically to see where it was filmed, then returned with his wife and family soon after to open this museum.
He has many items that were used in the film, and has made others as replicas, in particular the cars and buggies. We spent an hour or so talking to him and viewing his collection, he is quite a character!

Among the few remaining buildings in the town is the Silverton Hotel, which, over the years, has had many guises in film sets. Not the least of them was the mini series, " A Town Like Alice", the hotel was used as one in Alice at the end of the series where the hero met the heroine before living happily ever after on a sheep station. Race the Sun and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert were just two of the others made locally, as well as Reckless Kelly.
In front of the hotel is a VW Beetle, heavily modified, supposedly the 'Love Child' of the Mad Max Interceptor!



Earlier we had visited the Mother Lode cafe and memorial to the 800 or so miners who have been killed in the mines here since they started mining silver, lead and zinc here in the mid 1800s. Each has been named, with their age and date of death, and many show how they died. The youngest we saw was only 12, from dynamite fumes, in those days life was very cheap. Many of the older guys died from hear attacks at work, was there something in the mines? Nowadays Health And safety is priority, and in the last fifteen years or so just 5 deaths are reported.






I was concerned however at where it was built, on the edge of what we would call a hundred foot high slag heap, with very steep sides. It put me in mind of Aberffan, from the sixties, and I had a touch of the jitters on the top. I am sure  that present regulations would ensure the safety of the site, I just hope they don't have earthquakes here!

The Darling Run

In conversation with last night's artist we were persuaded to follow the Darling down to Wilcarnia instead of taking the easier but much longer route by bitumen. It meant some 300 kms off road,  some of it on gravel, but in other places on black soil, or sand.









We certainly raised a lot of dust behind us, (as usual), in places we had to stop when a vehicle came towards us to let his dust settle before we could go on. One cattle road train raised so much we could see him a couple of miles ahead, and it took at least a couple of minutes before we could proceed after he had passed us.
The notice in the back window by the way says For Sale, A Complete Camper, and our Tel No.






From time to time we would come to small bridges, often there would be a bypass through the creek or billabong for the road trains as there would invariably be a load limit on the bridge, as there is on this. All of these creeks run into the Darling, which was quite close by, a couple of hundred metres, but we saw very little of it through the trees.



When we did however, we could quite see why it had been the lifeblood of the area ever since European occupation. Broad and deep most of the way, it was a vital transport route for settlement and pastoral development.
Named after NSW Governor Ralph Darling in 1829, the river varies from scattered waterholes in drought to 80 kms wide during floods. Recent rains in it's huge catchment area have made it fill the bed at the moment, just the size that the old paddle steamers needed to navigate all the way to Bourke and beyond.

This is feral goat country, and we passed many herds grazing close to the road, as we did cattle, sometimes having to stop and encourage them to clear the way. I take back what I said yesterday about them being biddable - sometimes they are just plain stupid!






We saw a great number of kangaroos and emus, unfortunately quite a few dead ones too, as they tend to gather on the road and anyone driving at night has little chance of avoiding them. We followed this group of three roos for almost half a mile at about 35kph  (20 mph) before we could clear them off the road.

But later it started to rain, which made the road slippery and less easy to drive, we were glad to arrive at Wincania and the bitumen again.





However there proved to be no room at the inn in that benighted town, it was virtually closed and boarded up apart from a couple of motels and a filling station, so we had to move on a couple of hundred kms to Broken Hill, and our first sight of that town did not look very promising! We'll see tomorrow......