TWO MONTHS IN VICTORIA

We stayed in Victoria for 2 months. Initially we stayed at Diannes Mum and Dads and planned to catch up with lots of old friends but due to the extreme heat we didn't get about alot. We went over to Alex for the weekend to Ross and Sarah's engagement catching up with a lot of people there and had a great night. Stayed in our old house that weekend (really exciting stuff that).

Next day we left really early (about 4.30am) hoping to beat the 45 degrees forecast for the next day, we didn't do too bad getting up on Hotham by 7.30 - 8.00am . We spent a couple of weeks up at Rod and Jo's in Omeo trying to escape the heat, it worked a little bit but it was a pretty extreme summer all over.

We were still at Rod and Jo's when the devastating Black Saturday fires hit. First we knew of it was Dianne's mum and dad were under threat from the Bunyip fire coming within 1/2 km of them and they were getting ready to evacuate. We felt pretty helpless as we couldn't get there. All the main roads were closed, the Princes Hwy, Hume Hwy and Maroondah Hwy - it didn't matter which way we wouldn't be able to get through. There was also a big fire getting going about 30km's west of us near Dargo so everyone was on their toes. With all the devastation and carnage that happened, it was very frustrating as we felt helpless. Everytime you spoke to someone, you heard of another loss. It was just so incomprehensible - an area that had been part of our lives for so long - just gone. One good bit of news was that our old place was saved and the family that brought it were okay. The fire came across there on the Sunday morning but all the homes in Crystal Creek Road were saved.

Although we had had a relaxing time at Rod and Jo's and Andrew and Kate's, and we had seen all the family and visited some old friends, we decided to head back to WA a bit earlier than expected. It was just too depressing with the fires and we couldn't do anything to help.

We decided to take our time and go via the Eyre Peninsula in SA. Although it was really hot travelling it was a must see place especially the west coast of the Peninsula, fantastic beaches, great fishing, and spectacular scenery and believe it there was nobody around, naked romps in the emerald green surf just too good (Scary thought eh). Took more time out this time as well to have a good poke around the Great Australian Bight, it is just AWESOME. The power of the Southern Ocean is unbelievable.

After nine days on the road it was time to head back home to the bus on the farm and after so much swagging it was nice to get into our own bed.

Before moving back in though I bombed the bus with bug bombs, it did the job on the spiders and bugs but we were soon to learn the mice need somewhere to live after all the grain had been cut and guess where they decided to set up camp!!!! It's now been 6 weeks and we are nearly there, first go was traps, got about 15, still they came, more traps but they started getting fed and not setting them off, next we had to get the Talon blocks and that started to cull them but we still have to look for bodies so the dogs don't eat them ( deadly stuff for dogs even after the mouse has eaten it) we have had experiences before. Now we've got onto a new idea, apparently if you use a few drops of pure peppermint oil (has to be pure not extract) on cotton wool buds on a saucer and place them where the the suckers are hiding, they vamoose. Well it seems to be working fingers crossed, at least it smells better!!!!

CHRISTMAS SURPRISE

All of my family were at Mum and Dads having Christmas lunch. We rang the kids as we were driving up the drive way and pretended we were still in W.A. and had just been fishing. We kept them talking on the phone while we pulled up and walked into the house. Well, as you can imagine there was lots of screams and tears.



The kids had apparently been hoping that we would be there but when we weren't there for lunch, they had resigned themselves to the fact that we weren't coming. It took us about a week to recover from travelling so far in such a short time. We decided there and then that we would never drive across from W.A. that quickly again. We decided that when we head back, we will take our time and enjoy the places we flew past.

DECISION TIME

Well after a very short stint on Murchison Downs Station, (12 Days - not long enough), we made a spur of the moment decision to head back to Victoria. We discussed it with the owners, and then decided to leave on Monday 22nd December. As we started on our way, we decided it would be quicker, cheaper and easier if we could leave the bus in W.A. We rang the owners of Bundear at Mullewa and asked if we could leave the bus in the shed. They said "Yep, anytime", so we parked the bus, threw the swags and the dogs in the back of the ute, and headed back. We didn't tell anyone apart from my mum and dad as we wanted to surprise the kids. Originally, we were not sure how long it would take us. We thought we might arrive a couple of days after Christmas. As we got travelling, (and those that know what Steve is like when he gets driving), we realised that we could get to my mum and dads Christmas day if we pushed it - so we did. We drove 5,000 kms in 3-1/2 days starting at 8.30am Monday and arrived at Drouin 1.30pm on Thursday (Christmas Day).

We probably only had approx 8 hours sleep the whole trip. We slept for an hour or so the first night in the car as we had to wait for a petrol station to open in Southern Cross. The second night we jumped into the swags at Eucla for a few hours and the third night we slept in the swags on the side of the road just out of Mildura. The dogs probably got the best deal out of it all as they could sleep whenever they liked and move around in the back of the tray when then liked, on top of that whenever we stopped they got a run, I don't think it was too good for Steve, his legs swelled up pretty bad and buggered him for a couple of days. Bit of a wake up call Ha Ha!! (getting old).

MURCHISON DOWNS STATION

We took two days to travel up here. The station is approx 50kms south east of Meekatharra. The road out from town is dirt but is in good condition so it was a slow trip in the bus.

The homestead is a little oasis in the middle of very very dry desert. It hasn’t rained here properly for about seven years so there is no undergrowth and they have sold most of their cattle. There is approximately 100 head left on this station and they have another 300 head on their other station, Yarrabubba, which is approximately 50kms away.

The owner is Ross Howden who is about our age and he lives on Yarrabubba Station with his parents and daughter Lauren who is 24yrs old. She had a life and good job in Geraldton but gave it all away to support her dad on the property. Ross doesn’t say a lot but I think he’s very appreciative of her support, she seems to organise most things that need attention to detail around the property. They also have a son who is 21 yrs old that comes home every three weeks as he is working in the mines.

The house has five bedrooms and there are also numerous bunk houses that were once used for the shearers, a workshop and the original old house (a whole two rooms). There is an old shearing shed with 5 stands. We even have a large concrete and rock above ground swimming pool. You are probably thinking “what’s the good of having a swimming pool when there is no water”. Well, the water doesn’t drop down out of the sky, it comes up through the ground. There are windmills everywhere and approx 40 wells. The swimming pool has it’s own windmill and so does the house. When the house tank is full, it also overflows into the swimming pool. When the pool is full, it overflows to the garden. Our job is to get the gardens looking good again as they have been neglected of late. There is plenty of water, so it is just a matter of managing the sprinklers. It is very hot here - thank god for the pool. We knew that it would be hot coming here in the middle of summer, but we thought we would give it a go. When you get too hot - "you just slip off yer gear and jump right in".

We don’t get paid but we have free food, fuel, rent, power and phone. The house runs on a very modern solar system with a backup diesel generator. The solar system is all automatically controlled with a computer and the solar panels turn automatically travelling with the sun. The generator will also operate a submersible pump if there is a wind drought so you can always pump water up.

We were invited to the local Elders Christmas break up last week. It was on a neighbours property – a 200km round trip. Got to meet all the other neighbours as well, closest is 20 kms, furtherest is your guess. They all talk about the better days when rain was reasonably predictable and how shearing and the sale of wool was a big event, but sadly, these days there are very few sheep and those that still have some probably won’t next year.

We went for a drive down the track about 20kms (halfway to one boundary) and saw Emus, wild goats, a Kangaroo but no cows. Some finally showed up at the house a couple of days ago. We also have had a couple of visits from a Bungarra ( a goanna type lizard).

He came and climbed up the palm tree trying to get to a nest. They say where there are Bungarras there aren’t snakes. Lauren said Ross has only ever seen about 4 snakes around here which is great news!!!!!

END OF HARVEST

Finally, after approx 10 weeks and driving for nearly 600 hours, harvest is finally finished. Over that 10 weeks we had 17 days that we couldn’t work due to rain and moisture.

So we are going to pack up and head off to our next ADVENTURE.

We are heading up to Meekatharra as we have a job as caretakers of Murchison Downs Station.

OLD RELICS

Every farm in W.A. seems to have all their old machinery just rusting away near their sheds or in their paddocks. When something dies, they just park it and there it stays forever and a day. On the property where we are staying, there are dozens of old trucks, cars, harvesters, ploughs and even a grader just rusting away. Here are a few pictures of them.

This truck is a Diamond Rio.

This is an old Sunshine harvester and you can still see the writing and the sun symbol.

Then you have the working relics like this old Chamberlain tractor that they use at harvest time for towing around bins and for the PTOs to auger the seed into the trucks.

There's also an old Mack truck and a couple of old White trucks they use for storage and seed cleaning, etc. The boss says “You’d be lucky to find a truck under 20 years old on their property”. Thank god the tractors and headers are new.

REAL ESTATE BARGAIN !!!!!!!!!

When we were at Horrocks Beach we saw this little yellow beauty right on the beach road for an amazing SLASHED PRICE of $399,000. Any takers???????