BYRON BAY

Byron Bay is a famous beach town on the north coast of NSW. It is only a few hours drive from Brisbane. It has beautiful beaches and a rainforest hinterland. There are lots of activities for holiday makers. It is loved by surfers, scuba divers, backpackers and international celebrities. It has amazing restaurants, resorts and million dollar houses. 

In 1770, Captain James Cook named the cape Byron after  Vice Admiral John Byron who sailed around the world in 1764-66. He was Lord Byron the poet's grandfather.

(Photos from website)

However, it hasn't always been like this. In early days it was a timber town, then a meat processing place and a whaling station. When I visited with my parents in 1956 it was a very smelly place but after whaling was banned the town became a camping destination.  

When we visited Byron Bay in 1956 my parents and friends went up close to a whale on a flatbed rail carriage  waiting  to go to the processing factory. It was very smelly. I stayed back and took the photo with my new Brownie box camera.

 In 1985 we took the girls for a camping holiday there. It was a sleepy holiday destination with beautiful scenery. We went swimming, horse riding and played golf but it was all undeveloped, quiet and peaceful.

Later it became a hippy and alternate life style place to be. These people have stayed and introduced yoga and wellness stays. It had huge music festivals although this year festivals have found it hard to survive.

In 1999 we visited Sonya (our daughter) who was living there and working as a barista in between Stage managing theatre productions.

Cape Byron Light was built 1899-1901 and the architect was Charles Harding. It is an active heritage-listed building. It was automated in 1989 and it now has a museum inside giving information about Byron Bay's history and stories of shipwrecks. The view over the township and the beaches is amazing.

In 2015 we stayed again in Byron for a reunion of friends from PNG.  Now we have been to the most easterly point, the most southerly point, the most northerly point and almost to  the most westerly point of the Australian mainland.

Some of our group walked out to the tip of the most easterly point of our continent but not Bill and I (the aging process had started.)

We did do the Lighthouse walk, which was strenuous enough.

THE BEST NEWS EVER

 Our youngest daughter, Sonya has been looking for a career change. She has been involved in Stage managing, production managing and operations manager for theatre and circus for thirty years. During that time she was often responsible for work place health and safety. She was getting bored with her job and she studied more university courses on WPHS. She made a few applications in Victoria in different industries but wasn't successful. Just for fun she applied for one in the Arts industry in Brisbane. The Queensland Performing Arts Centre was very keen to employ her as she knew the theatre industry well. She wanted to withdraw her application because she didn't want to uproot her family from Melbourne.  However, QPAC was not going to let her go. They offered her a good salary and pay for the removal from Melbourne to Brisbane. After discussing it with her family she decided to take the job and the family would move to Brisbane. 

How Happy Are We ???

They are coming to live in Brisbane, hooray.

So Sonya flew up a few times to find a house to rent, which is not easy these days. There is a shortage of houses and besides that she wanted it in the catchment area of Kelvin Grove State College because that is the school she wanted the boys to attend. She has remained friends with some she made when attending university here back in the nineties in Brisbane. They have been helping her decide on schools and finding a house. Finally, a friend found a suitable place to rent until they sell their house in Melbourne and buy one here. So they packed a huge truck with their household stuff and Sonya flew up to meet the truck and supervise the unloading. Bernie and the boys stayed in Melbourne. He is preparing the house for sale, he has done a lot of renovations and is building a back patio. The boys finished the school term and now are waiting for Bernie to load them and the dog into the car with a trailer of more stuff that didn't fit into the truck and drive them to Queensland. It takes two days.

Sonya has been amazing unpacking all the boxes and putting together a king sized bed and renovating an old pantry for the kitchen. She also drove us to drop our car into a repair shop after I crunched in the front driving into a garden. She also came and picked us up and drove us to see her house. It is an old Queenslander type house but quite nice and in a lovely area close to everything but in a quiet street. The best area is the back deck high amongst the trees.

Bill makes himself at home.

They will be a half hour drive away not a two and a half hour flight away.

We are so proud of her.

ANOTHER DINNER NIGHT

 It was our village dinner night last week and it was another St Patrick's Day celebration. The last one was Happy Hour but this one was dinner. We sure do like to party here.

It was a special night for the year 12 Rochedale High School catering students. It was the first night for this new intake of year 12 students. They come with their teacher to help in the kitchen and learn from our chefs. They also have to learn how to serve us properly and clear away too. They were very nervous kids but they did a good job. The chef even complimented them too.

Guinness Pie with a Trio of Beef, Lamb and Pork. Mushy Peas, Red Cabbage and Mash.

Ginger crusted Key Lime Pie with Lime and Pistachio Cream

Our dinner coordinator, Ann thanks the students and the chefs.

Some of the Village Singers entertained us and encouraged us to sing along. (12 sec video.)

We enjoyed the night.

FANTASTIC ST PATRICK'S HAPPY HOUR

 Every Friday evening a band of volunteer residents organize  Happy Hour in the Community Centre. Last Friday they celebrated St Patrick's Day at Happy Hour. They advertised it as 'Fantastic St Patrick's Friday' on our residents email. The village singers sang Irish songs, the compare told Irish jokes, we had a trivia session and the line dancers danced to Irish music. The workshop boys cooked hamburgers for tea (not quite Irish).

The centre filled with residents dressed in green. They got their drinks from the volunteer bar boys.

Patrick McLaughlin far left really enjoys St Patrick's Day celebrations. Can you guess why?

The Village singers entertained.

Love the green.

After hamburgers we had cake. The little one was for someone special. 

It was Ruth's Birthday.

Irish line dancing entertains.

I'm sort of the village photographer and I circulate taking photos and videos of the tables and entertainment. The photos go onto posters on the wall of the centre and Elements Retirement Living at Springwood FB page as well as the newsletter. Unfortunately, the editor of the newsletter resigned and we haven't a replacement yet. Anyway, as I took a photo of this table, Steph said to me, " Here sit in my seat and let me take a photo of you. You never get yours taken."

So here I am.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

International Women's Day was on Friday 8 March. Our Craft and Chat group organised a morning tea for all women in the village who were interested. They arranged for a guest speaker too and each person brought a plate of food if they could. The theme this year was Invest in women:Accelerate progress. 

Lois one of the organisers, explained to us what the colours of IWD represented. Purple is for justice and dignity, Green is for hope and the feminist movement and white is for purity. The colours can be traced back to the WSDV ( Women's Social and Political Union) in UK in 1908. It was a faction of the suffragette movement. Many of us wore either purple, green or white.

Trish introduced Shannon, a local girl who, with two friends started the "Fair Trade with Friends" oganisation. 

Shannon's story was inspiring. She told us how in the beginning she loved to travel but was very concerned for the poor people she saw in some countries. They were usually in small villages in remote places but not always. She was amazed at the lovely handmade items some of the women made to sell to infrequent tourists. Shannon developed a passion for handmade goods. She also wanted to be able to help these people be more prosperous. 
She and two other women got together and formed 'Fair Trade with Friends' where they travel all over the world to buy handmade items from the poor and sell them in developed countries and the money goes back to the villagers. some of them have now formed little businesses employing locals to make their goods and sell them through Fair Trade with Friends. It is making a difference to a lot of people all over the world. More information and handmade goods for sale can be found at fairtradewithfriends.com.

We had a good roll up and Shannon had brought along some of the craft that the artisans had made for us to purchase. The items were not cheap but beautifully made and knowing the money was going back to help these people made it easier.

I bought a few items that I liked:

I got three of these for my daughter Sonya.

I got this for my other daughter, Carol. It's a sketchbook.

I got this for my neighbour, Louise who is a raging fan of the Lions AFL team.(Australian Football League) 

We also celebrated two ladies birthdays. Margaret (Left) turned 80 and the amazing Dorothy turned 90.

It was an interesting, fun and yummy morning tea.

ALPACA FARM VISIT

 We woke up to rain pattering in the roof on the day that a bus tour was organised by one of our residents. It was to Canungra where the Mountain View Alpaca Farm is situated.  It is not far from home, less than an hour's drive through beautiful rolling hills of the Scenic Rim region. We stopped on the way for morning tea at the Bearded Dragon Hotel. 

Leaving the Bearded Dragon Hotel

Luckily the rain was easing off when we continued up the mountain to Canungra, a little village with interesting little shops for the city visitors.  We continued on to the farm. There was a shop selling alpaca goods and bags of food to feed to the alpacas.

The rain had made these cute animals look a bit bedraggled and scruffy. I laughed at their messy hairdo's. We have had a hot summer so the alpacas have been shorn and don't look like the usual fluffy. woolly, cuddly animals that they are. This one poses for Bill.

Love the eyelashes. Alpacas are a native of South America, especially Peru. The Andean people used them for sustenance. Eating the meat and using the fibre. The fibre is used for knitted and woven items such as blankets, jumpers, hats, gloves and scarves.

They are now found all over the world in captivity. They are farmed for their fibre. They are also used to protect sheep herds. They are good at fighting off predators like wild dogs, foxes, wolves and dingos.

They are starting to be used as therapy alpacas in aged care facilities because they can be trained to be good company for humans. However, if they get stressed or frightened they spit. They use body language to communicate to each other.

We enjoyed the short walk around the enclosures stopping to feed them now and then.

This one needs a blow dry but they do have lovely eyes. The ones in this  pen were ready to be taken for a walk in the surrounding paddock. Unfortunately we didn't do that.

Next door there is O'Reilly's winery where we could taste the wines and then it was back on the bus to go to lunch at the Canungra Hotel.

We had a while to wait before lunch so that we could have time to walk around the village shops. Bill and I found an interesting second hand book shop, Steph, above, found this cute handmade doll. Others found shoes and clothes or had a drink in the hotel. It took some time for all 38 of us to get our meals and then it was a chat with friends and onto the bus for home.