Freedom!!

Ahhh, driving in a foreign country! Can I wrap my brain around the concept of driving on the opposite side of the road? Translations? rotations? reflections?? I am a Math and Physics teacher for goodness sakes, it shouldn’t be that difficult ;-)

Sean was thrown into the thick of things only a few days after we arrived and purchased our car, a 1991 Mitsubishi Lancer, in Melbourne. There is nothing like learning the ropes as you pull onto a freeway with three lanes of traffic in each direction and Semis everywhere. Not to mention the tricky hook turns that Melbourne has to avoid collision with the trams. Of course he had no choice in the matter because there was no way I was getting behind the wheel in Melbourne. Sean did a beautiful job of getting us out of Melbourne and to Halls Gap safely. He has taken to driving on the opposite side quite naturally. He still has the occasional cleaning of the windshield with the wiper as we turn a corner and he has also become quite the gentleman, often opening my door for me (before realizing he needs to be on the other side if he is going to drive).

I, on the other hand, took a few days longer, perhaps because I like to analyse things a bit before I jump in, make sure I have my brain wrapped around the idea of where I am supposed to be. A couple days after arriving at the Gap I took the plunge.

Driving around Halls Gap turned out to be very easy. Not sure what the fuss was all about. Halls Gap mainly consists of one main street that runs mostly North-South. The first time out I think I consistently said to my self “ next to the center line”. Seemed to work well. Aiden was given a stern talking to before we left that there was to be no talking, no questions, no whining or fussing while I was driving. With in a few days, driving around Halls Gap was a snap. The thought of shopping had me thinking about venturing further afield. I was a bit hesitant to head into any of the nearby towns. It is one thing to drive up and down the main drag in the Gap with the odd detour to Aiden's school, quite another to venture into town and not have a clue where one is going.

About a week and a half after arriving, the need to go into the bank as well as buy some food and the desire to check out some of the shops had me heading to Stawell and then into Ararat. Stawell was not so worrisome since I had been in with Sean twice before and was somewhat familiar with the layout. Ararat was a little bit different of a story. I took the Western Highway from Stawell to Ararat. Australian roads are very narrow, and often there are no shoulders. As I approached Ararat the stress level increased with the amount of traffic on the highway and the number of semis that appeared to be riding my tailgate. Once off the highway, things settled down a little until I realized that I had no idea where I was going. That was easily fixed by pulling over on a side street and consulting the map I had pulled off the Internet before heading out (yeah, I know it is a foreign concept to some of you males out there, but it actually worked). Driving in the city was quite different then what I had experienced so far, definitely more taxing on the brain. Every intersection gave me pause for thought and a second look before pulling out. Round abouts or traffic circles are commonly used here in Australia. They are very efficient but also cause me to have to stop and think about how the traffic is entering and exiting the circle. Luckily I did not have to do much driving around Ararat since the shopping is located mainly in one district.

Heading back home I stayed off the highway and took the more common route for locals, through the town of Pomonal. This road was definitely quieter but I became very aware as I went around some corners on the mountainside that there are no guardrails. Wildlife is much more difficult to see here, bushes and grasses are not trimmed back and come right up to the roads edge. The kangaroos and wallabies are similar to the deer at home. They are mainly seen around dusk and dawn but can be out at anytime. There are even a lot of large trees within a meter of the road. The main roads to the towns around here are fairly straight and little elevation change.

I have yet to tackle the roads throughout the park. They twist and turn, mostly climb up and down the mountain side with steep gullies on one side or the other, are very narrow, and have a 100 speed limit to top it off. There are a number of beautiful trails up in those mountains that will provide enough motivation for me to take the next step and conquer the park roads soon.

It is amazing how much freedom one gains when you are able to drive places. It is starting to feel quite natural to drive on the opposite side. Only the odd hesitation occurs now, but watch out when we get home, you may want to give us a wide berth.

Thanks Jacques and Nathalie for the Kangaroo and Koala sign pictures. I haven't yet mastered driving and taking pictures at the same time.

Kookaburras to Cockatoos

One of the amazing things about living in Australia is all the colourful bird life. Sure we have some nice looking bluebirds, grosbeaks and waxwings in Manitoba, but it is something else glancing up and seeing large colourful squawking parrots everywhere you look. For an early Christmas present my Mom and Dad gave us a 75-300 mm telephoto lens for our camera (thanks again by the way) and we have been trying to put it to good use. Here's a sampling of some of the birds we've managed to catch up with so far.

This fellow is one half of a pair of kookaburras that hang out around our house. They look like a giant version of our belted kingfishers (apparently they are the worlds largest kingfishers) and are easily identified by their distinct shape and infectious laughing call. They eat just about any kind of fish, snake, lizard or insect. They are very charismatic birds. Before this starts to sound like a book report, I have to say that one of the first birds I recall drawing in Grade 2 is a kookaburra as our teacher Mrs. Freeze nee Freel was from Australia. Perhaps that young age exposure to the exotic Australian fauna is what has drawn us into this adventure.


One of the flashiest birds in the backyard are these crimson rosellas. They a quite common and we often get them in the yard where the taller grasses haven't been mowed. They like to eat the seed heads.


These little birds are called blue or superb fairy-wrens and remind me of chickadees the way they flutter around. They are generally very tricky to get a photo of for that reason but this fellow seemed to cooperate for a few seconds while he pruned a few feathers.

We went for a hike last weekend and noticed one of the many types of cockatoos feeding in the trees. They were so focused on eating that they allowed for some interesting photos. These type are called gang-gang cockatoos and are supposed to be one of the earliest forms of cockatoo. Suphur-crested cockatoos are very common in this area, as are galahs and corellas. Anyway, the bird life here is quite fascinating and there is likely to be a post or two about them as more are photographed.

I'm learning how to talk Australian!

When Aiden wants to impress people with his knowledge of Australian, he slips into a comfortable ‘G’day Mate!’ So far his Australian vocabulary only consists of a few word and phrases but he is hoping by the end of 6 months that “his mates back home won’t understand him because he’ll be talking Australian” as noted by Aiden as he returned home from school today.

Aiden has been attending school for almost a week now and seems to be settling in nicely and enjoying getting back into a routine. There are a few names that consistently come up in our conversations so hopefully these new relationships will develop into lasting friendships.

We live about 1 km away from the school and Aiden and I enjoy a pleasant walk in the morning. It takes us about ½ an hour but is truly only about a 20 min walk, if that. There tends to be lots of dawdling and inspection of leaves, branches, worms and bugs along the way. I have been picking him up at the end of the day since it has been so hot and I don’t think I could handle trying to get him to walk the km after a long and hot day at school.

School here is a full day for all students. It starts a 9 am and runs until 3:15 pm. They have a free time in the classroom at 10 am and are allowed to have a snack as long as it is fruit. At 11:15 am they are shooed outside for a 15-minute recess and are also allowed to grab a snack at this time it they wish. Lunch is around 1:00 and goes till about 1:45 pm. During the afternoon they have a short 5 – 10 minute break around 2:30 pm and are let out at 3:15 pm. Things are pretty casual; there are no buzzers. In the morning around 9 am, one of the students is given a hand held school bell and runs around the schoolyard to let the children know it is time to go in. Inside the classroom is set up very similar to that of a Canadian classroom. The Prep/1/2 class, referred to as the junior class, has access to 3 desktop computers and 9 laptops, all connected to the Internet. They don’t appear to listen to the Australian Anthem every morning but do sing it on Monday mornings during assembly.

There are four boys and one girl within a year of him so he is happy. Two will be starting school this Feb and three are already in Prep (their equivalent to Kindergarten). The school consists of one main building and four smaller ones. The main one is the one that contains two classrooms joined by a small teacher lounge/kitchen area. The smaller buildings are the washrooms, the gym, the office and the Arts, Crafts and Music room.

Last Wednesday was his first day and I went with him for part of the day. He was a little unsure to start and needed a little bit of confidence boost. This is likely the only morning that I will know what Aiden learned at school, since I was there. I can’t believe how easily and quickly kids fall into the “ I don’t remember” or the “nothing” response. His main classroom teacher is Frau (German for Mrs.) Stoffel. The morning started off with the group seated on the floor around Frau Stoffel’s chair. They spent a bit of time here and Frau Stoffel introduced Aiden to the class, they asked him where he was from and talked about some differences between Australia and Canada.

From there the conversation led into a discussion about cicadas. They are currently out and making a racket. A cicada is an insect that is about an inch long and ½ inch wide. Its eyes are wide set with short antennae protruding between or in front of the eyes; it has transparent wings and flies. It has no mouthpieces so it does not bite or sting and is harmless. There are three main types in Halls Gap; Black Prince, Yellow Monday and Green Grocer although we were told there are over 200 different types. Cicadas do not produce their sound by rubbing wings or legs together, like many other familiar sound-producing insects like crickets. They  have loud noisemakers called "timbals" on the sides of the abdominal base, which acts like a drum. A cicada rapidly vibrates these membranes, and enlarged chambers derived make its body serve as a resonance chamber, greatly amplifying the sound. They modulate their noise by wiggling their abdomens toward and away from the tree that they are on. It is only the males that produce a song. They hang out, making noise, hoping to attract a female. Their song is among the loudest of all insect produced sounds. And they are loud. Everyone around here says that once the temperature reaches above 18° they start to sing. So we have this racket from about 7:30 in the morning to about 8 at night. A person from the department of Education came out to measure the decibel levels; the cicadas are registering between 88 and 90 db: louder then a jet airplane. They seem to be only in the valley. Of course we are just on the edge of it. Once outside of the Gap, things are much more peaceful.

After learning all about the cicada and taking a look at one, the Preps and one's set about colouring an insect and the 2’s did a worksheet and answered some questions on cicadas. Ten o’clock rolled around and the kids had fruit and the free time was spent continuing to colour their insects. At the end of free time, they gathered on the floor again and did some language. Frau Stoffel did Simon says with a twist. She replaced some to the words with German. They then went and looked at the word “frog” and the four sounds that it made. They came up with two lists of words: one starting with the sounds fr and the other ending with the sound og. Next they did some work in their exercise books with regards to the list of words. It was then time to head out for recess. I had a cuppa tea with the other teachers while we were outside on supervision. After recess, the students pulled out the laptops and booted the desktop computers. They went onto a math site called Rainforest. Aiden seemed to have settled in nicely so I asked him if he wanted tostay the afternoon and I would go and then pick him up at the end of the day. He was good with that and the rest is history.

Australia's friendly insects

Sunny, 35°C

Today was insect day. It was too hot to convince anyone to do anything so we hung out around home, skyped a few people and got going on some blogging. In the middle of typing I felt something crawl up my leg at the table this afternoon. It turned out to be a white tailed spider, which apparently isn't a good thing, but I just coaxed it off my leg and released it outside. Apparently their bites can be rather nasty. By the pictures it looked to be a male so it was naturally a bit less temperamental ;-).

Then I was talking with the people who own the place while I was BBQing supper and mentioned that I have been cautious when turning on the tank due to redback spiders. No sooner had they left and I went to turn the tank off and came face to face with the dreaded beasty who had come out of a dark corner when it got a bit heated up. I got a couple of photos which you can see. Ruth wasn't even interested in taking a close look at it. To top it all off, I just get back in from cooking supper and I feel something crawling across my belly. It takes offense to my trying to squish it against my rock hard abs and decides to sting me multiple times. The tough little bugger turns out to be a type of jumping ant we were warned about that jumps up and can sting you in a trail and are hard to kill. The venom hurt pretty good for a bit, then was swollen for bit but now it seems to have settled down into a red spot. Hopefully Aiden doesn't get into a hill of those critters. There is another ant here called a bull ant which is about the size of a carpenter ant back home and locals say it stings too and if you stomp on it, be prepared for it to start to pack you away. Australia is a fairly hostile place in some respects, but the people are pretty nice.
The crumpled remains of the not so jumpy little ant after repeated attempts to terminate the little bugger.

Stumpy is a good thing

Our second day in the neighbourhood, we were introduced to an unusual couple who share our yard. There is a spring out the front and they were on their way over for a drink when we met.


They are called stumpy tailed lizards, blue tongues or shinglebacks. They are slow moving and don't seem like much of a threat but apparently when they decide to clamp down on something they can be very persistent. What impressed us the most was that they like to eat snakes and if you have them around you are less likely to see snakes. They automatically became our new favourite couple and we are very pleased to share the yard with them. Mike was over and showed us how you can pick them up behind the head if you feel so inclined. We haven't bothered to do that.

Melbourne to Grampians National Park

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 Mainly sunny +22°

Our little alarm clock had us up at seven (Aiden), which we thought was pretty good considering the time change we have gone through.We had breakfast here at the hotel before heading out to try and cross some items off our to do list. Stopped at a Telstra store to look at our mobile phone options. Communications here are much more expensive then at home. We ended up picking up a mobile phone for $299.00, which only includes $10 talk time, and we will be on pre-paid plan. Spent the rest of the day looking at used car dealerships. We were lucky that there were three within walking distance. However, after spending a good part of the morning talking with the various dealers, buying a car may prove to be more difficult then expected. After exhausting Aiden's patience looking at yet another car, we headed to the Melbourne Museum. We spent some time wandering through the museum and playing at the playground. Aiden has been asking about school and when he will get to go. He is definitely missing the social interaction with kids. Luckily there were a couple of boys at the playground that he was able to hangout with for a bit.

We came back to the hotel and had an early supper of sandwiches. Aiden and I hung out while Sean did some more searching on the Internet for a car. He found a dealership that looks promising a little ways away in South Melbourne. Aiden was asleep by 7:30 and we crashed around 9 pm.


Thursday, November 8, 2007 Mainly sunny + 24°

Aiden was awake at 4:30 am. I knew it was too good to be true to think that we adjusted that easily. We managed to keep him somewhat quiet and in bed until 6:30 am. Sean headed off by 8:30 to catch a bus to South Melbourne, to see about a vehicle and some GPS maps for Australia in St. Kilda. Aiden and I hung out in the hotel room until about 10 am and then went in search of sunscreen. We did some window-shopping until we found a bookstore where we spent a good hour looking around. I purchased an Australian scrapbooking magazine. I’m interested in seeing if there is much difference. Sean surprised us by returning around 12 pm. He found a car, a 1991 Mitsubishi Lancer, and put a deposit on it. He had a quick bite to eat and then headed a few block away to try and arrange registration/ownership transfer. That turned out to be a frustrating task. He needed some sort of signed document that proved we would be living in Australia. For some reason, our Visas did not count even though we needed to have an address for them. The only way around it, other then going out to Halls Gap and getting a rental agreement signed by both parties was to have someone who has known us for 12 months and currently owns a Victoria drivers licence. Lucky for us, we knew one of the previous Parks Victoria rangers who came to Riding Mountain and he was willing to fax in a declaration. Sean also found out that his credit card had been frozen. Note for next time; make sure to call the credit card companies that we are going to be in Australia for 6 months. Sean was back by 4 pm so we went out in search of a place to eat. We found a Fish and Sushi bar only a couple of blocks away from the hotel. It was reasonably priced and the food was very good. Aiden was quite happy with the choice since they had chicken fingers. We had an enjoyable supper, sitting at the street side tables taking in the sights and sounds around us. Once we got back to the hotel we turned in early since we had to be up early the next morning.

Friday, November 9, 2007 Sunny + 26°

Up around 6 am and packed a few things before heading down for breakfast. Sean took off for VicRoads to get a client number in order to take possession of the car and returned, just in time for Mike to drive us over to the car and guide us out of Melbourne. Mike graciously escorted us to the edge of the city and got us onto the Western Highway. Sean did wonderful with driving on the opposite side, he took to it quite naturally even in the Melbourne traffic.

We made it into Halls Gap just in time for afternoon tea at 3 pm. We went directly to the Parks office and met Sean's supervisor, another Mike. At afternoon tea, he introduced us to several Parks employees. We hung out and chatted briefly with a number of them. Around 4 pm we headed out to find our new home for the next six months.

Our house is located on the north end of Hall’s Gap. It is a 3-bedroom holiday rental place close to the end of the town bike path, so it is a pleasant walk from the downtown area of Hall’s Gap and about 4 km from the Brambuk Center where Sean works.

We got inside and looked around, unloaded the car and that was about it for me. Since about 2 pm I have been feeling progressively worse. Not sure if is the cold that was lingering from Manitoba or I picked up a new one somewhere in our travels, but I was feeling downright miserable so I pretty much crashed for the night.



Sean and Aiden headed into town to have a look around. While they were passing the cricket field, what’s that in the field but a dozen kangaroos grazing. We’d been promising Aiden that he would see kangaroos when we got to where we were going to live but didn’t realize that they would show up so quickly. They are all over the place. Aiden checked them out and one of them even had a joey in her pouch. After a while they became old news and he finally got to stretch his legs and run like a madman all over the field like a cricket star. They came back to share the exciting news and everyone crashed early.

From snowstorm to Melbourne

We seemed to be leaving just in time. We thought we wouldn’t be seeing snow this fall but Manitoba weather did not let us down. When we left there was snow on the ground and it was snowing quite hard. Ray and Kay gave us a lift into Winnipeg where the snow hadn't arrived yet and we arrived with plenty of time. Michael met us for lunch and had managed to pickup our camcorder battery so hopefully you will be able to see the odd video clip on this blog.

Four planes and 26 hours later we touched down in Melbourne. The flight went extremely well. Our flight from Denver was late so we were late the rest of the way, although we made up a little time from LA to Sydney. We arrived into Melbourne around 11:45 am, Tuesday, November 6 and took about 45 minutes to go through customs and quarantine. The 14 hour + flight was the toughest: not so much with trying to keep Aiden entertained, he actually did very well with only having a few restless hours near the end of the flight. We encountered lots of turbulence during the flight, which caused a little queasiness for me who is prone to carsickness. So needless to say it was good to get our feet back on solid ground.


Rhonda (our in country leader) and Mike, a fellow from Parks Victoria were there waiting for us. We headed straight to our hotel and dropped off our luggage. From there we walked a couple blocks to an Italian pizza place where Parks Victoria graciously treated us to lunch.

We arrived during the Melbourne Cup, titled the 'race that stops a nation', so we were very lucky to have accommodation. The temperature was 18, which was quite comfortable. We were able to catch the some of the excitement on TV. It seems to be a lot of hoopla for a 5-minute horse race but then again it is a good excuse for a party. Around 4 pm we ventured out to look for a food market. We found a Safeway’s only a block or so away and were able to pick up a few essentials. The prices here appear to be a fair bit more expensive then at home. Bananas were $2.99/kg, a 2L chocolate milk was $5.20. And yes Sherry, they do have Kraft peanut butter here but we opted to buy the No name brand for $2.50 rather then the Kraft for $6.80. I’ll let you know if that was a wise choice. We came back to the hotel and had sandwiches for supper and were all in bed by 7:30 pm, crashing hard from the jet-lag.

Your mission should you choose to accept it...

G'day everyone,

Welcome to our blog. I was very fortunate to be selected for the Australian Parks Victoria exchange program as one of six Parks Canada participants for the next round of the program and thus will be heading to the other side of the planet for two six month periods starting in early November this fall. Parks Victoria looks after national parks in the State of Victoria which is on the southern portion of Australia around the state capital of Melbourne.

I will be posted in the Grampians National Park, which is in the western part of the state about 3 hours from Melbourne, continuing the work of Jeff Weir from Prince Albert who was on the previous exchange. The job involves a project monitoring kangaroos and wallabies, and trying to manage their impact on the surrounding agricultural land. There are also many park ranger duties involved. The park is very much like Riding Mountain as it is an escarpment feature in the plains surrounded by agriculture. It is a popular park with around a million visitors per year. Halls Gap a seasonal tourist community just outside the park boundary is much like Wasagaming as the visitor focal point, and there are rural agricultural communities nearby.

Ruth and Aiden will be going on the exchange with me and of course we are all quite excited about this opportunity. Ruth is on a two year leave of absence from teaching. At any rate, we will do our best to keep this blog up to date, so that those of you who have identified the wish to live vicariously may do so.

Australian words of the day: ‘chook’ — ‘chicken’; ‘ute’ (utility) — ‘pickup’ (truck) (American, Canadian)