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What is going on, guys? Welcome to
this episode of Walking with Pete.
Today I am at my grandparents farm,
near Bendigo. I think the suburb is
called Myrtle Creek. You hear that
crunch under my feet. Listen to this.

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You hear that because it is
incredibly dry up here. And I'm
walking through the small, I don't
know what you call it, cluster of
trees that are right near the house.
The cabin, the log cabin, and if
you've heard some previous episodes
that I've done, you may have heard me
talk about this place because I
mentioned in a previous episode that
I caught a snake when I was young and
it was here at this farm, probably
about 20 meters away from where I'm
standing now, actually, these big
rocks and I remember coming down,
seeing it one summer, it was
underneath this rock.

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I put the rock back down, came back
in the winter and then it was there
again and because it wasn't moving
very quickly, I had the chance to use
a stick to lift it off the ground and
put it in a bucket and show my
parents and my grandparents who
quickly told me to take it outside
for obvious reasons. Anyway, it's
been really funny coming back for, I
don't know, the first time in
probably a decade, at least, and it's
been really nostalgic because the
place really hasn't changed at all.
It's a little bit drier, it used to
be a little bit greener, but that's
obviously just the climate at the
moment here is really dry. There
hasn't been a lot rain and so,
there's not a lot of grass. They've
got a lot of sheep out here.

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Eating all of the grass, grazing on
the little grass that there is in the
fields. And yeah, I thought I would
do this episode to sort of talk to
you about what it was like growing up
and why we had this farm. So, my
grandfather has always been a guy who
likes to keep his hands busy, right?
He's always doing something
productive. And back in the...it must
have been the 1970s this property
here near Bendigo, in Victoria, came
up for sale or at least parts of this
property.

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This was part of a much bigger sheep
station that is now across the hills
there and they decided to sell some
of these less productive parts of the
land. So, the land here is really
hilly, up and down, up and down
there's a lot of gullies and little
valleys and lots and lots of rocks.
So, it's obviously not very good for
growing crops because the topsoil,
the soil on top of the stony ground
is very, very thin. In some places
here there's pretty much nothing.

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It's just, you know, the rocky ground
underneath so, you couldn't cultivate
anything here like wheat or sugarcane
or something. So, he wanted to buy
this property, obviously, and he
ended up getting maybe one hundred
and fifty sheep or so to have on this
property as well, and so they would
let the sheep graze all year round,
and we would often come up, all the
families would come up. Each year and
they started this obviously before I
was alive, because I was born in
nineteen eighty seven so, they would
have been doing this in the late 70s
early 80s when he first started. So,
they had the sheep here.

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They would come up obviously
regularly to check on the sheep see
that they had enough water in the
dams, they had enough food, because
if there wasn't enough for them to
eat in the different paddocks, they'd
have to obviously give them hay or
straw for them to eat and they'd
often have to change which paddocks
their shape were in to, you know, you
would tend to give one paddock a
rest, allow the grass to grow back
and then the other paddocks would be
sort of grazed right down so, there'd
be very little grass. You would shift
the sheep from one paddock to the
paddock with a lot of feed, and then
the grass would grow back in the
other paddock.

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So, we used to come up and I think in
November is when he is to shear the
sheep or have the sheep shorn. So, we
would pay a guy to come to the farm.
A local guy that from this area that
my grandparents knew because my
grandparents originally are from...
Well, Brisbane, then moved to
Adelaide and then they moved to
Melbourne but they lived in
Camberwell which is a suburb on the
other side of Melbourne. So, it's
about two hours drive from here and
they would come up here on weekends
to sort of, you know, take care of
the sheep on this hobby farm so, they
would hire this guy and he would come
out in November for maybe a day or
two and the whole family would come
up and be involved.

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So, we would all come to this what's
a log cabin in, like if I turn around
right now I'm looking at this log
cabin it's probably the size of..what
would you say? Like a small unit,
maybe, an apartment, right? It's it's
got a bathroom. A toilet restroom.
It's got a kitchen and a living room
which is sort of connected to one
another. And then it's got two
bedrooms so, it's got one from my
grandparents where they sleep and
then there's another bedroom with
four bunks where my grandparents
children could sleep with their kids
quite often and then sometimes we
would have people sleeping on the
ground in front of the open fire that
we had there if we had a lot of
people up here.

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We'd have people in tents sometimes,
sleeping outside in swags, and so we
would all come up in November and be
involved in the shearing of my
grandfather's hundred and fifty
sheep. And it's just been so
nostalgic thinking back to those
times because it was so much fun.
Looking back, at least, because it
was such a group activity, it was a
real community activity where we all
had our kind of jobs that we had to
do, and it was always something going
on you always needed to help out with
something.

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And I really miss that and I think my
grandfather really misses it too. He
had to stop and sell the sheep
because he busted his leg. He really,
really ruined his leg when he was
mowing the lawn at his house. I think
it was this house where he was mowing
the lawn and he walked up to the
mower and there was a big I think a
stick or a rock, right next to the
machine where the blade was and he
went to kick it.

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And as he kicked the rock the blade
caught the pants the pant leg of his
pants and pulled his leg under the
lawnmower and just destroyed his
shin. So he actually had to have an
operation that to remake the bone in
the middle of his leg because he lost
like six inches of bone, they had to
take muscle from his back and put
that on his leg.

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So, I mean, he's fine now, he can
walk around, he's all good, but he's
had his ankle fused so, that he can't
get around like he used to be able
to. And so, as a result of this he
wasn't able to sort of muster the
shape and I do a lot of physical
activities at the farm where he could
lift the shape up and wrestle them
and move them around. They have to
give them different vaccinations or
whatever it was you'd have to give
them different...I guess it's like
liquids during the year to kill
certain parasites that they might get
in their gut. So, that used to be
very physical. So, he had to sort of
quit.

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Probably when I was about 13 or 14
years old because of this accident.
However, the sheep is still here
because I think he's renting the
property effectively to a
neighbouring sheep farmer who lets
his sheep graze this area so, that
it's not just sitting here and not
being used. And since then my
grandfather's taken up bees and
honey, I forgot the name of that
hobby or activity, but he's a
beekeeper and he did that when he was
a teenager, stopped and was doing the
sheep stuff and then started doing
that again when he was obviously less
mobile and so, he has bays up here
now as well.

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Anyway, what I wanted to talk about
and the thing that I guess I was sort
of... nostalgic about and thinking
about was the fact that it was so
nice to have this group activity
where everyone was working together
in this small family unit. You know,
I mean, you know, extended family as
well they were cousins and other
people here. We'd normally have about
10 people that would come up to the
farm and we would all be working
intensely together for two days. We'd
have meals together, we would hang
out together, we'd walk around, we
would do different things. And it was
always a really lovely period growing
up in that environment.

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And I didn't appreciate it at the
time, I was talking to my wife, Kel,
about this last night cause I was
asking her well, what did you guys do
for your childhood? Did you have some
way that you would you would go away
and do something similar to this kind
of activity? And she's like no, we
didn't have that.

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And so, it was something I obviously
took for granted when I was a kid. I
thought oh everyone has this kind of
activity somewhere in their life,
right? Where they go to someone's
farm or they work with a family
member and help them out. And it's
something that... Yeah, it was just
an amazing experience growing up and
having that thing occur every single
year, that activity take place. You
know, once or twice a year when you
would come up here and everyone would
work together.

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Yeah. And, I don't know, the
community and we just it was really,
really good fun. And so, I've been
thinking recently about how I can
hopefully in the future have this
same kind of activity set up
somewhere in my life to share with my
kids and to share with my family so,
that you know we come together quite
often on a regular basis, one or two
times a year with grandparents, with
uncles and aunties, with cousins and
grandchildren running around, all
involved in some kind of activity
and, you know, just passing the time
together and enjoying each other's
company because it seems like today
we don't really get that opportunity.

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You know, you imagine the thousands,
probably hundreds of thousands of
years humans evolved in small groups
working together for a common
purpose, right? You would gather
food, you would make the fire, you
would put together the shelter, you
would create products, you'd create
things you know like clothes and
weapons and you would have these sort
of common commonalities, these things
you're working together to do.

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And it seems like today a lot of that
is kind of outsourced to lots and
lots of different people spread all
over the place and we don't have that
same kind of draw quite often, at
least, for our family units to come
together and do something at least in
Australia. I'm speaking from my
experience as I think as I see things
today when I look around and just
think about my daily life now in
Ocean Grove.

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So, I'm trying to come up with
something, I'm trying to think of
something in the future that I can
potentially do that would be able to
involve, you know, a larger family
where we can work together and have
that same kind of experience.
Although, I don't think it'll be
sheep, as a shape aren't my thing.

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So, anyway, I thought I would share
that with you, guys, because it's
been really cool thinking about this
and being back at the farm and
walking around the different
paddocks, seeing the different dams,
watching the sheep going to the
different places I used to go and
play as a kid. Because it's been a
very long time and it's it's been
really funny because the place just
doesn't change.

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And it's so... It's so nostalgic.
It's just really, really cool. And
today is a beautiful day. It's
probably 18 degrees, a bit under 20
degrees, but really calm at the
moment. It's really awesome, sitting
here at the bottom of the sort of
forest that surrounds my grandparents
cabin, very small kind of, I don't
know, probably a few acres that's
been fenced off from the rest of the
farm. So, the shape getting here and
eat all of the plants because they
just destroy everything.

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And I'm currently looking down
towards a small dam that is where the
sheep will go to drink water in the
paddock in front of me, and it's
probably about a kilometre or so
until you get to the next mountains
or the next, not mountains, hills,
and so it's open, it's really open. I
can say a lot of different rolling
hills.

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We use that to sort of explain those
sorts of small hills that go up and
down gradually, those rolling hills.
And it's just beautiful, really calm,
no you know a very, very slight
amount of wind, close to no wind. You
can hear the trees moving in the
leaves sort of rustling in the wind.
You can hear lots and lots of birds
singing in the morning. The Kangaroos
come down and they they drink from
the dams and they eat a lot of the
grass that's in the gullies because I
think the moisture gathers in the
basin between, you know, two hills,
and they they obviously go in there
and eat all of the shoots and the
plants that are growing in there.

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So, you get to see all this sort of
stuff around everywhere and it's
really nice that it's a basalt plain.
So, the area is a very old volcanic
lava field, I believe. Who knows, I
think millions of years ago there
would have been volcanoes, volcanic
activity around here spreading lava
across this place and since then the
rocks have all sort of eroded away
and divide it up, but they're all on
the surface and they covered in
lichen, this bright green lichen,
which is like a... I think it's algae
and fungi. It's like one of those
organisms that a mutualistic organism
living on these rocks and so you see
these green rocks sticking out of the
ground everywhere and it's a herpo's
dream, right?

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A herpo or herper's a person who
likes hepertology, right? This is
someone who likes frogs and lizards.
Hepertology. It's a herper's dream
because there are rocks everywhere
and they're easy to lift up and so as
a kid I used to rummage around these
fields. I used to fossick around and
lift up all these rocks and find
things like snakes and lizards and
frogs and scorpions and spiders and
leeches.

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Lots of these different animals so,
it's been a really good weekend
Taking Kel around the farm and
showing her everything for the first
time and kind of reliving it and
telling her stories about when I was
a little kid here, running around and
getting into trouble and you know
just running amok having fun. So,
anyway I thought I would share that
with you, guys, because I know a lot
of you guys might not have the
opportunity to come out to a farm in
Australia. Maybe one day you'll buy a
farm, maybe one day you'll do some
work on a farm, but it's an
interesting experience when you come
out to these places and see farm land
in Australia because I think a lot of
you guys are probably in pretty built
up areas, right? The big cities, but
in these sorts of regions, you know,
there's there's barely anyone. It's
really quiet.

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You'll hear birds, you'll hear
animals, the stars at night come out.
So there's no real light pollution
from cities nearby. And so it's
definitely a different experience and
it's funny to think that this is
going on it at all times, you know,
all over Australia. There are many
different Australias, right?

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There are many different experiences
of what Australia is but quite often
we kind of get stuck in our little
area, you know, at the moment for me
it's Ocean Grove and maybe Geelong a
little bit and that's my Australia,
but then you expand that you go to
different places, you go for a short
drive and quite often it's a
completely different country. So, I
definitely encourage you guys to go
out there and explore this especially
if you're in Victoria go and see
country towns like Bendigo and
Ballarat. If you haven't been there,
they're old gold mining towns. So,
there's a lot of interesting stuff
that you can see there from the days
of the gold rush in the 1850s. What's
that? One hundred and seventy years
ago, when they were first digging up
gold and everyone was going crazy
there. There's lots of museums, cool
things to say there.

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Anyway, I might finish up and go for
a little walk and yeah I hope you
guys enjoy this episode, let me know
in a comment or a message or an email
if you guys have spent much time on
farms in Australia, what your
experiences were like, you know, did
you like it? Did you hate it? Did you
get to see much wildlife? Did you get
to work with livestock? I love
hearing from you, guys, about those
things if you want to contact me
obviously you know where to find me
on Facebook, YouTube, my website as
well, you can send me an email say
g'day and tell me about your life in
Australia. Anyway, thanks for joining
me, guys.

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Hope you had fun. Hope you learned a
bit of vocabulary about farms and
everything and I will say next time.
Peace!