Today was all about Ned Kelly country! I have recently read Peter Fitzsimmons’ story based on Ned’s life so I was pretty keen to put some reality into my imagination as well as give the boys a bit of a head start in their Australian History units of the future. We stopped at the Information Centre in the first town, Corryong, and all we could find about was The Man From Snowy River - hang on that was yesterday and tomorrow - don't spoil my itinerary! So we took a quick pic and headed westward.
On our our westward journey we stopped
off for a beer at the Kinross Woolshed, a pub owned by friends of a family from
the boy’s school. Perfect timing as we got to watch the first ball of the 3rd test
while we were there. With Jimmy Barnes playing the next night, it was pretty
hard dragging De away. My 6 day old Telstra phone was playing up like a 2 bob
watch and after a protracted ‘discussion’ with the Telstra shop in Wodonga we
headed into Kelly country. We were doing the touring route in reverse as it usually starts from Melbourne and ends in Glenrowan the site of the Kelly Gang's siege. To my amazement to main street of Glenrowan was more like Surfers Paradise
gift shop than a significant part of Australian history – it was very
disappointing. Thankfully we picked up an oversized booklet that school tours
use and headed to the site of the actual siege. While we were there I read the account
to the boys and it, to at least some extent, made it come alive. The pictures of the site are pretty boring - which is what it is like! The small grey think in the picture is a replica of the suit that the Kelly Gang members wore - and that is about as exciting as it gets!
We had run out of time and we headed to Geoff’s (a client of
mine) place in a small country town called St James, which ironically was the
birthplace of Coles, but apparently their profits aren’t big enough to put
anything back into the town - while it may have been a bustling country town it is now a few houses in an area. Geoff has an awesome garden, both vege and
ornamental, so I spent the next hour with beers in hand getting a tour and De
having the same while the boys had great time playing with Henry their 10
yr old boy – their first child contact in a week! We headed to the next town
down the road Devonish, (that has the school for both towns with 7 kids total)
for Christmas Carols. It was the direct opposite of our schools carols where
the kids all sit up the front and sing and the parents sit at the back and
hum.. The kids all played on the playground at that back and all of the adults
were at the front singing! It was a great night and we were warmly welcomed
into their small community.
A great way to finish of our first week Doin' The Block!
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