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Published: April 19th 2010
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Day 339 - Bridge Creek
The house was very quiet first thing this morning! The kids were spread all over the place but at least there was one constant, Jake was fast asleep on the sofa in the front room!
People slowly begin to drift off during the morning, Wils & his set of kids are the first to go as he needs to travel home which is south of Melbourne somewhere. I’d been a bit concerned during the shed activities that one of the kids had accidentally drunk some of my beautiful cocktail of Wine, Cider and Cordial but when it happened again much later in the evening when all the youngsters were safely in bed my suspicions turned elsewhere - Wils! He is a secret cordial lover!! It’s so secret that he doesn’t even know. It won’t do his manly image any good at all but the truth must be told!
We’ve got a bit of shopping to do this morning so offer the Reeves kids a trip to Benalla. Ken and Beth jump at the chance, especially when we say we’re going to check out the museum there to look at Ned Kelly’s “sash”.
The journey is about an hour in the car so by the time we arrive the kids are full of energy and busting to get into the shops! We hit the ground running and they’re soon spending their money on marbles and the biggest dog in the world! Beth found this huge cuddly pooch in the Op Shop and decided she needed to give it a new home. For a good twenty minutes we terrorised the Op Shop with the kids trying on clothes, high heeled shoes, ringing the bell on the counter and generally having a very fun time. I think the shop assistant was rather pleased to see us leave but at least we’d made a purchase!
While I secretly bought silly things for Darryl’s birthday, he queued up for some lunchtime chips which the kids just loved. We finished off with the purchase of Zoe’s birthday present for tomorrow and then headed off to the Pioneer Museum.
Most of the towns around this area have some sort of Ned Kelly associated ‘draw card’ for the tourists and Benalla’s is the cummerbund (sash) he was presented with when he saved a young boy from drowning in
the flood waters at Hughes Creek. It became his most treasured possession and was found under his armour by the doctor who treated his wounds after the last stand at Glenrowan. We sit and watch a video that explains how this daring son of an Irish convict came to be such an iconic figure in Australian history and folk lore. Ken is very interested in the story and already knows a great deal about Ned, Beth however is less interested especially when it involves sitting relatively still! We wandered through the rest of the museum looking at all the memorabilia and in particular checked out the blood stained cummerbund (sash) which is displayed in a glass case. As for learning more about Ned Kelly, well there’s an animated theatre in Glenrowan which we’ve promised to take the kids to so we’ll tell all then!
The museum doesn’t just contain Ned Kelly related items, there’s a whole range of Penny Farthings, a huge dolls house which impresses Beth and then there’s the costume section which has the ‘Styled in Silk Since 1770’ exhibition with the most amazing dresses.
Darryl & Ken were also learning about some of Benalla’s famous
sons which include Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop, He is described as a courageous leader and compassionate doctor who despite being captured in 1942 by the Japanese, still managed to restore morale in the terrible prison camps and jungle hospitals associated with the Burma Railway.
The journey home had new bounce as Ken & Beth both joined in renditions of ‘The Boxer’ with coat hangers used as whips at the ‘la la la’ bits! It kept us all entertained anyway!
Back at the ranch we introduced Milo the Op Shop dog to the rest of the family, had dinner and put ourselves away to bed early in readiness for a certain young lady’s birthday tomorrow!
Dar and Sar
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