Monday 23 December 2019

Exploring Victoria!

In the meantime - between then and now! we have spent time exploring the central, north and east. Just last week we ventured north close to the border between Victoria and NSW to meet our newest great-grandchild - Taylor Lee the most adorable pretty little button. That brings us to 3 great-grandchildren - all gorgeous, 2 boys and 1 girl. We are so lucky.
We were in the heart of  old Soldier Settlement territory where between 1918 and 1934 over 11,000 returned servicemen were allocated blocks under the Soldier Settlement Scheme - over 2 million acres encompassing over 8000 settlement farms. Numurkah became the headquarters of the Murray Valley Soldier Settlement Area - one of the largest soldier settlements in Australia. Sadly by 1939 60% of the settlers had left their blocks. Problems then and still with serious water issues. But I digress - again!
On our way back to the big smoke we detoured through the Goulburn Valley region - glorious. On the recommendation of a couple of people (thank you Carina and Miriam), we took a further detour - as we are want to do, and ended up driving through Murrindindi and in to the Toolangi State Forest (Murrindindi in the Woiwurrung language of central Victoria means living in the mountains). Just lovely, peaceful, a place to revisit - and camp!

Lindsay is back with the birds!

The delightful Murrindindi River burbling away over the rocks while the trees dip thirsty branches into the amber waters.

Fascinating - the underside of what I think is a dogwood tree. Look at those tiny hairs.

The dogwood.

Eremophila I think. I just love these flowers. Look at the welcome mat it has put out for curious insects.  Again look at the hairs - clever structures hairs. Plants from desert salt bush to mountain trees use them to great advantage.

Wee jam tarts! Who could resist? I love the tea tree flowers, they're so deceptively simple.



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