Brisbane to Broome

<--Jon (left with Amos), myself and Steve

I have met some interesting people here in Broome. The guys camping in our backyard are no exception!

They arrived yesterday evening from Brisbane. So what, you ask?
They CYCLED from Brisbane!!!

Father and son, Steve and Jon have spent the last 10 weeks (and one day) cycling across the country from Brisbane to Broome in order to raise money for charities Plan and Beyond Blue.

Jenner and Rachel met them whilst camping in the Kimberley 2 weeks ago and invited them to stay. So we were their welcome party (sort of). Jenner did buy a bottle of Champers which was enjoyed by all!

We were expecting them to jump straight into the shower or bath for a good wash and then sleep. But this was not to be! No, they cooked us dinner as thank-you for letting them stay! So after riding 5500km+, they had enough energy (and left over food) to feed us!

There is a googlemap of their route at Sueblimely .

You can check out details of and reason for their journey, Jon's blog, and (more importantly) donate through their website:
http://www.brisbanetobroome.org

Why Plan?
Jon has cycled through SE Asia and seen poverty first hand. He also did some service in Vietnam, building a house which he was saddened to find did not benefit the family, but cost them their income. You see, they made rice paper using a fire in their house which had been well ventilated, not having what we consider a 'proper' roof.

Jon wanted to raise money for an organisation which he knew really helped people. Through a lot of research, he found that Plan work to reduce child poverty and employ local people. Plan International is presently working with over 3.5 million families in 20,000 communites around the world.

They are very interesting guys, so it is a privilege to have them stay.

How green??

Today on local ABC radio, Brekie host Ben was promoting the new initiative by ABC called 'green at work'. The website has lots of energy saving tips and advice from the 'Green Guru' about cleaning toilets (among other things).

There is also a quiz game on there which asks you to rank 5 energy-saving methods in order of effectiveness. I can't load the game on my PC, but Ben made me his 'first victim' playing it over the radio.

It has jungle-like noises in the background (which made Ben very hard to hear over the phone), and ends with a picture of the world and how much you saved it. I got 3/5, so the grass was green, but the butterflies were killed by lightning.

I'd like to know how you go (if you can make it load up!)

Ben only got 1/5. He also tested other people on the show (rural reporter, other presenters, the Green Guru herself) and got people to text in what they got. Because I scored 'high' my name got banded around a bit because after every news update/other report, he'd explain what he was doing and what scores people got. So 'Andrea from the Weather Bureau' got mentioned a lot! It gave me incentive to keep listening while I was working!

The Green Guru got 3/5 too (even though she wrote it!), and another radio presenter managed to get 5/5, so good on her!

Check it out here: http://www.abc.net.au/greenatwork/

Meatworks II

I forgot to mention garage sales in my Meatworks post....

The people I live with look out for ads in the paper for upcoming garage sales around Broome, especially within Demco estate, hoping to grab great bargains.

And they do. It's amazing the stuff people get rid of. Our Italian leather couch was purchased days before a Demco sale took place (got to get in early!). The couple had decided to rent out their house, fully furnished. But instead of leaving their nice furniture, they were transporting cheap stuff up from Perth and selling off the good stuff as it would cost too much to move. Very strange. The couch was an anniversary present from wife to husband. Well, it's kind of good they're not attached to their 'stuff', but that doesn't mean much when you can afford everything.

Welcome to Meatworks Estate!

How insanely huge is this house?! This is in the new-ish Demco estate, aka Meatworks Estate (Demco was the meatworks company which was situated here until 1994). All the houses are well over $1 million. The apartments are a a bit less at $800,000.

Being an estate, the houses are all crammed together (this one is an exception but only because the next block is still empty) despite the price tags. There are also townhouses and units on the street behind the mansions.

According to Elaine Rabbitt a proposal was put to the council in '95 to turn the site into a 'prestigious resort development' fronting Roebuck Bay. This didn't happen, but it did become a prestigious residential development despite the fact that Broome residents didn't consider it to be a desirable part of town, the meatworks stench still fresh in their memories.

In her story of her childhood, Sally Bin Denim talks about fishing from the meatworks drain and how you had to be careful of the sharks that were attracted to the bay by all the blood washing out!

There are a few meatworks mansions on the market at the moment, so if you have a spare couple of million...! A few of the houses are on the edge of the dunes and would have a great view of the azure bay (and the port). Some may get a peek between the houses. The majority of houses wouldn't have a view, like this $1.8million 'Mediter-Asian Grandure'.

Sure you are in close proximity to the beach here, and also Town Beach, but neither are particularly nice! Meatworks beach (pictured right and below) is mostly rocks, many of which become very slippery when the tide goes out! I go there just because it is the only dog-friendly beach in walking distance, and also to collect sea-smoothed pieces of glass.

It isn't particularly well located, being halfway between town and the port and next to the Youth Sports Centre (or opposite it in the case of the first house!) and Caravan Park (the Youth Centre is also the overflow for the caravan park). It is surrounded by quite an expanse of bush, but that has a tendency to be set alight.

One thing about the estate, the banana palms grow really well!

sea plane

I've been meaning to get pics of a sea plane for ages, and this is as good as I've been able to get. To begin with, these planes looked really strange to me, especially when parked, because they seem so high! I'd love to see them landing on water.
By the way, no that isn't cloud in the first pic - it is a huge bank of smoke from a fire 40+km away.

Quaint Anglican Church part 2

I went back to the cute little Anglican Church, which I previously posted about, for a service. This meant I got to see inside! I wish I could have taken pictures, but I didn't think that would have been appropriate!

From the inside, what I thought was an extension, looks like an original part of the church, but according to the website they replaced the exterior cladding with colourbond. The altar area is divided from the seating by a stunning ornate carved railing (see pic from minister's site-->). There are plaques on the walls in memory of members who perished in the 1908 cyclone.

It actually feels smaller than it looks from the outside. The french doors still open outwards to allow air through, but they could have done with the fans on too! (Being the peak time in tourist season, the congregation had bloomed from the usual 30 to over 60 people, hence it was stuffy!)

I spoke to the minister's wife about the building and she said they'd had to jump through all sorts of hoops to get the wheelchair ramp put up the side because of the heritage listing.

In this pic you can see said ramp and also the doors/windows which open out. Without the ramp (ie on the other side of the church) there is a 1.5m drop from within the church to the ground. I was really surprised that there were no gates or barriers to stop kids falling/jumping out. You wouldn't want to fall asleep and fall sideways out of your pew if sitting by one of the open doors!