Mrs Joan De Carteret from the Spencer Street units, started life in an orphanage in Geelong when she was one week old in January 1952. She was placed there by her grandfather.  She spent the next 16 years there and whilst not the happiest place to live she was treated fairly by the nuns. At 16 Joan was sent to live at Marellac House Hostel in Brighton. She found a job in a factory and worked there for a while till she found work as an orderly at ST. Vincent's Hospital, a job that Joan enjoyed. Joan married in 1980, had 3 children and lived happily in Melbourne until her husband passed away from lung cancer in 2000. Joan wanted a fresh start so moved to Gippsland  later that year. The move was not as successful as Joan had hoped so at the urging of her son in Ballarat she applied to move here, arriving in September last year. Joan has two sons, a   daughter plus nine grandchildren though she only gets to see her son and his family living here in Ballarat.

Joan was able to trace her natural mother with the help of the Aboriginal Health Service and in 1991 met her mother, sister and brother along with stepfather at the Morwell  station.   Although Joan was  nervous the reunion was a happy event and Joan kept in touch with her family. Her mother died in 1995 and her sister died in 2007. She did manage to trace her father but he was not keen to meet so Joan has no contact with him.

Joan is enjoying the move to Ballarat and the extended opportunities Ballarat provides. Joan loves doing jigsaw puzzles and has a fine collection of completed works at her unit. She also likes to knit when the mood strikes her.

After completion of this story I did a project for the ABC Open local Ballarat area and Joan was the subject. The final video can be seen here. http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2010/09/21/3017882.htm?site=ballarat&section=open/change&date=(none)

Murray River Cruise at Echuca

On Tuesday 21st September 33 people went to Echuca via coach as part of Housing Week. It was an early start, 7 AM for the first pickup and the last at Creswick at 8:45 AM. It was cold and overcast in Ballarat so not an auspicious start to the day.

Morning tea in Bendigo. [To view images larger click on image and use your browser back button to return to story]

First stop was in Bendigo for a quick morning tea. At least the sun was out and it was a bit warmer than Ballarat.

Joan, Connie and Tess along with the rest of our party wait to board the paddle steamer.

We arrived in Echuca about 11:30 AM to a warm sunny day. We were scheduled to depart for our river cruise at 11:45 so were in ample time to board our paddle steamer the P.S. Canberra. The river was in full flow and many of the mooring points were under water but we had no trouble boarding the boat for our trip.

The river in full flow from the rear of the boat at the mooring site.

The old Echuca wharf and a paddle steamer undergoing renovation.

Echuca was once our biggest inland port and part of the wharf structure along with the old buildings has been preserved and is now a tourist precinct. More restoration of the wharf is in progress. We have been in drought for many years now but this winter we had above average rain fall and for the first time in years the river was flowing at a high level. The locals and visitors alike were enjoying the rare event.

The view from the top deck of our paddle steamer.

A view of the river in full flow and one of the grand old paddle steamers plying it's trade.

There are many original paddle steamers plying their trade along the Murray River at Echuca and several of them were working during our cruise.

The Emmylou carrying passengers along the Murray with some of the house boats for charter showing behind the grand old lady.

Peter Sheen servers lunch to Brian and Judith on board the P.S. Canberra.

Our trip included a light lunch on board the paddle steamer and it was served by staff from the Department of Human Services and Mr. Peter Sheen from PACT. Housing week is sponsored by the Victorian Government and PACT received a grant for our outing to celebrate housing week.

The main street of the tourist precinct complete with rides on horse and buggies.

After the lunch cruise we were given a hour to explore the main tourist area and the main street of Echuca. It was a pleasant experience to stroll about in the warm sun and explore all the old shops and buildings within walking distance. There was a good selection of wood working items on show along with blacksmith's shops, with anything from fine tables to basic tourist nicknack's.

An old kiln inside the main pottery shed at Bendigo Pottery.

We left Echuca for the return trip home but the bus driver had arranged a stop over at the Bendigo Pottery for us. The pottery is one of the oldest working potteries in Australia and has been in continuous operation since the mid 1850's.

Connie and Tess explore one of the show rooms at the Bendigo Pottery.

The sculpture and artifacts garden at the pottery.

The coach driver chats with one of our participants at the main entrance to the Bendigo Pottery show rooms.

After a pleasant interlude at the pottery we departed for Ballarat in good spirits. We listened to a selection of music on the way home and a few brave souls sang along to the old style songs. The trip ended in Ballarat, back in the cold and gloom at about 6 pm that night.

All images are copy righted with all rights reserved and may not be used without written permission. All images taken with a Nikon D700 with Nikon 24-70 f2.8 lens.

Werribee Open Range Zoo

I recently had a day out to the Werribee Zoo with a group of people from my housing complex. The day was graciously hosted by the local Community Housing Office personal. We were well taken care of and the bus driver provided a care free trip. I was very happy to be able to photograph the animals at the zoo and was pleased with the results I achieved given the harsh mid-day lighting conditions. Many of these shots were from the bus ride at the zoo.

A pair of cheetahs, brothers relax in the grass.

A lion sleeps in the filtered sun oblivious to the many tourists.



A close inspection of a hard won pine cone.



A vervet monkey runs down a tree with his prize pine cone.



Meerkat on lookout duty.



Checking the heavens for enemies.



The oldest giraffe in the zoo.



A type of antelope.




A Rhino grazes on the planes of Werribee.




An American Bison shedding his winter coat.



All images were taken with the Nikon D700 and D200 cameras using the Nikon 300mm F4 lens with 1.4 TC or the Nikon 80-200mm F2.8 lens. All were handheld.