One of our favourite things to do when we travel is op shopping. Small country towns in Australia always have opportunity (other known as charity) shops. Street libraries where you pick up and drop off free book are also always fun. Whenever we travel we take a stash of books that we no longer need to exchange and share the love.
This is some of the haul we picked up when we had a quick five day get away recently. Books are our main prize, followed by puzzles, music/DVD’s and other random oddments. I think that my favourite purchase on this trip was a 1980’s version of Trivial Pursuit. In a few weeks time my family is going away to celebrate family birthdays and we are having a 1980’s themed celebration. I didn’t know that it existed but I am now looking forward to giving it a go.
One of the first tours we took on our trip to South Australia was of the HMAS Whyalla. The Whyalla was the first ship built at Wyalla’s shipyards in 1941. It was one of 66 ships built in Whyalla and one of 4 Bathurst corvettes built for the second World War. Whyalla, South Australia has a steel works which made ship building easy. After the war the HMAS Whyalla was sold to Victorian Public Works and became the Rip and spent 38 years working as a lights maintenance ship. In 1984, she was sold to Whyalla City Council to become the centre piece of the Visitors Information Centre and Maritme Museum.
Photo credit: Google Images
Nobody would have thought that 46 years after her birth on the Whyalla slipway, the HMAS Whyalla would go back up the same slipway as she began her journey to her new home. Moving the Whyalla however didn’t go according to plan and became an engineering feat initself. It took major planning, problem solving and machinery to finally complete the task. The teams were given many sleepless nights and in the end according to the following documentary it took 220 tonnes of trailers, 328 wheels assisted by 2 prime movers to take her the 2 kilometres from the slipway to her final resting place 2 metres above the ground.
The HMAS Whyalla has now been restored back to her former glory as a WW2 corvette. Our tour guide was amazing and she was filled with interesting facts about the ship. I was fascinated to see what life on board would have been like for the young sailors. It was definitely a unique experience and worth staying the weekend in Whyalla to see. The Maritime Museum is on site as well and was also very interesting covering all of the areas varied maritime history.
I loved that they have used the ships chain and anchors in the garden area.
The Great Australian Bight is the southern most area of land in mainland Australia. It runs from west of the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia to Western Australia. The area is made up of limestone cliffs, 60-120 metres high just off the Nullarbor Plain. The cliffs are about 820 kilometres in length and are said to be the longest cliffs in the world.
The following photos of the Great Australian Bight were taken at Head of Bight. This is the most northerly point of the Great Australian Bight. There is an amazing whale watching centre there for both Southern Right Whales as well as Humpback Whales. The Southern Right Whales come into this bay to have their babies and then stay around to months as the babies grow and develop. Unfortunately for us, we missed the last mum and calf by a day. Whilst this was very disappointing I am sure you will agree that the views of the Great Australian Bight were definitely worth the trip.
Australian weather is changeable. Floods can and do happen very quickly, sometimes without notice. On more than one occasions we have been traveling and have had to change our plans because of floods. I find it fascinating that a road that you could drive easily on one day, the next is totally cut off by flood waters.
It is also weird to me that as I wrote this blog post last weekend, New South Wales had a significant weather event and many parts of the state are again in flood. Watching the football on Friday night which was playing in my home town was very funny. It was pouring with rain and the players were tackling like they were on a slip and slide. the field was covered in water. Our team won as they held on very tightly to the ball and fortunately no-one was injured.
The excess amount of rain everywhere leads to the serious risk of life threatening flash flooding. The secret to dealing with flooding is always to
Be Prepared and Be Alert and Never Drive Through Flood waters.
The following photos are of Wannon Falls during floods. The water was very brown and smelt very earthy. The water was also flowing very hard and fast.
The other major problem that Truby ( our Iveco truck and slide on camper) has in the wet is that she is heavy. This means that the places we can stop are limited. We need either gravel or a hard surface so she doesn’t get stuck in the mud.
The following photos are of the Murray River in full flood. It is the longest river in Australia. We had been there six months before this and the river was several metres lower.
For me I think one of the best surprises I have found whilst traveling was the Elvis Presley house, Whyalla. This hidden gem is not known about by many people. The owner, Peter Bleeze is a self confessed Elvis fanatic. His house filled with only Elvis souvenirs is a true monument to rock’n’roll. And he lives it. Yes, he also has neighbours like you and I.
Each room in his house has a theme and each item a story. My husband and I were fascinated. We spent hours there listening and asking questions. Peter had been collecting since he was young and has been to Gracelands on more than one occasion.
“There is no Elvis product that they don’t make.” Peter Bleeze
Peter was very specific as to the time we were to arrive. This was so we could hear his Elvis clocks ‘doing their thing’ on the hour. He states that he has the only Elvis themed shower curtain in the world.
I loved his two door 1961 gold Cadillac the same as Elvis’s which he drives around Whyalla. It felt amazing to sit in.
He has also brought blue suede shoes from the same company as Elvis.
Hearing his stories was extra special to me as Elvis died on my 15th birthday. The fact that he even had his own hound dog really made me smile.
The Diprotodon was the first fossil mammal found in Australia. It is one of our megafauna. It is often referred to as the Giant Wombat. Naracoorte Caves in South Australia are World Heritage Listed and one of the world’s most significant fossil sites. Many bones from the Diprotodon as well as other megafauna have been found in these caves. When we visited we saw some that were being excavated by scientists, which was fascinating.
It has been said that the Diprotodon is the largest marsupial that ever existed. Looking at the Diprotodon head and jaw fossil at Naracoorte Caves was amazing. I still can’t get my head around animals this size roaming around our country. The Diprotodon fossil at Naracoorte was collected in South Australia in1890’s. Diproptodons weighed 2500 kilograms and became extinct about 45,000 years.
On the eastern side of the Eyre Pennisula, South Australia lies the sleepy town of Cowell. With a regular population of approximately 1100 Cowell loves the tourists. They keep their economy running. As it is known for its fishing and seafood industries this is not a problem.
I personally love the town’s peoples creativity. The local artists instead of using an art gallery to display their art, they chose the towns public toilets. They call it Cowell’s Crap Art. Every wall that would normally be blank was filled with fun artwork including the artists name, contact number and price.
In Australia a crapper is slang for toilet and crap is slang for poor quality or to defecate. The art here was definitely a play on word as the quality of the artwork was great. I think it was very clever as people can chose to go into an art gallery but very few can avoid the town’s toilet.
Australians love to laugh at themselves and to build BIG tourist attractions. So when Nyngan in Central West NSW wanted to attract tourists, the answer was simple. Create a big attraction. The town chose a bogan.
Bogan is a common slang word in Australia that means ” an uncouth or unsophisticated person regarded as being of low social status. People from Nyngan have been called bogans for years as the town is on the Bogan River. However, as it happened the river was not named after the people of the area but by Australia’s Indigenous people and for them bogan means “birthplace of a king.”
I loved the BIG BOGAN. He is a blend of two cultures. He stands like a king at the river and is dressed like an aussie bogan. He is 5.96 metres tall and weighs 1500 kilograms. In true Aussie fashion, a few years after the sculpture was built he was given a dog called Rusty to help with his fishing.
The Australiana Pioneer Village has been put together by moving original buildings from the local area a central location. The properties that were moved into the village in 1970 were a mixture from the late 1800’s to early 1990’s. Since 2004 the site has been heritage listed so it will remain in tact for future generations.
It is an amazing display of the courage, creativity and spirit of the Australian pioneers. If they didn’t have something that they wanted they found a way compromise or make it. I loved the the stories that were attached to each of the buildings. I think my favourite example was Case cottage that once a month on a Saturday night took out the middle wall and put it on the front lawn. This allowed the cottage to turn into a dance hall for the locals. They even had a arranged a safe way for single young ladies to safely be transported to and from the dance. Australia’s first Ubers you might say.
The other building I was particularly surprised with was the villages police station. Built in 1888 it was in use at Riverstone until 1970 when it was moved on site. I was 8 at the time so it seems surreal to me that a police station this small was all the area needed.
The sample of hand made whipped butter made during a presentation was amazing. I would love to have the patience to make my own.
The Australiana Pioneer Village is an 100% volunteer organization. It’s slogan is Proud to Preserve the Past. They have done a great job of it and I am very grateful.
For anyone who is not aware the #AtoZChallenge is held every year in April. Bloggers are challenged to chose a theme and write a post everyday except Sunday. The posts start at A and go through until Z. The other fun part is also blog hopping and visiting new and friends blogs.
During this years #AtoZChallenge I will share with you some of the interesting things, places and people I have discovered as I travel the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
I hope that you find my theme interesting. Australia is a very unique and varied country that can be very different. It is not unusual to hear the phrase “only in Australia.” On our travels in Truby (our blue Iveco truck and her red slide on camper) we mostly visit small towns. Nearly all are filled with history and have found some way to reinvent themselves using creativity. At the beginning of the day it is not unusual for us to have no idea what we will find on our journey. I love it. I hope that you find my selections interesting and that they give you an insight into our Australian culture.
For any of my #weekendcoffeeshare friends who are also joining in the fun I will attempt to keep up with your posts. Thanks for hosting Natalie.
