Aboriginal Sacred Site

Looking at the Aboriginal sacred site on the 45 minute tour and walk at Mt. Pilot , a National Park.

A tasmanian dog/tiger is depicted here.  The Aboriginals utilized ochre to make their cave paintings...

The view from lookout rock at the sacred site, looking North.

The sacred rocks from above...

And surrounding rocks!  Beautiful!

Cathy's slice of paradise in the Indigo Valley...

Cathy's home on the top of the furthest ridge!

Cathy's cows which she co-owns with her sister Helen.

A circle of sitting stones and a firepit looking out over the Indigo shire and valley...

It's an Ahhhh moment!  Looking at the Indigo Valley!

The Victorian mining town of Beechworth,

Welcome to Beechworth, Victoria, Australia. A picturesque town that is widely regarded as Victoria's best preserved gold mining town and is regularly featured in the top 10 places to visit in Australia. With great local Beechworth accommodation, historic streetscapes, restaurants to rival those in major cities, wonderful shopping experiences, outdoor activities and a stunning mix of surrounding towns to explore it is little wonder people return year after year to continue their discovery of North East Victoria.

 

Our morning sighting of a Wallaby at Spring Creek Gorge,  Beechworth Historic Park!

Our cottage that we stayed in while attending the Conference.  It was provided to us by Jodie Goldsworthy, the owner of Beechworth Honey...what an amazing place!  Check them out 

                                                      http://www.beechworthhoney.com.au

The view looking down at the cottage from the hill behind overlooking the surrounding landscape and the remains of an old tannery.

A local pie shop has the idea that is so popular in the States with their  Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign. 

Flax, wine and the Lamborghini

Fred and Coral who own and run Stoney Creek Farm and manufacturer of flaxseed oil .  The flaxseed oil business saved their farm and they have become one of the major producers of flaxseed oil and other flaxseed products in the country.  

Heidi driving the Lamborghini on Bernard's Biodynamic Farm!

In Talbot where Coral and Fred treated us to a local foods meal at a restaurant run by a new chef, Bryce a 17 year old young man very excited about the culinary arts and artisanal food.  Fred was quite instrumental in the renovations of this building for this newly opened cafe and a community garden next door.  Fred and Coral also helped to set up an interview with me by a local news media.  We will post this article when Eve, the reporter, sends it along

The biodynamic vineyard that Carmel set up for us to see and spend the night!

Rob and Pauline, owners of Avonmore Winery.  The most delicious wine that Gary and I have had on this trip.  Too bad they don't export to the States!  But they do a mighty fine job in Australia and exporting to China and Canada!

From Cherry Valley to Indigo Valley...

We apologize as we have been having real problems uploading our photos to the blog. We arrived at Beechworth on Saturday and visited our friend Cathy in the Indigo Valley.  A beautiful setting, off the grid home, perched atop a ridge looking over the whole of what felt like Eden...sunset over Indigo Valley with Cathy, her friend David, Cathy's dad and her sister Helen and Sue Middleton, Australian woman farmer of the year.

A beautiful gathering before an amazing two day conference, Connecting Rural Business Women 2011.

An amazing group of business women from throughout Victoria and beyond...My workshop on Telling Your Story and keynote close on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA's) went amazingly well!  So well, that I was asked to speak again Thursday night in Albury in New South Wales at an environmental center! There is great interest in the CSA model.  We have only heard of a few in Australia.
Thank you to JD Dunbar and RULE!  Without going through the PA Rural Leadership Program I would not have met Cathy McGowan and had this opportunity to connect with Australian rural women!  

...a trip into Melbourne to visit the CERES project

Educational programs in the gardens at CERES

See the chooks!

Last Wednesday we visited the CERES, community gardens and educational center just on the outskirts of Melbourne.  We were toured around by Dori (originally from the United States now an Australian, even sounds like one!) who is the manager of the farmers market that happens on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  What an amazing place, formerly a tip site (dump), it is now being used to grow food, bring people together around food, and have great educational programs for kids.  The place has really grown organically to include a restaurant, a bike shop, a cafe, a nursery and more...Very great to see how people are utilizing land that was formerly agricultural land. 

Potatoes and gold!

Inside the potato picker pulled by tractor (Bernard’s cousin’s farm)

Gold Rush tailings - Mark Twain visited Ballarat in 1891 and wrote in his book ‘Following the Equator’: “Forty-five years ago the site now occupied by the City of Ballarat was a sylvan solitude as quiet as Eden and as lovely.  Nobody had ever heard of it.  On the 25^th of August, 1851, the first great gold-strike made in Australia was made here.  The wandering prospectors who made it scrapped up two pounds and a half of gold the first day… A few days later the place was a hive-a town.  The news of the strike spread everywhere in a sort of instantaneous way – spread like a flash to the very ends of the earth.  A celebrity so prompt and so universal has hardly been paralleled in history, perhaps.  It was as if the name BALLARAT had suddenly been written on the sky, where all the world could read it at once.”

Back to Smeaton to a home-cooked dinner by Bernard and Carmel (pot roast, potatoes, carrots, salad & organic wine, followed by rhubarb crisp with tea)

Our third day in Australia!

Up bright and early (bare feet on wet grass) – remembering the crystal clear dark sky at night with the Southern Cross and the familiar Orion surrounded by many more stars than we see up north. 

Awaken by the unique & beautify pensive singing of Magpies – they vary their songs in a cacophony of sound that does not repeat.  The view from our room.

A trip to the nearby town of Ballarat

Thai dance demonstration at a new school/community center in Ballarat

Dinner at the Pig and Whistle and more farm tours!

Potato farmer Lori Orr is featured in Kyle Kwong’s book “It tastes Better” – Mal & Lori Orr’s are noted as the best organic potatoes in Victoria

Afternoon tea at the Walsh Farm

Tom Walsh’s tool shed

Mary Walsh’s garden

Lamb shank dinner at the “Pig & Whistle” in Hepburn Shire

Touring local farms and a picnic!

Sue’s Mojo carrots (Wombat Forest Organics)

Toured ‘potato’ country – moisture & chocolate soils are the key.  Sue's farm.

Lunch at the Trentham Falls with hosts Carmel & Bernard Righetti

Off to cultivate the carrots (Wombat Forest Organics)

Adam has taken on the family farm (Wombat Forest Organics).  Hopefully a new trend for farms in Australia.  Many of the younger generation on not taking on the family farm and moving to cities.

Entertainment by local farmer & musician Tom Walsh

In the land of volcanic basalt soils

Lots of sheep everywhere