Yesterday was an experience for me. I watched three quarters of a game of Australian Rules Football, in person, not on TV. And it was a better experience than I was expecting. Our team, the Mingenew Bulldogs, won after leading in the 1st quarter, but being challenged in the second and early third. They won 96 to 35 after Coorow-Latham dropped the bundle in the second half. The boys were all very excited about their win. Perhaps deservedly so, although with only 6 teams in the competition they are not fishing in a very deep pool.
The after-party was what I would expect in a country town. A small, but lively gathering with people of all ages getting in on the act. Lots of the locals studying at uni were home from Perth for the weekend, as well as a few random city blow-ins. As usual in Western Australia you run into people you don't expect to see, like a girl I met at a New Years eve party in Bunbury three years ago who was in Mingenew with her sister, who is going out with a local boy she met in New York.
The party was also a chance for me to meet the sons and daughters of the farmers I have been meeting over the last few weeks, and begin the long (but not too long!) journey of learning the local family trees.
The wildflowers are still out up here, and the hordes of caravaners and day trippers are getting bigger as more pictures and articles feature in the travel section of the paper. Mind you they have well and truly missed the best displays. That was about when I arrived. The yellow and white pom poms had been out for a week, so were still at their best, and the pinks and oranges, and some more whites were just starting to appear. Many of the colours have faded now, and the petals are going a bit manky. Mind you they are still a very impressive natural carpet!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Mingenew - 16 August 2009
So I am back in the cold, and the rain, in the south-west. Mingenew to be precise. And the wildflower season is cranking. There are yellow, orange, pink, purple, and white everlastings in patches dotted across the landscape, on bits of land that are not cropped, and through the bush.
The Irwin River flowing through 'the Coalseam' (Coalseam Conservation park), just up the road from where I am living.
After 5 or 6 weeks travelling I have a job for 6 months or so. I am not really sure of the timeline, and I am employed on a short term rolling contract. My position is a Natural Resource Management Officer with the Mingenew-Irwin Group (MIG). MIG is a local farm research group. My job is in partnership with the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council (NACC), who will actually pay me. NACC is one of 6 Natural Resource Management bodies that cover the whole of WA. From what I have heard they are a reasonably effective group.
I start work tomorrow. What my job entails is somewhat of a mystery - to everyone I think. Which was part of the appeal, and I am hoping will mean that it can be about responding to what farmers are interested in, as well as innovating a little rather than purely running established programs. One of the things I expect I will be involved in is the whole climate change - agriculture - carbon conundrum. I imagine my involvement will be through desktop research and extension on emissions from different components of farming systems, and work on the potential for sequestration.
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