From the banks of the Yarrowee River

There has been useful rain the bast couple of nights and I am hoping that I will be able to turn dead grass and weeds in the front garden into lawn.  I took a walk beside the Yarrowee River that is just across the road from my Trad Pad and the river was doing well - as you can see - in spite of one tree having a branch broken.

On the banks of the Yarrowee ... a new Trad Pad

2012 turned out to be a whole year's hiatus on The Trad Pad.  With hindsight, it is going to be a year that I wrap up thoughtfully and tuck away.  I am rather glad - in the end - that I didn't do anything public on The Trad Pad last year.

On the banks of the Yarrowee River, Ballarat

This year looks like being very different.  I have moved to a really real Trad Pad situated 2kms and a world away from the city centre of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia.  I am living in an historic old mining area across the road from the Yarrowee River at the foot of a forested hill.  In this out of sight, out of time part of the world the roads have no bitumen, no channelling and kerbing.

 Water in a formerly dry waterhole on the Yarrowee.

Below: blossom and oaks on the Yarrowee.

Until yesterday, directly in front of my place the river was dry.  After some good and much needed rain, there is now water in my part of the river.

I live right on the Yarrowee Trail - part of the Goldfields Track and the Great Dividing Trail.  Runners and walkers and bikers of all shapes, sizes, and ages wander past my place.  I have a large old Golden Ash in the front yard which is a beautiful and natural form of air-conditioning and perfect for sitting under on a hot afternoon.

And - as you can see from the picture in the title above - there is a verandah.

The cottage that is The Trad Pad is quaint, quirky and small and in need of some repair.  It allegedly has three bedrooms but I prefer to say two bedrooms and a dressing room because the third has the only built-in wardrobe in the place.  While it would take a single bed, I have two chests of drawers in there instead.  So it is not a sleeping room but a dressing room.

While there is a nicely sized front yard there is almost no backyard.  The backyard is a sort of triangle (the house is on a corner - the western wall forms part of the property's boundary) with a lane behind which once would have been used as a dunny-run - adjoining a square. The whole is gravelled instead of grass.  If it was grassed one would need barber's clippers to trim the lawn.  I have some of my potted plants there.

 

At the foot of the forested hill

Maria, Mildura and the Murray in a mini flood

From Drop Box

I have received a small collection of photos from Maria Reidl, that great Water Warrior, of the iconic Murray River at Pinkie Point, Mildura in what Maria describes as a "mini flood". The real thing has yet to arrive. Currently somewhere near Echuca!  Make safe your houseboats!

In search of the rushing, gushing Yarra River - Part 2

The Yarra River at Warrandyte at 3.30pm (approx) on Monday 6 September 2010

These pictures were taken from the walk below the Riverside Cark Park.  As you can see, the water was only about 50cm below the walkway.  Would not have taken much more to break the bank on this side.  The other side does not have a low embankment.

Please note the height of the bridge.  Even strong bridges can be damaged by drivers as one can see in the picture.  But there was a bridge before this bridge...

This memorial post commemorates 

the artist Walter Withers who was

a member of the famous Heidelberg School. 

Here is the Withers picture of the Old Bridge, Warrandyte.

Please note the wattle tumbling down the hilly embankment.

If you look closely in my pictures above, 

you will see wattle on that embankment - 

not as profuse as portrayed in the painting by Withers, 

but there still.

The Heidelberg School had something of a colony at Warrandyte at one time - although it was not the best known colony of this unique group of Australian artists.  The legacy, though, lingers on.  Warrandyte is still a place that attracts creative people.

The day was getting darker.

Lunch should have happened hours ago.

A lovely old building summoned and I pulled into the carpark.

Smoke rising into the eucalypts from a stone chimney is a welcoming sight.

First stop, a long overdue browse at The Linen and Larder...

and in through the beckoning doors...

Linen and Larder is bursting with good stuff - 

homewares, gifts, clothing, and stuff for eating and eating upon.

A return journey with credit card is required.

Perhaps some thoughts for Christmas.

You will find L & L here:

THE YARRA STORE
Linen & Larder
321 Warrandyte-Ringwood Road
Warrandyte, Vic 3113

Tummy was still calling ... but a little louder ...

and so to next door ...

... and the Stonehouse Cafe Restaurant.

It has hints of yesteryear - but the decor needs a few additions.

I would suggest a deal with Linen and Larder for the interior.

There are two large banks of windows

opening out on to a verandah under the gum trees

with greedy, nosy sulphur-crested cockatoos a-visiting.

These windows - set into their stone walls -

could do with a couple of school benches under them.

A perfect place for newspaper and coffee.

But back to my tummy ...

I asked for a bowl of hot tomato and herb soup ...

and the bread was s-o-o scrumptious ...

... with some hot chocolate ...

Tummy was well looked after - then home.

In search of the rushing, gushing Yarra River - Part 1

I had a lovely day out yesterday.

It was full of the unexpected and pleasant surprises.

Large tracts of Victoria are under water at the moment.

A vast contrast from the worst drought since white settlement

and the deathly bushfires of last year.

The radio said that the Yarra River was expected to flood

at Yarra Glen.

I didn't want to wait till the Yarra actually flooded.

I wanted to see the Yarra gushing and rushing

with the water of the yet-to-be flood.

And I did.

This is the story of my day in search of the pre-flood Yarra.

The map at this site will give you a bit of an idea of where I went.

As I left the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne behind

and hit the Melba Highway,

everything was green

and there was water, water everywhere.

Dams were full to the brim.

A few drops more and they would overflow.

Water was lying at the edge of the road

and the Yarra billabongs were spreading.

The photos above and below were taken
from Skyline Drive looking back to Yarra Glen.

Looking for Sugarloaf Reservoir Park was quite an exercise.
I think there is a job going begging in the Victorian public sector -
Commissar of Signage.
I find the signage poor in and around Melbourne -
sometimes beyond belief.
It doesn't compare with the signage in Sydney -
where the traffic moves so quickly
and the layout of the city is so convoluted
one would never survive without clear signage.

I turned off the Melba Highway at the appropriate sign.
Not to see another sign on a major road for the rest of the day.
I later was told I did not go far enough along
the Yarra Glen to Eltham road before turning off.

I had two sets of "clear" instructions
neither of which delivered the desired result.

After wandering hither and yon -
yes, I didn't have a clue where I was -
I found Sugarloaf in the distance.
The photo below is the result.

My camera is fairly humble -
a Kodak EasyShare DX7590
(5.0 mega pixels and 10X optical zoom) -
and I am an even humbler photographer
(for this read ignorant and unskilled).

If I were clever,
I could probably customise settings
but I am not clever enough to figure all that.
Given these limitations,
I was rather pleased with this photograph.
I was a great distance from the water,
and I couldn't tell how well the zoom
was handling what I was asking of it.
I consider myself fortunate to have
recorded not only the water
but the dam wall and, somehow, the CBD in the distance.

Once I discovered this back part (well I think it was the back part of the reservoir), I followed a road which ran alongside the high Melbourne Water perimeter fence. So you don't lay awake at night wondering, I have to tell you that there is a fair degree of security around our water storages.  I went past all sorts of signs and many, many locked gates.  And after this journey, I eventually came to a half-open gate.

In spite of warnings to trespassers, I - lost in search of a pre-flood experience - entered.  I went down a bitumen driveway and came to a large concrete area.  At one end of this was a multi-story building.  But I couldn't resist walking across to the fenced off section at the other side of the concrete apron.  And there I was - high above the Yering Gorge.  And the water was rushing and gushing.

Camera was quickly put into action and, just as I had taken these, a man came to see what I was doing.  I explained to him about looking for Sugarloaf, the poor signage, seeing the Yarra in flood, etc.  And he gave me directions....

....and I did make it to the Sugarloaf Reservoir Park....

and here is some explanatory signage

Click the above photos (3) to enlarge and make legible.

The picture below is of a section of a narrow peninsula jutting into the reservoir

which is covered in low blooming wattle.

and then there was the getting out -

and, if the getting in was a mystery, so was the getting out.

And it had its adventures too...

.... I found a castle in the hills.

A modern version - but, I think, a castle nonetheless.

One finds all sorts of things on roadsides in the bush.

The quaintest are usually letter boxes.

This is the most curious.

One can imagine baskets left there

to receive the bread, the parcels.

But...what is the story with the picture frame?

Hopefully this is a successful partnership.

Bush flora.

Driving down the bush road,

I spotted the beautifully rusty wheelbarrow.

I could not resist.

Pulled up the car right in the middle of the road,

because - with the Kodak zoom lens - I thought 

I could get a picture from the road.

Next thing, a woman came into view.

I walked over and explained how I had found the wheelbarrow -

or it had found me.

Introductions done -  she is Deirdre.

Her cottage garden is small.

She would like to plant her favourite daphnes

but there is no room.

Nillumbik Shire Council has some tight controls.

The amount of land given to non-indigenous plants is limited.

Deirdre has planted out a number of wattles -

but these are wattles indigenous to the area.

As well, the shire dictates the height of houses.

Deirdre's house fits well into the landscape -

almost hugging the ground in comparison

with the bush around.

I told Deirdre about my Yering Gorge adventure,

and she told me how her Bend of Islands home

overlooked the gorge and took me to the verandah

so I could photograph her view.

Yering Gorge in the Bend of Islands -

photographed from Deirdre's verandah.

And, across the old white bridge above,
I exited the Bend of Islands
through some beautiful green Victorian bush.

The story continues to-morrow

with the rushing, gushing Yarra River

at Warrandyte.

The Don...Mighty River of the Peoples of Ancient Djiru...

My good friend Patricia Corowa and her daughter Virginia Kruger have been on the receiving end of wonderful photographs of the mighty Don River, just north of Bowen in North Queensland - at the northern end of the famed Whitsundays. Patricia and I grew up in Bowen - so we have memories of going out to the banks of the Don to rejoice in its raging, fast flowing waters. It was always said that the Don, in flood, was the fastest running river in Australia because of the steep and relatively short gradient from mountains to mouth.

Water, water all around? Is there enough to drink?

You will have noted, dear Reader, that Miss Eagle has listed on the sidebar a few of her favourite nature/environmental blogs. Miss Eagle hopes, dear Reader, that you - like her - who blog beautiful things - and homes which there are no places like - take an interest in natural beauty in the great outdoors and its welfare.

Miss Eagle's great friend Denis (pictured above on the Murrumbidgee River) blogs at The Nature of Robinson where he posts about a recent enquiry about the state of rivers in his neighbourhood in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

We live in a time - at least in Australia - where water is precious whether it is for our lovely gardens and parks, industrial use, or growing our food. We - the wider vote-carrying dollar-spending community - have watched corporations and governments do things which are not in the interests of the community as a whole. It is time, in Miss Eagle's view, when we took an interest.

Now, Miss Eagle is able to be informed and in touch through Denis about the goings on in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales but she would like to be as informed and in touch within her own neighbourhod: the Dandenong Ranges, south-eastern Melbourne, south-eastern Victoria.

Water is the very basis of our life. Miss Eagle has a general interest in rivers and watercourse and has always wished she knew more because she has seen so many wrecked rivers. Where does a member of the general public start, dear Reader? Miss Eagle has no science. She is not even a keen amatuer naturalist like Denis and Duncan.

Good advice gladly welcomed.