Flinders Island settling - all the hidden things (part 1)

The problem is that the locals all think you know the obvious.

Without realizing it is only obvious to them because they've lived here a long time.

To the rest of us, it is stuff you have to find out. For the first couple of years we were here, even the supermarket in Whitemark had no sign. Just petrol pumps outside. If you didn't know, you should starve. They're things you could assume the island doesn't have otherwise. The secret behind the green door(next to the supermarket)... is the hairdresser. It often sounds like the song in there, but I don't know. It's not one of my regular spots, as you may gather. She flies in and does mass cuttings, but there are two other hairdressers on the island, Chi (Emita) and Kelly (down in Lady Barron. She cut our Clare's hair for the wedding). That makes it about one hairdresser for every 230 people. I have no idea how this compares to mainland ratios.

Essential facts - there are 2 supermarkets. Look for the pub in Whitemark. It's the token double story building, so it may not be too much of a challenge. Walkers is straight across the road. It is not open on Sundays. In Whitemark not even parachutes open on Sunday. However in furrin parts, probably because of the Godless Heathen in them distant parts (grin. We have everything here! But Whitemark has 2 churches and Lady Barron is deprived with only one. And on an island with the main towns all about 20 km apart, you'd think they were 500 miles apart and possibly in another country to hear some folk talking about the others) Lady Barron Store is open on Sundays until three in the afternoon. It also sells petrol, and Max does a good coffee. If you drive into Lady Barron on the main road look for a VERY small sign on your left that says 'Lady Barron Store'. Turn left off that again at the next tar road, and look for the petrol pumps. If you arrive on the island on Sunday evening be sure you don't need fuel or tucker, because you can't get any. Oh and don't drink the town water because it is untreated the pipes are full of lead.

You can buy grog at the Pub, the Sports club (keep driving past the pub. Go through the golf coarse and the road takes you there) and Lady Barron Tavern. Freckles (in Whitemark) sells wine.

The dive flag that dived...

I put it in the water. It went down like a torpedo. Nearly brained a crayfish. Jamie failed to get that one out, (and left the flag as an underwater flag so he could find the crack and have another go. We did pick up the flag, but not the cray) but got another, and I had a lucky day and got two -one about 7 pound and the second 8 and a half. Norman still has the lead for the season, by 200 grams - 4.1kg - over 9 pounds. Mine unfortunately for me really hurt my hand, which I had crunched getting the boat trailer off earlier (we got stuck and had to snatch strap it). Not only did he squeeze the hand, but for the first time in my many years of crayfishing... I got bitten by a crayfish (have a look at the little mouth parts sometime and you will realize just how unlikely this is - a cray mouth is up and down, vertical, and not horizontal. Anyway even through a 3mm neoprene glove, I have a black thumb and a blood blister to go with a sore, swollen hand. But compared to the cray I got off lightly.

The third crayfish did the classic monkey fist in a calabash thing to me, as I could grab the tail, but just not get my hand and it out of the hole. It is proof that I slightly smarter than your average monkey in that I am not still there, very dead as I would be out of air, and still clutching. It was either smart or the fact that I already had two good ones, and it was possibly not even big enough. Ah well, there will be another day...

Meanwhile, the dive flag mark 2 may be tested in less extreme circumstances... well, shallower.

to Mince or to Mince

I cut and Barbs minced - I remember all too well the days of the hand mincer. Not everything from the days of yesteryear was better. We did cats fish (wrasse, Aus salmon, and leatherjacket) for the next 2 months, and then last night I went out shooting wallaby with Norman and 'big wed'(ATV) and the new spotlight he has fitted to it, and shot 6 wallaby. I have cut and minced 2 so far, and another one and we'll have stocks of dog food past Past James's Harare re-affirmation of vows. My shooting must be getting better as I only shot at and missed completely 1 wallaby. My gutting and skinning is definitely getting better. I wasn't still at it at 2 AM.

The strawberries have given us our first two Strawbs and cream

I collected some turkey poo yesterday - it's a hard solid 10 litre bucket full - rock hard. Any bright ideas how I should use this supposedly wondeful nitrogen source appreciated. My carrot show some signs of very variable nutrients...

It's a lovely looking day so hopefully will get a chance to try dive flag mk1 later. But now, to work.

How many plants does your garden grow?

I was standing stirring porridge this morning, looking out at the kitchen garden, and I started counting food plants and herbs. The kitchen garden is more or less 6.5 X 6. meters with a 2x3 bite out for the wood shed. It's the most sheltered corner. I am not one of those green-finger blokes who can make 10 plants grow huge and healthy where 3 struggled before. I am one of those who can make 3 plants struggle where 10 grew before. Yet veg we eat almost entirely off what I grow, which is why I have a vast diversity and beds in three very separate areas, and pots in a 4th. I figure although some will fail, or produce little there is hopefully always something in the gap.

Kitchen garden:

1)Olive trees (2)potted.
2)Asparagus (potted)
3)Garlic chives (potted)
4)Chile peppers (potted)
5)Artichokes
6)rhubarb
7)Rosemary
8)Marjoram
9)Parsley (moss curled and Italian)
10) tomatoes (varieties black russian, stupice, olmovic, some potted)
11)carrots (3 varieties)
12) beets (2 varieties)
13) Onions
14) Mint
15) sunflowers
16)cucumbers (2 var)
17)sweet corn
18)beans climbing (purple king, scarlet runner, blue lake, and snake)
19)Peas, sugar snap
20) potatoes (congo, elephant, kennebec, and royal Dutch cream)
21) bulb Florence fennel
22)Passionfruit
23)mushroom plant (herb)
24)Capsicum (potted)
25)Zucchini (potted)
26) Salsify and Scorzonera
27) Cape Gooseberry
28) (intended to grow outside area, rooted in) Blacktail watermelon
29) (intended to grow outside) Chantenay rock melon
30) possibly not going to survive fig-tree in pot

Probably about 32 square meters of planted, but a lot climbers intended to use walls and fences. I have lost one watermelon to slugs already. Not all of it will produce anything worth having. This is a minor tomato area, and there are no capsicums in the ground. The parsley is on going to seed.

The pots around the other side of the house (actually more easily reached from the kitchen) are mostly herbs -thyme, sage, marjoram, 3 varieties of mint, parsley, rosemary, chives, tassie mountain pepper, and a few tomatoes in pots JIC. There are also artichokes (not flourishing) and more cape gooseberries. - 11 species, 3 not growing in the other garden.

Then the raised containers - 2 of more-or-less 2 meters in diameter, one 2 meter square. 10 square meters more or less

Not growing elsewhere
1)Strawberries,

2)Garlic (about 40 heads - too little, coming out in a month)
3)lettuce (various)
4)Cauliflower (about to come out, broccoli out already)

5)summer squash (patty pan)

6)Diamond eggplant
7)Silverbeet (Swiss chard)
8)spinach (about to come out)

Carrots, beets, zucchini (2 types), a lot of tomatoes, sugar snap peas, scorzonera, bunching onions (shallots I think), 3 varieties of capsicum, bulb fennel, onions, cape gooseberry

Hotbox - a small 2 by 1 meter greenhouse of sorts -

overwintered capsicums and chilli peppers, and some 'rushed' tomatoes in pots and diamond and ping-tung egg-plant.


Old chicken yard about 6x5 meters (sandy rubbish soil)

not growing elsewhere
1)Blue ballet squash (trying corn and squash thing)
2)Parsnips
3)one feeble raspberry

onions (a lot, alissa craig, red, and spring) potatoes, sweetcorn, salsify), climbing beans, sunflowers.

Pumpkins (and when they are able to go out watermelon and rock melon) are grown outside this area, probably another 15 square meters Triamble, Queensland blue and Kakai (hull-less seed, grown for the seed)

We have a grape vine (which has not borne anything, but I use the leaves, a small mulberry bush which hasn't had any fruit and a qumquat which has not borne either - fruit supply = bad

I need more potato area, and fruit, a lemon and bay trees in pots, kiwi and raspberry, boysenberries... I need a heavy shade area for summer lettuce... There are loads more veggies to experiment with too, I'd love to field crop wheat, buckwheat and maize, but most of that will have to wait.

I may be a terrible gardener, and I just don't have a lot of time to invest - an hour, maybe an hour and a half a day - taken in between writing, but with nearly 50 species, and a lot of varieties, and several very different soils and microclimates, I hope we have something all year round. Last year we had to buy some potatoes and onions, but pretty much everything else we either were given (apples, lemons) grew, or did without. This year we will have a lot more onions, and some more potatoes, but probably still not quite enough. Call it 80 square meters under cultivation -not one hell of a lot. A lot of the longer term plants in pots - not good for them, but I know we will have to move one day. If an inept gardener like myself (my reaction to sickly/feeble plant 'they have to try harder!') what can good ones do?

More Internet Hassles

Well, James spent 6 hours fighting bigpuddle - the world's worst internet provider - into doing 3 minute job last night. We're online again as a result. Sadly that - and telstra are what we have to have here. I just don't get this company - surely hiring half a dozen competent techs would be a lot cheaper than outsourcing to somewhere - where I suspect they pay peanuts - but the job takes 200 times as long as need be?

Pads and Clare flew back to the UK yesterday - should nearly be there by now. It was a close run thing as the plane was delayed in Lonnie, and they only had two and half hours... before the delay. Anyway, they scraped in, and all is well that ends well. We miss them already.

The wind is really roaring and howling and shrieking today (just as well they're not flying now) and we - Barbs and I fly tomorrow. Barbs is going to a Scottish Dancing workshop/course near Shepparton tomorrow, along with the wife of one of the local pilots. I'm going for the ride, and to keep the pilot company flying back... weather permitting. Right now, it isn't. This morning it REALLY wasn't. We had hail - enough to make a white shroud across the ground. It dropped the temperature by about 5 degrees in five minutes - I am very glad I wasn't fish farming any more, or keeping angora goats.

I've rigged an old infra-red light to try and warm the potting soil so I can get some melons and watermelon to germinate - with a short warm growing season here, getting them up, big and going fast is vital. I'll transplant them into my hot-boxes - via Jody-suggestion I have made some small portable 'cold-frames' which I can move very easily. I hope this way I can get them to a reasonable size before summer starts. I've also filled our next planting tank with old sheep manure and soil from the shearing yards. If the hot-system works the capsicums will be next.

Oh, we have had our first artichoke, and first few asparagus (I'm only cropping off our 3 year old crowns - but the rest are growing vigorously.

The Eggs-box and the blackerry

I've derived a good new way of fire-lighting. In winter, here, that becomes a necessary skill. When your wood-burning heater is elderly and has its air flue rusted to one position (and no I am NOT trying to fix it until summer. I don't want to have to replace it if I bust it, and doing so could take a while as it has to come over on the ferry.) When my chooks started laying, we found ourselves without many egg-boxes, so whenever we gave anyone eggs it would be on the 'egg box comes back, please' condition. And people being what they are, they put the egg-boxes in dark places, alone, and you know what? They bred. Multiplied prodigiously. And of course the chooks slowed down for winter, but the flow of egg-boxes coming to us did not. The one thing you don't do on the island is to say 'no' when people want to give you things or take you places -- because they will never offer twice. (My poor Indian friends - from a culture where it is polite to refuse the first two offers, in case the host was trying to be polite but really could ill afford it... had a culture shock). And we WILL need egg-boxes again. Just right now they're Ott. The other issue I have is old cooking oil - with one son allergic to seafood, I have to be very cautious about re-using it. It is however, basically diesel - not easily ignited but long burning. So the perfect firelighter is some old cooking oil poured into 4 squares of egg-box. I like to play with my eggs-box. And I have a blackberry too. And some raspberries. Frozen. Who says we live in the past?

Tomorrow we're (Barbs - via her job at the Doctor's rooms) and James and I, via her, going in to a do to meet the new Island doctor. We're a little nervous about this - Barbs will have to work with him, but that is minor, compared to fact that he is going to be the island's doctor. We were spoiled with Sonia and Biren, and Tony who has been locum-ing is a treasure, who understand Islanders and island life. It's a bit different to a mainland practice. It's an island. You can't just go to a different practice. And the Doctor has to live with a tight-knit, quite inter-related community who will affect his quality of life far more than any mainland community... because they ARE a community, and there are very very few things happen here that everyone doesn't know by nightfall.

new names old things

This flu has got me by the chest. One of the things we're going to have to learn are a whole bunch of new trade names for old remedies. What a good mucolytic is. What a good expectorant/bronchiodilator is. And I suspect we'll have to leave out first-aid kits behind - certainly for the flight over. I like to have those on hand for climbing particularly. Does Australia run to Friar's Balsam - that pongiffereous sticky brown goo and aid to jamming and reducing skin loss? The cliffs (some seacliffs) on Flinders appear to be ryolitc (sp?) granite. not sure how jammy that'll be - Tas has some great fluted dolerite columns - especially off the central plataeux and the sea-cliffs down South East. That's going to be fun part. Opening new routes... and remembering not to pronounce route in the South African way.... 'root'. :-)

Not in my pool please!

OK in the quest to learn Australian sea-food I find myself at page 596 of Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion. Encountering Pipis. Which are not quite what I assumed a million French tourist were doing in the sea at Nice. Which my further research tell me one may use a rake to harvest in South Australia... but although I may gather them in Tasmania, there's a nix on rakes. Now I've dug for Donax serra (white sand mussel) with my feet, at night, chest deep in the freezy waves of Blouberg strand. Sometimes your toes feel a lump that's a sand mussel, and sometimes a lump that's a crab. Fun! I've dug with my hands for another clam species up at Saldanha (v.different habitat- just inside the very small ripple top of tide ripple.) Where doth the pipi lurk? and how do you draw it from the briny? with offers of a walk or discussion of shoes, of ships, of sealing wax, of cabbages and kings... ?

Fish soup to 40 ft containers

When it comes to the road less travelled I think we're gifted, postively gifted, at choosing br'er rabbit's bramble patch and somehow kidding ourselves it is a path, if not quite a road. We got accepted to Oz on a 124 -talent visa. No one applies for that one. The migration agents didn't even know it existed, let alone what was needed. That meant, while rivers of South Africans flowed off to Oz mostly on iirc 457's we had no one to ask, no-one to look at and say 'oh, it took them 3/6/9/12 months. ' We had no idea of the probability of our getting it, or the time frame. Impossible to take pre-emptive steps. Just running blind - not my best. Just about every step was a learning one - for everyone including our examining doctor.

Then of course - having cleared the hurdles (and seriously that particular visa is probably very few people's best bet) which were many complex we couldn't just decide on one the standard destinations - Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brissy etc. where we'd be following a well-beaten track and almost certainly be able to have contacts and friends on the ground to see us through the integration/settling phase. No. WE had to set our sights on a place that no South African has settled. That damn few people even know exists. And thence of course a whole set of new learning. Like for example moving costs - to Melbourne R xyz, to Flinders R xyz times two. Why? they're 300 km apart for crying in a bucket. So moving 10 000km costs Rxyz and 10 300 twice that. There HAS to be a cheaper, better way. I am certain there is. But we can't exactly ask the people who did it before us...

Then there is the issue of well, where do you stay? Any of the normal destinations and you'd have a chance of scrounging a bed from a previous migrant friend/aquaintance for a night or two -or a b&b, and then renting short term - months - until you found a house. The local contact could tell you what was a good area, price, etc. And that's where your furniture will go - either your short term rental or your home.

Uh. Don't know anyone there. B&b's a plenty - at a price. Houses to rent for months? what? hello? - especially when, like now, we don't even know when we're going. And then of course we have no idea at all whether we're getting a piece of land, a good shed, or a house. The former two are more likely - in which case what in the hell do you do with a lot of furniture - mostly old and loved?

Hence the container idea. Maybe we just buy one, and then we have shed of sorts...

And your mind keeps bouncing around - from containers to fish soup - which could be a bad experience. I've been peering at recipes. Experimenting. I've been fishing for 45 years - I can probably catch something, even though the locals will lick me 16 ways to breakfast (never underestimate local knowledge, and never go in, as an incomer, assuming you know more than f-nothing). The Portuguese one made my blood freeze... shudder, long boiled fish. I barely boil anything, except very briefly. More on the various training food experiments next time.
I guess I could always boil fish in the container... LOTS of really vile soup anyone?