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!

Our roadtrip to Pinjarra

Well it was a beaut early morning when I chucked all the kiddies into the commodore, and set off down the road to a little old town called PINJARRA. This town lies on the banks of the Murray River and just a quick drive away from Mandurah, Although the district has been settled since the early 1830s, large tracts of land remain untouched and have an air of peace and tranquility. The main reason for most people to come down this way is to have a gander at The beaut old steam engines of the Hotham Valley Tourist Railway, which takes visitors on a nostalgic journey through lush farmlands, up the dramatic and beautiful Darling Scarp and up into the forest of Dwellingup.



The first thing that you see when you drive through Pinjarra ....... well okay the only thing worth looking at in Pinjarra, is an old park that you can just see through the trees as you cross over an old bridge in town. The bridge crosses the Murray River and with a quick turn you can park just outside an old Church, The church is the St John's Church which was consecrated in 1860 and the internal woodwork was completed by convicts at Fremantle..... pretty cool hay.
Then we walked down the walking track which took us under that old wooden bridge and into an old Park on the banks of the Murray river, where we had a play on the different things that it had. Like this chair which sits just near the river and you can sit their and just watch the water drift by.




Then we walked a bit further and come-upon these six wooden poles which each one had a different animal carved into it, as you can see each kiddie grabbed a pole for themselves and tried to climb them but only Jacko got up to the top.








As you can see Jacko's pole has a turtle on it and he loved it, you know then art is done like this it's pretty cool. You can see the work that has gone into it and you know it will last for a friggin' long time, maybe in about ten years time we can come back to this pole and get another photo hay...... cool!



Then off we went down the path until we came to the thing which we had come all this way to see, yes the old Suspension bridge which crosses the Marry river. You might of gathered by now that we have this thing for suspension bridges! .... well okay I have but the kiddies have to come for the ride, but thay really love crossing these bridges. This one means we have now been on three bridges, the one at Norsman and York and now this one at Pinjarra which I think is the longest (but i'm not sure). And i'm not joking when I say that without doubt this is the best one we have ever crossed, as Jacko would say 'It is soooo cool'.








Here are the little nevilles at the bridge.









Even me little bloke Oscar has become a bit of a lover of these bridges, but as soon as his brother Harrison started to swing himself (making the bridge swing) Oscar quickly changed his view. And before I knew it he was back holding me hand and cursing his bigger brother, I can't wait till he can talk, he's first words will probably be 'Stop taking me on those friggin' bridges'!!!



After we crossed the bridge about ten times..... well we drove a friggin' long way so I was getting my moneys worth. We went for a walk through town and grabbed some fish 'n chips at this little takeaway shop, and walked back to the church and went down behind it and sat on the banks of the Murray. And that was our day at Pinjarra which has without doubt the best walking bridge that our mob has ever come across, and i'm sure that we will pop back down this way again just for another trip over it.

Trip to Beverley

PART 2






Well after we hung out on all the farming stuff at Brookton, it was back in the commodore and off along the Great Southern Highway towards the township of Beverley. It is only a quick drive of about 35kms before we were on the outskirts of the township, at the town entrance we saw an old Vampire Jet airplane so we had to have a little stickbeak.








Then it was time to park the car and off we went for our street walk, for a bit of saturday arvo window shopping. The township of Beverley is a vibrant rural Wheatbelt community with a population of 1600, and is about 130kms east of Perth. It lays on the sleepy banks of the Avon River and was founded back in 1838, making it one of the oldest settlements in Western Australia.


We walked till we came apon a beaut Aeronautical Museum... At the entrance you'll see a Vampire Jet No. A79-638. This aircraft was a two-seat trainer. Australia built almost two hundred of this type of airplane..... cool. The museum is a tribute to the aviators of Western Australia (so it says) which fairdinkum would of been beaut to have a gander at, but not with this bunch of riff raff by myself. Fair clack-of-the-whip I get stuffed just keeping an eye on them let alone walking through a friggin' museum!










This Memorial just outside the museum was dedicated to the lost crew and passengers of an Skymaster DC4 airplane that crashed nearby on the 26th of June 1950, five crew and 23 passengers were all lost, poor buggers.






After a stroll back down the other side of the main street which is called Vincent street, it was time to have another smoko these kiddies just don't stop friggin' eating. Their was a picnic spot next to the train station so with a sausageroll each to keep them bizzy the old fella got a chance to sit down and rest! (poor old fella) up on the walls of the eating area was a few photos of the township back in the old years, here is one of the photo's. It was of an old rabbit trapper and his victim's hanging on a rope next to him, pretty cool hay.




Then after smoko the kiddies went and watched a goods train that came through town, then suddenly the train driver hit his horn and within one second all three kiddies were right next to me. It scared the crap out of them.... you little beauty! But about one minute later and they were all back at the fence watching the train go by. And that was about it for Beverley and we jumped back into the commodore and headed for York, which was about 35kms away... just down the road.




When we got to York we went straight to the best part of York.... the suspension bridge, and as you can see even after a few weeks of being away little Oscar still doesn't like the idea of crossing it.








But since his with dad he has to give it a go and lets just say.... he still doesn't like the idea! But that was the last town we stopped in, as all that was left was a drive back home. All up it was just over 275kms for the day, not a bad little drive for the nevilles and were all ready for our next outing.... poor little sods.