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This edition, Margaret Donehue writes about an annual walk coming up in Koroit on May 2 in memory of a man who championed the working class and Alison Aplin has feedback on her open garden, Timandra.[/box]

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #8F9F59;”] D [/dropcap]ear Readers,

Among the old graves in the Tower Hill cemetery is the grave of a Koroit-born shearer, William McLean who was born in 1870. He died a penniless criminal released from jail early so that he could die at home.

McLean’s grave, paid for by donations from working class families at the height of the Great Depression is an impressive polished red granite column with the top incomplete to symbolise an unfinished life. The epitaph is attributed to poet and writer Henry Lawson.

For many years after his death, locals walked each Sunday to McLeans grave and, in 1932, five hundred people attended a memorial there.

A small group still gather each year on the Saturday of the Koroit Irish Festival and after a five-minute history lesson, the energetic participants walk the scenic route around Tower Hill to Mickey Bourke’s pub in Koroit. The less energetic gather at the coffee shop or pub to get a head start on the refreshments before going to the festival. This is family friendly and everyone is welcome at this year’s event on May 2.

Like many shearers of his time, McLean followed the seasonal work to the large shearing sheds in central and Western NSW. Under a forced agreement of the times, shed hands were paid five shillings – less than 50 cents – per week and any worker who left before all the work was complete would not be paid.

The living standards for these workers were abysmal and they had no legal rights. In an attempt to gain some rights, 8000 rural workers joined the Australian Workers Union and many lived in strike camps, supported with food and necessities from the local community while they tried to find sustainable work. A number of men received six months jail for belonging to a union and those associated with strike camps received two years hard labour on an automatic charge of riot.

On August 26 1894, unionists, including William McLean, went to Grassmere station to talk to non-unionists. On entering the shearers hut, McLean was shot in the lung and John Murphy, who accompanied him, was shot in the back.

Six men – John Jones, John Virgin, Hughe Graham, Hector Osborne, Albert Kerr and Alfred Montgomery – attempted to carry McLean and Murphy back to the camp. They were stopped by police and all eight were arrested and charged with riot. All defendants, including McLean and Murphy, who were carried into court on stretchers, were given two years hard labour. After suffering harsh prison conditions both men died from their wounds.

Over a century after his death, the column on McLean’s grave continues to immortalise a local hero.

You may wish to access the “ McLean Walk” Facebook Page for more details on the walk as they come to hand.

Margaret Donehue

* * * *

Open garden success…despite the weather!

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]hank you to Bluestone Magazine for the promotion of Timandra’s Open Garden. Other than the shockingly cold and miserable weather, the open was a success, with $1200 donated to Portland District Health.

Because of the constant unreliability of the weather (which is obviously a figment of my imagination!) we will need to put a lot more thought into our opening days. The weather has a profound effect on visitor turn-out.

I feel that people would be more inclined to visit our garden in high heat than the cold, especially since the garden is at least 6 to 7 degrees cooler during summer from the canopy of trees.

But the response from the visitors was very positive. It is a very different garden in every respect, and people enjoy this difference immensely. People leave wondering how they can incorporate a little bit of what we do in Timandra in their own garden.

Sustainability will one day become the norm with private gardens, but it is a long and slow process bringing about change, even if it is for the better.

– Alison Aplin, Timandra, Narrawong.

[box]You can write to us at editor@bluestonemagazine.com.au Please include a full name, address and contact number. Letters are published at our discretion and may be edited for clarity only.[/box]

Older letters here…

Milk processing plant location needs forward thinking

By Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] M [/dropcap]elanie (Mel) Wells is beside herself with excitement: not only are the glorious Australasian Gannet seabirds back at Point Danger, near Portland, but they have guests.

“We have counted three Cape Gannets (from South Africa) and two have had chicks,” she says with a level of enthusiasm that makes you instantly want to grab your binoculars and go for a peek.

“It is rare to have them coming here, and they have never bred before.”

Mel, from Warrnambool, will be sharing all that she knows about the gannet – and that is plenty – during a free, guided “gawk and talk” at Point Danger on January 25 (see details at the end of story), where people may be lucky enough to see the South African tourists. (Update: unfortunately the Cape Gannets have since abandoned the nest and their chick died, edit.)

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] M [/dropcap]el, a marine biology honours student at Deakin University, has had a fascination with the Australasian Gannet since first spotting one from the Warrnambool breakwater.

“I had always liked birds ever since I was a little kid – I remember going for a walk around Melbourne with my Dad and coming home to write down all the birds I had seen,” Mel laughs.

“But my first love has always been the ocean, so when I started to study marine biology, it was seabirds that came to be my thing.”

Gannets are a superb seabird. A broad wing span (it can extend up to 2 metres) and a dynamic flight pattern that is part kite, part racing car and part dive-bomber, make for a spectacular sight.

But spotting them is usually not easy, as they spend the majority of their lives on the ocean, only coming to land to breed.

“They are perfectly designed for a life at sea and once they have fledged, they will stay out at sea for the first five years of their life,” Mel explains.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] S [/dropcap]outh-west Victoria is particularly privileged, as Point Danger is the only mainland gannet colony in Australia where people can see the birds without needing a boat.

They arrive in their hundreds from September each year to take advantage of the bonney upwelling – a natural phenomena where nutrient rich waters are pushed to the surface from deep below, providing a sort of drive-through cafeteria for a range of marine animals, including seabirds.

“Gannets mate for life and will keep coming back to the same place each year to breed,” Mel says, adding that she knows of one female gannet at Pope’s Eye, off Queenscliff, that is 24 years old.

[button link=”https://www.dropbox.com/sh/udkjpwn3fhhzhi6/AABm0cognIL4GK7JDwDO-7koa/pointdanger.MOV?dl=0″ newwindow=”yes”] If you have Dropbox, you can watch a 1 min video of the Point Danger gannets here.[/button]

The species is also a great believer in gender equality, with both the male and female taking turns to look after the chick, of which they have only one each year.

“They are so gentle and loving toward each other, it is really beautiful to watch, but when they are breeding, they can be super aggressive to anything else,” Mel says.

In fact Mel and her fellow researchers strap plastic chopping boards to their shins when walking among the Pope’s Eye colony to avoid having their legs pecked to pieces.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] M [/dropcap]el has been studying the feeding habits of the Australasian Gannet since last July as part of her honours thesis, under the guidance of lead researcher Associate Professor John Arnold.

The work involves attaching a tiny camera and GPS to the tail of the gannet which records where the birds are feeding and how their diet varies according to their location.

“Some of the images we are getting back are just amazing – David Attenborough stuff,” Mel says.

It appears to be both fascinating and fun work and Mel hopes to specialise in such research after she finishes her thesis in April.

In the meantime, she is thrilled to be able to use the Summer by the Sea guided walks to share her passion for gannets, before they start to take flight again in February.

[box]The Gannets Gawk and Talk is on Sunday, January 25 at 10am. Meet at the Point Danger Gannet Colony Car Park, off Madeira Packet Road, Portland (near the Alcoa smelter). Free, but numbers are limited, so you must reserve your place here. Find full details here.[/box]

[button link=”http://the-terrier.com.au/subscribe-2/” type=”icon” icon=”heart” newwindow=”yes”]Bluestone is aiming for at least 500 subscribers in 2015. If you enjoyed this story, please click here to become one![/button]

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