Thanks to Rachael for a very long day’s driving from Ballarat to her in-laws house in Canberra in increasing heat and smoke as we went East. These are a couple of the things we saw on the way.

There is a submarine in the town of Holbrook (400km from the sea) because it used to be called Germanton and felt it ought to change its name during the First World War. (Stick with me.). They were down to a shortlist when one of the first ever submariners – Commander Holbrook – was awarded the VC for doing something immensely brave in the Dardanelles. So they called themselves after him. Then, year later, the Australian navy were selling this thing off for scrap. The town wanted to buy it but didn’t have enough money. Commander Holbrook’s widow heard about it and sent them a cheque. Isn’t that nice?

And this is more information about Commander Holbrook and his medals from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

And this is a statue of a (probably legendary) dog belonging to one of the first settlers who guarded his master’s tucker box whilst his master went to get help for his stranded bullock cart. There are songs. And poems.

Monday

Another long drive from the in-laws back to Terrigal. The smoke has got worse and worse, vast areas of Victoria have been evacuated and the weather is hot and windy again which means things could get worse very quickly.