Happy New Year from Goulburn

Goulburn is approx half way to Sydney from Canberra. It is a very pretty town, far more attractive than Queanbeyan which I left earlier than planned. The road noise and other factors at the caravan park there made up my mind about going somewhere else. Police cars started arriving on a regular basis at the moron village at the end of the park, and it even made the local radio news as a likely new years eve disorder hotspot! charming. Anyway I packed up and drove the 2 hours to a large, quiet and decent caravan park on the south side of Goulburn. Not many people here so there's plenty of space between vans. Owners are laid back and helpful and it's just so different from Queanbeyan. The streets are wide and there are a lot of tree-lined avenues, lots of lovely old buildings and it's a place that needs a few days to have a good look at. We're getting some showers today but it is still warm.
Listening to ABC radio this afternoon and there was a flash flooding warning out for Bombala, Cooma and Lake Jindabyne area of the southern tablelands.
Saw a different Cockatoo today feeding at the bird feed station here in the camp, it was a "Little Corella" although little is just a title and not the actual size which is quite large as you can see in the photo. They are very vocal. Sulphur crested Cockatoos are here also, along with the ever present Galahs. Another new one is the red-rumped grass parrot which I was lucky enough to photo in the park here.
(Male & female in the top two photos)

New Years day 2010
Very uneventful night, stayed up and watched the marvelous fireworks display in Sydney harbour. This morning I drove out to the WW1 war memorial on a hill overlooking the Goulburn valley. Got some good photos. Up there are two German WW1 field guns which were captured by Australian forces, adds a bit more interest.
Goulburn is home to the NSW Police College, and also home to Australia's worst serial killer Ivan Milat, who is in Goulburn Prison and will never be released.
Shame a monster like him is in a lovely town like this.
Cleaning and packing today, ready for transfer to Sydney tomorrow. Should be an easy trip being the weekend.

Merry Christmas from Canberra

Well Queanbeyan NSW actually. We crossed the border into ACT this morning, then crossed back out into NSW!. We have to cross again into ACT to get to Canberra 10kms away - this is border madness. Anyway, we are set up in the caravan park with our fairy lights and Christmas tree with prezzies underneath ( I suspect most of them are for me ). This morning when we left Lake Jindabyne it was blowing a gale, and it was a slow and delicate trip up north. Tomorrow we will take it easy, and have a proper nosh in the evening.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends.

Grandad Small died in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 Dec and Chris is flying from Sydney on Sunday for Grandad's funeral - very sad. I will stay here for a week and then move the van down to Sydney where Chris will rejoin the expedition.

25th Dec.
Started raining overnight which drove the permanent resident noisy drunks inside at
3am. Rained all day so we stayed inside the van most of the day and tidied up etc. Had a nice Christmas dinner in the evening; ham, smoked chicken, spuds with our own mint, peas, washed down with a nice cold bottle of Crouchen Reisling, and followed by plum pudding and fresh cream. The rain kept the morons inside their dirty unkempt vans which was a bonus.

Thredbo, fishing, and Wombats

Not necessary in that order. Visited the Thredbo river around the Lake and fished there for a morning. The flies were shocking. The fish weren't much better, although there were plenty of them but nothing big. Hooked 3 on floating beetle patterns - in the end the flies chased us out. Came across several Wombat holes, inhabited ones by the look of the fresh scratchings and Wombat poos. Wouldn't like to tangle with Mr Grumpy, they have a defensive mechanism which entails jamming their large tough bottoms in the front of the hole to protect themselves against predators like wild dogs which inhabit the area. The soft sand along the banks of the Thredbo river is ideally suited to their requirements. There are Emus here as well but we didn't see any. One evening down at the river I saw a Grey Kangaroo and a dark pretty-face Wallaby in the bush.
Today we drove into Kosciuszko National Park to the alpine village of Thredbo (toll is $16 per car). The scars from the disasterous mudslide that wiped out two chalets and most of their occupants some years ago, are still visible - the ground has never been rebuilt on.
The village caters more for residents in the many hotel/motel/chalet accommodations than the public due to the lack of parking space, even in off season, can't imagine the chaos in the winter. Using our senior's discount, we rode up the quad chairlift to the Eagles Nest restaurant perched on the edge of a cliff above Thredbo at a height of 1930m. Had a very nice cup of coffee there before we tackled the 4km round trip boardwalk up to a Mt Kosciuszko (alt 2228m) lookout platform. Because Australia is an old country geologically, the mountain has been eroded and worn down, smoothed out and now looks like a round hill you could play golf on. It doesn't stick out, but is still the highest point in Australia and we were not that far short of the summit. I was completely and utterly knackered at the top with a headache, nausea, and legs like jelly. Going down was almost a pleasure. Unbelievable but the flies even up there were all over us like a cheap suit, and I was the only one with a fly net because my dear wife lent me hers because I left mine behind in the wagon. This afternoon, I napped while CJ went for a walk around Jindabyne village.

Ballarat to Lakes Entrance and Jindabyne

It was damp when we left Ballarat and ran into a bit of rain south on the highway to Melbourne. Made a wrong turn heading towards the Western Gate bridge but the GPS guided us back on the right track, albeit through an industrial area. 4kms short of the bridge and we were 4 lanes gridlocked. Crawled over the bridge and along the edge of the CBD. Hadn't been through the tunnel under Melbourne before and that was an experience! imagine towing a caravan in a tunnel 4 lanes wide at 80kmph surrounded by large trucks with absolutely no margin for error, and this was off peak time. However we survived that and got onto the Monaro highway then the Princes highway as we headed northeast into East Gippsland passing through Sale and Bairnsdale. Arrived Lakes Entrance quite late in the day for us and booked in to a central caravan park. Got the awning up just in time for heavy rain and gusting winds which lasted well into the next morning. Couldn't be bothered cooking so we went down the road to Maca's instead. It was strange to smell the salt air again from this east coast estuary/harbour. Lots of fishing boats tied up at the jetties. Next morning the weather had cleared and was fine and sunny, so got away early as the countryside changed from rural paddocks to thick bush on the way to Cann River, where we turned off onto the Monaro highway north towards ACT and Jindabyne. Stopped at Cann River for a cuppa and we could smell the smoke from a large out of control bush fire southwest towards the coast and fortunately well away from us. Refueled here and slowly climbed up the winding Cann valley to the top of the Great Divide at 1120 metres above sea level. Going up the valley it was similar to the Lewis Pass in Canterbury (NZ), at the top, it changed to tussock and open plains just like the Lindis Pass (Otago), and from the Cooma juction where we turned off to Jindabyne, very much like the boulder hills of Central Otago. Our first glimpse of Lake Jindabyne was one of a lovely lake with islands, set amongst a valley of tussock and small trees. This is an alpine village during winter, close to Thredbo and Perisher Blue, the main two skifields of Kosciuszko National Park. During the summer like now, a playground for water sports. The village itself is quite large, a lot larger than Hanmer Springs. Pubs, a movie theatre, Woolies, lots of restaurants and coffee shops, souvenir and ski clothing shops etc, a Thai food cafe which we will visit tonight, banks, It is a well catered for area. The caravan park is excellent. Very large with good facilities. We are right down on the bank overlooking the lake with an unobstructed view. Next door is another pop top with folk from Sydney who come up here (alt 800m) every year at this time, so they are a wealth of local information. The movie theatre is currently showing "Avatar" so as a sci-fi fan I will be attending with my seniors discount card. In the next few days we will go up to Thredbo for the day, and perhaps some flyfishing in the Thredbo river not far from here. Will launch the boat also at some time. It is only a short hop from here to Queanbeyan in ACT where we will be for Christmas and New Year.

Rebellion at Eureka

Today we went to the Eureka Centre the site of the diggers stockade, where on Sunday the 3rd of December 1854 approx 280 well armed soldiers and police troopers launched a dawn surprise attack on the 150 diggers inside the barricade. The grave sites at the old Ballarat cemetery lists and names 22 diggers and 6 troopers killed.
About 200m from the exhibition centre on a rise, is the memorial marking the spot, erected in 1929 and surrounded by 4 x 1861 cannons. We spent most of the morning at the centre and even got a look at a replica of the Eureka flag and saw firsthand how big it really was. After a coffee and another quick look through we drove to the other side of town to the old Ballarat cemetery where the mass graves of the diggers and troopers are. The sites are 100m apart, and fly their respective flags - Southern Cross for the diggers and the Union Jack for the troopers.
At the cemetery I wondered if they needed to have died and the answer is no they didn't. But for the criminal tax imposed on the diggers by a cash strapped and corrupt administration, but for the injustice over the killing of Scotty Scobie at the Eureka Hotel, but for the rough brutal treatment by the soldiers and police, the rebellion wouldn't have happened and democracy would have arrived in due course.
We have seen and visited a lot of the history of the gold town Ballarat, completed the Eureka story and understand the why where and who. It's been a great experience, one that Australians (and Kiwis) should visit, because a senior staff at the exhibition (holding the other end of the flag) told us that he believed the 40th Foot regiment involved in the attack on the stockade were eventually reassigned to NZ, and this is what I found in the Regiment's history

"The 40th was to garrison Melbourne and all the major gold towns in Victoria. The most notable incident of their stay being the Eureka Stockade incident on the 3rd December 1854, where the 40th and the 12th regiments with local police attacked a stockade manned by armed miners. The 40th lost two dead, including Captain H.C. Wise, and about six wounded.
The regiment left Australia in 1860 for New Zealand for the Maori War. They returned to England in 1866, and after various postings they went to Ireland untill 1872, when once again the 40th was posted to India".