The Race that Stops a Nation

The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major annual thoroughbred horse race. Billed as 'the race that stops a nation', it is a race for horses aged three-years-old and up. The event has been held by the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse in the first week of November since 1861. It's a day when the nation stops whatever it's doing to listen to the race call, or watch the race on TV. Even those who don't usually bet, try their luck with a small wager or entry into a 'sweep' - a lottery in which each ticket-holder is matched with a randomly drawn horse.

Sean was involved in a sweep at work and drew four horses, one of which didn't finish the race and the other three didn't make out much better.

The distance and the handicap ensure that the Melbourne Cup is a horse race in which the occasional punter has as good a chance of picking the winner as those who follow the form. It is a day when all Australians are considered to have an equal chance on the turf as well as on the lawn.

With waning crowd attendances in the 1960s, the Victoria Racing Club Committee held the first Fashions on the Field competition at Flemington in 1962 to encourage female racegoers back to the races. Now a national competition, state finalists from heats staged around the country during the Spring Racing season are flown to Melbourne, where the Victorian finalist is selected during the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Since 1877, Cup Day has been a public holiday for Melbourne. For rural areas the day may or may not be a holiday. Many employees are given a choice whether to take Cup day off or have a day at some other time. Halls Gap Primary took the day off earlier in the year so there was school today. The kids were in attendance but it was more of a fun day structured around the Cup.


The morning for the Junior class was spent preparing lunch for the Senior class. They set tables and decorated them - it was quite a 'formal' affair. After lunch the kids held horse races and had a Fashions in the Field competition. Aiden impressed the judges and walked away with the junior age class.




As for me, after delivering pumpkin pie to the school (had to do something with the 20 lb or so of pumpkin), I headed down to the cricket club for a Melbourne Cup luncheon. The Mom's from the local playgroup put it on as yearly fund raiser. There were sweeps on the two races prior to the Cup and one for the Cup as well as a variety auction. They served a delicious lunch of chicken, beef and lamb with all the fixings. At 3:15, I snuck away to go get Aiden, Tyler and Joseph from school. Good thing the race is only a few minutes long or I would of missed it as it goes at 3:00. When we arrived back, Fashion in the field competition was taking place and they invited the kids to join in. A few of the older girls took part but Aiden was the only boy brave enough to join in. He was very cute strutting his stuff in front of the crowd. There were a few games for the kids afterwards and then we headed home.

Scaring Up Some Canadian Culture

It is a sad state of affairs when kids have never had the pleasure of experiencing trick or treating. We set about to rectify that. About six months ago when we were getting ready to go back to Canada and discussing our return date we decided that we would be here for Halloween. Aiden was disappointed when he found out that most Australians do not celebrate Halloween. So even back then, we had plans to throw a Halloween party. Not such an easy task when there is not much Halloween stuff in the stores. Roz and I were both on the lookout for Halloween themed party supplies and as the date approached we were lucky enough to come across a few things.


The entire school, nineteen families in total, were invited as well as the principal and teachers. The school was generous enough to let us use the shed (gym) for the activities even though it was not a school function. The shed proved to be a little difficult to decorate with limited supplies and such a high ceiling but I must say Roz and I didn't do too bad of a job with balloons and a few other decorations.

We were pleased with the turnout and the effort the parents and children put into it. All but three families were able to make it. Amazing by all counts since it was considered a long weekend. November 4 is Melbourne Cup Day and many will take the Monday off as well to make a long weekend of it (but that is another blog).

All the kids came dressed for the occasion and many of the parents got into it as well. Witches were popular among the girls and vampires with the boys but there was a cat, a spider, a few skeletons, the Hulk, a mummy, pirates, zombies, and cricket players. The parents were very creative with the snacks they brought: Scabs and skin flakes with blood and guts, pus and gangrene fingers served up with blood, spider, bat and black cat sweets, Mad Professor Corrigan's gut samples, ghosts, worms in dirt, boogers on a stick, eyeballs and all sorts of creepy things.



We played a number of games through out the night. While it was still daylight we played eyeball relay races out on the oval. There was a little bit of technical difficulties with this one. We found the ground was a little harder here and caused the eyeballs to burst when dropped and soon ran out of eyeballs. We tried to convince the crowd to donate some but none were willing. I guess they were not as into it as we thought ;-) Next we moved onto the Mummy wrap and it is amazing how long kids and not so little kids will play with a roll of toilet paper.

After that we had pumpkin bowling (until the pumpkins broke), Mad Professor Corrigan's Lab, Trick or Treat Riddle game and pumpkin carving. Yes, we were able to find two pumpkins large enough to carve. There were not orange but a light grayish green. I believe we call them ghost pumpkins back home. Very thick skinned – a small carving saw and a knife were broke in the process. In the end they turned out well but unfortunately on Sunday we forgot to get a picture before Sean hacked them up to make pumpkin pie.

We ended the evening with Trick or Treating. How you may be wondering? The school is a number of separate buildings all with doors to the outside. We had a number of parent volunteers man the doors and sent the children around in small groups. It is hard to say who had more fun, the kids getting the treats or the parents playing tricks on them. It was a great end to a fantastic evening.

Swarmed by Pirates

Ahoy thar Matey! Captain Aiden and his crew of 13 pirates celebrated his 6th birthday in grand style.

They came as sweet young things but were soon loud, wild, rambunctious pirates. It is amazing how a bandanna, an eye patch and a balloon sword can transform a person.

The activities started off with a fierce sword battle of bubble popping. It was a close one but I think the bubbles may have won. The wind was in their favour.

The decks were swabbed and the flags were laid out to have each pirates personal symbol added to them. The bubble battle and flag making turned out to be hungry and thirsty work so some grog and pirate pies were served.

There was no rest for the pirates for next they needed to defend their selves from the oncoming cannonballs.

They were then off to collect a piece of treasure map and find three others who had a piece of the same map. Once they pieced the map together they went to hunt for treasure.


After the booty was divvied up, there was happy birthday to sing, birthday cake to be had and prezzies to open. Last but not least, there were ship races to prove which pirates had the fastest ship and Captain Aiden had each pirate walk the plank in order to collect more booty and then head for the high seas. All in all it was great fun and the kids had a blast.

Stawell Show

Roz, Daryl and the kids invited us to spend the day with them taking in the Stawell Show. The Show was an interesting mix of activities and very similar to the Brandon Summer Fair or the Grande Prairie County Fair.

There was a variety of competitions for the locals to enter. You could try your hand at: Round Hay Bale Rolling Competition where cash prizes were awarded to the pair who was able to roll the bale around an obstacle course in the quickest time; Local Sheaf Tossing Competition where one could show off their muscles and precision in trying to toss a sheaf over a very high pole vault; Rock drilling competition- no experience necessary just $40 for the entry fee; Beaut Ute and Street Machine Competition, if you had a fantastic ute, or a classic car or muscle car you could put it on display and try and win a trophy. There was a huge Photographic Competition with 31 different classes to cater for all types of photographers from the experienced photographer to someone just beginning to use a camera in primary school.

There were a number entertainers and performers, a wide variety of indoor trade stands promoting their wares as well as a wide range of art, craft, photography, hobbies, cooking, flowers, knitting, crochet, and home brew displays.

The best part for the kids was the rides. Like all fairs, there was a number of rides for the kids and kids at heart. One difference we did notice was stands selling 'Show bags'. This Australian tradition originated as a way for companies to put together samples of their products and showcase them. Today they are much more commercialized so we opted not to purchase one. After talking to a number of friends, show bags used to be of great value and one of the highlight of a show.

Becoming Aussies

We were lucky enough to be invited to a Citizenship Ceremony. There are now two new Aussies in Halls Gap. The ceremony was quite interesting and although a few friends hinted that we should step up there too, we just observed this time. Congratulations Daniel and Franz.




Here is the Australian "Pledge of Commitment":

From this time forward, under God,
I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people,
whose democratic beliefs I share,
whose rights and liberties I respect, and
whose laws I will uphold and obey.

All new citizens have the choice of making the pledge with or without the words 'under God'.

The ceremony was held at the end of the school day and the students participated with singing and a few speeches. Earlier this year the senior students went through the steps of becoming an Australian citizen with Daniel and Franz as part of their curriculum, so it seemed fitting to have the ceremony at the school and have the students participate.

After the official ceremony, a number of us hung out and partook in a number of Australian pastimes such as cricket and a sausage sizzle. Fun was had by all.

Count Us In!

Phew!! With Aiden's birthday party and Halloween out of the way I can now focus some of my time on blogging. Sorry about the lapse but there were parties to plan.

On Thursday, October 23, at 11:30 am all the kids in Aiden's school along with over 350,000 other children from 1,700 schools across Australia participated in the second annual simultaneous sing-along "Music ... Count Us In" event. It is aimed at highlighting the need to boost music education in schools. From tiny rural schools to big city schools, ‘Music. Count Us In’ gave principals, teachers, parents and students a focal point for discussions about the value of music in schools - and an opportunity to collectively, loudly, celebrate it and make the call for more.

All the students sang the song, called 'Sing', a joyous, upbeat song composed by four Victorian high school students in a songwriting workshop led by John Foreman (MD, Australian Idol).

The Halls Gap kids walked down to the Venus Pool bridge and sang there. There were a number of tourist who stopped to listen and enjoy the singing. The kids did a wonderful job. 

Track/Trail works in the Grampians

While in Canada we distinguish trails from roads from highways, in Australia most roads and highways are sealed bitumen (not much worry about frost heaves) and anything else you can travel along is referred to as a track. This is further broken down into vehicle tracks and walking tracks. The Grampians has a wide array of 4x4 tracks and caters to 4x4 clubs although they are not allowed to travel off of formed tracks. The tracks are much like the old dirt roads we used to have criss-crossing Riding Mountain that were subsequently converted to trails. The Grampians has a lot of them, as many of the tracks double as fire breaks.


Out of curiosity I ran a quick query on all the tracks, roads and highways in the Grampians and they total close to 2000 km which compares to the 500 - 600 km of trails, roads and highways in Riding Mountain which is twice the area of the Grampians. So 4 times the length in half the area in a park much more challenging to put roads and tracks into.

Speaking of which, one of the track recovery crew leaders (thanks Graeme) sent out these photos of a piece of equipment they use on walking tracks to move stone steps and gravel around. It is called a power barrow and as you can see they use it in some pretty challenging terrain.







The Grampians have some extra funding to recover many of the tracks that were impacted by the Mt. Lubra Fire. They have crews to do the impressive work on the walking tracks which involves stone steps, steel railings and grate or boardwalk portions that are being designed to be more immune to fire. Outside of this special funding there is basically one person responsible for walking tracks and three people who look after the mowing/slashing/grading of all the roads and vehicle tracks the park is responsible for. The state of Victoria, VicRoads looks after the paved roads in the park.