February 2014

February 2014

Ceduna, SA

I had been working in the Maralinga Tjarutja office in Ceduna as the Business Manager now for a couple of weeks and was enjoying the multiple challenges of understanding the complexities of Aboriginal Affairs, the multitude of both Federal and State Government agencies that provide the funding as well as trying to install some business disciplines around processes, procedures and policies. 

The role encompassed the "Maralinga Tjarutja" business that essentially manages the land (over 120,000 square kilometres) and the various services that are provided such as staff, infrastructure and funding for primarily the community at Oak Valley as well as the Maralinga (former nuclear test) site.

I was reporting directly to the General Manager and I was learning lots and it was comforting knowing that I did have multiple skills across many areas which were transferable into this diverse business.  Basically, the entire operation is unique in Australia as it was created by an act of Parliament and not from typical "Native Title" or "Traditional Land Owner Rights" which apparently is the case with all other aboriginal communities in Australia.  The act of Parliament was a result of the Royal Commission into the Maralinga Nuclear testing and the subsequent clean up operations and compensation granted to the traditional owners.

From what I was told, the aboriginals that live in funded communities have a saying ... "White Man is like a Toyota, when we drive them into the ground, the Government just send us another one".  

Unfortunately, this seems to be very consistent and typical with what little I saw of their attitudes and their 'culture', which is a shame as everyone (White Fellas) I had met seemed to have the best intentions and wanted to help in some way and to make a difference.  Deb and I put it down to that they (the mob) simply 'exist' day to day and do not seem to plan nor care about 'tomorrow'.  This was highlighted to me when we had the girls from ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission) in Sydney come all the way out to Oak Valley to do a 'Money Matters' education forum for the community in December speaking about Credit, Superannuation, Home Loans etc.  The mob were more interested in getting the free card wallets and pens from them and then they just wandered off leaving the two ASIC girls bemused with the entire experience.

In early February, it was decided that the Management Team would charter a deep sea fishing vessel and go snapper fishing off Ceduna.  So early one morning, the five of us boarded the chartered boat at the boat ramp and set off out of the sheltered waters of the islands and bays around Ceduna and into the Great Australian Bight.

Here we are preparing to board the chartered boat.  All we needed to bring was food and grog for the day as all rods and gear was provided by Perry, the skipper and owner of Ceduna Fishing Charters.

The boat was a high speed twin hulled game boat and I was not sure if I would get sea sick or not and I didn't ... perhaps the alcohol helped!?

Once we were away, the skipper requested that we lock up all our phones in the cabin as he didn't want us to be able to track via GPS our fishing locations during the day.  He told us that he has seen previous customers out in the exact locations where he goes weeks later with others and he was protecting his business by doing this ... so we agreed, which unfortunately limited our abilities to take too many pictures when we started catching snapper ...

It was a great day out and we caught about a dozen snapper, many whiting and other fish which we used as bait during the day.  Those snapper really fight when they get hooked and it was a work out bringing them up from the sea floor some 80+ metres down, but at least we all caught a couple ... even me!

Due to an unfortunate series of events up in Oak Valley, Deb decided that it was no longer safe to continue to work up in Oak Valley and as she was due for leave to attend a training course in Tasmania, we decided to both go and have a break away from the outback life for a while.

So we boarded a REX (Regional Express) flight from Ceduna to Adelaide, then a Virgin flight from Adelaide to Melbourne and then a connecting flight from Melbourne to Launceston.

Lake Leake, Tasmania

Our destination was the Lake Leake Chalet in Tasmania.  It was an awesome place, very much like an old style English pub and Dale was the Inn Keeper.  We all but had the place to ourselves for most of the week we were there except for an overseas couple that stayed one night and a few of the regulars at night from the shacks that border the lake.  Dale was a great host, very friendly and made us feel very welcome and it was a very long way from the heat, dirt and troubles associated with Oak Valley.

www.lakeleakeinn.com.au

Even though Lake Leake is renowned for trout fishing, we only walked the 100 metres down to the lake once ... having a pub all to ourselves was simply too good as we ate and drank well and the accommodation was very clean and comfortable too.

We hired a car from Launceston airport and drove it around to see only a few places such as Bicheno, Coles Bay, Ross and Oatlands and then one our way back to the airport on our last day, we discovered Evandale ... a quaint little township that like so many other places in Tasmania, are beautiful very picturesque.

Deb had been to Tasmania before and for me, it was my first overseas holiday although I still count Kangaroo Island as an overseas destination!

Bicheno, Tasmania

Deb was keen to revisit Bicheno on the east coast and I'm so glad we did as Bicheno was very nice township and the picture below is of Bicheno Bay.

We had our lunch watching the blow hole in action and unlike the blow hole in Kiama south of Wollongong, this blow hole was in fine form ...

We were able to get quite close to the blow hole and Deb noticed that crabs were clinging to the rocks feeding from the water running back to sea so she tried to catch one.  In the picture above, she is waiting for the crabs to come out from hiding as the water runs off the rock.

We journeyed down to Swansea and further down the coast to Coles Bay and to the Freycinet Peninsula where we booked ourselves into the Wineglass Bay tour in a few days time.

We stopped off at a popular "Marine Farm" at Coles Bay where we purchased some oysters and ate them in style back at the Chalet that night.  The lobster and other seafood was extremely expensive but the overseas tourists didn't seem to mind paying these prices!

On the drive back to Lake Leake, there is a lookout over the "Great Oyster Lakes" and Deb shot this awesome panoramic shot from here.  You can see the Freycinet Peninsula (the mountains in the background) and you get a real sense of the landscape from this point.

Wineglass Bay, Tasmania

www.wineglassbaytours.com.au

Wineglass Bay is a bay that is on the Tasman Sea and to get there, you either take the boat tour as we did or hike the tracks through the mountainous National Park.  The boat tour took over 4 hours with lunch at Wineglass Bay and we were fortunate enough to be able to get a good spot on the boat on one side at the front which although windy, it was an awesome vantage point.

The Freycinet Peninsula and National Park is almost 100% granite and the rock formations were spectacular and the boat skipper was skilled enough to pilot the jet boat right up to the shear cliffs to see some of the unique formations such as natural arches.

This is Wineglass Bay where we had lunch.  The skipper ran a quiz over lunch for all us to consider how they got to name the bay "Wineglass Bay" and there were many suggestions, but the real reason was back in the 1800's whalers used this bay to drag in their kills and the water turned a claret colour from all the blood and because of this and the shape of the bay, it was called "Wineglass Bay".

Without a doubt, the best part of the entire tour was seeing the pod of dolphins race us and they were so close, we could nearly touch them ... I managed to take dozens of photos as I set my camera to automatic sports mode which takes multiple rapid shots ... even though I managed to take many shots of the hand rails of the boat, thankfully there were some great shots and here are a few before my batteries died ...

Ross, Tasmania

Ross is an historic town in central Tasmania as it has the oldest bridge in Australia built by convicts in 1836 and even after so many years, it looks magnificent and it is still used today.

Oatlands, Tasmania

We decided to head down to the Salamanca Markets in Hobart on the Saturday and as we were driving down the highway, Deb made an impromptu detour off the highway and into the rural back roads ... just to see what was around!

As we drove through the countryside, we came across this old shingle log cabin / cottage at Fonthill and even Dale (the Inn Keeper) had never even heard of Fonthill when we told him of our adventures!

We eventually found our way to Oatlands which also has convict history and many of the town buildings date back to this period.  An interesting site was this windmill which looked more from the Netherlands than from Australia.

Unfortunately, on one day it was so cold and wet at Lake Leake that we were forced to stay inside, relax in the guest room and drink some wine whilst we watched and listened to the rain ... 

The week was soon over (far too soon!) and we headed back to the airport and boarded our flight to Melbourne, then another to Adelaide.

Adelaide, Bordertown and back to Ceduna

We stayed in Adelaide for a few days with my parents and then we headed out to Bordertown for a few more days.

We decided not to return to Oak Valley and to the Maralinga Office in Ceduna as it was not turning out as we had hoped and planned for so we both resigned from our positions to resume living on the road.

Deb and I had been looking at caravans for quite sometime as it was the lifestyle we wanted and the old Millard van was a good starting point, but it was time to upgrade and we found the perfect van for a good price in Adelaide ... so we bought it!

So a couple of days later, we flew back to Ceduna, drove a Maralinga community 4x4 vehicle back up to Oak Valley and collected the remainder of our belongings ... including Blade ... and returned to Ceduna the next day ... a lazy 1,000+ kms round trip with 70% of it on dirt! 

On the drive back to Ceduna, Deb spotted a herd of wild camels a few hundred metres away, so we stopped and had a good look as we had left our cameras back in the van!  At least we got to see some, in all this time we had heard of them being around out here and yet neither of us had seen any.

When we got back to Ceduna, Deb and I collected young Griswold from Kat's husband Paul who had been babysitting him for us whilst we were away and then we packed up everything we had into the Land Cruiser and the old Millard caravan and headed back to Adelaide.

Here is young Gris who had already grown so much in the short time we were away.

Kat was the another nurse working with Deb up at Oak Valley and Kat and her husband Paul live in Ceduna.  Both Deb and Kat left Oak Valley together due to their safety being compromised and Kat had decided that she would return to Oak Valley after she had some time off as well.  So when we returned to Oak Valley for the last time we said our goodbyes to her up there. It was a real shame to know that Deb and Kat would have made an awesome team and made a seriously positive change to the health standards in Oak Valley if they both stayed, but it was not to be.

So the next day, we hauled ourselves all the way from Ceduna to Crystal Brook with both the Land Cruiser and the van chocked full of with all our gear. The long drive on the first day made the relatively short drive to the Highway One Tourist Park at Bolivar on the next day a lot easier as this would be our base for a few days while we swapped vans.

We had arranged to collect our new van from the owners on a Monday and when I got to the bank to get the Bank Cheque ... it was closed!  Having worked for BankSA for nearly 20 years you would have thought I would remember that they close the branch at 4pm!!! Well, that will teach me not to wear a watch!!! So I had to arrange to collect the van the next day, which I did.

Luckily for us, we were able to get two adjoining sites at the caravan park and here is a picture of our fleet! ...

We spent an entire day transferring all our stuff from the old Millard van into our new Jayco Heritage caravan as well as some of the gear we had in the Land Cruiser and it was fun setting up our new home.

The next day, I took the Millard van down to CamperAgent, one of Adelaide's leading caravan retailers and sold it for cash ... even though I did not get anywhere near what I had paid for it let alone recover any of the costs associated with the significant amount of work we had done to it when it was in Wollongong, it was still a fair deal and I was happy with that. The old Millard had done a good job, it was our first van and we learnt a lot and we now knew what we needed and wanted in our 'mobile home'.  It was incredibly tough going during those hot windy days and nights in Ceduna in a van without air conditioning, but it was part of the experience and our journey.  The Millard was solid and reliable but the time had come to move on as things were starting to be needing replacing and it we had simply outgrown it.

We spent a few extra days at Bolivar (Highway 1 Tourist Park) getting to know our new van and it gave Blade and Gris time to get to know each other as well.

It was also fabulous to spend an afternoon with my parents under the shade of our very large awning as was spending a few hours with Matt who I don't get to see much of these days ... he is getting older and more independent all the time and he even drove out by himself to see us.  I miss him dearly and I am very proud of my boy!

So February 2014 finished rather differently than it had started, but the best thing out our lifestyle is that we can make changes as we want to.

Time for the Big Adventure to resume and now we will be doing it in absolute luxury in our Jayco Heritage caravan ...

In February 2014, (the Land Cruiser) travelled ... 1,392 kilometres,

Cheapest fuel was in Port Wakefield, SA where it was $1.539 / litre

Dearest fuel was in Kimba, SA where it was $1.639 / litre

To finish off the chapters of our Big Adventure with our old 1981 Millard van in tow, here are some more stats (because you know I love them)!

The Land Cruiser has averaged 5.3 Kilometres Per Litre of fuel,
The Land Cruiser averages 18.9 Litres of fuel Per 100 Kilometres

The Average cost of fuel so far is $1.567 / Litre
The Highest cost was in Oak Valley, Remote SA @ $1.800 / Litre
The Lowest cost was in Darlington, SA @ $1.359 / Litre

So far, we have travelled 16,915 kilometres and our Big Adventure resumes ...

January 2014

January 2014

Oak Valley, SA

The heat wave through Christmas and New Year continued in January and the heat started to take its toll on the native wild life and our unit soon became an animal recovery shelter!

The community at Oak Valley was still deserted by the mob as they were still in Ceduna, Fowlers Bay or we even heard some were in Adelaide.

We found a native bat (not sure of the species) struck down from the heat and Deb came to the rescue and wearing protective gloves because they do carry diseases and have very sharp teeth as you can see.  

The pic below has him hanging upside down as he recovered ...

Deb managed to re-hydrated him (or her) over a couple of days until he regained his strength and one evening, and then one night he he flew off to join up with his colony!

Another 'guest' was a falcon who too was badly effected by the heat and as we could not have him (or her) inside, the front verandah became an avery. The front verandah has wire mesh and shade cloth all around it so we put some branches in there and water for him so he too could recover.

Here is Thomas holding him whilst Deb tried to get some sugared water into him as he was not drinking.  

I risked life and limb by taking responsibilities for the photos!

Unfortunately, this little fella didn't make it and died a few days later. 

Another sad factor when living in a remote community is just how cruel animals can get when in survival mode.  We knew a couple of the camp dogs were pregnant and close to giving birth so we were doing our best to protect them and harbour them from the other camp dogs where possible.  One of them which we called "Lady" disappeared for a couple of days and we were concerned for her welfare.  One evening, she was spotted coming out from under a shipping container over in our Aged Care area where she had dug a hole to be away from the pack and give birth to her pups.  We were able to fence off the immediate area and provided her with sufficient food and water. One evening when we were topping up her food and water, we noticed she had pushed a couple of pups out of the 'nest' and abandoned them which we promptly rescued.  In all, we were able to rescue four pups and we were never sure how many others she had and or had killed ... which is often the case apparently.

Here are the 4 pups we rescued ...

Unfortunately, a couple of them were in very poor health and died a few days later.  

The good news is that a black one (girl) and a brown one (boy) are both fit and healthy and one of the new nurses at Oak Valley adopted the girl and we have adopted the boy.  We have named him "Grizwold" as he looks like a grizzly bear and growls just like a real one! 

Here is one of the many native finches which was also saved, but this time from drowning!  As water is so scarce, the flocks of hundreds of finches and galahs all fight for what water they can find which is usually the buckets of water we leave out for the camp dogs.  We were always finding drowned finches in their water and sometimes we were able to rescue them, let them dry out in the verandah and then when they were ready, they flew off ... but many died.

Oak Valley has an air strip (I think I have mentioned this before in our Blog) and in early January, we had a Government work crew over there replacing and upgrading the landing lights.  The Government spend approximately $120,000 in the project which would enable night landings which would only be in an emergency with the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service).  

The air strip is a dirt run way and it is fenced off to keep the wild animals, mainly camels, out of the grounds at all times.  Apart form the water tanks, there isn't anything else out there so when the work crew had finished, packed up and left, Thomas and I drove out there at dusk to see what it looked like! (as you do!)

This pic was taken from the end of the runway.  The green lights mark the start of the runway (off into the distance) and when you are on the runway and look back, the other side of these lights are red.  The white lights (off to the left) mark the actual landing strip and the blue lights mark the taxi area and where the planes park.  The white light in the middle is the wind sock (which apparently blew off it's mountings in strong winds a few days later and was found in the scrub outside the air strip grounds!).

Early one morning, SA Water flew out to Oak Valley to do their regular inspections of the remote water bores and the water tanks in the community and their chartered flight landed at the air strip.  

The plane circled the community a few times (which is protocol) to confirm their arrival as the air strip is 18kms away and as no one (Thomas!!) told anyone that a plane was expected, Deb jumped into the Clinic troopy and took off to the air strip.  Only to find when she got there that Thomas was already there greeting them!  The rest of us in the community were left wondering what the hell was going on ... was it an emergency landing? was it an air raid? (well, that's what I thought anyway!).

When they left, Thomas and I went back out to the air strip with them and it was a rare treat to be able to be so close to an aircraft on take off ...

One of the more unusual things out at Oak Valley is the "Oak Valley Fire Department" and here is the sole emergency response unit ...

Never did find out if the pump actually worked or not!

It was an amazing sight to witness a severe thunderstorm roll across the outback and in one day, they had almost half the annual rain fall.  The rain was so intense that it started to flood the main street and surrounding area.

This pic is from out the front of the community office in the main street of Oak Valley looking back down the road towards the only main dirt road used to get through this country ...

Thomas was brave (??) enough to climb up to the top of the community water tower to take these pics over looking the community. He wanted me to go too and I declined as we could still see lightening off in the distance ... and of course my fear of heights had nothing to do with my decision!

Well my time in Oak Valley was now at an end as I had been offered a position in the Maralinga Tjarutja office in Ceduna as the Business Manager reporting directly to the General Manager, Richard Preece.  So before I left Oak Valley, I took some more pics of the camp dogs that had adopted us ...

This is "Betty" ... she has been a great companion for Blade and for Deb.

This is "Missy" or "Miss Scruffy" ... one of my favourites.  

Here is "Missy" and "Simba" play fighting together out the front.

Above is "Dobbie" (from Harry Potter fame) 

This is "Tigger" (Winnie the Pooh fame), he is a roo dog and the new 'Alpha-Male' in the community who was intimidating at first as he can be very aggressive but he turned out to be a great dog and very loyal towards us.

Here is "Tigger" and "Simba" out the front with Blade looking on through the fence.

Here is our Land Cruiser all ready to leave out the front of our unit.

A look down our street!

One of my fondest memories of Oak Valley will be the sunsets.  They were simply breath taking and every night, I would stand out the back and watch the setting sun disappear and it is visions like these that I will never forget!

The drive back to civilisation is a long one as I have mentioned before and it is very difficult to describe how dramatic the scenery is and how much it changes.  Here is another pic taken as I'm on the endless dirt road heading towards Maralinga ...

When I arrived back in Ceduna, I stayed for a week in another caravan park in a unit whilst I got used to going to work!  After the first week, I trekked back to Penong and retrieved the caravan and hauled it back to the same caravan park and set up base camp.  This park was a different park to the one we had originally stayed in, this one had a pool and was on the highway into Ceduna, next to the airport and freight train line, but it was very close to work.

Deb had the opportunity to relieve at the Yalata Health Clinic over the Australia Day long week end and was staying in a nice house there, so I drove the 200+kms over there for the weekend too.

Yalata is another aboriginal community and just off the Eyre Highway which has a Police station and bitumen roads!  It has a larger community than Oak Valley and they have a better health clinic set up there too.

On the drive back to Ceduna, I took the opportunity to finally get these pics.

This old harvester is off the Eyre Highway near a place called Nundroo ...

I'm not sure what type of utes these two wrecks are, but I would love to have a closer look and if I had the skills, restore them into one hot rod!

These are in a farmers paddock and easily seen from off the highway.  

And this pic is typical of the terrain out here on the Eyre Highway between Ceduna and the WA border!

In January, (the Land Cruiser) travelled ... 1,062 kilometres.

Cheapest fuel was in Ceduna, SA where it was $1.619 / litre

Dearest fuel was in Oak Valley, SA where it was $1.800 / litre

So far, we have travelled 15,523 kilometres on our Big Adventure.