On the banks of the Yarrowee ... a new Trad Pad

2012 turned out to be a whole year's hiatus on The Trad Pad.  With hindsight, it is going to be a year that I wrap up thoughtfully and tuck away.  I am rather glad - in the end - that I didn't do anything public on The Trad Pad last year.

On the banks of the Yarrowee River, Ballarat

This year looks like being very different.  I have moved to a really real Trad Pad situated 2kms and a world away from the city centre of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia.  I am living in an historic old mining area across the road from the Yarrowee River at the foot of a forested hill.  In this out of sight, out of time part of the world the roads have no bitumen, no channelling and kerbing.

 Water in a formerly dry waterhole on the Yarrowee.

Below: blossom and oaks on the Yarrowee.

Until yesterday, directly in front of my place the river was dry.  After some good and much needed rain, there is now water in my part of the river.

I live right on the Yarrowee Trail - part of the Goldfields Track and the Great Dividing Trail.  Runners and walkers and bikers of all shapes, sizes, and ages wander past my place.  I have a large old Golden Ash in the front yard which is a beautiful and natural form of air-conditioning and perfect for sitting under on a hot afternoon.

And - as you can see from the picture in the title above - there is a verandah.

The cottage that is The Trad Pad is quaint, quirky and small and in need of some repair.  It allegedly has three bedrooms but I prefer to say two bedrooms and a dressing room because the third has the only built-in wardrobe in the place.  While it would take a single bed, I have two chests of drawers in there instead.  So it is not a sleeping room but a dressing room.

While there is a nicely sized front yard there is almost no backyard.  The backyard is a sort of triangle (the house is on a corner - the western wall forms part of the property's boundary) with a lane behind which once would have been used as a dunny-run - adjoining a square. The whole is gravelled instead of grass.  If it was grassed one would need barber's clippers to trim the lawn.  I have some of my potted plants there.

 

At the foot of the forested hill

ANZ LitLovers LitBlog - Germinal by Emile Zola - the book and the movie

 

I am a frequent reader of Lisa Hill’s ANZ LitLovers LitBlog. Perhaps you won't keep up by reading every book from every post - but at least you will have a good idea of what you should be reading. You will be in the know. 

I subscribe to the blog and get a missive in my email every day.  To-day's looks magnificent: Germinal by Emile Zola An epic tale. But, Gerard Depardieu fan that I am I think I will hunt down the movie after seeing the trailer below.

Destruction - China First Thermal Coal Mine to destroy Bimblebox Nature Refuge - submit your comments by 7 Nov 2011

HELP PROTECT BIMBLEBOX NATURE REFUGE

As a friend recently said to me, 

'How many pages does it take to say "we're gonna dig a damn great hole?" '

Waratah Coal has finally confirmed that its proposed 'China First' mine would destroy Bimblebox Nature Refuge. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) clearly states that 52% of Bimblebox would be open cut, and the remainder subject to major subsidence and interference from underground longwall mining. It would set a dangerous precedent for the mining of Queensland's precious conservation areas and contribute 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, on top of a myriad of regional impacts.

NOW IS THE TIME TO HAVE OUR SAY. 

The period for public comment closes on November 7th. We have prepared a submission for people to send in, and have information for people who want to write their own. It is vital that we send a message loud and clear that we will not allow our nature refuges to be dug up for the sake of more coal profits.

Please visit the Bimblebox website HERE to find our how to make a submission.

I really appreciate your time.

Many thanks, 

Paola Cassoni

www.bimblebox.orgbimblebox@gmail.com+61 7 49853474

Bimblebox Nature Refuge

Alpha QLD 4724

Australia

Click to enlarge

Further Reading:

Resourcehouse Limited

Bowen Business Information Forum - PowerPoint type presentation in .pdf format

China First now a major project

Billionaires 'China First' Qld coal mine move

Clive Palmer scores biggest export contract worth $60b

China denies $US60bn coal deal with Clive Palmer's Resourcehouse

Palmer plans coal $6.5b behemoth

Palmer's Resourcehouse gets $1.2bn funding (Lateline transcript and video)

Bird may halt Palmer mine project

Australian Mining - Clive Palmer

Away: at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat

Into each life a little life must fall - and Miss Eagle has had more than a little life in the weeks of her absence from this blog. But she is back - with hundreds of pictures! News of her doings is spread across the blogs - 100% of the dear Readers are not necessarily interested in 100% of Miss E's doings.

There is the establishment of Dawn of Life. The organisation of a Prayer Vigil around the UN's Millennium Development Goals, Global Warming, and Make Indigenous Poverty History. The booklet for the PV can be downloaded from The Eagle's Nest and Desert. Eating is discussed here. The Conference I attended at Ballarat will, in due course, be written about at Desert. The tourist photos will appear here at The Trad Pad.

The Conference at Ballarat was preceded by doing the tourist bit - Sovereign Hill, the Gold Museum, the Eureka Centre, and the Fine Art Gallery. The, after the conference, Miss E came home on The Great Tourist Road through the Grampians and The Great Ocean Road.

For those who want to look at all the pictures of Sovereign Hill, you can go here. But if you don't have time for this I have put together themed collages below. Click on the picture to enlarge with the option of opening in a separate tab.

The Animals of Sovereign Hill

The World of Kitchens

Fences and Gates

Warmth and Light

Signs - English and Chinese

Windows and Doors