Life and Wildlife on the Banks of the Murrumbidgee
I have a love-hate relationship with fences. A good fence is essential for stock management and control. On the other hand, I hate having to get over barbed wire, as I’m not good at the seamless leap over. Barbed wire is particularly important if you have cattle who like to lean on them. Sheep don’t... Continue Reading →
Bloom of rust on an old disc I love the texture of old rusty iron, the subtle ripples of its surface where air has nibbled it away over decades. I love the red-orange colour which is earthy and natural, a far cry from primary colours and shiny galvanized silver of new metal. I have quite... Continue Reading →
Living at the farm, I’m often reminded that we are surrounded by other life that insists we make way for them. Hundreds of cockatoos have been screeching at the bottom of the garden for weeks, while they strip the walnut and olive trees. Moths beat at the windows at night, flies do the same by... Continue Reading →
Since the drought broke, we've had lots of rain and most of it was gentle enough to soak into the ground without causing flooding. The most recent lot, though, was a reminder of what it's like when the river and creek both swell and take over the land around them. A reminder of how the... Continue Reading →
Since the end of the drought there has been a spate of sheep and cattle thefts ("duffing") particularly by thieves using empty caravans to stuff suddenly valuable animals into. It's suspicious if an apparent grey nomad has a trailer that bleats or moos. That's not the sort of stock-taking I'm doing. With my mother's death,... Continue Reading →
In May, during the Covid lockdown, my mother Barbara Hamer, died. While she was much luckier than many others have been at this time, (a painless fade, with family to support her), it is still a loss. She was always busy, tending to rush full tilt at life expecting it to get out of the... Continue Reading →
We got 40mm, plus a few beetles, in our rain gauge. It’s not enough. While we were getting monthly rainfall in the single digits, I found myself begging the clouds for a single millimetre to take the edge off the damage from the heat, and maybe keep a few things going that would otherwise die. ... Continue Reading →
I'd given up watching the local radar loop for rain. It's been a long time since we had water falling out of the sky. This year's lambs will be very confused when it happens. The land around us is dimmed by the smoke haze from the fires on the coast and to the south. Jessie... Continue Reading →
A scratch at the door. The dog knows to come around to the laundry. Another scratch at the door. Finally I get up to take a look. It's the termite inspector. I know there are many types of termites all around us, just waiting to have a little chew on the timber parts of the... Continue Reading →
When trees attack they often do so without warning. A few months ago, a massive old eucalypt (I thought possibly a Blakely's red gum, but my identification skills are poor - or maybe a very large Red Box (eucalyptus polyanthemos ) in the crop paddock near the house suddenly turned into a crushing giant squid-shaped... Continue Reading →
I love work. I can watch it all day. For several days this year I've had an extra farm assistant in the form of backpacker Emil, who's been doing things that I've managed to avoid for months, but know are necessary. He meticulously painted the trailer, which got left in the paddock last year becoming... Continue Reading →
The problem with Australian summers is you don't know which you're going to have: a nice day on the river, dinner with friends, or an invasion of flames. We've had a hot summer, with the compensation of time on the river in my new canoe. Learning to use it involved lots of shouting, and... Continue Reading →
All those months waiting for rain in the autumn, and now we have too much. While the hills are green and the ground is perfect for planting, this year's fences are delayed because vehicles that try to get up with loads of concrete and posts are in grave danger of getting bogged. Or sliding... Continue Reading →
Even in the dark I can tell when the river has started to flood. I love to hear the normal soft rushing sound at night, a little like distant traffic. This is more. It's a freeway roar that means big standing waves crashing against the rocks. Big water on the move is magnificent. Whole islands... Continue Reading →
As I wandered outside on my way to bed a few nights ago, I noticed a speck of red light on a hilltop. A star? I've been tricked before by how bright they can be in the bush. A red star? Venus? Wrong direction. Definitely not a car tail-light, on the top of a rocky... Continue Reading →
Tree planting doesn't always go as planned. In 2011, before we actually moved back to Australia, I spoke to Graham Fifield at Greening Australia about being part of their WOPR (Whole Paddock Rehabilitation) program. That program is designed to revegetate an area of 10 hectares or more, using bands of trees and shrubs directly seeded on the contours.... Continue Reading →
One way to stop topsoil from disappearing from under our feet is to use loose vegetation. Anything from grass and weeds to big logs will help catch it as it flows past. The Southern ACT Catchment Group ran a workshop recently with Cam Wilson from Earth Integral as the expert advisor on how to make... Continue Reading →
Topsoil is that thin band of living matter that lies across the landscape. Except when it is undermined or dissolved by rain and carried downhill into first the gullies, then the waterways, leaving the water silty and the landscape denuded. As a child I loved to play among the eroding soil spires where you could imagine... Continue Reading →
In the last couple of years we've netted the most accessible of the peach trees that have naturalized along Mullion Creek to keep the cockatoos from eating them. The whole operation is worse than trying to get a giant bride and her veil through a forest. Four people were needed (one of them tall) and a lot of... Continue Reading →
The Murrumbidgee River is a significant part of our landscape here. But it's only in the summer that we really get to play with it. Charles and his cousins Will and Alex had intended to go out in our old Canadian canoe. I was doubtful it would hold three large young men. However, it filled... Continue Reading →
