Oldies at Large – Portland OR

Portland for us is a special stop, one where we will be linking up with friends who are like family in our life journey. It is also a great city to visit. Once known as the ‘City of Stumps’ or ‘Stumptown’ it is now the City of Roses but for me it is also the city of bridges for I have never seen so many bridges across a central river as in Portland, not even in good old London it seems.

The Redwoods – Those Old Men of the US Forests

Everywhere we have travelled these last weeks we have seen tall trees, all kinds of tall mountain pine trees. They have become what are some of our most indelible of memories from this trip. Here in southern mountains of Oregon this is very much the view everywhere you look, it is like what the gum tree is to Australia.

Tools and Practices of The Australian Featherfoot Lore

The Featherfoot, or Kadaitcha Man of Australian Aboriginal Lore used many tools and weapons in the practice of their Lore. These men and women were named the Featherfoot by anthropologists because of the use of their specialized shoes. These shoes were intricately and ritually made primarily of feathers and it is said that these shoes allowed the Kadaitcha Man to move across the ground without leaving a trail. These Men of high degree and specialized knowledge were highly regarded and respected throughout tribal Australia. However the sectorial religions feared their influence during the colonization of Australia in the colonial century and denigrated their place in society in an effort to minimize their power and control over the people of the tribes across Aus.

Oldies at Large – Leaving the Gold Trail

We’ve been freecamping between Bathurst and Orange now for a week, in a delightful spot called Macquaires Woods where we have been able to relax and allow one of our pup’s who had a minor run-in with a car, recuperate. Tuppi is fine now, fully recovered from her bruising and it is time to move on. I think she has learnt that a car is not quite the same as a kangaroo and chasing kids is dangerous.

The Meroo

Camping along the golden trail of NSW has been a delight. We have been on the Rocky River in the Northern Rivers of NSW, we’ve camped out around the gold area’s of the Clarence and the Mann Rivers and sojourned at the old Merton township, now known as Denman. We have waffled around the fields in the hinterland while we camped up at Elinborough near Wauhope in central NSW, a truly lovely camp.

Owning Your Past – Colonial Australia – Part 2

To read part 1 -> Mistakes – Owning Your Past

Continued … Colonial Solutions for Social Problems

One of the few institutions of the colonial era that did address a social problem prevalent of the day was Point Puer, at Port Arthur Penal Prison. Young boys and men were seen to be in an insidious position when they arrived into the colony as convicts. Some as young as 9yrs old were exposed to the worst of social constructs, abuse and ill-use as convicts, this particularly in the penal settlement of Hobart Town where the majority of convicts were first sent. This problem of unassigned boys and how to deal with them was considerable .

Unlike the young girls who were quickly assigned for reasons addressed previously, as well as being placed into service as domestic servants, the boys were unwelcome and viewed as a drain on the penal system and so Point Puer was developed. It was no holiday for the young boys and young men but it was a improved arrangement which often gave them skills and training they badly needed. Some of these skills were of course questionable as can be seen in the wake of the bushranging era of the mid-late colonial era… many of these bushrangers were early inmates of Point Puer.

Historical Mistakes – Owning Your Past – Part 1

Australian History, as Australians and the world is told in our society and schools is largely a fantasy… It is the construct of a self-interested class of people who have an obsession with ‘Mother England’ and who attempt to rule our society even today. Why and just what is it they want us to believe?

It was interesting to read a former Prime Ministers comments recently published, someone within the system who has had the chance to consider all the flaws evident in the machinery of our Government which was formed under English rule.

So what is it that can be considered corrupted in our historical account? Read on…

1. Captain Cook discovered Australia : Reality = Lieutenant Cook mapped the east coast for the British Admiralty.
2. Australia was terra nullis : Reality = Australia the continent/island supported a large, stable and well established tribal based society that not only prospered but traded widely.
3. Australia was colonized by the English : Reality = The English shipped out approx. 160,000 convicts and vast numbers of emigrants sourced from European, Irish & Scottish countries along with others.
4. Colonization of Australia was ordered and peaceful : Reality = Colonization was haphazard and led largely by squatters. In Northern NSW & Queensland it was anything but peaceful.

Yes there is a great deal that has been corrupted … and you can add to this very incomplete list other aspects of our history in relationship with native Aussies which has been also adulterated by those with agenda’s all their own…

1. The white colonists murdered thousands of natives : Reality = The Aboriginal Native Police, under the control of the Government massacred thousands of tribal Aboriginal people along the frontier to gain control of the land.
2. Whiteman murdered and decimated the Aboriginal tribes when they arrived in Aus : Reality = disease from which there was no immunity in the indigenous population decimated the indigenous population in the early years of colonization. The penal settlements were under orders from the Governor to treat the natives well, (not everyone listened as usual) actually they had trouble finding natives initially and resorted to kidnapping them in an attempt to learn from them. ie.. Bennelong, Colby etc
3. Explorers opened up the Inland and led the way for expansion throughout the continent : Reality =  Adventurers who claimed to have discovered and opened up the inland, were taken there by Aboriginal guides, mostly using often well established tracks and depended on the natives and often squatters for their survival and comfort. These guides were not always treated well though some did receive recognition from the adventurers (explorers).

The list goes on, and still the fallacies perpetuate.

Oldies at Large – Christmas CHEER!!!

It’s the night before Christmas and all through the fight, the kidlets are hiding and waiting to bite… hmm… thats not how it goes!

Chrissy marks the end of the year for me … mainly because by New Years I am over it. The Silly Season is when the pickings on telly become hopeless making it a time when I have come again to realized that it is a good thing that I gave up the telly a while ago.

Oldies at Large – Golf 1.01

Being a new member of the Grey Nomad set… as in a week or two… I have always said that I would take up golf with The Man when we were put out to pasture. The time has come and I have learnt this week that Golf 1.01 is  HIT THE DAM THING!

Although we have newly joined the silverbacks of our society, it is a fortunate circumstance that having been handed his redundancy ‘The Man’ then found himself on one of my jaunts. I have always had a practice of heading off at any given time available and driving the little red rocket, to parts unknown.

Oldies at Large – The Cradle of the Family – The Bed

About thirty-five years ago now, The Man and I went shopping. I remember it distinctly as a milestone in our marriage. We had been married for several years and by this time had four vegemiters, all welcome and all loved. Money was tight, I had given up work some years since to raise the vegemiters to school age, a decision we had made consciously and the eldest had just reached that touchstone in life.

In the pram was our youngest of the brood and she was to be the last for us and we knew it. Up until that time we had to save diligently for everything we owned or had acquired, mostly we acquired stuff from sales, relatives etc but this day we were out to purchase our third big purchase. A bed. The other two big purchases over the years had been the car and the house, now it was time for the future.

Perils of Being a 30’s Somethings’ Mum

My son got home this morning… emphasis on ‘this morning’ and in 70’s something lingo my Baby Boy scored. Don’t cringe! Can I help it if I am a Pre-politically correct generation? Hmmm.

Yep. I have been known to make even my Littl’ Sister squirm and stare… but them’s the breaks. I say it as I see it and mind… I don’t get offended at all if you tell me I am a bogan. At times I am just that but I’m old enough not to give a damn… although I don’t see it myself. Just wait for it and I am bound to offend you at sometime without even trying. I don’t mean to but I do manage it often enough to have a rep’ for speaking before I’m thinking.