Drive to Dwellingup

Well it was time to hit the road again and this time it was a drive up into the hills to a place called DWELLINGUP, with all the kiddies in the car off we went. Dwellingup is located 97 km south of Perth. It is a small settlement situated on top of the escarpment and, as a typical timber town, is surrounded by a state forest.



Here are the kiddies outside the information center, their's a fair wrack of stuff about the timber town and about the history of the place. Of cause the kiddies were only interested in the ice cream shop, but we had only just got into town so no ice cream yet!.... bugger











The major attraction in the area is the Hotham Valley Tourist Railway. The promotional brochure describes the Dwellingup Forest Ranger Tour, which operates about 20 times a year between May and October, as follows: 'Steam Hauled Picnic Trains. Re-live the age of steam on Western Australia's most famous Sunday picnic trains along the beautifully scenic Hotham Valley Railway. WA's steepest and most spectacular section of railway. Travel through lush green dairy country and in Spring view a magnificent display of wildflowers before climbing the Darling Range into the heart of the jarrah forest.

As you can see the kiddies love all that train stuff, this was in the picnic area so after a sandwich and a little drink they were all over these things.






on ya Osc!







After our picnic the kiddies had a walk through the park until they came to this old log, and before you could say 'Don't even think of getting up on top of that....' they were up their. Except for Harrison and Oscar, Harry didn't like the look of it so he kept down and as for Oscar well...







he liked the inside of the tree instead! As for the poor bugger (the Jarrah tree that is) it was noted that it would of been over 600 years old, till some nob head came over to it with an axe and then it was 'Good night the fox'.






My little princess



But that was out day out up at Dwellingup, and we had a real beaut time.

Swanies into the Grand Final

Just a quick post to tell ya that Swan Districts won their final on the weekend against West Perth, at the Arena Joondalup Oval in front of a massive 5500 crowd!!!
the score was

SWAN DISTRICTS 15. 14 104
WEST PERTH 14. 10 94

So now they will play Subiaco in next sundays GRAND FINAL, this will be the swanies first Grand final in 18 years.... GO THE SWANIES !

'Swan Districts stormed home from being 35 points down midway through the third quarter to score a remarkable victory to now enter next Sunday's grand final against Subiaco. After a tight opening, West Perth got on top of Swan Districts to lead by 27 points at half time and a game-high 35 midway through the third term but a Nicholas Naitanui tackle on Mark Seaby changed the whole complexion of the game. Seaby had dominated up to that point with 17 possessions and 11 hit outs, but Naitanui's tackle hurt his shoulder again and he did not reappear.'

"You know you are alive when you barrack for Swan Districts as nothing comes easy or straightforward it seems. We got there in the finish, though, so that's the main thing," Dawson said.
The perthnow website.

First semi-final for the Swans

So with three of the kiddies packed away in the commodore it was time to head off, down the road to the Fremantle Oval to support the Black Ducks in their first semi final. We were playing the South Fremantle Bulldogs in the knock-out final so a lose would be 'Goodnight the fox', and as the underdog for the semi the Swans had nothing to lose. Here are the kiddies standing outside the Fremantle Oval just before kick-off, with all their hopes full that we might pull of an upset.




The 1st quarter we were a goal and a behind in front and as we finished the second quarter we had a lead of one point. So the match was in the hands of the Gods as we moved around the ground to see it from different angles, a bit like Sarah's brickies clack! (you can dress her up but you can't take her anywhere).

As we watched the Swans hit a nice lead and went into the break with the scores at Swans 11.10 to Bulldogs 9.11, and with the nerves on edge what did the kiddies want .....


That's right ICECREAM TIME! well it has been shown to settle the nerves in tests with mice, and it sure settled these little rugrats down.



And then we came to the final quarter and with a nice lead under their belt, the black Ducks kicked the first four goals and went on to win easily with the final score
SWANS 16.12 108
BULLDOGS 11.18 84






So in front of a massive huge crowd of 3200 the Swanies won and went into next weekends final against WEST PERTH FALCONS, and the winner goes into the Grand Final against SUBIACO.

Last home-and-away match

So on a nice warm '21 in the shade day' me and Jacko, Sarah and little Harrison jumped in the commodore and headed over to Bassedean Oval, which is now know as Steel Blue Oval to watch the Black ducks take on Peel Thunder for the last match for the home and away season. This match didn't really mean much as Swan Districts had already made it into the fourth and final place for the semi's, but nobody wants to start the finals with a lose under their belt hay.



As the first quarter came to a close the District boys were up by four goals 7.0 to 3.2, and with the mob in tow we started our normal walkabout around the oval. This photo was taken in front of our massive club house the JOHN COOPER / JOHN TODD PAVILION, okay it's not the MCG but still it gives the Toronto Waterboard Oval Canteen a run for it's money!



For the second quarter we grabbed a few hotdogs and a bag of chips, and it was time to hit one of the big grandstand the mighty BILL WALKER STAND. Which I reckon you can fit at least a hundred blokes on a good day, so this is the view from the Mr Walker stand and as you can see it's a real beaut view. After the siren sounded we were 11.4 to 5.5, which in anyones book is a pretty good start.




After the kiddies kicked their ball around the ground which everyone doe's during the quarters, it was time for a walk to the east side of the oval which your's truly likes to call the Red Rooster End (because just over the fence is a Red Rooster Restaurant...... makes sense yeah).



The third quarter went just like the others with the Swans keeping a nice lead, with one of their best players being a young aboriginal fella called Nick Naitanui. Now here's a little tip for ya... your's truly reckons (with all my six years experience of watching aerial Ping Pong) that Nicko is gonna be the NUMBER ONE DRAUGHT PICK in this years AFL Draught !!! Fairdinkum I reckon we will loose at least three young players to the AFL clubs, but Nicko is a big skinny kid and with a good club and some good feeds behind him they could build him into a friggin great player (don't forget you heard it here first in the sandgropers blog)




But with the third quarter over and with the Swans in front 13.10 to 8.7 the players minds started to wonder, a bit like your's truly.....
I'll tell ya one thing when I was a boy I don't remember the waterboys around Macquarie United looking like that mate.



Then before we knew it Peel kicked five goals to even things up then another to hit the lead, but with four minutes left the Swanies Nick Naitanui kicked a beaut goal from 55 meters out and then Chris Smith backed it up with another to help the swans to a win by 15.11 101 to 14.9 93. Strewth that was lucky and now this weekend we head down to Fremantle Oval to take on South Fremantle in the first semi-final, were also in the reserves semi-final against Claremont and our last years colts grand final winners take on Perth in their semi-final. So with fingers crossed we might go away with something out of this weekend, we might go down to watch them but we will see. But the kiddies had a beaut time kicking the ball about and they just love the hotdogs and chips, fairdinkum you can never fill these little mugs up!