Had a Big Day Out this week with my brother Michael. We drove to a feedlot near Dalby (Qld) to see his cattle. It was very interesting and gave some meaning to the term 'grain fed beef’. Basically it is the battery hen equivalent for cattle. It is so scientifically precise in terms of the grain mix, hormones, weight - a very big operation with 10000 cattle. They actually cook some of the grain so it is like toasted muesli - that component tasted good to me too! They seemed contented enough but I was disappointed that their pens had zero shade.
We then drove back through the Bunya Mountains Nat Park and that was fabulous. We spent a couple of hours there and did a good walk. The Bunya pines are very impressive. Great camping ground and info centre. We continued on to Kingaroy and loaded up with peanuts.
A highlight of the day was seeing numerous bottle trees - I had never seen them in their natural state. Also whole mountain sides covered in majestic blackboys. We did 520km all up.
Passed this old house shimmering in the heat. Also passed through several tiny towns where the war memorial set up after World War One was conspicuous. Always sobering to see the bewilderingly large numbers of names from such small communities and of course the numbers who paid the ‘supreme sacrifice’. Also to see 3 and 4 surnames the same can only hint at the staggering grief that was carried by families and communities in those times. (On reflection did any of the names we saw on memorials once play in the dust outside this house?)
1 comment:
Hey Mick, Thanks for the positive comment on my previous blog. Your trip sounds great and the peanuts enticing. If we went for a drive down here we'd go to the oyster leases and buy doz oysters for $7 - and they throw in the lemon and teh table and chairs for free - under the trees beside the Pambula River. Sounds like I'm a millionaire too. (self-funded, rich as Johnny Howard believes - although...is he being fed new advice in the past 2 days??) Karissa's painting 'Unusual Times' reminds me of this morning...I often wake up like that. That's right Karissa, older people are a screw loose and can't tell anyone anything anymore - let alone the time.
Interesting that you took a photo of the old house - I take lots of pics of old places to use in my stories...gives me some starting points and makes me believe I know what people do there.
CYA,
Carmen
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