Day 130

Day 130 Swan Hill

Today we did the Settlement village. Last night we went back for sound and light show. Turns out only 2 couples had booked it, so it was not full, even better, the other couple did not tur up, so it was

Sound and light show

US at the sound and light show

just the two of us. Our guide dropped off the trailers he usually carried people o and off we went. The show is a little different from the one we did n Ballarat a few years ago. There was no re-enactments of sieges or  anything like that. They have the settlement set up like a little town and the tour drives around it starting from the oldest to the newest. As he goes along, he has a remote control and turns them on as we get to it. They light up the buildings and tell a short story about it and thn the next building lights up and you get its story and so it goes. They have this huge steam paddle boat

The big Murray River Cod

The border

there called the Gem that they light up and tell the story – she is over 100 years old and though she is in her own little pond, she is still afloat. We got home at about 10:45 and off to bed.

In the morning we wandered down to the park again and redid what we did last night, but on foot. All of the shops and houses we saw yesterday were open. Last night you could see into buildings through

Portable prison

Old food safe

lit windows, today you could walk through them. They have a huge tractor collection, old carts and carriages, old car collection, one you can drive round the settlement in for free. It was just like the cars we had for our wedding. They also have a small omnibus drawn by a Percheron, not quite a Clydesdale, but close enough. They have the full collection of harvesters and ploughs, a church and blacksmiths. Our tour guide from last night was there in the print shop where he volunteers his time and he took some pictures of us in town. They had a school group through and they get to make a nail in the blacksmith, make rope to take back and make butter from cream. The tea rooms are operational and

Us in the print shop

Us in town

provided some very cheap but beautiful meals. It is an old bakery and it is in the cellar, so they have removed the floor over it so you can see how it worked. the place is run by mostly volunteers and many are over 80. there was a lovely lady in the tea rooms who when she asked someone to guess her age, she said she had her OBE. Now this interested me as it meant she had been recognised for her work. But when the

The old Bakery

person gave up, she said OBE - Over Bloody Eighty, she was 83. another lovely old lady met us on the street outside and was all dressed up in period cosstume. She had come in early, but no one needed her so she was walking round talking to people, just like us. Her husband had died recently (some 6 months before) and she was on the loose. He had been bit of a miser and had horded the money and had played the stock market when he retired and she was well off and about to start spending some of the money. Sounds a bit sus to me, but when she was leaving

church one day, the minister (who had buried her husband some months before asked if she had ever been to Jarusalem, she said no and now they are booked to go. We chatted about wheelchair assist and how good it is and she should check it out and off we went on our tour.



It was a very good day and we left it about 3:00 in time to get back to Girt and watch the steamer go

Old moving pictures

Maureen's new ring

by and wav the people on board, the oldies up the front and the school kids down the back.

After a cup of tea, we went for a walk down town to get a couple of things and returned to the park. It is hard to get used to the fact that one side of the river is NSW and Victoria is on the other. During our walk we came across a little monument and stone where they commemorate that Burke and Wills can through Swan Hill on their way north and fame (or infamy). The locals

Me and Burke and Wills

apparently hosted them for a few days whilst the last parts of the expedition were gathered. Our neighbours were there and we went over for drinks. With daylight saving, the sun does not go down until 8:30, so we sat around until after 10 yakking away, that is why this blog is so late. Tomorrow we move on.