I'm just returned from a 40th birthday up in the Grampians. Check out today's surf at the Rocklands Reservoir, which supplies Horsham in north-west Victoria.Locals say it was full 10 years ago.
You know, whatever happens with global warming, I have a feeling northern Victoria ain't going to make it. Even in the seven years I've lived in Victoria the regional lakes have basically all dried up.
The Castle's "we're going to Bonnydoon" song (1997) may yet prove something of a cultural requiem for lost water recreation zones of southern Australia.
8 comments:
That makes me very sad. I drove through Horsham dozens of times between 1985 and 1997 -- even voted there once -- and it always seemed like a seriously thriving rural town with a large and fairly prosperous hinterland. I have happy memories of crashing in my room-with-spa at the Golden Grain Motel after four hours (much of it in Melbourne peak hour traffic) on the road with the setting December sun in my eyes after a full day's work. That motel had a pool, too. I hate to think of the little pool and the basic in-room spa becoming unaffordable luxuries.
To say nothing of the lost fields of gold.
Yeah, makes me sad too Pav, as rural Vic is the first time Ive ever felt at home outside a capital city in Australia. There's nearly always a decent coffee, people are friendly, and the food is great!
Whereas its more like the films 'easy rider' or deliverance in rural QLD or NSW. Im sorry, Im sure there's lot so of good folks there - but I never felt comfortable outside Brisbane in my home state - enclaves like Maleny or Byron excluded.
Gosh, it's grim, isn't it. My parents live on the Ovens River, which is, they say, one of the only two rivers in Victoria still healthy. That won't be the case if it stops snowing on the alps, though.
On that note, happy fortification.
Oh, cheers Baron - but mine was last year. This was my cousin getting fortified. No one knows why she chose to have it up there, but glad she did. Hadnt been up to the Grampians in years.
The Ovens - is that in NE Vic?
PS You are declared famous author of youthful talents in my edition of the 'the Slap' - there's an ad for some other publication there.
Lefty: What about the Atherton Tablelands?
Just kidding. Beautiful scenery. Necks are red as they come. And then some.
Still. Has a kind of odd charm after you've lived there.
Well after.
Ha! Sam - I don't think Ive ever been to a freakier place than the Atherton Tablelands.
Beautiful - my word. But full of people in almost TOTAL denial about where they are in time and space.
Little English gardens a bazilion miles from Sussex. And they're the harmless eccentric ones. Then you get, as you say, the rednecks. Man, I couldnt get out there quick enough
Lefty E, I get sent a heap of random music PR blather all the time 98% of which is highly ignorable but the excellent label Light in the Attic is reissueing Serge Gainsborough's "Histoire de Melody Nelson" and if you go to this link you can hear a song from it. Thought you might like, although you prob already have. I might take them up on the offer of a digital promo copy for once. Happy Birthday!
http://www.4shared.com/file/94758685/1695285f/01_Melody.html
Why, Cheers Amanda! But I do indeed already have Histoire - and a fine album it is too.
It isn't my birthday, i juts went to a 40th - but ta anyway!
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