On Tuesday we came across from Walkaway via the Georgina Road and saw the Greenough Pioneer Museum on our way past, our destination today was to visit this museum and the Central Greenough township and the Bentwood Olive Farm.
Finally figured out what these little doves are:
Turtle Doves – imports from the old country around 1870’s They have very musical cooing.
We also found out what the other crop is that we saw growing and could not work it out. White Lupins – used for sheep fodder. Blue Lupins cause digestive problems and because it’s difficult to grow grass here they grow this crop to feed the animals. Another mystery solved.
If every day is windy, this is what happens to you.
These gums have weak branches and cannot resist the wind and just fall over and take root along the ground.
At the historical settlement Central Greenough (pronounced green off) we had a look through the buildings of the town. It would have been a very quaint picturesque settlement in the 1870’s.
The school house. Most of the buildings had displays, but it was disappointing to find that pigeons had infested the ceilings and you could hear and smell them. I didn’t spend much time within the buildings because I was concerned about the air quality and health risks.
The catholic church, still in use today.
Late morning, the young alpaca’s having their morning nap.
Tired little cowboys, big day on the range.
In the township, there was a information centre, cafe and gift shop. There were many beautiful things in the gift shop, one of the best that I have seen.
Our next location was to be Bentwood Olive Grove. Above are the olive trees all lined up like soldiers and some of the resident sheep. This would have been our first visit to a Olive Farm and I was looking forward to it. We drove all the way in, parked and walked up the to shop and lo and behold a closed sign. It would have been nice it they had bothered to put this sign down at the road side and save us the bother. No olive tapenade for us :(
Now back to the Greenough Pioneer Museum.
I saw this frog in the gardens, but the pair I saw were too quick to get a photo of. I had never seen these frogs before. They looked like story book frogs. I asked the guide about them and he told me that they are called “Motorbike Frogs”. He took me into the another section (not open to public) to find this one for a photo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9eIuzEF_S4
Watch the you tube clip and you will see why. :) Wait for the gear change.
When you travel you see some fantastic ideas. In the garden, they had put in little time capsules with mementos inside, set into the concrete garden path. I asked about these and they are actually Moccona coffee jar lids. Some had jewellery in, others buttons, what a wonderful idea which I will be doing at our house. The glass lid is very strong and the plastic keeps whatever is inside preserved.
This gum tree is 800 years old! Not an easy achievement in a tough climate.
The museum was a former family home and part of the dwelling is still private residence. Most of the memorabilia is family history of pioneering families with lots of photos. Lovely building and out houses. There were two huge pepper trees in the front yard which had been planted in 1870 and were brought from South America and probably were the first planted in Australia.
We headed back to Cape Burney and had lunch on the river – in the breeze of course :)
It was amazing how much time those couple of locations took up with wandering around.
Tomorrow we do more touring of Geraldton city centre while our car is being serviced and we continue south towards the Pinnacles.
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