Mar 6. Tatura

It was an early start to the day for Jim. He left at 6:15 to accompany our host John Dickinson to feed a friend's sheep. The farm is located a few miles away on Toolamba.

Jim's job was to open the gates for John to deliver hay to the ewes and lambs and keep them from escaping. If they had, Jim would have had to herd them back using an ATV. They were well behaved. There were about about 1000 of the sheep ready to lamb. It's an interesting experience to be put on an ATV before dawn in Australia. They have the biggest bats. Also saw a wild kangaroo.

After breakfast and drive to join the rest of the group we went to visit the orchard of Ralph Lenne. Ralph has 400 acres of fruit trees. Mostly pears. He has wonderful storage and packaging facilities. We talked about the problems of farming and their need for water. They make great use of the v-trellis system. 

What Ralph really liked to talk about was his airplanes. He has a least 5 of them in his own hanger on the farm. One he flew from California himself. 



We then proceeded to the Kyabram Fauna park where we got to feed kangaroos, pet a Koala, hold a python and look at a whole range of birds and animals we don't normally see. 

Flying fox

Wombat.

We had lunch at the park and then traveled back to Tatura to have afternoon tea before visiting a dairy farm of Duncan Crawford. 

The farm milks 800 cows in a rotary parlour. It was quit the sight as we were there at milking time. The milk is processed into UHT and shipped to China.

Waiting their turn

Our vehicle

After a break to get cleaned up for supper we enjoyed a party with Rotarians at the home of Andrew and Katherine Lelliott. It was a fun day. 

We have so much in common. 

We said goodbye to our hosts John and Jan. We hope they will come to visit us soon