Lume - Leonado da Vince

 For some time we had been intending to see the Leonardo da Vinci show at the LUME and we had the  opportunity last week with Terry and Tricia.  It was another excellent presentation.  

Apart from the images and information presented there were models and even original manuscripts.

Following lunch, we took the opportunity to take in the "Life on Earth" exhibition by the BBC that was playing in an adjoining exhibition hall.

Echuca Bound

 From Hay, we headed south on the Cobb Highway along what is known as "The Long Paddock".  This stretches between Echuca and Willcania.  It is a region where the boundary fences are well away from the road and cattle can be driven along the Long Paddock, particularly at times of drought when food is short.  Even though there has been  plenty of water this year, we encountered a number of mobs of cattle along the road.

Claire was keen to catch up with Noel who had been unwell recently but seemed in reasonably good spirits for our visit.

Oh To Be A Bishop!

 It is always interesting to see how those at the top of any religious pyramid live.  The Bishop's Residence at Hay is a prize example.  It is currently owned by the local community and being renovated but it was palatial in it's day.  The residence is enormous with many rooms currently inaccessible. It was built to the highest standards of the day and made to be comfortable in the extreme environment including wide verandas all round.

A sweeping drive brought you up to the house that had the kitchen and servants quarters in separate buildings to the side but with access ports so hot food could be delivered quickly to the dining room.

It had a huge entry hall with stained glass windows and large rooms to accommodate visitors.

Even the bathroom was massive.  The bath itself was like a small pool and surrounded by a high wooden shower screen.

Incarceration at Hay

 The old railway station showed the opulence the sheep industry brought to the area in the early days.

Hay can be a forbidding place.  It is a long way to the next town and the climate can be extreme, particularly in summer.  For this reason it served as a place of incarceration for foreign nationals during World War II.  Some of the old carriages host an exhibition to the Dunera Camp that operated during the war.  Apparently the summers were so bad many inmates had to be moved to more hospitable camps further east.

The old Hay Gaol is now a museum and not a place for a relaxed lifestyle.

This Gaol was used to house the most difficult prisoners and at one time was used as a Girls and Womens' Prison for some of the wilder women from Sydney.  The isolation cell did not offer many home comforts.

The Shearers' Hall of Fame

 Hay is a town we had never got to visit in our previous travels so we stopped for a couple of nights.  The town hosts "Shear Outback" that is a tribute to the sheep industry in Australia and houses the Shearers'Hall of Fame.  As you travel to Hay there is no doubt this is sheep country.

The building and surrounds have equipment displays, historical information and a shearing shed for demonstrations.  The size of some of the old wool wagons is astonishing.

Some of the residents had agreed to take a haircut for our edification.

Exploring the Dunes

 The magic of Mungo is the ever changing landscape of the eroding ancient sand dunes.  National Parks limit access to tour groups to minimise damage but you get a great information during the tour.

The ongoing erosion is revealing the history of the area. We saw the remains of cooking fires, midderns where shellfish remains and bones of animals had been discarded and the remains of ancient marsupials that had been buried in tunnel collapses.  In this case, the skull of an ancient wombat was slowly being revealed.

Our tour started in the late afternoon so we were able to watch the sun set over the desert and explore the extraordinary landscape formed by the sand and clay deposits in the dunes.

We headed back to civilization the following morning after what had been one of the the best experiences we had ever had in the Australian outback.

Pumping the tyres back to road pressure has a way of bringing you back to reality.

Farming in the Outback

 There were a number of land holdings in the Mungo area that were used for sheep farming.  Following the world war these were broken up for soldier settlers.  It was another bureaucratic train wreck as none of the holdings were sustainable in that environment, so they were abandoned before becoming a National Park.

The tough environment is evident from the ruins.  Very little water required large holding tanks for domestic and stock water and food was stored in underground bunkers.

The old shearing shed is maintained by National Parks.

The countryside supports a tough vegetation. Low hardy shrubs, grasses and saltbush.

In times past, every opportunity was taken to collect any rainfall. Originally, deep wood lined tanks were dug into the ground then concrete and latterly, galvanised steel.