Dot and Bev's ... Georgetown, Northern Goldfields

Imagine …………    a dusty track off the main road (main road being a single ‘development’ road for much of the way), drive 5 kms, past mango plantations, a further 2 kms … with kangaroos jumping over fences at the side of the track, skinny cows wandering about, termite mounds in their 1000’s,  dust and dust and even more dust … until eventually we see a sign saying Avaca Glen Farm …. an old Queenslander House (basically a house built on stilts to protect it from the floods and to help keep the house cool) with open doors everywhere to ensure a flow through of air and giant ceiling fans to keep the house cool (after all it is almost 40 deg), a giant dining table in the kitchen - the centre of all family life - 1200 acres of land, houses for the two sons and their families on the land, fields of hay which is cut and stored ready for sale, cows, pigs, chickens, amazing coloured birds (rosellas, parrots, budgerigars, kookaburras etc)  singing their lovely songs, stacks of farming equipment, a shed that Geoff would die for, a wagon used to deliver the straw, a huge expanse of water called a dam which they are making bigger to take advantage of the rain fall in the wet season to ensure they have sufficient water in the dry season …. and Dot and Bevan - two of the loveliest, most welcoming people we have ever met!

Imagine (or maybe you’d better not) … a trip to the loo to find four little eyes peeping over the top of the toilet cistern … two tiny little white frogs - and a white lizard on the loo wall.  Very disconcerting going to the loo with these creatures watching I can tell you!  Sitting eating our evening meal with frogs croaking at the door,  grasshoppers gazing at us through the windows, all sorts of little (hmmmm and some not so little) insects flying about … and this is all completely normal for Dot and Bev and life at Avaca Glen Farm.  And you know what - after a couple of days we are getting very used to it!

After dinner we made our way back across the garden to our caravan …. about 20 little toads were sat outside our door - but they ran off once we arrived (thankfully!) We’d left the windows of the van open (with the idea it might be a little cooler in there - wrong!) but with the mesh screens closed … supposedly to stop insects getting through … wrong again!  So as Ruth lays on the bed with the cover pulled up to her nose directing Geoff where the little blighters are … Geoff spends the next 20 minutes killing moths and other flying beasties!  When we were finally laid in bed we listened to the sounds of the nightlife outside - it felt like we were in Jurassic Park! It was totally amazing.

Sitting, relaxing, in the garden - trying to find some shade coz it’s so very hot - watching the parrots, budgerigars, Dot and Bev’s two little dogs, listening to the sounds of the nature happening all around - is totally mind blowing.

Geoff had a day out in the wagon with Roy (Dot and Bev’s son) delivering straw to a farm “just down the road”  (about 80kms away!) - hard work so he tells me - but he must have enjoyed it coz he volunteered to do it again a couple of days later!

 

A trip out to Georgetown - the largest (well only) town nearby - and ‘nearby’ is 60kms “down the road“.  Georgetown consists of; a tourist centre where we were able to see amazing stones and minerals mined from the local land; a post office; a tiny tiny police station (no bigger than our kitchen back home); two tiny churches - one Catholic, one Anglican - both made from corrugated sheets of steel - and both probably seating no more than 30 people;  a couple of petrol stations;  a shop; hospital; primary school - a total of 50 children from age 4-9, with 2 teachers, 2 teaching assistants and Dot and Bev‘s daughter in law is the principal (at the age of 10 children go off to boarding school); nursery; caravan park and a fantastic swimming pool (which of course I had to try out!).  So all in all - not a ‘town’ as we know it (but I guess it has everything there that the people need) - but it’s really no wonder that Dot and Bev only go shopping once every 10-12 weeks over to the Tablelands … they have the biggest pantry/cool room ever!

I’m pretty cool with the lizards and frogs and am even coping with the smaller of the flying insects … but I don’t like the big dragon fly things - especially when they fly down my tee shirt - I got in a bit (ok a lot) of a panic much to Geoff’s amusement.

Sitting with Dot and Bev we could listen for hours to the tales and adventures of their lives. There is no doubt whatsoever that they have worked so hard for what they have - they are rich in life experience and in love and are so very very happy with their lives - maybe a lesson to be learned for us and many others.