Back to normal

Sleepy Gympie is returning to normal.

There is flood debris hanging on the fences

The water level is still up a bit and the normally slow running river is still quite fast.

The track down to the river bank is open again, although probably slushy.

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, alls well with the world.
(Except the bloody grass is growing over an inch a day.)

starting fresh in 2008

The Christmas New Year season is over for another year, I’m finding it a bit like the holiday that you really enjoy… but BOY its good to get home and settle back into whatever your comfort Zone is.

As we get toward the finish of 2008s first week, (thus far with no scars on my personal world) I am thankful for the family, friends (both personal and “Blog” kinds) The peace we enjoy within Australia, the beauty of nature that surrounds us, and the health that I’m blessed with.

Our major supermarkets have maintained their marketing genius by flooding their shelves with Easter “Hot Cross Buns” this week mixed in with the “sale specials” for Christmas wrapping paper and decorations, this marketing fiasco which began last October will finish at the end of March, after Easter.

The saga of the moving garage to accommodate the new Hungry Jacks (Burger King) store is nearing completion with HJ commencing to trade on Christmas Eve and the Garage re-opening early in the new year complete with their new office/amenities building and concrete driveway etc completed. Here is the original story.

Ready to re-open I reckon.

Hungry Jack's rear entry and car park where the Garage was located

To bring the building news up to date, the excavator returned and completed most of the work on the land next door to my house a few days prior to Christmas, they are obviously taking some vacation time now as the big ol’ Hitachi is resting peacefully at the rear of the block. Here is that story.

I finally got around to filling the third picture frame with photos of more blog buddies, the first two are here if you are interested.

This time the faces belong to;

Miss Cellania, Pamela

Jerry aka lz, Mike - Hale, Moi

Muzikdude, Natalie aka TLP

John Earle, Marti

Karen, Olive, Willowtree

Raggedy, Lucy

That feels better, all 2007 stuff tidied up here now I think.

Changes in Gympie.

This is what SHOULD be in the News.....

It's a tough, but heart-warming story...with a picture of John Gebhardt in Iraq.

John Gebhardt's wife, Mindy, said that this little girl's entire family was executed. The insurgents intended to execute the little girl also, and shot her in the head...but they failed to kill her. She was cared for in John's hospital and is healing up, but continues to cry and moan. The nurses said John is the only one who seems to calm her down, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both slept in that chair. The girl is coming along with her healing.

He is a real Star of the war, and represents what the Western world is trying to do.


Some of you will recall I posted this photo of a partially completed
Happy Jacks (Burger King) store when I returned home from Perth.


If you look closely (after you click to enbiggen) you will see a building just
visible on the right side of this photo.


This is that self same building on Friday Nov 9, Burger King have obviously
done a deal with Dore Brothers Garage, the owners of the building shown here,
BK had needed extra space for their drive through and car park, there was a
vacant block directly opposite Dore Brothers, so they moved them.

Here is the new site complete with a new concrete slab and two vehicle hoists
already installed.


This building had a services and office block,which had been built separately
and will be moved separately to its new location.


Here is the office block still in place after the workshop building was removed.


At this point they ran into a problem, the boom of the crane was extended
to its safe limit and they needed to move the building another 10 feet to the
rear of the block. So they had to disconnect everything and move the crane
closer, there were a dozen men roaming around this site and not a hard hat
to be seen, but at least they didn't ignore the cranes safety limits.
I don't have accurate measurements for this building but it would be approx.
120 feet X 80 feet with 5 roller doors for access two on one side and three
on the other.


Its all over bar the shouting now, they were just locating each of the uprights
onto the bolts that had been set in concrete, just the final leveling and this
part of the job is finished.


When next we see this area it will be part of BK car parking area.

Yeah I know I have too much time on my hands.... don't you just wish
that you did too.

The rain it's plain, is hard to explain.

During the 1999 flood there was another 10 meters (32 feet) of water
over this bridge.


There is about 12 meters of flood water there now and this seems likely to be
the maximum, (the 1999 flood peaked at 22 meters)
Meanwhile the Muster limps on, the 8000 people who were already at the site were still quite happy to be there, arrangements to transport the artists into the site are in hand and its hoped the road will reopen to allow more people to attend the final day Sunday, but for the first time in its 26 year history there will not be a new attendance record set this year.

THE ITALIAN GOLFER.

An 80-year old Italian man goes to the doctor for a check-up.

The doctor is amazed at what good shape the guy is in and asks,
"How do you stay in such great physical condition?"

I'm Italian and I am a golfer," says the old guy," and that's why I'm in
such good shape." I'm up well before daylight and out golfing up and down
the fairways." "Have a glass of vino, and all is well."

"Well," says the doctor, "I'm sure that helps, but there's got to be more
to it. How old was your Dad when he died?"

"Who said my Dad's dead?"

The doctor is amazed. "You mean you're 80 years old and your Dad's still
alive. How old is he?"

He's 100 years old," says the old Italian golfer. "In fact he golfed with
me this morning, and then we went to the topless beach for a walk, that's
why he's still alive ... he's Italian and he's a golfer too."

Well," the doctor says, "that's great, but I'm sure there's more to it
than that. How about your Dad's Dad? How old was he when he died?"

"Who said my grandpa's dead?"

Stunned, the doctor asks, "You mean you're 80 years old and your
grandfather's still living! Incredible, how old is he?"

"He's 118 years old," says the old Italian golfer. the doctor is getting
frustrated at this point, "So, I guess he went golfing with you this
morning too?"

"No. Grandpa couldn't go this morning because he's getting married today."

At this point the doctor is close to losing it. "Getting married!! Why
would a 118 year-old guy want to get married?"

"Who said he wanted to?"

(I'll thank Sandy for that story.)


Any time you got nothing to do - and lots of time to do it -
come on up.
Mae West

GOLD!!!!!!

Gympie.
Large and rambling township built around a once-successful gold mine.

One of many reminders that Gympie was founded as a gold mining town, the
finding of the sizable quantities of gold was credited with saving the newly
founded state of Queensland from bankruptcy in 1867.


Mining here was principally an underground operation with the gold contained in
quartz reefs, this differs from many of the rich gold areas in Australia where
the gold was alluvial, literally nuggets picked up from the ground or panned
from creek beds.

Gympie.

This remarkable town proclaims proudly that it was 'The Town that saved Queensland'. This grandiose and unusual claim is more fact than wishful thinking. In 1867 Queensland, less than a decade old, was facing possible bankruptcy (there was widespread unemployment and two banks had closed in Brisbane) when James Nash discovered gold near the present site of Gympie. Overnight the wealth from the goldfield (it was to go on to produce over 99 million grams of gold) led to Queensland's first goldrush and pulled the state back from potential disaster.

The story of Nash's discovery is a typical quixotic tale of luck. Nash was so down on his luck at the time that he literally had nothing more than a dog, a pick and a panning dish. When his pick broke he walked to Maryborough where, with an ounce of gold which he had panned, he bought rations and some more equipment. He returned to the Gympie area, went up a dry creek bed and within a week had 75 ounces of gold which he sold in Brisbane for £200. He registered his find and the rush was on. Tales of the early months in Gympie are typical of a swashbuckling mining town. One observer noted, 'Every night it was brawls and fights. Often you would not know which fight to look at first: the cause in nearly every case was beer and barmaids.' Nash managed to make £7000 from the field.

Located 166 km north of Brisbane and 95 m above sea level, Gympie is one of those strange towns which stretches for kilometre after kilometre over hill and dale to a point where, if you don't take the correct turn off the Bruce Highway, the town centre can be quite hard to locate. In recent times the town centre has been by-passed by the highway which makes the town centre's ribbon development (once it stretched along the Bruce Highway) seem quite strange.

Named after a local stinging tree which the local Aborigines reputedly called 'gimpi gimpi' and briefly called Nashville after James Nash had discovered gold in the area, (it would have been quite fitting had the name "Nashville" stuck as one of the biggest country music festivals in Australia is held here every year) it officially became Gympie in 1868. At this time all that existed was a mining shanty town with endless tents and numerous small stores and liquor outlets.

The growth of Gympie was remarkable. Within months there were 25 000 people on the goldfields. Within a year a gold battery had been built. It was proclaimed a municipality in 1880, became a town a decade later and was a city by 1905. The railway arrived in 1881 and in 1888 it became one of the few towns in Australia to have its own stock exchange. The gold mining continued until 1925. The city then became the most important regional centre for the area servicing the rich variety of agricultural activities which spread from the coast into the hinterland.

Today Gympie is the centre of the Mary Valley agricultural district where beef and dairy cattle thrive along with tropical fruit and vegetables.

There is still one productive gold mine in Gympie but it is a far cry from the bustling gold rush days of the late 1800s.

Rain... Glorious Rain.

Woo Hooo… Rain.. In some areas of South East Queensland
the best rainfall for seven years, it’s not drought breaking
yet, but was certainly heaven sent.

The rain which fell over a 24 hour period varied from almost
3 inches down to 1 inch, but for a change the best falls were
in the areas that needed it most, this included many of the
water catchment dams that have become severely depleted.

There will be people in other countries who will not be able
to comprehend that such a small amount of rainfall can
create such an outcry, as I have stated many times in the
past Australia is among the driest continents on Earth.

And as such has learned to use water wisely, our native flora
has developed over millions of years to survive on quite poor
soils and minimal rainfall.

The same cannot be said for some of the introduced species
and crops and therein lies the problem our farmers face
constantly, farming practices have of necessity become very
good, but it is still possible to do everything right and
because nature plays a trick get virtually no yield.

All this aside we got some much needed rain and if we can
only get some follow up within the next few weeks things
will certainly look a lot brighter.

We have just started the third and final month of
Spring so I thought I would have a wander around
town and have a look at natures bounty.


At this time of year it seems wherever you look in Gympie
there is a brilliant patch of purple as the Jacaranda trees
blossom.

I don't even have to step off my front porch for the morning
dose of purple, this tree is actually in front of my neighbors
house and is a part of a street scape that includes 7 more
Jacaranda trees.

It isn't until I venture a little further that the pruning done by
our power supply company becomes clear... oh well... we do
want an uninterupted power supply!!!

In front of my house I have this confused specimen, it can't
make up it's mind whether it's Spring or Fall, with blossom
on the South side and leaves falling off on the North side.
Before anyone asks, I have no idea what kind of a tree it is,
I just know it's confused.

Everones favourite, some roses in the park.

Even the Yellow rose of Texas grows here.

After the rain the purple carpet under the Jacaranda's is
sometimes better than the display on the trees.

There are lots of native pigeon's here, made a pretty
picture on the purple carpet.

As I said, everywhere you look!!!

The bandstand didn't have a band today, only some picnickers.