Digging potatoes

In Tasmania there is something called a pink eye. On spotting a road side sign I originally thought pink eyes were fish. Not so. Apparently they are a variety of potato. Best boiled and eaten with a slab of butter and some fresh herbs. If you want to roast or mash your potatoes a pink eye is not for you. So, variety taken care of, it is now all about how you get them. One option is to buy them. Woolies and Coles count on this. But why buy them when wonderful neighbours grow them and share their harvest with you. We were offered a bucketful....way beyond our requirements...but I still took the opportunity to go and learn how to "dig" potatoes. First you need the right gear. This translates as ditching city footwear for country style work boots. Ok, the pair I borrowed didn't quite fit, and everyone laughed as I revealed my city slicker socks, but a borrowed pair of Blundstones would see me through. Then it was hiking up the hill to the potato paddock, with a Cascade carton in hand. Empty, the recycled carton becomes the perfect receptacle to fill. Once in the paddock we easily spotted the harvest point - the pitch fork sticking out of the ground being a dead give away. Neat rows of knee high plants sprouted like sentries on parade. With so many to choose from it was interesting to learn that you don't just select the next one in line. Rather, you look for the plant that is growing little "tomatoes". Actually called potato "apples", these provide a handy visual signal that the potatoes buried below are ready to harvest. Next step then is to isolate the base of the stalk, and assess where the stalk and earth meet. Then you estimate half a metre out from the stalk and dig the pitchfork into the soil. As you lever the pitch fork down, the earth crumbles open and potatoes are revealed. You shake the excess soil off and gently gather the potatoes into your box. The soil, dark and loamy, just invites you to sink your hands in to feel for any renegade potatoes. There are always one or two sitting snuggly in the soil that didn't come up in the first pull. The incredible thing about fresh pink eyes is that their skin is so soft you can brush it off by hand. Gently applying pressure from your fingers the skin just peels back to reveal, creamy yellow potato flesh. After pulling the plant up and collecting the potatoes you lay the plant down over the dip in the earth and move on to look for more "tomatoes". Then you repeat the process again and again, until your box is full. You leave just enough room in the top to gently tuck in one or two plant stalks to act as a protective cover over your treasure then head back down the hill to the farm house. Dinner sorted. As for me, I recommend Duck River, the best butter in Tassie.

Wildlife spotting

The best place to see kangaroos in Cunnamulla is the local cemetery. With the groundskeeper looking after the lawns and maintenance there is a ready supply of water and grass, so the local kangaroo population seem to know they are onto something good. The local mob must number 30 or more animals. While they were great to see, the most incredible nature experience of the visit (although watching the swallows was right up there) was the opportunity to see an echidna in the wild. We went late one afternoon over the bridge at the edge of town and out to the sunset viewing platform. As we walked along the path we came across an echidna just starting out on his evenings activities. Ambling along, he was disturbed by our interest so he immediately dug down at the base of a tree. From seeing his snout and little face, suddenly all we had was a view of his menacing prickles. You would have to be mad to go in for a closer look. So, with breath held, I waited for him to relax. Soon, his little head came up, his snout sniffed the air, then he went back to business, climbing over a branch, then heading off into the grass to continue his evening foraging. As for the sunset? Yes, it was lovely, but it couldn't compare to seeing this little guy in his natural environment.

Nest spotting

Local knowledge is a valuable resource. There was no way I would have spotted this Willie Wagtail nest without being shown where it was located. So, thanks are in order to my colleague from Yowah. He showed me the exact spot to look to see this hanging safely up in the tree. The incredible thing was that when I went back the next day to show a friend, I had trouble finding it - even though I knew exactly where it was. It was almost as though the leaves had grown up around it overnight to obscure it from prying eyes.

Cunnamulla bird life

The bird life in Cunnamulla is perfect for any beginner twitchers. On the road into town we saw an emu with his five chicks. Something I didn't know was that chick stealing is rife, with males trying to take over broods from other birds. While I didn't see it, a local told us of one male who currently has twenty chicks in his brood. Incredible thought! All those mouths to feed. I saw galahs and short billed corellas in large numbers - a flock of corellas must have numbered in the hundreds. We also saw the local gaggle of geese. This group lives down on the banks of the Warrego River, seeming right at home, evidently well loved (and fed) by locals. The birds that amazed me the most were the swallows. They nest at this time of year under the eaves of local buildings. While the local NAB has the most nests, it was those outside of the window of the Paroo Shire Council building that I was best able to observe. It really was a privilege to spy on these guys through the window. The nests are made of mud. Constructed in such a way that they cling to the eaves, with a bulge to hold eggs/babies, which then has a tube like entry point for the parent bird to squeeze in and out of to gain access to the nest. Made of mud the mind boggles at how many thousands of trips backwards and forwards the swallows must make with a mouthful of mud, to add to the construction. The nest ends up being sort of striped, and quite beautiful. I can only imagine this is because the source of the mud changes, or dries at a different rate. Actually I have no idea what causes the stripes, but I am in awe of these little birds. I know little about swallows, but do know that some are migratory travelling huge distances, so can only assume that these little guys fly half way around the world, then on arrival have to build their nest. What a mammoth effort! Postscript - since returning home I have perused my trusting Field guide to Australian birds, and am pleased to report that these little guys actually seem to be Martins, not Swallows....oops.

Cunnamulla Railway Station gets a HistoryPin make over

This site really was a highlight of my visit to Cunnamulla. While still in use for freight train access, the station is now looking a little tired and neglected. That said, this grand old girl is still well worth a visit. The unique thing about the station is that it has a covered platform. Apparently there are only three covered platforms in Queensland. While the station started being used in 1878, the current structure dates from 1930 as the original was destroyed by fire. Interestingly, there is an historic photo in our collection at SLQ of the Cunnamulla Railway Station - complete with car parked out the front. So, of course, we tried to capture the contemporary version of this scene via HistoryPin. Unfortunately for us, though we returned on two occasions, for some reason we were in a black spot and as such couldn't take an overlay image of the contemporary view onto the historic. Telstra let us down as we just couldn't get a signal. We did however take photos - with our Mitsubishi Lancer positioned where the car was in the original photo. This we will add to the site once we are back in Brisbane.

HistoryPin

Cunnamulla is a town full of history. As such it was easy to inspire library staff to appreciate the scope of what the UK based HistoryPin can do. With the core concept being as simple as loading photos (historic and contemporary) and "pinning" the geographic location, it really is pretty easy to use. Colleagues had posted some historic images from our SLQ collections. We then tried to match contemporary views of the same historic point of interest in Cunnamulla - and if the site was no longer recognisable added contemporary images of other points of interest instead. The old to new idea is fun and actually allows for a "fade in" overlay mechanism so that the years disappear before your eyes. Pretty neat really. We went on an afternoon excursion, everyone walking around town with their iPads at the ready to take photos and "pin" away. Much to the amusement of local townspeople. Even some of the local kids stopped to see what we were doing....the sight of the "oldies" using iPads was too good to pass up...."what you doing with iPads Miss?" So, tally for the afternoon was to capture contemporary views of the ambulance building, the Invincible Theatre and the Cunnamulla fountain as overlays of historic images. In addition we pinned the Paroo Shire Council building (funnily enough this appears on the main Cunnamulla post card), the now derelict Trappers Inn which is an historic hotel and the old RSL Cub. Currently for sale if anyone has disposable funds and wants to look at redeveloping the site. A solid brick building on a corner site it could again become a key destination in the community.

Cunnamulla

I have just spent the last week working from a base in the Paroo Shire Council Chambers in Cunnamulla. The Boardroom no less. What a great experience. Along with staff from the public library in Cunnamulla we also had staff from Wyandra, Yowah and Thargomindah join us. For those of you not too sure of where Cunnamulla is - imagine a 9 hour drive west of Brisbane and you would be close. Wyandra is an hour out of town on the Charleville road. As for Thargomindah? Irene had a four hour return trip each day to join us. How's that for dedication....plus she made it seem like it was just down the road - no trouble at all. Country people, and their outlook on life continue to amaze me. They really are inspiring. So, what did we do? Databases, OneSearch (the State Library) catalogue, eBooks, iPads, online resources, making your own eBooks and HistoryPin.....children's resources, story telling and craft activities, digital readers, research support and a whole swag of good stuff. It was interesting to see how the group embraced new ideas, and saw ways of connecting ideas back into practical ways for engaging with their community. Hopefully these images will give you a hint to what life in Cunnamulla is about - heat (local bar sign), humour (road sign) and highlights (detail of the Cunnamulla fountain).