Ballarat tomorrow

I just wanted to let you all know that we're moving to our last host location tomorrow.

Goodnight y'all.

now in Horsham

We arrived in Horsham this evening, after getting an early start from Hamilton this morning so we could fit in an extra hike. Our first stop in Horsham gave a glimpse of what the next few days will be like: the lake where the locals used to recreate (swimming, boating, water-skiing) is COMPLETELY drydand has been for several years. There are weeds throughout the lakebed, and a dozer firebreak has been cleared where several meters of water once stood. It is quite scary, and made all of us feel that even though we live where the water feels plentiful, as individuals and as a society we need to be much better at conserving and managing water use.
Earlier in the day we hiked to the top of Mt. Williams in the Grampiens (not Gambier, thanks Naomi, I was tired...!) Mountain Range, and experienced the first big scenic vistas of the trip...we could see for many miles (ok, kilometers) in every direction. On our journey between Hamilton and Horsham we made stopped several times to hike to scenic overlooks...it was great to get in quite a bit of exercise.
For me, the vocational highlights from Hamilton were the Arborline nursery, where around 50-100 different tree species are grown for outplanting in both commercial forests and restoration projects, and an afternoon with Ron "Yonda" Elliot, a one-man red gum sawmilling operation. He was quite a character! We also had an informative morning with the local Catchement Management Authority (CMA), and went to several alternative farming sites as well as an ITC blue gum plantation and a joint venture restoration project they did with Greening Australia. Once again, we saw wetlands that were no longer wet. An interesting note from the restoration project was that they actually seeded the tree species in 2002...and now they are 6-10 meters high. They did some overplanting as well, but the vast majority of the site had been machine-sown directly onto the site.

a few from Hamilton...

Our final picnic along the Glenelg River with the Hamilton Rotary club...a peaceful end to a fun day. I will post pics of Yonda Elliot, the redgum one-man-milling-operation, later.


The red gum trees are more than gorgeous...they are enchanting, intricate, unique, splendid, elegant, statuesque, magnificient...each one individually.

(I might not have gone on so much, but Dave gave me grief about using the same word over & over again, so I tried to come up with a few more.)

It is quite scary how low the reservoir levels are. This one is just under 4% of full capacity.

Jill enjoying the eucalypt scent at the Arborline nursery....

here is one picture of a trick from the band Dave raved about in the last post - unfortunately several of the others I thought would be great are actually blurry. They were incredibly talented kids!

later, mates!

Yesterday I had the finest cultural experience yet! That is partially what this trip is about. Our hosts figured that we should be experience the Port Fairy Folk Festival. And yes it was here that the hippies were out in droves and as we say came out of the wood work. I was particullarly impressed by this 1972 VW Van with the Roo Bar and lights. I guess if you are to travel this country as a Nomad the bar becomes a nesscessity. Additionally the van had the manditory dashboard filled with shells and spiritual pieces of wood and of course the tie dyed curtains and bongo drums.

The crowd was sizable and we saw only a prtion of the event. We saw only the 'Fringe'. There is a primary Festival Grounds where another 5 stages and over 10 000 more paying folkies spent there weekend. The smell of 'Nag Champa' incense was in the air and the venders were out in force with the usual assortment of stuff. Venders are known as Spella's here (I.E giving you the speel on there goods and wares)

We (Koshare and I) had no idea who any of the band were so our plan was to 'giver' in the classic sence and see as much as we could. There was a good selection of musicains and much talent. Our favourites were AlMack'nJack. Three teens who made us laugh with their stage act and talent. They switched instruments constantly and never ended up playing the same one by the end of the song. The music went from rock to folk to rap and spoken work. There was even the techno dance beats throw to keep lively. they were so good i bought the shirt and had it signed. All in all a fantastic day in the sun - great food, good people, beautiful setting and enjoyable music. maybe Koshare can add a pcture of the shoulder stand stunts of the band. Rock on. till later - Dave

a few pics from Mt. Gambier

Here are a few pics from our stay in Mt. Gambier. Tonight we are headed to a picnic in the park in Hamilton, and we are going to attempt to play cricket! Had a great day today...I think 7 stops total on our tour today...!
The GSE team playing dress-up with the kids at our last BBQ in Mt. Gambier!
from left: Koshare, Jill, Kim, Ben, & Dave.

Jill had the chance to practice her trampolining skills, and said the next morning she felt more limber than she has in two weeks!

Regardless of the hemisphere we're from, all foresters love to look at maps & landscapes. This is from Mt. Burr, which we kept accidentally referring to as "Burr hill", much to the dismay of the locals!

The amazing "crusher-roller" that they use for site preparation - it crushes the slash & rolls it into the ground

Looking at a TimberCorp blue gum plantation with Shana, who is a member of the Aussie GSE team headed to our district on March 23rd.

Cheers, mates!

Eat-and-run GSE

As you may have gathered, we've been here, there, and everywhere. We pulled into Hamilton today after some very busy (as Jill in part describes below) days in Mt Gambier. I would like to stand up and say that many places we've been and people we've met I would love to spend an entire day exploring or an afternoon chatting with. That goes for the entire trip. Thank you for having us and excusing my eat-and-run, surface-scratching modus operandi.

Goodnight.


The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Vocational Days in South Australia

G'day from the state of South Australia!

We made it to the city of Mount Gambier on Sunday night (March 1st) and have been so busy touring the local forest operations that this is the first time we've had a chance to post! Mt. Gambier is a hub for forest activity in this region. We are in the heart of what's known as "The Green Triangle"- a vast expanse of radiata pine and blue gum (eucalypt) plantations. Here is a list of what we have seen and done since Sunday:

Monday

• Employees of Forestry South Australia delivered presentations to us on the topics of Yield Regulation, Management Systems, Forest Health, and Fire Management in this region;
• A representative of Southern Cross University spoke to us about forest education at Australian universities;
• Tour the operations of seedEnergy's Seed Production facility (included a tour of their seed orchard);
• View a Tree Breeding site and become educated by a representative of the Seed & Tree Breeding Association;
• View the landscape of plantations from Mount Burr (which is not really a mountain by our definition, but somewhat of a hill compared to the rest of the landscape here) and discuss operational mapping;
• Visit a native forest site (similar to what we refer to as old growth) and discuss native forest management as well as water management with a representative from the South Australia Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation; then
  
• Deliver our presentation about BC/Washington Forestry at a dinner of 4 Rotary Clubs.

Tuesday

• Three members of the upcoming inbound Australian GSE team (who are also foresters) took us out to show us their field work of operational forestry;
• Visit a cultivation site where a blue gum plantation was about to be established;
• Visit a site to view active blue gum harvesting and in-field chipping;
• Visit a blue gum site that had just been harvested in December. Blue gum coppices at the stump and the new saplings were already 1m tall! (How's that for regen!);
• Visit a 5 year old blue gum plantation of Timbercorp's and discuss thinning and mid-rotation fertilization as well as forest health management. This plantation was being attacked by the cadmus beetle and would need to be aerially sprayed with insecticide soon;
• View active harvesting of radiata pine as well as the work of a "chopper roller" machine for site preparation- pretty neat!
  
• Winds up to 90 km/hr shut down harvest operations mid-day and blew the power out of the nearby town of Dartmoor. Everything shut down- even the schools- because of the wind and its associated fire risk;
• RAIN is delivered to this landscape! It hadn't rained here since December- we told them we brought it with us!
• As the rain clears up and sun comes, several kangaroo emerge from the woods and jump around as we head back to Mt. Gambier at the end of the day; then
  
• Deliver a presentation about BC/Washington forestry at a dinner meeting of the Institute of Foresters of Australia. Entertain several questions from a group of approximately 40 people.
  

Forestry here is SO different than coastal forestry where we come from. We look forward to sharing information with everyone about the details of these differences. We also look forward to showing the Australian GSE team of foresters what forestry in district 5020 is all about!

That's all for now. Tomorrow we transfer to Hamilton via Casterton.

We'll keep you "posted",
Jill