June 9th
Woke to a frozen world this morning. Very cold and frosty. Once on the road we headed west cutting through back roads and small towns. A lot of grazing country and many farmers still seeding, creating quite a bit of dust as it is so dry. Arrived in Stawell about mid afternoon and went to visit the Stawell Gift Hall of Fame.
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| Hall of Fme |
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| Hallowed turf |
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| Stawell Gift Historic Grandstand |
A great museum and footage of every race for many, many years. Very interesting to look at the change in fashions also. Then walked out onto the hallowed turf (they are evidently very precious about their grass here) and had a look at the historic grandstand. Tried to get Mike to sprint, but he wanted an 80 m handicap from scratch.
Then on to the Grampians to join the other million people. Wow! We drove through Halls Gap and it was standing room only, in the street, parks, camp grounds, everywhere. Long weekend remember! Drove back out of town and found ourselves a site squashed in with the rest of the population at one of the parks. Noisy and busy night around us, very different to what we have been used to. Camp ground interesting to. We were camped between Kangaroo Road and Emu Way, very appropriately named. The animals were very prolific and at one stage I thought an emu was going to help me undo my shoe laces. Very inquisitive!
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| Nosey emu |
June 10th
Decided a "picnic table walk" was required this morning so drove some of the distance back into Halls Gap and then walked out the other side of town and back again. Was all good until we saw all of these picnic tables (and this was only half of them). Decided enough was enough!!
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| Too many picnic tables! |
Then off to look at the Grampians. Walked or drove into Grand Canyon, Silverband Falls, Boroka Lookout. Mackenzie Falls, Broken Falls and Wartook Reservoir.
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| Grand Canyon |
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| Grampians Wonderland |
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| View from Boroka Lookout over Halls Gap |
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| Mackenzie Falls |
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| Broken Falls |
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More fungi - this is cute and the larger one is the
size of a small dinner plate |
Beautiful and majestic scenery, but we have obviously been very spoilt as we are not so good at sharing with other people. By the end of the day we were fed up with the inconsiderate nature of many and the teacher in me wanted to take a few children aside and give them a lesson in respect and good manners!! Oh dear! Amazing though, by mid afternoon the place had emptied and we were alone again. Went into town for dinner at 'The Quarry' and they closed at 8.30 pm due to the overwhelming lack of patrons.
Hahaha I'm pretty sure all those picnic tables were rather the perfect opportunity to say "challenge accepted"! :)
ReplyDeleteBTW this is the link for the Australia, Regional website FB page :) just like the page and you'll see the amazing pictures as they are up loaded!!!
https://www.facebook.com/#!/SeeAustralia
xxx
Hi there
ReplyDeleteI am writing to seek your permission to use your photo of the Grandstand at Central Park in Stawell in a 1200-word article I am writing for the Heraldry and Genealogical Society of Canberra (HAGSOC)’s quarterly magazine “The Ancestral Searcher”.
The article is about using heritage plans and registers for family history research. My grandfather, Albert Henry Barnes built the grandstand in 1899 and you have an excellent photo of it.
You will of course be acknowledged as the source of the photo in the article, i.e. "Courtesy of Sally and Mav's Blog at http://sallyandmav.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/echuca-to-halls-gap-grampians.html" or whatever you prefer.
For your information HAGSOC was established in 1964. Its current membership is just over 800, which includes members from surrounding districts outside the Australian Capital Territory, such as Queanbeyan, Yass, Murrumbateman and Bungendore. All members receive a copy of the quarterly magazine which is not available online.
I hope to hear from you.
Regards
Therese