We got here on Thursday in time for a slap up brunch at Bank St Cafe - our reward for an early start in Geelong and a smooth trip west along the A1 to Port Fairy.
We had some time to fill in before checking into 2A Wishart St (and our friends Judy and Jurgen were still on the road from Melbourne at this stage) so we set out walking along the riverfront of this beautiful little port town.
Our first sighting of the crayfish catch of the day (and there's more on the crayfish story to come later!)............
On Friday, with Judy and Jurgen, we drove NW from Port Fairy up to the World Heritage listed Budj Bim National Park to join a guided tour of the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre - the site of extensive eel farming by the Gunditjmara people over many thousands of years, up until colonial times.
The closest view I've ever got of a koala in the wild ......
As well as the intricate systems of stone weirs and channels forming the eel traps in this area we saw this reconstruction of a stone based hut, remnants of which are still visible in village type formations all over parts of the T.I.P.
The eel farming practised by the Gunditjmara people around Budj Bim forms the dramatic opening chapters of Bruce Pascoe's "Dark Emu" - so it was a great thrill for me to experience some of the landscape and stories he researched for such an important section of this controversial book.
As part of the tour our Aboriginal guides took us on a drive south of the Aquaculture Centre to the Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected area to show us an extensive fish trap complex there. But we were initially distracted by the sight of this - in one the gum trees near where our van pulled up .......
Back at the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre our guide taught us about the remarkable life cycle of the short fin eel (Kooyang) and how important they were as a food source for the Gunditjmara people in this part of Victoria for over six thousand years.
The Aquaculture Centre overlooks Tae Rak (known as Lake Condah by the colonists) which had largely disappeared by the 1950s due to much of this land being chanelled and drained over the years to meet the needs of settler farmers and pastoralists. The lake is gradually being returned to a resemblance of its former glory, thanks to its importance in the area's recent World Heritage listing.
Back in Port Fairy there has been so much going on .... as well as the Jazz Festival we've had the Commonwealth Championship Sheep Dog Trials to entertain us ...... we've spent hours being spellbound by the skill and the charisma of these amazing dogs (and their handlers).
It was an added thrill to see so many beautiful Border Collies and Kelpies in action - especially as we've learnt so much about them and their trainers from the wonderful Muster Dog series on the ABC. The breeder of the Border Collies in the current season was a big presence at this championship - his dog Rabbit took out the top prize in the event.
And of course there was the Jazz too - the main reason we'd come to Port Fairy ..... so many wonderful performances, such talent, so much to choose from. We're definitely coming back next year to do it all over again!
As well as all this a big part of the weekend was the time we were able to share with great friends - but I'll leave some of that joy to the next post!
No comments:
Post a Comment