A friend of mine has recently pointed out that I have failed to do the traditional welcome to country in my blog. Therefore I wish now to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the Rosewood district in which I was raised – the Armstrong and the Harding families.  

These pioneers moved here from Devon around 1840. They were primarily responsible for turning the Rosewood Scrub, as it was then called (a useless tangle of a wide range of plants) into productive farmland. Instead of dense bush and native wildlife, under their stewardship it became just 3 species to manage- lucern, pigs, and dairy cattle. (There had been some other peoples there earlier, who it seems, had been steadfastly ignoring the notion of terra nullis for 30,000 years and paid not a penny to the Crown!)

In this part of the world it was the Austrians not the Australians  who owned quite a stretch of Central Europe until they proved themselves to be quite defatigable (I love words where the opposite with a prefix or suffix are the most commonly used. Many of my friends are quite ruth and defatigable) . From Napoleon onwards they managed to be on the losing side of a number of wars including both world wars, and each time having the real estate savagely trimmed. Although things have been quite stable since the 1950’s if Austria gets in another stoush with anyone, even little Slovenia, I suspect there wouldn’t be anything left of the of the country outside, perhaps, Vienna.

Enough of the history lesson. – I’d best let you go Farquar.   It’s -5 ° outside. Time to don the woolies and go exploring.

Ps 

Our German friends have arrived, so i suspect we may be kept just a little busy!