Wednesday, June 30

The Gandangara - owners of the land


The traditional owners of our land were the Gandangara people who lived in south eastern NSW from Lake George to the Nepean River and from north of Goulburn to Camden. Their tribal names includes meanings for east and west. In 1802 the explorer Francis Barallier met them near the Wollondilly River and in 1816 troops were dispatched to capture and kill Aborigines after 14 settlers were killed. By 1848 there were only 25 Aborigines registered in Gouburn after the influenza epidemics of 1846 and 1847. According to local historians it is doubtful whether there were ever large numbers of Aborigines in the Goulburn area.

They believed in animal people (burringilling) who lived in the dreaming in clouds, scrub, mountains, trees and water courses. The most important spirit was D(h)aramalan and his voice is represented by the bullroarer cut from a tree. In initiation ceremonies a rock crystal stone is used and the myth says that when once Daramalan caught a boy and hit him over the head a tooth fell out and became a rock crystal.

We chose Daramalan as our farm name because it represented a powerful and auspicious spirit that had a local connection to Goulburn. Daramalan (or Daramulum) means one legged and was the son of spirit Baime and his emu wife Birrahgnooloo. There is a rock carving in Sydney's north west showing him in half profile with one arm, an emu back and a club foot.

We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of our land.

Footnote: Daramalan Border Leicester Stud has no association or relationship, commercial or otherwise, with Daramalan College in Canberra.
The above image is by Daniel Goodwin.

Wednesday, June 23

2010 Drop on the way


We had our stud flock ewes pregnancy tested two weeks ago by local contractor Steve, a good man with a very sharp sense of humour. I guess when you spend a fair part of your working life inside a makeshift tent and with an ultrasound on a ewe's belly you develop a sense of the absurd.

The good news is that we have about 230 lambs in utero from 150 ewes making a lambing percentage of over 150%. So the rams Hermes, Osiris and Vulcan have been doing their job. Indeed Vulcan is getting a reward and has been at Logancrest serving some Poll Dorset ewes too. We have 95 ewes with multiple lambs which I thought was a high percentage but Steve told us it is the same at almost every stud in the region. It will be an interesting sale year in 2011.  Only 12 dry ewes and those that are more than two years old are off to Southern Meats and the 'maiden' ewes will get one more chance next year. Fingers crossed for an easy lambing season which may start as early as mid July.

Elsewhere the 60 flock rams to be sold in November this year are doing well, particularly the few that we did not shear as a small test group. We wont shear them in January next year but leave the wool on until August or September. The 40 ewes we had not sold are doing well and will join the stud flock later in the year and the 200 first cross ewes are all the better for a drenching and being on the new turnip and clover crop.

It has been wet (luckily) and very cold (not so pleasant) so we have been chopping wood, fencing and getting the new water tank set up so that we can begin to irrigate the house paddock and plant out the orchard, olive grove and a very small vineyard. All in all it is progressing realy well and ahead of schedule.....more on that soon.

Cheers!

Wednesday, June 2

As clear as glass

Well at last I have completed my first glass fusing projects. After about a year of trying to get into a course, and two years of owning a kiln, I finally managed to connect with four others and go last Saturday to the Australian Stained Glass workshop in Leichardt. Very lucky to be taught my Dagmar Ackerman who is very knowledgeable, patient and talented. You can see her work at http://www.glassbydagmarackerman.com/


It was an absolutely fabulous day and now I am hooked. Looks like it will be an expensive hobby or most likely another way to earn an income. Cutting glass is easy once practiced and the assembly is straightforward. It is creating the original design and firing in the kiln where the magic happens. Glass seems such a fragile medium but is remarkably robust to work with. Of course you can't drop it on the bench or floor but it can be ground into frit or paste (pate de verre) and cut into an almost infinite number of shapes.


I made three fused plates, 25 cm square or in diameter, from cut Bullseye glass that were slumped into a plate shaped ceramic mould. One is a circular geometric design (above) that was really to experiment with colour, opacity and cutting curved lines. The other two are representational of the landscape at the farm; one is the German's Pinch hill to the north of our property over the Tarlo River and the other is a white ghost gum in a storm or bush fire. Our soil is obviously not red but that glass colour was too hard to resist; just gorgeous.






Now I have to figure out how to programme the controller on my kiln and start experimenting and documenting firing schedules so that I can begin to create a range of glass products for sale and display. Some things will be functional plates, bowls and dishes but others will be pure art and sculpture and still others will be jewellery and eye catchers. Limited only by my imagination because anything is possible.


Ciao.