Adventuring
Headed across the Fleurieu Peninsula to Victor Harbour. Lots of very green countryside with sheep and cattle stations and station homesteads and grape growing regions like McLaren Vale behind. (Need to come back to explore the tip of Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island).
The dugouts are rather amazing. Usually there is a porch or verandah at the front which is built up against the hill and then the rest of the house is dug out behind that into the hill. The early homes were hand dug but now machines are generally used and there are interesting patterns made as a result on the walls and ceilings. In addition there are bands of coloured (usually reddish) streaks/stripes/patches exposed in the sandstone and the walls are beautiful. They are lacquered and there are no issues with moisture. The machine digging allows for generous ceiling height so rooms do feel spacious. Floors can be covered in any material so no dust issues either. The wet areas (bathroom, kitchen, laundry) of the house are generally at the front to save on plumbing costs etc. Power runs throughout neatly tucked away or can be run from above. Looking at a hillside you will only see the porch and a number of ventilation pipes covering the hill. One pile for each room.
Katherine was named by explorer John McDouall Stuart in the late 1800s and the gorge was renamed “Nitmiluk” meaning cicada place by the traditional owners, the Jawoyn Aboriginal people in 1989, when they were gained title to the land. The Nitmiluk National Park covers some 292,000 hectares. Rock art and dreaming stories bring the girge walls to life.
https://www.greatsouthernrail.com.au/trains/the-ghan
And here’s the map of our pending adventure
Lovely slower start to the day then headed out to visit to the botanical gardens. Of course the name of the gardens was of interest for some reason!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Brown_Darwin_Botanic_Gardens
The name George Brown, no relation to us and a fairly common coupling, appears elsewhere in Darwin too. The first watersider to be killed in the initial WWII bombing of Darwin was also a George Brown. Perhaps related to the garden curator and Mayor in the link above. Interesting trivia anyway! The gardens were used as a military training ground in the war and were a shambles afterwards!