Working Bee At The Cassilis Recreation Reserve

It was a beautiful day to be out in the wider world and the atmosphere and ambiance of the Cassilis recreation reserve and cemetery yesterday.

The president invited people to enjoy the day there with us. Rickey did just that, even though his house is being built and he assists with that. The committee members who were there: Christine, Marie-Louise, Howard and Charlie much appreciated his help, and were sorry he was unable to stay for the sausage sizzle.

There would have been one other to join us, but unfortunately on the way home from a trip his car broke down and he had to stay on the other side of the mountain to have it repaired.

The inside of the men's and women's toilet received it's first coat of paint from Marie-Louise and Christine.

Another memorial tree was planted by Howard. A King Cole apple to complement the small stand of apple trees already growing in that area, which have all been sponsored by people who are friends of the Cassilis Recreation reserve.

The sausages, asparagus etc., were cooked superbly and to perfection as always, by Howard, whose locally renown cooking skills are always in demand for such occasions. A huge success, getting some work done and lunching in the open air, in sun supplied warmth.

It was sad that not everyone was able to attend and enjoy it with us.

Some Notes On The King Cole Apple Variety

From: http://www.loriendale.com.au/midlate_seson_apples.htm

King Cole This dual purpose apple is medium-size and with a bright red flush. It is firm, juicy, subacid and a fair keeper. It was raised in Lang Lang Victoria by R.G. Cole and is a cross between the Jonathan and Dutch Mignonne apples. In earlier times, this apple was extensively exported. It is good to eat and very good cooking apple.

As well, the Cassilis Cemetery Trust and Cassilis Recreation Reserve Committee of Management were the grateful and pleased recipients of three donated fruit trees by:

Neville and Elaine Medhurst

Orchardists

Who have been kind supporters and friends of the the Cemetery Trust and Management Committee by way of substantial discounts for trees in the past.

Both the Cassilis Cemetery Trust and Cassilis Recreation Reserve Committee of Management members, thank them on behalf of the community.

Second Class Citizen Internet...

When the internet was finally made available as Dial UP to the Cassilis community, it was well received, but by any standards, very slow. It did demonstrate to residents in the Omeo, Cassilis, Swifts Creek and environs we lived in an isolated back water. Certainly as far as electronic communications were concerned. It was slightly better than nothing.

TPG was the company that placed a point of presence for the internet in Swifts Creek and all who wanted to embrace this new age technology were pleased. This was assisted by the National Farmers Federation supplying really good quality modems with which the connection to the world wide web could be made along the often less than desirable underground copper telephone line.

The thing that brought home the disadvantage to this area, was that everyone who had computers in most cities in Australia, because of their faster speed and greater bandwidth, could send quite large text, graphic and video files that could take hours to download through the slower conduit of copper telephone line and Dial Up Internet “service”. So the residents of this area who took 75 minutes to download a 10 MB file, usually went onto their webmail account and deleted these large files. Nothing demonstrated to the residents of the region more, how disadvantaged they were still. According to subsequent governments, there were not all that many people in these areas of Victoria and they were, in the majority, old and would not readily take up new ideas.

Later of course satellite came on the scene, much slower than ADSL and mobile phones were now commonplace. Hardly practical because of all the black spots over huge tracts of land that this didn't bear thinking about as a communication alternative. This is the case still.

At a meeting in Omeo in those early years, the head of Telstra in this area started the information day saying that in the plains and desert like country of Victoria, the telco could put up towers with enormous distances between them. So when it was suggested that Telstra should put up the towers that it didn't use in those areas in the mountainous areas around Swifts Creek and Omeo. It was quickly stated that it didn't work that way. At this time, what most people associate with this area is, it is without mobile/wireless reception in huge areas.

Now we have the Sky Muster satellite system, and there has been little improvement. Luckily the landline telephones work still, so that the people connected to this very ordinary and flaky internet system, not service. Can ring round and ask their neighbours if they are able to get an internet connection, and be told they are missing out as well.

Our politicians do nothing of consequence to change the situation. The Minister, Hon Mitch Fifield, keeps telling the media that the system is being rolled out on the time target and on budget. But what sort of a system is being rolled out? A half baked satellite system certainly.

This very suspect system was devised in the short, cut corners, Abbott government time with the assistance of the communications minister who has now been raised past his level of competence to Prime Minister of this country. Having said that, there is no way the current Minister can duck or weave his way out of this, below third world standard of internet delivery. It is his job to make certain that he improves on the rubbish he inherited.

The disgrace of this is evident, not only in the amount of outages this area has to suffer, we know not why? It could be flaky equipment, less than adequate number of technicians, lower standard of technical ability or something else. Something more with in the Ministers purview?

The residents of this area, like those in the city need to fill in many forms online, or print them off the web to fill them in and if they have an unreliable, unpredictable internet system to attempt all this, they are severely disadvantaged.

So much is moving over to the digital age and yet as ever, the Cassilis area and the towns that surround it are way behind.

Not being able to pick up any working leases all evening and night, I will have to do what had to be done back in the 80's, go to the community centre and post this text there.

Memorial tree

Christine's Mum and Dad's tree and daffodils in spring.

Howard's family memorial tree with Daff's.

Bens Crossing Bridge

Bens crossing bridge is being replaced. Some people will be pleased with this change of traffic conditions, as the old bridge was always looked upon as being technology and materials of the past and looked in disrepair. Because of the way and materials from which it was constructed and appeared, it made people pause before crossing it. The bridge planking was sometimes damaged or broken. A sign suggested that cyclists, dismount and walk their treddly's over the bridge rather than ride them where the wheels of their mode of transport might get jammed between the planks of the bridge and send the rider flying over the handlebars.

There have been band aid repairs to the bridge forever, and as time wore on and took its toll it was narrowed down, to what particular purpose? The reason unknown to this scribe. Possibly protecting people from driving through it's old railings into the abyss.

Now the bridge will be pulled down and another constructed in it's place. One of these very modern concrete bridges one assumes? Changing the bridge, and thereby the road conditions that now apply, might appear like a good thing at face value. One assumes it will allow traffic to flow both ways over the bridge and circumvent vehicles slowing down to check if there is traffic coming from the other side to which one may have to give way. It will allow more speed and less attention to be paid to the road in that area at least, and probably cut a couple of seconds of the trip along the distance of the Cassilis road. More time even if another vehicle was on the bridge when trying to cross it.

So is that an improvement? Allowing greater speed to be maintained and removing the caution that was once part of using that bridge, reducing the need for the visitor to be mindful and read the signs and be cautious coming toward and leaving the narrower bridge?

At face value it looks like an improvement, but it's something to ponder just the same.

So who was Ben that this crossing was named after him? Is that lost in the detritus of time and human memory? Does anyone have an idea about who Ben could be? We could conjecture, think it was a person who lived on the Cassilis side of the creek [Gray's Creek] and had to cross it often? Gray's Creek only brings up another question. Trying to discover who was Gray?

Were these the first people who settled in that Cassilis/Tongio area, along the creek which Ben had to cross often enough for people to name the crossing after him and this activity?

This http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/AUS-VIC-GIPPSLAND/1999-06/0928416879 This history gives us a bit more of an insight into what was there at that location, but not who Ben was and why the crossing was named after him. We assume him because it appears to be a mans name?

Here is a bit more general information that might be useful http://www.victorianplaces.com.au/cassilis-and-tongio-west.

Mysteries remain for the moment.

For the Love of Jack.....

A tree, a Crab Apple - Malus ioensis 'Plena', has been planted at Jacks memorial today [Sunday 21 August] by Lenore. It is hoped it will flourish and be a living part of the memorial for Jack, that will reach far into the future for grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The crab apple tree will be another interesting addition to the Cassilis Cemetery memorial arboretum. So many interesting trees already populate that area.

It's a difficult place to grow a tree of any kind. The challenge is to get them established. Once that has been achieved they will reward all visitors to the cemetery with their beauty and add to the quiet, restful ambiance of the cemetery.

The act of planting a tree is acknowledging ancestors. Declaring a hope for the future. As it grows a pleasure to be enjoyed by children of future generations.

Climbing in the branches of these trees; children will look out through the leaves into a world where they too can grow, blossom and become centred and complete.

Autumn Colours...

It's the time of year where many living things in the natural world plan for a rest, the trees retrieve some of the nutrient from their leaves and cause them to colour up, no longer needed in the winter months. As the leaves fall to the ground they are food for all manner bacteria, small creatures and fungi, that consume them. The waste from these becomes nutrient for the tree during the quickening of spring. New clothes, fresh and without blemish to harvest the rays of the sun and manufacture a different type of nutrient.

The colours in the small valley in which lie the Cassilis recreation reserve and cemetery are beginning to show trees settling in for winter. Not all the trees of the same type are colouring the same. It is assumed that each tree has tapped into a different source of nutrient. Some trees have smaller leaves than others of their kind, that also demonstrates a deficiency, either in nutrient or genetics. Though they all looked the same in the autumn they were bought and planted, they, like every living thing, are all different.

Each tree is unique and the beauty of this is a year when some will be colourful and others may not. Another year we might see the trees that looked to be rather plain this year, will be the feature of a new season.

However, whatever eventuates, what swing or roundabout we see each autumn, there is no doubt that we will see something startling each year as the trees grow. We have to thank and are grateful to the sponsors of these trees for giving us something to look forward to each season.

The Cassilis Recreation Reserve Committee of Management and Cassilis Cemetery Trust are attempting to create a colourful picture and participation environment with trees and other plants.

There is much to do and consider when attempting to create a congenial environment. One to be enjoyed by all visitors, in its entirety or just sections that draw people into such pleasantries as picnics or just laying on the grass on a blanket taking in the wildlife and ambiance for which this small area is so famous - while chasing the clouds from the sky.

Swallows..........

We love swallows. They are just one of the many bird varieties that can be seen in this area. Watching a wedge tailed eagle, just one of the beautiful birds we have in this area, soaring leisurely, high in the sky on earthy air currents. Looking from the heights far above this place to the coastline and out to sea or deep into the mountain range from, if not an unrivalled vantage point, certainly one which allows 360 degree vision.

Swallows use the element the eagle glides on differently and are no less graceful though appear busier. Because they are swift, they are controllers of insects. Exercise for our eyes with their considerable velocity and turns that beguile the mind as we try to track them moving in, out, over and under one another. They are indeed beautiful, stationary or in flight. Another of natures evolving creatures.

When they come to rest at night, unfortunately in a place where the Cassilis Recreation Reserve Committee of Management wish they would not. They tend to supply the ground under their roosting area with fertiliser of a quality that is very desirable and priceless. However when left to dry for a few days this valuable plant food sticks to the concrete floor and is difficult to lift, also leaving a stain as evidence of its presence, much like a natural graffiti.

Visitors who like to have a relatively clean place to sit and eat or just sit, do not desire to do so amongst this growth promotant. So we have placed a net ceiling in the shed to deter the swallows from resting during the hours of darkness in this place. Where they will go is of no notice to us, nature is indifferent, and we cannot do anything to ease their dismay at finding what they thought was night accommodation erected for their ease, is now off limits. We block our mind from the fact they may find themselves in a place where a predator may also be able to find them and hope they will be safe for at least the first night of dispossession and reconnoitre another, better on the second evening.

We washed the floor, table and chairs and hopefully this will remain relatively clean. At least free from plant fertiliser in the future and wherever the swallows have gone, their fertiliser will be appreciated.

Maybe they have gone to Capistrano? If so, the soil there will be much improved.