Musings in Australia

Musings in Australia

Getting acquainted with Australia via puzzle building


We arrived in Australia after a fourteen and a half hour flight from Las Angeles to Sydney. We arrived in Melbourne after about 19 total hours in the air and from doorstep is Wildwood to doorstep in Bendigo was about 31 hours. We managed the long haul with not enough sleep.

The trip from Melbourne to Bendigo looked a lot like Northern California in the fall when the hills turn brown. Some trees are tall and stately while the “bush” around Bendigo is smallish and spindly. There are palm trees and the country here has a tropical look. It wasn't the desert I had imagined the interior to be.  

Farmer home in Bendigo

We had a whirlwind first few days in Bendigo, a city of 100,000 an hour and a half north of Melbourne.

The members of the church were friendly and caring. My first impressions of Australian people were quite positive. It reminded me of the United States some 40 years ago. They were down home, family- oriented, informal, unpretentious, laid back and approachable. Their strong accents, slang and teasing sense of humor made us feel like we were indeed in a foreign country. 

Except for the driving on the left hand side of the road and our inability to decipher the language, the environment and buildings could have passed for the US, They love travel more than big homes and the city looked uniformly middle class.

We started off our Australian adventure with "swag" on the "barbie" (BBQ) at a lake near Bendigo. 

Endurance swimmers being congratulated

The occasion was an endurance swim for donations for motor neuron disease. Some of Tyler and Aprils friends were swimming. A friend, Eric, took Preston, Lincoln and Louisa out for canoe rides. 

Louisa was pretty darn good

Santa in a skit

In the evening we attended a church Christmas party. 

There Santa is again - this time with Louisa

The program had a Hawaiian theme and members put on a talent program plus a visit to Santa. The food was a big attraction and nobody was shy - a little like Mongolia.

April and her friend

The Farmer family did its fair share of entertaining.  
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Preston, Lincoln and Louisa teaching the audience how to say Merry Christmas in Hawaiian

Preston with Nonni in background

The next day we saw how Christmas was celebrated "Down Under" - not in the snowy clad winter scenes of the Northern Hemisphere. Christmas in summer takes some getting used to for transplants and ex-patriots who live here.

Christmas in Australia

Scene from the Nutcracker

Public school overlooking Roselind Park in Bendigo


We went on a "walkabout" in Roselind Park near downtown Bendigo. It was unusual in that there was a prim English rose garden and a conservatory set side-by-side with a tropical forest. 

This is a hot dry climate most of the year - how do you explain this?

The forest had some of the biggest, baddest bats out of hell hanging in the treetops. 

Hummungous bats taking a daytime snooze

Taking in a view of  Bendigo

We ended the exploration of Bendigo with a traditional meat pie fast food store. 

Eating meat pie in Australia

               Welcome to Australia, mate!

Gideon Farmer - "Dinky Di"