The Last of LassO'Gowrie Garden

This is the last two photos of the huge garden bed full of roses and contrasting herbaceous border.


This photo shows the back fence where the tennis court was. Looking through the tennis court one can see the harsh area beyond. I can remember Lyle telling me that they drove hundreds of miles to tennis gatherings which were a real social event for whole families to take part in.




Below is one of the newer garden beds, a little less established but never the less very attractive in it's own way. It gives a glimpse of better things to come.


So that was in the front gate at Lass O'Gowrie, around the homestead and through the gardens to the back gate and tennis court.



So we say goodbye to Lass O'Gowrie and the wonderful hostess and her family who treated us like royalty.
One can see by the wonderful food and the way it is presented that it is a lot of hard work to cater for coach full of people. However these women are so gracious they give the appearance that it is no bother at all.

Charleville Still

Lass O'Gowrie Garden. This is the permanent water hole on the river Ward that runs through the property.The water that is pumped out is metered and paid for. This water is not used for household or drinking as it needs filtering and chemicals to purify it enough for that sort of use.
The household water comes from rain water tanks. We talk a walk from the house to this water hole and learned quite a bit about the diverse native growth in this area.



The women of the west are very stoic about the lack of rain due to drought, what may keep tanks going is not enough to run a cattle or sheep property to a viable degree. Some of the people wemet are just able to get on with it by changing course. They do not like to be patronisesd about their hardships. Of course there have been a lot of tragedies on the land where people have just had to walk away on properties that have been in the family for generations. Some have taken another way out sadly as they just cannot cope. Sadly the suicide rate is very high in some country areas.



Below is a view of the house, these houses all have enclosed verandas which are very cool and are really necessary to combat the heat. This is a side view we had our morning tea in the garden at the back of
the house under the shade of the beautiful big tress. Not a Coollibah in this case.



Below is a view of the front garden if you look closely you will see that chairs where the tables were set out for us to enjoy the repast that the women of the house had prepared for us.




I did attempt to post another photo here my server and/ or Blogger were not playing the game for me. I do hope that these photos are of an interest to everyone not only the gardeners. I have the potential to have enough photos in my camera to bore anyone silly. Cheers until next time Margaret

Charleville

Hi everyone, I am back from the out back. The trip has been wonderful. Firstly we caughtthe Westlander train from Roma St Brisbane at 7.15 pm on the 7th October. We arrived atCharleville at 12 midday on the 7th October.
The photo below is of a waterhole on the Ward river. The rivers out West are
always muddy like this one. It is only in a huge flood that they clear. This water hole
was on the first garden we visited called Lass O' Gowrie.

This is the land that surrounds Lass O'Gowrie as you can see it is very red soil grows Mulga,some Gidgee trees and some lovely ghost gums that like their feet in the water. Mulga trees are the trees that were once pulled to feed the cattle and sheep during drought times.
The method was two Caterpillar tractors with a huge chain between. The trees regenerated thicker than the hairs on a dog's back wherever the trees were pulled. In fact we saw living proof of this. Now the property owners are only allowed to push one tree at a time with a one blade tractor. Very few of the rivers and creeks of the West run, they are all dry creek and river beds until there is a good "wet season". Then these rivers run all the way down to the southern states via the Cooper,Murray, Darling and Murrumbidgee to name a few.
Gidgee trees are very different, it seems whatever the height the tree is there is the same amount under the ground.

Yes, friends at Gympie this is a Polleys coach . It is stationed at Longreach and appears to .managed by Great Outback Tours. I could not believe it. The fellow who drives it lives at Longreach but was born at Blackall. He was a terrific fellow and was full of knowledge of the Outback. Outback. I would recommend him as a driver and tour guide to anyone. I have been on a one or two and he was the best I have seen. He met the train at Charleville. We started the tour with lunch, the food was never ending on this trip. It was great food though.



Below is the Chaleville Motel where we stayed for one night. We were on our way the next morning viewing gardens around Charleville and then on to Quilpie. Whilst at Charleville we also visited the Flying Doctor's Museum as well as the Cosmos centre. The Cosmos Centre just happens to be situated beside the Flying doctor headquarters and landing strip. This was a wartime airfield with the planes and strips all hidden amongst the Mulga.
We had dinner at the Cosmos centre and then viewed Jupiter, Venus and the moon through the
high power telescopes. This was a first for me and something I really enjoyed doing.



The Flying Doctor museum was very interesting as my sister in law and mother in law had connections with this service as they were both nurses. The flying Doctor Service covers, about 622,000 square miles of southwest Queensland an area almost the size of the UK.
Extending from NSW border to the Northern Territory and South Australian borders in the Westand east to the Carnarvon Ranges. The planes are fully equipped intensive care units and save many lives every year. The Nurses and Doctors are on call 24 hours 365 days a year. There is some rivalry between Winton and Charlevile l regarding the flying Doctors. They did start in Winton butmoved very soon after to Charleville.



I have not even reached the first garden as yet so will leave that for my next post as this one is already a little long I hope it will be interesting to those of you who do not know much about the outback. Those who do know the Ourback can go back down memory lane. Cheers to all until next time.