The Galah-Tree

Saturday 27th May

We got back into Moranbah on Thursday afternoon from our trip to England and we had no time to rest. On the Saturday, still suffering jetlag, we had to go to Emerald for a football match. Moranbah, Emerald and Dysart are in a mini-league and due to the immense distances, they play once a month and there are three games (so everyone plays each other). Emerald is 2.5 hours away from Moranbah so it is always a delight to play there. It is actually parallel to Rockhampton and is part of the gem-fields area I discussed in a previous post (hence the name!)

A brief history of Emerald is that the town was established in 1879 as a base for the railway line which was reaching out from Rockhampton into the Central West. Unfortunately, little is left of Emerald's early history as it was ravaged by major fires in 1936, 1940, 1954 and 1968. Emerald would have continued as a small town had it not been for a decision made in 1948 by the British Food Corporation to grow sorghum (used for silage, grain/stockfeed apparently – I have never heard of it!) in the area. This highlighted the suitability of the local soil to crop growing. To strengthen the agricultural base of the area a huge Dam was built in 1972. This facilitated the shift of the shire's economic focus from cattle to crops. It now produces over 25 % of Queensland's cotton.

Ben made the trip with us, as after 3 weeks in kennels, he made sure we weren’t going anywhere without him! I can’t actually remember what the scores of the football matches were, but it was a nice afternoon, and Ben and I completed many circuits of the playing fields. On our travels, as the sun started setting, I came across the most amazing photo-opportunity, it was a completely bare tree covered in Galahs! The photograph to anyone who didn’t know just looks like pink blossom on a tree, but this is in fact the pink chests of all the Galahs. David Bailey stand aside!