Day 127

Day 127 Wodonga

Today we were in rural NSW/Vic border area and we saw a submarine, not a small model or a midget

Maureen feeding ducks in the morning

Our little Wier

submarine, but the HMAS Otway full size, but I jump ahead. We left Queanbeyan this morning and moved our expedition in a Northerly direction (we are back on the road now so we are and expedition again). Our path led us back to Yass, which we diverted through for a look. The Hume Highway seems to divert around all the towns and given the amount of heavy trucks and volume of traffic, I can see why, but it

Obviously heritage listed next to new

Where the dog sits on the ticker box

does deter travellers such as us from going in. when then went onto Gundagai, we did not make the mistake of turning into Gundagai, but into the Dog on a Tucker Box memorial, 5 miles from Gundagai, sounds like a good line for a song. We had lunch there and spent longer that we intended, about an hour and decamped in a Westerly direction.

Our next stop was Holbrook. This town was originally called Germantown but during the first world war, Germans were not top of the pops and they petitioned to have it changed in 1916. The options

HMAS Otway

they were given were Seville (English PM prior WWI), Fischer (Admiral of the English navy), Kitchener (Field Marshal of the English Army) and Holbrook (after Lieutenant Holbrook of the English navy). Who was Holbrook I hear you ask? Well let me tell you. Back in 1915 when we were looking at forcing the Dardanelles ( this is prior to Gallipoli), the English decided to send in a Submarine, the B11 to be exact, skippered by Lieutenant Holbrook. Holbrook took his submarine into the straits and dodged 5 minefields, submerged all the way. He then came up to periscope depth and low and behold, there was an old Turkish battleship sitting there. He dived

Underwater Stern section

Torpedo and tube

again and was caught up in the current and when he checked again with his periscope and he was lined up perfectly so he fired a torpedo and sank the battleship. He then got stuck in the shallows and after a lot of luck managed to get back into the channel and then drifted back out. Heroes welcome and Victoria Cross, well deserved, first submariner to do so and was a darling on the press. It unfortunately overshadows the poor Australian Submariner Lieutenant Stoker who soon after, not only took the

Maureen at hatch

Hologram presentation

AE2 Submarine into the Dardanelles but into the Sea of Murmansk and had half the Turkish fleet after him for ages then when he was sneaking out, almost made it out but snagged a mine cable and had to surface where he was fired upon and was sunk. A bit more daring do than old Holbrook but he was an upitty Australian so no VC or him.

So with those choices, they chose Holbrook as their town name. Can you imagine 4 English names at

Figure from hologram presentation

Lt Holbrook when he was a Commander

a time when we were at war with our own heroes and Generals!!! Anyway, they had their name and they started to keep contact with the submariners of the Australian Navy and made then Freemen of the town and had regular sporting contests between them and the navy, until they moved the submarines from Sydney to Garden Island – suck on that Sydney! When one of the Owen Class Submarines, Otway was being sold off, Simms Metals bought it for scrap and a few idiots at Holbrook had an idea, why don’t we see if we can get it here for a display. Well these brave men

Access to command centre

Officers mess

went to Simms and asked if they could purchase the outer hull (Submarines have 2 hulls, an inner pressure hull that keeps them dry and an outer hull that protects the inner hull so they stay dry). Simms said no worries, they would sell them as much as they wanted at scrap metal prices. So much for and idiotic idea.

They then trucked each of the sections from Sydney to Holbrook and reassembled it. They have the

Officers mess

Crew bunks

complete submarine that would be seen on the surface, conning tower, the lot. They also have the control room equipment and periscope that works. They have a small museum there set up and we went through that. They have a hologram presentation and the control room where you can look through the periscope.

Control room

Maureen even managed to take a picture through it. It is just the most amazing thing in the middle of the wheatbelt, it is like having it in Katanning!

From Holbrook, we decamped again and headed the expedition towards Albury, our planned overnight stop and had the intention to stop at the Ettamooga Pub that was listed on our map. Alas

and alack, we did not see any marked turnoffs for it. We were both looking and neither saw it so it may no longer be there. We got to Albury and started looking for a caravan park, our guide said there were 5, how hard could it

Maureen at the periscope

be. Well bloody hard, we found one but it looked really crappy, so we moved on. There are no caravan signs so I made the executive decision to abandon the search and head for Wodonga, hopefully better luck. Problem is with driving around a town with a caravan and you don’t know the streets, is too nerve wracking at the end of the day.

Girt and Trude through the periscope

We drove to Wodonga which was only 20kms so no big deal and similar issue except that we saw a sign saying turn for caravan park, which we did, and then nothing to the point we thought we were lost. A quick phone call and all sorted, just had to go another km or two. Tomorrow, Echuca.

Girt and Trude with HMAS Otway

Day 126

Day 126 Canberra

Well today we went in to watch our government in action. We had booked tickets for question time last week and in we went today. I am not sure if it is that we are getting used to our bed or that with daylight saving has 8am being 5 am in WA or what but we are sleeping in until 9am here. We sprang out of bed and started getting ready and headed off to Parliament House. We had a few stops on the way so we ended up there just before 12 and we headed up to the top. We wanted to drop in to see what the place was like before we had to do it for real. We had to drop off Maureen’s bag into the cloakroom. You cannot take in bags or phones or cameras, hence no pictures today, sorry. We went into the House of Reps and there were 5 people there, the only one we recognised was Ruddick. He waited around whilst some Labour guy went on about amending some wine bill as they saw some restriction on it affecting grape growers etc. We came in halfway through so not 100% sure what it was about. The guy sat down and Ruddick stood up and said he wanted a list of bills referred to a reference group to check before they could respond and the deputy speaker said – no worries. Ruddick then left – exit stage left! We then went over to the Senate and there were only a few there too. Some Liberal was up talking about how he was not afraid to be politically incorrect and most Australians agreed with him. I must admit I did tend to agree with him on most of it – such as just because you voice concern over immigrants, does not make you a racist, and things like that, again we came halfway through so did not get the full gist of it. By that time it was close to 12:30 so we went and had lunch.

The guy at the cloak room where we had to pick up tickets said we only had a short time to go so we went to the queue for question time. The attendant said we had ages left and why didn’t we go up on the roof area and enjoy the views. Instead of doing this we tagged onto a tour group. We went around Parliament again and at the end we still had a few minutes so we lined up for our seats. We got into the House of Reps about 1:45 and there were about 7 or 8 already there doing business. The deputy speaker was there and over the next few minutes 130 plus members came in. At 2 exactly, Bromwyn Bishop appeared and took the speaker’s chair and everyone was there ready for business. Question time started and the opposition started in on Abbott about education funding. They asked if he could guarantee that no school would be worse off under his government. Abbott said that Labour had with drawn $1.2b in funding from WA, Qld and NT and they had put it back in. the opposition asked this same question about 5 times in slightly different ways, they added in could they guarantee the state governments would not cut school funding, which they could not do as state governments do their own thing. This went back and forward then the Liberals put up gimme questions where they asked about funding changes to WA, Qld and NT, each one putting up the question from their own state and then the opposition called for a censure motion but mucked it up the first time, then tried again, then debate went on about it and then they called a vote and by the time that was done there was no more time for questions and at 3:30 we were kicked out. New members were going to do maiden speeches and they had invited friends and supporters. The member for Indi – Cathy McGowan was doing one and just about every supporter was there. There were hundreds of them n supporter t-shirts.

We left Parliament House and headed home. Tomorrow we leave Canberra and start heading home.

Day 125

Day 125 Canberra

Well we got to the War Memorial. We arrived right on opening at 10 and put our name down to do a

Kirkpatrick - simpson and his donkey

Gen. David Chalmers

wreath laying. Turns out it is a big day, they were honouring Edward Sheean. They pick a name from the honour roll of fallen soldiers and today was Eddies turn and family from around Australia were turning up. There was also a lot of Navy coming as well as they had named a submarine after him, the first able seaman to be honoured this way. He was a naval rating on the Corvette HMAS Armadale when it was attacked by a big mob of planes and bombers. The Armadale was hit by a number of bombs and torpedoes and was

Me and Dave at the Honour Roll

Edward Sheean

sinking. The crew were abandoning ship when Edward turned back from the side of the ship and strapped himself into his gun and continued firing and shooting down one of the bombers, he was till at his gun and was still firing when the ship went down.

I made out my card to Grandpa Bathgate #356 Clarence Bathgate, 10^th Light Horse Regiment, 3^rd Light Horse Brigade, Machine Gun Squadron. I was walking around the displays later and came across a guy on the Family Information stand were you can look up family service records and mentioned to him that he was in the 10^th Light Horse and he immediately went into the site to look up the details and the regiment history that is now on line at the website and was informed that it was the 10 ^th LHR that was involved in the Battle of the Nek (as shown in the film Gallipoli) and that the Machine Gun Squadron was instrumental in the taking of Beersheba. This guy was a mine of information and obviously loved his job.

The ccurrent plate - updated every 11/11

Edward Sheean at his gun

Talking of loving his job, we were told to wait in the foyer after doing our wreath card as there was a guided tour starting and we thought it would be a good idea. The guy who took us obviously loved his job too. His name is Dave Chalmers and he started at the Roll of Honour which is where all those killed are listed. Each brass plate is numbered and if you look up a name, it will give you the plate they are displayed on. They are sorted by regiment and some soldiers transferred around such as airmen and it was the regiment they died in that is the one they show up under. He also pointed out the there are no rank or service medals shown as all men who died are equal. Just as the 4^th name on the first plate is the name of the commanding

Soldiers kit including gun and grenades

Aussie modified 25 pounder

General of the ANZAC forces who died 2 weeks into the campaign. We went around the hall and saw Eward Sheean’s name and as we did three members of his family rolled up to look as well. Dave showed us through the museum and stopped at different points to highlight interesting points and one of those was the display of the Armadale and Edward Sheean. We also went into the hall of Remembrance where the unknown soldier is buried.

As we went around the museum we got to the Timor display and he was showing us a painting of Kylie Minogue entertaining the troops ( not a good picture, short and dumpy, wont get this artist to do my portrait!) and he said that he was over there the following year when another show came in and they had invited the locals to come and they did in good numbers. The first act was on and the band was singing some slow ballads and he noticed that the locals were starting to leave. This immediately

Speccial forces vehicle

Vietnam display of Huey landing

had him concerned that it indicated that an attack was imminent and he started to order his troops to go on alert when the next group Killing Heidi came on and started rocking it out and the locals stopped and came back, turned out they were just music critics and were voting with their feet. As we were moving off a guy on our tour (there were only 4 of us as 5 others had dropped off when their kid started grizzling- just as well – bah humbug, noisy kids!!!) asked him if he was a captain or lieutenant or something like that? He said yes something like that, he was a General! Poor guy, just left him speechless. Doug, you might remember him as he did fly a few times with the civilian helicopters.

Anyhow our 1 ½ hour tour turned into nearly 2 hours as he went through the museum. We ended up

Carley float from HMAS Sydney

Sandikan's victims

near the café so we had lunch as it was after 12. Following lunch, we split up. Maureen wanted to do the Vietnam section and I wanted to do the WWII section. We agreed to meet up before 4:30 to do the wreath stuff and off we went. The museum is just fantastic. Each section has sound and light displays, they have stuff from everywhere. The amount of stuff they have from the Sudan in the 1880’s and through the Boer War was amazing, full uniforms and kits and weapons and pictures, just amazing. Talking about the lit, Dave was showing us around and came to a uniform and weapons that a soldier used during WWII and it had an Owen Gun (Australia’s answer to the Sten gun), pistol and hand grenades. They knew it

Quilt made by nurses as POWs

Belt woven with butterflies

was authentic as they were given to the museum by his family after he had died and they found his trunk with all this stuff in it, gun and grenades and ammunition, the lot, just sitting in the attic. Australia had never made a car before the war and withing 18months was producing armoured cars and tanks!

Again, trying to cover off everything they have is pointless and would take ages. Maureen took some pictures so I will let them give you a taste. We also went to the Afghanistan display and watched their sound display, very moving. Maureen and I crossed paths at 4 and we decided I would go down at 4:30 to get the wreath stuff started as she wanted to do the WWII section and would see me there. Off she went and I went into another section for the last 30 minutes and nearly missed 4:30. I went to the front foyer and they have a Chief Usher there who took us through what we had to do, where to walk, how to lower the wreath, how long to stand there and that we were not to worry about making a mistake, just enjoy

Our wreath

Other wreaths ours is down the front

the moment. We went outside and Maureen was still not there and it got to about 4:55 and still not there, I was confident that she would show as the closed the displays at 5. Well she finally showed up, she too had wandered past the information display and the lady there had nabbed her. Our old neighbour from home’s father had been on Sandikan and had not survived the death marches, he was not among the 6 who survived. Maureen often spoke to Syd whilst I was at work so she knew his story and the lady was able to show her his records and then looked up which board he was on and even grabbed some poppies for Maureen so off she went to put them next to his name.

The wreath laying ceremony got under way and we were told it went out live to a webcam on the museum site and we had asked our kids to record it as it was middle of the day in WA. Maureen also filmed it and as it turned out, just as well as they said the camera moved away just as I was about to lay my wreath, obviously did not want the system to go into overload with such a sexy man on screen. I must admit the Beast made another first, they have had wheel chairs before, but no Scooters, strike up another record for the Beast! Got the wreath down without dropping it and looked as solemn as I could whilst keeping the Beast from driving over the other wreaths. I was the last one out as they had told the bagpipe player to look for me as the marker for him to finish after me.

A very moving activity and I must admit, it did bring the odd tear, must be getting old.

That was the day, we thanked all the staff there as they were very helpful and friendly and accommodating for me and although they said it was their job, it was how they did it with goodwill and friendliness that was different, they did it because they wanted to, not because they had to.

Tomorrow we go to Parliament House to see our government in action.

Day 124

Day 124 Canberra

Well today did not turn out the way we had planned. We were going to go to the War Memorial, but when Maureen got up, she felt like staying in bed after she did some washing. We decided that it was

On the path

View of the river

too late to go so a day off today rather than tomorrow. After Maureen had done some washing, we decided to go into town to do a bit of browsing in the shops and ended up at the local Homebase shop and we bought a few things we just could not pass up.

Following lunch we went on a walk around the river next to our camp site. We strolled up one side and ran into a lady who Maureen chatted to as they walked. Carol is an ex-guide who has retired here and offered to take us on a private tour if we wanted, shame we did not meet her a few days ago. We

on the suspension bridge

Haunted house

walked up to a suspension bridge and walked across. On the other side we walked back until we were opposite our camp site and there was a café, time for afternoon tea. As we were sitting there, the owner was talking to some other customers and we heard him mention platypus. As we were leaving, Maureen went over to him to ask what he was referring to. He said that there was a platypus just upriver at the suspension bridge! Could not believe it. Back at Girt, we sat down and Maureen said we should go to the movies

on the road in Queanbeyan

at the shops

to see “the Butler”. It was on at 6:00 and it was 5:30! So off we went into Canberra and found the cinema and went to the movies. “The Butler” is about (don’t worry, no spoiler alert, this is in the guide) a man who was a butler at the White House for 7 or 8 Presidents. Brilliant film, went by in no time and did not seem 2 hours.

Mill House cafe

On the way home

We went from there to a bar and had a short dinner and drove home. Tomorrow we go to the War Memorial, we have to as Monday we go to Parliament House for Question Time.