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Published: September 28th 2008
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Well the last month has been great here in the land down under. After my last entry I realized that I didn't put the most important thing I learned in Asia...and that is to expect nothing, that way you won't be disappointed. That goes for tours booked, guesthouse bookings, etc. It makes everything that you do get a bonus!!
Well I arrived in Melbourne Australia just about 4 weeks ago and for the first few days I stayed with Marijana Rados and her family. I met MJ in Europe on my Contiki tour 2 years ago and we have stayed in touch since. She and her family made my first few days so easy and great. She gave me her old mobile to use, hooked me up to internet, public transport, housed and fed me, allowed me to use a proper washer to do laundry (ahhhhh clean clothes!!), and showed me around Melbourne so I could get my bearings. I stayed 3 nights with them and then bought the Australian Wwoof book and was out wwoofing. For those I haven't explained it to, wwoofing stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms. So people who have some type of organic farm,
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MJ was great and got me a cake for my belate b-day! permaculture, etc can sign up to have their names, address and info published in the wwoof book and then people who want to go wwoofing buy the book and then call up the people. The idea is that you work between 4-6 hours per day in exchange for meals and accommodation. It is a great set up and there are over 1600 different places to go wwoofing in Australia. It seemed just up my alley so I arranged to go to an organic vineyard and winery about an hour and 10 minutes north west of Melbourne.
The first place I went was with two absolutely amazing people, Andre and Jan. They have had the winery (called Cloudscape Wines and they are organic meaning no chemical fertilizers or artificial irrigation systems and their wines are preservative free) for about 8 years and are originally from Sydney. They had a nice mob of kangaroo's which were great to watch as long as they didn't see or hear me, then they took off. But they help to fertilize the vineyard, hence why I had 'roo poo on my shoes time and again. They have 2 17 year old cats and a young
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lovely downtown Melbourne border collie. I really enjoyed having pets around again and took quickly to brushing the cats daily and bonding with them. Jan, Andre and I got along famously and I so so enjoyed staying with them and chatting over some very excellent wine and Andre's gourmet cooking each evening. My jobs there included tying up the vines, cleaning up the old pruned twigs and such from last season, planting new cuttings and protecting them with guards, painting, and other odds and ends. I went for 4 days and stayed 2 weeks!! I learned so much from them about sustainable living. Their house had solar water heating and offset electricity costs with solar and wind power. The drinking, shower, and washing water came from the rain. Like most Australian homes they don't have central heating but use wood burning small pot-belly type fireplace which were only put on when it was really cold. That is one thing I was not prepared for, was how cold it was going to be here. It was between 3 and 20 degrees, with most days being on the chilly side. I had to go buy more pants, a sweater, and a long-sleeved shirt. Spring time
in Victoria (the state I am in) = cold, rainy, windy weather. It is truly a myth that Australia is warm all year round.
Andre and Jan's gray water and sewage are not fed into a sewer system but rather to a worm compost so that it can be recycled into lovely soil. So the toilet paper was unbleached and you only flush when necessary (i.e. the whole if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down idea!!). Another thing I noticed here is that hardly anyone has a dryer. They use the good outdoors year round. I know for us that is not possible in the winter but we could learn a thing or two about saving energy and hanging more things to dry. Most people also have composts, recycling, etc. To me it seems like they are somewhat ahead of us in the environmental preservation. Many more organic products and environmentally friendly soaps, detergents, and cleaners. Two Hills especially was bad...not even a recycling program for paper, even at the hospital. eekk....sorry guys.
I then went on to stay with another family about 1/2 hour from Andre and Jan's. They were a family of
4: Meggin, Noel, Rose (age 8), and Jasmine (age 4). They have a 20 acre place about 15 kms from Daylesford (a gorgeous picturesque little town famous for their spas) where the breed Arabian Horses and have all kinds of veggie gardens and garden beds. They had 2 dogs, 2 lovely chinchilla cats, 3 chickens (which the Australian's abbreviate to chooks), 5 rabbits, and the 11 Arabian horses. My jobs there included weeding, clearing out debris/dead bits from garden beds and planting new shrubs and flowers, brushing the horses, childcare, etc. I created 2 new garden beds by clearing out the grass for 4 lavender bushes and some pencil pines. Then I covered the dirt with wood chips and they looked quite nice when all done. I am just sad I forgot to take a photo of them. I had no idea chickens can eat so much of the table scraps...and the eggs were so fresh! I stayed with them for a week and then headed back into Melbourne to finish my last 4 days wwoofing in the city before Desiree was due to arrive.
Most (98%) of woofing places are obviously in the country but there was one
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Melbourne has lots of art randomly placed. this one is referred to as the ribs by some in the city and I was lucky that Cecilia was able to take me. I started on the 26th in Kyneton at Cecilia's sisters where we pulled out lots and lots of weeds and grass to make a passively watered veggie garden. Quite a little ingenious system of terracotta bulbs that are buried in the garden connected by hoses and a barrel that collects rain water and then filters it down through the gravity-fed system to the plants. In Australia they have been in a drought for the last 3 years and therefore are not allowed to water gardens, wash cars, showers must be 4 minutes or less, and no other unneccesary water wasting. So everyone has large rain barrels so they can water gardens with this water and some also use for drinking etc. Here at Cecilia's I am once again connected to a good internet connection so was able to include some photo's in this blog and also learned a lot from her about gardens and permaculture in the urban setting. Very different from what I did in the country but I feel like a bit of a green thumb after all this. No doubt my mom will
help me put my new agriculture skills to use in the spring when I return. I have found the gardening quite relaxing and a nice creative outlet and I hope to put my reinforced environmentally conscious mind to work at home encouraging others to respect our resources and use them wisely.
Well that is the wwoofing experience so far. It has been a great way to meet locals and learn about how people live in various parts of Australia. My conclusions so far is that culturally there isn't too much difference to it and Canada and that has been a welcomed break from the vast differences in Asia. I pick up Desiree in less than 48 hours and am super duper stoked to see her and do some traveling again. we are heading off to Tasmania and the great ocean road. Should be a blast!!
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