Last weekend we made the trip as a family
to the town of Echuca with a pit stop in the town of Kyabram to visit an
Australian Fauna Park. It was here we
finally got to wander amongst the wildlife that down under is so famous for.
See if you can guess what the following
animals are: (I will give you the
answers at the bottom of the post).
The second stop on our trip was the once
mighty port city of Echuca. The city
name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning “meeting of the waters”; the city is
located on one of the major Australian waterways: the Murray River. The city, being the closest city on the
Murray to Melbourne, became a thriving port for shipping goods to Adelaide and
the Indian Ocean and in time became Australia’s biggest inland port-city. Furthermore, in true Aussie fashion it was
founded by an ex-convict name Henry Hopwood, proving once again that given the
opportunity people, regardless of their status in society, can do great things.
Unfortunately for Henry and the people who
lived there, an economic depression, better roads and the ever-looming droughts
led to the slow decline of the city.
Today all that remains are the old port and the paddlewheel steamers. Part of me wonders if there isn’t a lesson in
there for all places that were once rich and important.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
-Percy Bysshe Shelley
a) Tasmanian Devil; b) Grey Kangaroo c) Emu d) Flying Fox
