The Exhibits page is very good.
PUFFING BILLY RAILWAY
It is great fun riding the Puffing Billy Railway as it weaves its way up
the mountains. We even get to sit on the windowsills and dangle our legs
out the windows. If you look closely you can see some people doing just
that. Because its a stream train you get coal dust in your eyes and on your
clothes.
When the weather is really dry and there is a danger of bushfires the
Puffing Billy 's steam engine isn't used. That's because a spark from its
steam engine could start a bushfire. They use a diesel engine instead.
Here is the official web site for the Puffing Billy Railway .
TULIP FESTIVAL
Every year thousands of visitors come to see the tulips at the Tesselaar
Tulip farm in Silvan.
There are many other gardens in the Dandenongs too.
UPPER BEACONSFIELD
Upper Beaconsfield is located 53 kms (33 miles) south-east of Melbourne in
the Dandenong Ranges on the southern foothills of the Great Dividing Range.
Upper Beaconsfield retains much of its rural heritage and atmosphere with
tree lined streets, varied eucalyptus forests, wet-lands, fern gullies and
secluded creeks.
THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD
The Great Ocean Road starts at Torquay (about 100kms from Melbourne) and
winds its way for 180 kms along the south-western coast of Victoria ,
Australia.
It is one of the most spectacular coastal drives in the world. It winds its
ways around ragged cliffs, windswept beaches, and tall buffs and passes
through lush mountain rainforest and towering eucalyptus.
The Great Ocean Road was started in 1918 and completed during the Great
Depression as a public works project to give returned soldiers and
unemployed people work.
Some of the sights along the way are:
. Bells Beach - a great place to go surfing and where the Bells Surfing
Classic is held each Easter.
. Shipwreck Coast - where the wrecks of over 80 ships lie on the ocean
floor. Many ships carrying immigrants to the gold fields of Victoria
floundered in the treacherous seas.
. Lorne - a popular sea side resort in Apollo Bay.
. Port Campbell National Park - One of the most photographed sections of
the road where shear golden limestone cliffs and rock formations
withstand the buffeting of fierce seas.
o Twelve Apostles -
(there are only 10 left!)
o London Bridge
(This is what it looked like before one of its spans collapsed)
o Loch Ard Gorge - where in 1878 the clipper Loch Ard was driven
into rocks during a storm with the loss of 52 lives.
. Otway National Park
. Port Fairy - a well preserved fishing village which was settled by
sealers and whalers back in the 1820s.
THE LOCH ARD DISASTER
The 18 passengers and 36 crew on the iron-hulled clipper Loch Ard had a
party on the night of March 31, 1878, to celebrate their arrival in
Melbourne the next day after a three month voyage from England. But Captain
Gibb stayed on deck all night, worried by the thick mist that obscured the
horizon and Cape Otway light. At 4am the mist lifted and the lookout cried:
"Breakers ahead." Despite desperate attempts to turn the ship away -- and
then to hold it with its anchors -- it struck rocks. water flooded in, the
masts flailed against the high cliff face before crashing down and waves
swept across the decks, hampering attempts to get the lifeboats into the
water. Only two survived -- ship's apprentice Tom Pearce and Eva
Carmichael, both aged 18. Eva's parents and five siblings were lost. Tom
drifted into the gorge where he saw passenger Eva clinging to a mast -- he
swam out, pulled her into a cave and found some brandy in the wreckage to
revive her. He climbed out of the gorge and came upon two stockmen, and a
rescue party was organised. But only four bodies -- including Eva's mother
and sister, were able to be recovered from the treacherous seas and most of
the ship's valuable cargo was lost or looted. Tom Pearce became a national
hero for his rescue of Eva, who soon returned to Ireland.
A few days after the disaster a packing case washed up in the gorge. It
contained a life-sized Minton pottery peacock destined for the Melbourne
Great Exhibition of 1880
The Outback is the arid sparsely populated interior of Australia.
It makes up almost 85% of Australian landmass. Very few humans live out
there.
It is also sometimes called "Beyond the Black Stump".
The Australian Outback is both harsh and breathtakingly beautiful. It's
like nothing else anywhere else in the world.
A ROAD TO NEVER-NEVER
In the outback you can travel for days without meeting anyone. This is why
it is sometimes called the Never-Never: the never ending landscape; the
never ending horizon.
The land is unforgiving to the careless and foolhardy. You can die of
dehydration within hours if you are not careful.
A STATION
Yes people actually do live in the outback.
Cattle and sheep are grazed on huge tracts of land called Stations (what
might be called a ranch in the USA). There are Stations in the outback that
occupy more land than some countries. Helicopters and small planes are
usually used to round up stock (the sheep and cattle) and to check fences
(dingo and rabbit fences).
A person who rounds up stock is called a Stockman.
A person who works at a Station is called a Stationhand.
The owner is called a Station-Manager
THE PEOPLE
The vast distances have forced people to adapt to their isolation (some
people being more than a day's drive from their nearest neighbor). A two-
way radio and an airstrip are vital to any outback station.
Because of the great distances some children in the outback cannot attend
regular school. They learn from the School of the Air which is a special
school where the teacher and student interact via a two-way radio.
Here is a fascinating school in the outback run by the Mupuru aboriginal
community . Its really worth a visit: The Mapuru Homeland Leaning Centre
The Royal Flying Doctor Service operates a fleet of airplanes outfitted as
flying ambulances and clinics. They visit these remote locations to provide
medical services. They also provides advice over the two-way radio.
ULURU
Uluru: Is a huge rock (called a monolith) that sticks out in the middle of
the flat desert. From a distance it looks like an impregnable fortress
built eons ago by some mythical warlord.
Uluru is over nine kilometres (6 miles) around and over 348 metres (1000ft)
high. It is believed to be about 600 million years old and was once part of
a huge mountain range. The mountain range has long since disappeared -
eroded away by rain and wind.
With each passing hour as the sun moves across the sky the rock changes
colour - changing from delicate mauve, blues, pinks, browns to fiery red.
It is a sacred place to the Pitjanjara Aboriginal tribe.
DEVILS MARBLES
Devils Marbles: These massive boulders are scattered along the Stuart
Highway near Alice Springs. They glow red in the sunset. Aborigines believe
they were left by the Rainbow Serpent of the Dreamtime.
WAVE ROCK
Wave Rock: Is a huge granite rock that looks like a huge wave that has been
frozen in time and turned into stone. It has been made this way by the wind
and rain water running down its sides.
KATHERINE GORGE
Katherine Gorge: Is one of 13 gorges in Nitmiluk National Park. They began
forming about 23 million years ago as torrents of water flowing through
tiny cracks in the earth slowly eroded away the earth and rock creating
these huge gorges.
It is rich in Aboriginal art, with rock paintings representing the
spiritual 'dreaming' of the Jawoyn people, the traditional owners of the
land.
Apart from boat rides through the Gorge, with its sheer towering walls,
there are also over 100 kilometres of walking tracks and numerous
aboriginal rock paintings to visit
THE OLGAS
The Olgas: Are enormous domes of red rock located about 32 kms from Uluru.
You can walk into valleys and gorges between the 36 rock domes and feel the
eerie mystery around you. The Aborigines call it 'Kata Tjuta'. It has great
spiritual significance to them.
The Peoples of Australia
We came from all over the world.
Australians are a very friendly open sort of people. We love our sports,
our family barbecues and the beach. We are very urbanised - most of us
living in the larger cities along the coast. Almost 94% of the population
are of European decent and as a result we have a western outlook and
culture. In general Australians are very tolerant of other people and their
customs.
WORK
Australians are one of the most urbanised societies in the world. Almost
80% of the workforce are employed in service industries such as: offices,
banks, etc in the major cities.
About 16% work in manufacturing
About 3% are farmers or graziers.
Wool is one of Australia's major exports. Wool shearing is hard work.
Australia is rich in mineral deposits. We mine and export alumina, iron,
coal, copper,gold, uranium, etc all over the world.
About 1% work in the mining industry
SPORTS
During winter we play Australian Rules Football which is played with an
oval ball on an oval field with eighteen players on each team. We also play
Rugby.
In the summer we play cricket. Cricket is played with a flat bat and a
round leather covered ball. Each team has 11 players. The objective of the
game is to hit the ball as far as possible without getting "caught out" or
without having the ball come in contact with your body or hitting the
stumps (3 short poles behind the batsman). The next Olympic games will be
held in Sydney Australia in the year 2000.
