Open your eyes to Australia
© Jim Low
On my last trip to Victoria in July this year, I deliberately planned to spend the night in Benalla so I would have time to visit Stringybark Creek. This was the place where, on 26 October 1878, the Kelly gang, comprising Ned and Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne, confronted a party of policemen who were out searching for them.
I guess we are losing what once could be considered an inherent value in land travel. The value of the journey is being devalued by the life-is-a-race philosophy. The journey is seen as an encumbrance between the start and finish. Continue reading “The Value of the Journey”
© Jim Low
On Easter Monday this year I went looking for the Church of England Cemetery at Castlereagh, New South Wales. From Penrith, Castlereagh Road spears across the once fertile Nepean River flats that were divided into family farms by the first government land grants. These grants were given to former convicts and free settlers in the hope that their agricultural pursuits would provide food for the struggling, infant colony of New South Wales. Many of these early farmers are buried in the cemetery I was going to find. Continue reading “Early Settlers of Castlereagh”
In January 1859 both Aboriginal people and missionaries began clearing the Mallee scrub and native cypress from the site of the new mission station at Ebenezer, which meant “the rock of hope”. Situated on the vast, flat Wimmera region of Victoria, this area was one of the last to be settled by Europeans. It also saw its share of violence against the Aboriginal people. Innocent native blood had been spilt on the very site where Ebenezer was located.
Continue reading “Ebenezer: The Mission on a Limestone Ridge”