Photo: Paul's house
May 21, 1978 I find the Catholic Church in Bairnsdale and ask a man going in what time mass is. He tells me and mentions that the ceiling of the church had been painted by an artist and is very beautiful. I reply "Similar to the paintings by Michaelangelo in the Sistine Chapel." "Yes," he says, "I believe he’s the one who painted it."
That afternoon we watch Paul play for one of the 2 local Bairnesdale soccer clubs. The team won 5-1 but Paul thought he played poorly.
At the shop I read the Sunday newspaper I bought that morning. The paper, typical of Australian newspapers, had many sensational stories, headlines, and seminude pictures of 'birds'. After work we played squash. Karen and Robin gave me a sound beating.
Photo: Kangeroo at park
May 22, 1978 Paul, Robin and I packed a picnic lunch in Bongo, Pauls Mazda van, and drove to the Buchen Caves. The Caves, located in a beautiful park, were fairly long and some chambers were quite large.
Emerging back into the bright autumn colors we fed the kangeroos that came up to greet us. These park kangeroos were almost domesticated. After I had fed the last of the bread to the 3 kangeroos, Paul, who was shooting pictures said "Give them some more bread." When I replied "We don’t have any more", the 3 kangeroos turned around and hopped off. Very funny.
Then we hiked to a nearby waterfall. Patch said it was a quarter mile but it seemed closer to a mile. It was very worthwhile as the recent heavy rains made the heavily cascading waterfall a spectacular sight.
Photo: Paul & Robin
May 23, 1978 While shopping in Bairnsdale Patch and I ran into one of her former students, Bruce. He was a small guy, about 16, and announced he had quit school and was getting married soon. The woman he was marrying was in her 30’s with children about the age of Bruce.
Although his particular situation is unique to say the least, it is not unusual for students to not finish high school. This is because the only advantage to finishing high school is passing an examination that determines ones place at a university (uni). Technical schools, where manual trades were learned, were an alternative to high school for many students interested in going to university.
Photo: Forest in park
We traveled to a nearby forest preserve of which the biggest attraction is the Den of Nargon, an Aboriginal site of ancient significance. To reach the Den we had to take a foot trail which wound down the side of a narrow semitropical canyon. In some places the trail was slippery and blocked by fallen trees. There were also long vines hanging from the trees by which one could swing, like Tarzan. At the floor of the canyon a well trod path led upstream to the Den. This was the first time Paul or Robin had seen water flowing over the ledge just above the Den.
At the Den we crossed the stream, of which the most difficult part was coaxing Patch across. Following the stream, it eventually emptied into a much larger river. After again crossing the stream, we made our way back to where Bongo was parked.
Area Map
