When meeting up with an elderly relation last week he told us that his father had 45 head of dairy cows. This was enough to look after a family with 5 children in the 1930s and 1940s in the Western District of Victoria.
Makes you think. I guess the family would not have had many things, but they had enough.
This story is about the power of the arts and how essential it is that every child and every adult has a chance to express themselves artistically.
Hamish Elsmann has autism and was non-verbal until he had access to a piano which helped him unlock language. Now the Hamilton Art Gallery has an exhibition of his visual artworks.
Over the last few days I have been sharing about the landscape of western Victoria which is covered with volcanos, some of which erupted comparatively recently, as little as 10,000 years ago. The Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland also has quite a few volcanos of a similar age.
The eruptions of both the western Victorian and Far North Queensland volcanos have been remembered by the Aboriginal peoples of the respective regions. They have carefully passed on this history in their oral storytelling traditions for thousands of years.
Today the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) has published some of these indigenous histories. Read these stories about the creation of landscape that includes the stories about the volcanos: https://www.abc.net.au/news/deeptime/topic/landscape-change/
#volcanos #WesternDistrict #AthertonTablelands #TowerHill #Warrnambool #OzHist
From navigation and hunting to volcanic eruptions and the ice age, learn how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived, created and cared for Country for more than 65,000 years.
This is the photo I posted the other day of the wall around the corner.
Of course there is a lizard sunning itself on this lovely wall.
How about a blob of blue glass in the wall? Why not?
This wall keeps giving surprises.
Today in Camperdown we wandered past the house with a dry stone wall that has pipes sticking out of it. It is on a corner. We turned the corner and discovered that this part of the wall has reddish-brown solid lasts from shoe making in it. Now that wall is built by someone with great wall building skills and a delightful eccentric, creative streak.
We had lunch with family at the Lake Edge Cafe on Lake Purrumbete. There are a lot of lakes in this area and it holds Ramsar wetlands that are significant for birdlife. I didn't get a chance to do proper photography here or properly look out for birds. But I took this quick photo and saw black swans and ducks on the lake.
The cafe is a favourite of our family. It has seating inside, on a shaded balcony or out in an unshaded part of the balcony. It can get really busy so it is a good idea to book a table. Of course, midweek it was not too busy.
There is a small wildflower garden at the base of Mount Leura. In it is a knitted art installation by Nicky Schonkler. It recognises the current season called Petyan by the First Nations people in this area. Petyan stretches from late August to mid November and is a period when a lot of wildflowers are blooming. The textiles represent the colours of the flowers.
There were a lot of indigenous peoples living in this area when the European settlers arrived. Sadly, many were driven out by the invaders very early on. This map shows some of the language groups in the state of Victoria.
Yvonne Perkins