Wednesday...27 March 2013

The Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement is a little piece of history that has been faithfully recreated so that others can see the life that the early settlers in Australia had to cope with. It has all sorts of stuff, often very good examples that show the creativity needed to get things done way back then. The buildings are authentic having been sourced around the area and then moved bit by bit to their new resting places. One of the things I saw that I thought was a classic example of thinking outside the square was the front fence around a house made entirely of mallee roots used in the same manner as stones are in dry walling.
We had lunch in one of the buildings which was the bakery but is now a old fashioned tea rooms. This building is in a whole street of old shops full of fascinating memorabilia.
There is machinery, cars, tractors, horse drawn coaches and buggies and delivery carts and even a train and a paddle wheeler on display. You can take a ride on a dray being pulled by a draught horse or a ride in an open dodge that looked a lot like the old gangster cars. Himself would have liked to take one of them home!

After lunch we took a one hour ride on the PS Pyap along the mighty Murray River. We left in 38 degree heat that had most of us beginning to melt and returned in pouring rain! From one extreme to the other. However it was a nice day out and definitely worth the time to take a look.