March 13th
Day given over to sightseeing at Ballarat and travelled past Lake Wendouree which was bone dry and was the site of a local fund raising walk across the Lake bed which had never been known to be dry before and which will be filled in the future by means of the controversial "grey" water recycling scheme.
March 14th
Travelled down to the Great Ocean Road and stopped at several points to see the erosion of the Limestone Coast which is leaving outcrops of stone known as the 12 Apostles but the continual action of wind, and waves is gradually undermining these landmarks. The evening was spent at Warrnambool at a laser show recreating the Ship wreck of the Loch Ard with the loss of life of over 300 souls within sight of land having travelled 12,000 miles from Liverpool. The passage was typically taking 70 days compared to the 24 hours of todays air flights.
March 15th
Travelled to Mount Gambier which is famous for its Blue Lake in the crater of an extinct volcano which was an extraordinary sight, but even this famous water source has dropped by 8 metres in the continuing big dry. The herd visits originally planned for this area had been cancelled because of the effects of the drought with some of the proposed host farms having sold off their herds. There was therefore great anticipation of the next days visits when we were to have a serious cow day.
March 16th
First visit was to Matthew Seeliger & Kate Holberton,s Westdama Guernsey and Holstein herds, this small herd has started from a single heifer given to Matthew by Lyndon and Joyce Cleggett as a 21st birthday present and now into the fourth generation with a particularly good Nitro daughter of a VG cow, with ET daughters of the same cow by Tiller and Aldens Valiant Royal. All the Guernseys were tied in a row and thus easily inspected and Matthew and Kate have ambitious plans to install a 50 stall rotary which will allow them to double cows numbers to over 400 cows. This herd as were the other 2 visited on this day were grazing pastures under a centre pivot irrigator.
We then transferred next door to the farm of Craig and Cate Cleggett where we were very impressed by the Donnybrook Guernseys and also by the Junction Guernseys of Marj Bentley who has been on the bus since the start acting as organiser/troubleshooter and whose quiet considerate manner has helped make the tour such a success.
Craig and Kate milk over 200 cows one third of which are Guernsey and a lot of these have been graded up from the original non pedigree Holstein herd that was on the farm.
The herd are milked on a 32 stall Rotary which has been updated with the latest electronics to make a one man/woman operation as there are four young boys in the family, one of whom after another magnificent lunch joined us for the ride on the "big" bus for the short ride to the next farm but one to Uncle Lyndon’s.
The afternoon was spent at Brookleigh amongst the 300+ cows of Lyndon and Joyce Cleggett and on a beautiful day it was a great sight to see so many cows at Grass on what were the first really good pastures which as mentioned earlier are under irrigation with 160 acres watered by one machine and another 100 acres under a second. This is not a cheap system and may not be sustainable long term but is certainly working at present.
Joyce and Amy Cleggett had produced a brochure giving details of the cows and there were several outstanding cow families to be found here.
Joyce and her helpers provided supper and a late, late bus which delivered a few hardy souls back to the Motel at 12.30 am.
March 17th
More tourist visits today with firstly a visit to the Wombania fossil centre before visiting a Sheep museum whose main exhibit was a robotic shearing machine developed at great cost but unable to compare with skilled shearers. A shopping opportunity for those with room in their suitcases at the Mini Jumbuck nearby where any and everything made from wool was obtainable, this was the only shop open in the High Street which seemed very strange to those from overseas on a Saturday afternoon.
March 18th
Final hotel transfer as we reach the Barossa Valley and the conference venue with no more early departures and bags before breakfast.
Visited the Coorong a land locked fresh water marsh area now a wild life reserve, before crossing the Murray river and travelling north towards the Barossa.
Delighted to find beer other than Lager on tap and having sampled several different beers on route am looking forward to the warm beer of the UK on returning home at the end of the week.
March 19th
Final day of the tour and just after we had left the hotel it started to rain and continued to do so all day a very welcome event locally but not so for those who had unloaded coats etc the night before.
We visited first the herd of Robert Lowke which is made up of Pedigree sections of Ayrshire,Guernsey,Holstein and Jerseys, met with his feed advisor who explained that the "brief" at present is to maintain body condition and fertility and wait for the rain to return.
Rain it certainly did once we arrived at Ray and Geraldine Fiebiger’s to view the Keywyn herd where as expected there were several tremendous cows and families on show but the "star" was a 17 year old Victory cow still part of the herd and ending the tour as we started in Queensland with a great deal of admiration for the way the Australians are coping with the climatic challenges and making those of us from "Green and Pleasant lands" perhaps appreciate are opportunities better.
