I've got a treat for you today. Today's guest hardly needs an introduction here, most of you know my fellow history buff from across the pond, Hilary. She's has agreed to not only guest here today, but is also guesting at the A-Z Challenge Blog. These topics are linked. Don't miss the other one. It's about dragons...
Great
Ocean Coast Road, south Australia …
"Great Ocean Road carved from the bare rock"
Art,
Science, ‘Down
Under’
and bloggers … Tina of Life is Good asked if I’d do a guest post
for the A-Z blog and as a guest blogger on her blog … theoretically
these might have been on Vikings (these will follow) – but as is
the way with my eclectic brain I’ve settled on the Great Ocean
Road, south Australia and the Weedy Seadragon.
I
expect many of you will have seen or heard of the BBC tv programmes
‘Coast’, where Neil Oliver, archaeologist, historian, author and
broadcaster, tells us about Britain and Europe …
… he
has now moved to Australia (well perhaps he’s travelled there for
the programmes!) – this is where these two ideas stemmed from.
The
Great Ocean Road ties in with the Great War: the First World War,
which I will be writing about, but I have just posted an A-Z on the
recent D-Day commemorative events for World War II.
"The Hitchcock Memorial at Defiance Point - in the 1920s"
One
thinks about the armed forces and their lives after having spent four
or more years at War, probably in another country fighting for our
and their own freedom, seeing their comrades fall, be injured or as
most would be desperate to be home with their loved ones.
400,000
Australians enlisted for World War I, with appallingly 60,000 paying
the ultimate sacrifice … however the work to which some returned to
simply cannot have been any better, and may have been worse … I
don’t know – I don’t like to think about either much …
hanging off a cliff, or fighting in the War …
… less
than 10 months after War finished, three thousand servicemen went to
work on the construction of the new coast road … hewn from the
cliff face using explosives, pick and shovel, wheel barrows and some
small machinery.
Anecdotal
evidence suggested that the
workers would rest detonators on their knees during travel, as it was
the softest ride?!
They
were paid 10 shillings and sixpence for eight hours work a day, also
working half-day on Saturday. They had tents for accommodation, a
mess tent for meals with food costing ten shillings a week?!
They
did have access to a piano, gramophone and records presumably, games,
newspapers and magazines … and when in 1924 the steamboat, Casino,
was forced to jettison 500 barrels of beer and 120 cases of spirits –
there was an unscheduled two-week long drinking break!
Howard
Hitchcock, mayor of Geelong, wanted to create the road as a Memorial
to the Servicemen killed during World War 1 … the road is the
world’s largest war memorial … and in building it – it would
open up a fairly inaccessible part of south-eastern Australia.
The
route winds 243 kilometres (151 miles) wending its way through
varying terrain, incredible scenery and past several prominent
landmarks, including the Twelve Apostles limestone stack formations …
the road is now an important tourist attraction.
"The limestone stacks, known as The Twelve Apostles"
Also
seeing this part of the programme reminded me about my recent Aspects
of the British Coast, that I wrote about in this year’s A-Z
Challenge … where sea stacks were meant to be mentioned in greater
detail – but ended up with a brief mention under my W post – the
wind erodes
… these Australian stacks put my ‘weedy’ post into perspective!
The
Australian coast looks just beautiful and that road trip, carved out
of raw cliffs nearly 100 years ago, is a sight to behold – and one
that is definitely on my bucket list.
It
is full of sea stacks that are constantly being worn away, or being
created … some wonderful and amazing geographical features … it
must be just dazzling, raw and stunning …
So
the Weedy Seadragon in my other post at the A-Z Blog ties in to some degree
with this post, as do other posts I have written recently or in the
A-Z Challenge in April …
Here
the art is photographic images of magnificent natural scenery, the
science that of geology, we are posting on blogs about that place
that is down
under …
Hilary
Melton-Butcher
©2014 All Rights Reserved
Photo credit:"Great Ocean Road carved from the bare rock"
Photo credit: "The limestone stacks, known as The Twelve Apostles"
~Tina
Don't forget about the dragons over at the A-Z Challenge Blog. These topics are linked.
