MORE TALES FROM THE CARAVAN
Following on from my last story of the fun of caravanning…..After an eventful caravan trip of about 2000 km with 2 young children in the early sixties, we have cleaned the dirt and mud etc out of the van and made it all spic and span again.
It was an opportune time to arrive at the recently acquired property as there was a need for an overseer and Charlie was the right man for the job.
A good spot was found to locate our van on the high bank of the permanent river where initially we bathed in the clear water as it ran over the rock barrage. Charlie made our little area comfortable with a deck off the caravan made from second hand timber from a nearby demolished pub.
Then there was a cleared area with bench seating around a permanent camp fire, where all our cooking was done. What more could you want?? Well, before long there was a shower under the tank stand and a generator for night – we were set.
This period was the very early 60’s and the cattle industry was looking for good pasture crops to develop. Guess what – If any of you are keen gardeners you’ll hate this next bit. You know those legumes that are such a curse when they get in to your garden, climb over your shrubs and try to smother them every time you turn your back and are so hard to eradicate? Well they were just being trialled and developed – and that’s what this property was hopefully capable of producing.
As it was very early days, the seed was expensive and to produce pure seed for sale it had to be picked by hand – acres of it! Who would do it? There was an aboriginal settlement about 40 klms away and an offer was made to employ any workers who were willing to pick seed and be paid for the weight of their daily tally.
The women were very interested so Charlie drove up to collect up to 30 workers in the truck each morning, looked after the daily operation and drove the workers home each evening. They valued their chance to earn money and Charlie became good friends with several of the families. One of the ladies, Nancy, gave him a black orchid when we left. A few years ago we went back and met one of the women again who greeted him with a big hug.
After the seed pods were picked they were spread out on gauze benches in the sun till they popped and released the seed. Then the pods were discarded and the seed bagged. It was a proud moment when the first ton of seed was on the truck ready for dispatch.
On occasions, 6 or 7 men from the settlement – all very athletic in build – were employed for a few days and camped in the machinery shed where any casual workers were housed. At night their guitar music and melodious voices filled the air as they relaxed.
Also, in a hut not far from our van were an aboriginal couple. The husband did some work at the homestead too. The area around their hut was always kept very clear and well swept. There were creatures there that you wouldn’t want sharing your bed, so best if you could spot them before they entered. Jacko was short, stocky and very dark with the traditional two front teeth missing. He later made a wonderful vegetable garden when the homestead was built.
Our cooking skills had a bit of a work out while we were there. I made my first loaf of bread in the wood oven in the machinery shed. My husband says it was beautiful but that was only because warm bread was such a novelty. It wasn’t very tempting the next day. Another time he caught a scrub hen and slowly roasted it in the fireplace. No amount of slow roasting would have made that bird edible.
We did however have much more success with a beautiful big Coral Trout. There had been a lot of tree clearing going on and the fallen trees were pushed up into wind rows in the paddock and burned. Following Jacko’s advice, Charlie wrapped the fish in about 15 layers of wet paper and put it in the hot ashes. When the time came to take it out it was very black but the paper opened up like a suitcase and exposed steaming white perfectly cooked flesh.
The parents had just returned briefly to the property from their home in the city and the unanimous verdict was that the feast was superb. Life was simple, fun and always interesting.
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