We travelled west for about three hours to an area called the Western Downs which is only marginally smaller than the whole of Switzerland. We drove on the straightest road with fields of mung beans and sorghum on both sides, as far as the eye could see. A hugely rich agricultural area but also a big place for cattle sales.

The word Chinchilla is thought to be from an aboriginal Barunggam word for Pine Cypress which grows here, “jinchilla” and the town was founded in 1877. After what was an extensive drought the Melon Festival was established in 1994 to add a little fun and hope for the community. The first festival attracted some 2,500 and today that number stands at over 20,000. As explained by Darryl O’Leary, far from being a wastage of fruit, this fruit is grown with the festival in mind, and brings millions into the area. It is now the undisputed Melon Capital of Australia.

We didn’t have much time to explore but what we saw we loved. In the neighbouring town of Miles they recreated a Historical Town which you can spend hours in, going from one restored house to the next, there is a butchers, a bakers and no doubt a candlestick maker in there too.The galahs and the rainbow lorikeets called out in the gums all around us.

Families have donated their heirlooms to the Historical Town so there are marvellous collections of memorabilia. The area is known for petrified wood and other lapidary so seeing some of these fossilised specimens was special.

And look at this Newspaper from August 26th 1768 recording one of Cooks expeditions to the South Pacific to observe the Transit of Venus.

The Museum houses the Godfrey Morgan Shell Collection which is invaluable both in terms of its content and its research value.

And to see these Cigarette Cards of Australian birds – nothing much changes. Its Pokemon and footballers these days.

The remarkable and shocking story of Carl Duffel and his cart – so much loss and suffering for those early settlers. His is particularly challenging.

I liked this poster up in the Classroom with some valuable tips to good manners.

My next blog will be on Prickly Pears and Bush Poets.