2007
Stories, photos and poems give an outline of Dargo, make your own
judgement Today is
Monday 1st January 2007 whence it was decided to go for a drive on this being the start of 2007. We finally began heading towards Sale, which made things look more interesting and worthwhile. It is sad with the enormous amount of paddocks that were either dry in one way or with ashes from the fires that went though that area recently in December 2006.
As going along the roadway there were certain posts notifying the motorists about restrictions in those areas due to the fires, which were and still will be ongoing throughout this summer.
The motorists seemed more at ease than usual although in the country they are of a different texture even the city dweller is different in the country in comparison to the way they drive in big cities.
As progressing we went past the Common Wetlands that are an important wetland are. There are an enormous population of birds that migrate and then head back to their place of origin.
There were parts of the region where parts of the fires in the last 7 weeks we were going through.
It was decided to go on towards Dargo which didn’t seem possible from what George said about not being enough petrol to get us there, but I had to make it quite clear that Bairnsdale is much further away and we would be more severely stuck.
As heading towards Dargo we were going through the forests and then we came to the area from where the fires they had in December 2006 began to appear.
From the observation of the forests, flora & fauna, roadways, trees, etc. they didn’t seem as bad as the media has made it seem as the fires had got to the floor level of the forests and in some areas there were a few trees that had been burnt to ashes; but not as bad as the media has spelt out on the radio, TV, & newspapers.
As progressing the forests seemed to have a variation of trees in certain quarters and
suddenly there was this bit of open space ahead and you won’t believe it but it was Dargo.
When we arrived it was 14.30 pm and went to the Caravan Park, when we joined the locals and were asking questions of where the best places are that help to tell the story of Dargo, we got talking for a few minutes, then suddenly there were these few drops that came down from the heavens and it was good for everyone was waiting for it to rain, then whilst watching and listening to the rain come down that was all right at first then suddenly there was a deluge that came down; I even went to dance in the rain as my wishes for 2007 was to have a year of rain; so this 50 points of rain was wonderful.
After having had a chat and getting tips of places that would be worth making photos of we then wen towards Bright and as we were driving there were these cars we were passing which were parked over there, the boot of one of the cars was open.
We went through other parts of Dargo and talking to locals, passers-by, and others in the shops.
Then we were heading towards Bairnsdale where George offered to eat at the restaurant the RSL have.
We went through a considerable lot of terrains and there were points where certain deliveries have to go through certain procedures at certain times. There were turn-off to Sale and other parts of the region.
It is now approaching 18.48 pm, when we were finally arriving at Bairnsdale and George drove towards the RSL and then drove in and parked the car.
Then we went to order our meal and to our amazement the woman who was serving us at the counter said hello, I mentioned Dargo where we just came from and suddenly the woman made certain remarks about her daughter who had the boot of her car left open which enabled the rain to get in. She said her daughter got her boot flooded with that rain in Dargo, which was wonderful.
From the dishes on the menu it was decided to have the Fish Basket and then we went tosit down and wait for the meal to arrive.
Suddenly the waitress brought the Fish Baskets and it certainly was a wonderful meal and certainly was a good quality of foods for the evening meal. There was a big influx of volunteers who came from all sorts of places from around Australia, even NZ with some other ones coming from other countries.
With all those volunteers the Restaurant began to get filled up and the people wore a variety of clothes with different colours of shirts, pants, jeans and other items with differing colours, which made the room look more attractive than would have been otherwise.
When we finished, George wanted to make a phone call to a fried of his, when George had finished talking to Mary he tried to work out the best way to her place, I made a suggestion to ask one of the locals, otherwise we’ll be here for ages.
We got home and then we retired to bed