WALLANGARRA MARKETS 2

When I access the New England Highway at Glen Aplin I must STOP and look for trains before I cross the railway line. It is compulsory that such road signs be obeyed, or I risk a fine and the loss of points from my driver’s license if sighted by a Queensland Policeman. Every time I obediently comply, it makes Eberhard chuckle. Only one day a month will a train appear twice on this line. This is a steam train, the Downs Dasher, bringing tourists from Warwick to Wallangarra for the monthly market. It arrives at Wallangarra about mid-day and departs on the return trip at 2.00pm

The Downs Dasher

Pulling a couple of passenger carriages it chugs its way up from the city of Warwick at the south of the Darling Downs to the border highlands of the Granite Belt, which is the northernmost extension of the New England Tableland.  It’s destination is Wallangarra/Jennings the Queensland/New South Wales border town.  When I took these photos it was true to its name dashing down the slope and across the bridge to gather speed to pull up the far hill.

Off to Wallangarra

In Australia the railways were built and managed by State governments who foolishly could never agree to cooperate. Read the rest of this entry »

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WALLANGARRA MARKETS 1

During World War Two it is my understanding that most days 45 trains passed through the Railway Station at Wallangarra . What activity there must have been around the station those days as troop trains pulled in from New South Wales to disgorge soldiers who then to embarked on Queensland trains to head further north to Brisbane and Townsville before taking ships to join the fighting against the Japanese in New Guinea. There would have been numerous trains transporting munitions too as a military base remained in service at Wallangarran until recent years as munitions dump. When we arrived here at Glen Aplin in 1992 trains with diesel engines would pass by once a week to pick up containers of game meat (horse, goat, wild boar) destined for the tables of Europe. Finally it was decided to close the line for economic reasons. What a pity, for this railway line and the Wallangarra station has figured strongly in Australian history. I promise to write more about the history another day.

Presently this huge space provided by the platforms of the Wallangarra railway station and surrounding area is used once a month for a community market. I attended this market to purchase products and promote attendance at all  Granite Belt Markets. While all these markets have similarities, they have different criteria applying to the stall holders. The Wallangarra market was originally begun as a farmer’s market and I expect that when the summer and autumn seasons return there will be many locals selling their produce from the back of trucks or open trailers.

Wallangarra Railway Station

The first attraction to catch my eye was the small train providing rides for the children. This was the  “Dasher junior”.  The real Downs Dasher is a steam train restored by the Southern Downs Steam Railway, based in Warwick. The Downs Dasher regularly steams between Warwick and Wallangarra taking paying passengers on Sunday outings.  See www.southerndownssteamrailway.com.au Visitors to the region can board the Downs Dasher in Warwick for a nostalgic trip up through two tunnels and many deep cuttings onto the border highlands. As they proceed across bridges over rocky ravines they enjoy the spectacular scenery of true wilderness. Passing beside some of the Granite Belt vineyards wets their appetite to undertake wine tours and tastings of these high altitude wines. Read the rest of this entry »

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GLEN APLIN MARKET 3

No report on a market would be complete without a mention of plants, herbs, dried fruit and jams, fresh fruit and vegetables sold at such venues. At the April Glen Aplin market I had purchased lettuce seedlings and a trombone gramma pumpkin. Grammas are a sweet pumpkin traditionally grown in Australia to use as a dessert. They are seldom for sale in fruit shops, although I have seen them on fruit and vegetable stands in the Lockyer Valley. I was happy to purchase this one at Glen Aplin knowing I could use the flesh for a pie and keep the seeds to plant in my garden next summer.

The lavender colours of the stall manned by Trish and Don Gaske selling Crystal Ridge Lavender products caught my eye.

Lavender products

Crystal Ridge Lavender sells

Soaps & Skincare
Massage Oils
Lavender Sachets
Lavender Essential Oil
Ageless Crafts
Lavender Gift Packs

Trish gathering lavender

Market raffle

The market raffle of the day featured products from the various stalls. These included several bottles of wine. It was there that I first noticed small packages of Saffron. Back in 1997 when Eberhard and I planned a visit to the Netherlands we were asked if we could locate and bring back some corms for the Saffron plant by a Glen Aplin resident. We were unable to meet this request, but as a gardener I was interested to read more about the product. Read the rest of this entry »

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GLEN APLIN MARKET 2

Country markets like the one held quarterly at Glen Aplin provide an outlet for people to exhibit the products they grow or create. Once many of their creations would have been viewed as little more than a hobby and therefore the hours they spent on embroidery or wood-turning had little monetary value.  A potter could give bowls as gifts to friends and a gardener would gladly share seedlings and cuttings with other gardeners. Now the markets allow these people to plan the production of items for sale and thus get some valuation of their labour. Even so, when I looked at the items crafted for the Glen Aplin Community Market, I was aware of how little per hour each person was paid for their time. It is possible that people who have never sewn or knitted may have no idea of the real cost of producing such items.

Dresses for little girls

Read the rest of this entry »

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GLEN APLIN COMMUNITY MARKET 1

My Gran, my Mother, Me and my two Daughters learned to knit, crochet, sew, embroider, grow vegetables and flowers, bake cakes and make jam at an early age. We exhibited our needlework or cooking in the country agricultural shows and always when a school, church or some other community organization was holding a fete we contributed our goods and sometimes manned the stalls.

If it wasn’t our church or school holding the fete we went along to purchase cakes and confectionary, but we never bought needlework. As my mother once said to me, “I can make any of these if I want them.”

Today it seems to me the district markets now held in most towns and cities have taken over this niche market. No longer are goods donated to a worthy cause. Instead people man their own stall to sell their produce and pocket the profit. Organizations have realized that they can hold regular markets and make an income  by renting space to the stall holders.

My district of Glen Aplin on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland needed to raise money to renovate the Glen Aplin Community Hall, so now about four times a year a market is held in and around this hall on a Saturday morning. Today, 31st July 2010, I attended this market and took the following photos to share with you.

It rained overnight and has continued to shower today, so there weren’t many outdoor stalls. The first to catch my eye was providing a substance for organic gardeners.

Bags of manure

• Sheep manure @ $7.00 a bag
• Chook manure  @ $10.00 a bag
• Cow manure @ $5.00 a bag
• Barley straw @ $7.00 a bale.

These quantities and these prices are clearly intended for the small garden. When I buy Lucerne hay, containing many more valuable nutrients than barley straw for the purpose of mulching my garden, I need to buy 100 bales  @ $7.00 each, delivered to my garden. Read the rest of this entry »

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GOOD TREES – BAD TREES 4

I learned to iron clothes with flatirons heated on the top of a wood burning stove.  These stoves had metal plates  over the fire which could be lifted off to provide instant flames to boil a kettle quickly, although usually kettles, frying pans and cooking pots received sufficient heat through the heavy metal. Every day the top of the stove was shined with a combination of mutton fat and black shoe polish. Cakes and biscuits were baked in an oven heated by the wood burning in the firebox at the side. Every cook quickly learned to regulate the heat by the size of the wood selected to use that day and the type of wood available. Every baker learned to gauge the temperature of an oven by placing their hand in the oven to feel the heat prior to putting the tin or dish on a higher or lower shelf.

Ironbark, a form of hard Eucalyptus, was the favoured wood of most cooks. It burned slowly, giving off a steady heat. Importantly it burned away, leaving very little ash or coals to be cleaned from the firebox. There were times when my mother only had Brigalow wood, but this was also considered a good wood, although it burned more quickly and hotly. The cooks of those days adapted their cooking styles to the type of wood available. It was often a matter for scolding when the cook discovered her wood box empty and no man available to split more wood for the stove. As a joke men would say they were giving “The Missus” a new axe as a Christmas present.

Nowadays, I only use wood for heating purposes. Here on the Granite Belt we have cold winters with most nights in June, July and August dropping well below zero Celsius. The weekend clientele of guests visiting the district during the winter months demand cottages with a wood fire.  It is a novelty they enjoy. We have two big combustion stoves in our main house and individual stoves in the four self-contained apartments. In years gone by we purchased Ironbark wood, already split, from one of the many suppliers in this district. There are several old trees, many of them already fallen, throughout the open pastoral country. Wood cutters pay the land owner to go on to his property, cut these trees into sizable portions with chainsaws and then deliver it to the purchaser. It is a seasonal industry.

When we decided to remove so many trees from our garden in August 2008, I wondered if we could utilize the wood, rather than create a bonfire.

Storm damage

These trees along our entrance road are an ornamental Ironbark from Western Australia, mostly grown for their beautiful silver foliage and pink blossom.

Ironbark blossoms

Read the rest of this entry »

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GOOD TREES – BAD TREES/ 3

When we purchased this farm in 1992 the small cottage that was to become our home and which was later extended to provide guest accommodation had no garden but was surrounded by native Eucalyptus, wattle and T-trees.  The house had been constructed in the midst of a clump of Eucalyptus trees. We brought in a bulldozer to clear ground for our guest wing and at the same time thinned the trees on our northern side to allow in more winter sunlight and the establishment of gardens. We allowed the tall Eucalyptus trees at the front of our house (the eastern side) to remain. I insisted on the total removal of all the trees on our western side because I knew that Granite Belt storms came from the west and I saw those trees as a possible threat to our home. Sure enough the first vicious storm we had came from that direction in 1994 and threw the roof of our cold room onto the roof of our house. Plus it belted us with hail. But no, no tree came crashing onto our roof.

Next, in 2001 a small tornado approached from the west but once more our house suffered no damage although five large Eucalyptus trees in our front garden were broken and tossed across our front fence and car shed, damaging both. Fortunately our car was not at home as I had taken two WWOOF girls on an outing. Only Eberhard witnessed the devastation as it happened.  I addition to destroying five Eucalyptus trees in our front garden that storm smashed five similar trees  outside our front garden.  This tornado came like a bouncing ball, destroying those ten trees and then bouncing off to tear a roof from a shed near Glen Aplin. The damage to our garden was immense and I had to establish another garden, minus the advantage of shade trees. My friends tried to offer me consolation for the loss of my beautiful garden, saying, “See it as a challenge.”  I needed time to grieve for my loss.

Patches on a tree trunk

By 2005 it was only tree trunks like the one above that revealed where once  shady trees had sheltered our front garden. By 2010 these stumps have been totally covered by green vines or hidden by spreading conifers and no one now visiting our garden is aware of the damage it experienced. Read the rest of this entry »

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GOOD TREES – BAD TREES? 2

Weeping Willow - Stanthorpe

It is winter now on the Granite Belt and most of the Weeping Willows have dropped their leaves.

This is a tree much favoured around the world for its lush green foliage. It is frequently planted in parks. But, in Australia it is  classified in some areas as a noxious weed.  Read what I have say about these trees and please add your comments.

The Willow tree originated in China and spread via the Silk Road to Egypt and through Europe to reach England.

The Weeping Willow is a beautiful tree to use for large yards and has a number of interesting aspects. You might be surprised to learn it is a medicinal tree as well.

The Weeping Willow tree is a member of a family of trees and scrubs that contains over three hundred and fifty different varieties. The varieties of willows have many widely different characteristics, but they are all remarkably alike in many ways. Most of them occur in moist soil in cooler climates and mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. Willows are remarkably fertile trees and easily cross fertilize between species. These occur naturally or as the result of deliberate cultivation. Read the rest of this entry »

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GOOD TREES – BAD TREES? 1

To some people any tree is a good tree. They know that trees take carbon dioxide from the air and return fresh oxygen. For this reason they call trees the ‘lungs of the world’. They know that through evaporation trees add moisture to the air, which in turn leads to rainfall. Trees also green our view.

In years gone by the forester of Europe was a highly regarded man for it was his duty to ensure that forests were replanted and managed in such a way that there would always be a supply of timber and firewood. However, in Australia in the past twenty years the Forestry departments appear to have lost out following a propaganda campaign instigated by urban people who believe that no tree should be culled. State governments have created more forests and National Parks, but not provided more money for the management of these areas, thus allowing weeds and feral animals to flourish. State governments have created new laws pertaining to land clearing and under such acts as the Remnant Vegetation Act stopped people like Eberhard and me from management of land that we had purchased in 1992. Although we own our land and pay rates on the whole area, we must now be unpaid caretakers of this portion of our property. Many other country people were similarly affected and none of us were ever offered any compensation for this land grab.

This map shows our property, but two thirds of it is shaded. That two thirds supposedly represents remnant vegetation. We can not remove any trees from this area which means we can not use it for agricultural purposes. We put our 14 hectare property up for sale last year and held a widely advertised auction sale in October, but received no bids.

Why? Probably because this land is no longer available for agricultural purposes.

But what are these wonderful trees that must be preserved? Read the rest of this entry »

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GARDEN FAVOURITES

It appears to me that there are a number of reasons why so many garden favourites have become flowering weeds of the Granite Belt. One of these reasons is that we have so many fruit eating birds. These are the birds of the rainforest of the Great Dividing Range like the Satin bower bird. These birds build their bowers for courtship and next in the rainforests to rear their young, but they overwinter in the gardens of the Granite Belt. Every year flocks of these birds arrive in my garden in March and will not depart until September or October.

Bower of the male satin bower bird

I photographed the bower with blue treasures near the main picnic area at Girraween National Park.

The adult male has striking glossy blue-black plumage, a pale bluish white bill and a violet-blue iris. Younger males and females are similar in colour to each other, and are collectively referred to as ‘green’ birds. They are olive-green above, off-white with dark scalloping below and have brown wings and tail. The bill is browner in colour. Young males may begin to acquire their adult plumage in their fifth year and are not fully ‘attired’ until they are seven.

Male Satin bower bird

When these birds arrive in my garden they quickly eat any remaining fruit on fig and persimmon trees. During the winter they feast on the red berries of the cotoneaster shrub which means I then have seedling weeds of the cotoneaster appearing elsewhere in my garden, but I haven’t yet seen the cotoneaster become a district weed on the Granite Belt. I have seen the cotoneaster spreading along the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range at Toowoomba, where no doubt the birds spread the seeds from the gardens to the forest range. The nurseries of Australia no longer sell cotoneaster plants. These birds and other fruit eating birds also eat any other form of berry fruit. Read the rest of this entry »

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