Saturday 19 March 2016

Casterton, Victoria as we pased through.

At home here in Launceston, Tasmania - it's RAINING!  Wow, how wonderful after none all summer.

Heading for Port Fairy we passed through a town called Casterton, in Victoria, Australia, which is 42 kilometres east of the South Australian border.

Casterton is a pretty place with many rolling green hills in winter and one drives into town down the hill.

Prior to white settlement, Aboriginal people of the Konongwootong Gundidj clan lived in the local area. The first white explorers to pass through the area were the expedition led by Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836 who spoke enthusiastically of the landscape's green hills, soft soils and flowery plains, describing it as ideal for farming and settlement, naming it Australia Felix.

The first white settlers in the area were the Henty brothers who had landed in Portland, Victoria in 1834 and who claimed 28,000 hectares between what are now the towns of Casterton and Coleraine. 'Warrock' Station, a sheep farming settlement, was established in 1841, 26 km north of what would be Casterton.

The early history of the region was marred by violent clashes between settlers and Indigneous people, including multiple murders of Aboriginals that took place near Casterton in the late 1830s and early 1840s.


In 1891, a large number of Casterton women signed the Women's Suffrage Petition to be tabled in the Victorian Parliament to grant women the right to vote (which was not allowed until 1908). By the 1890s, increasing soil erosion saw wheat-farming around Casterton begin to decline and it was largely replaced by meat, wool & dairy farming. Casterton's population expanded in the early 20th century, especially in the 1920s with the arrival of large numbers of soldier-settler farmers and during the post-war era in the 1950s.
 
Casterton lays claim to be the birthplace of the breed of working dog known as the kelpie, a Scottish term meaning 'Water Sprite' and a name given to a black and tan bitch British working collie owned by Scotsman George Patterson, a farmer who lived north of Casterton in the 1870s.

More about Casterton [ here ]


 









I borrowed this photo of the Kelpie dog from Wikipeadia.  A link [ here  ] for those wondering about this wonderful sheep and cattle dog.

37 comments:

  1. Casterton looks like a lovely place to visit. We are hoping for rain to cool down the heat over here. Have a beautiful day, Margaret!

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    1. You have a lovely day too - and let's hope you get the rain that is needed.

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  2. My step mother was born there but I have never visited the town. It looks nice enough.

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    1. Oh really!
      Seemed ok as we drove through, though hilly.

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  3. From the look of the cars, it had been raining in Casterton also.
    All that mud on the sides.
    Poured rain here last night for about 30 minutes of torrential stuff.
    Rain before winter is very good - the land people will be doing "Rain like Huey dances as if their pants were full of ants".

    Casterton on my 1970's trip was another stopover town.
    Stayed in a pub very similar to the one in photo #1,
    could have been that actual place but it doesn't have any
    liquor signs on the place now??
    Some former college mates from "Joeys" days had properties in the
    area so I was kept well occupied with "festivities" of the drinking
    variety and seeing the livestock etc - ha ha.

    Looks like another "ghost town", funny how these places as shown
    by you that I stayed in were bustling with people on my visits???

    That brown Kelpie is interesting - pure brown ones are rather rare.
    Well I have only seen one or two pure brown ones in my times, mostly they have white somewhere on their hair and the black, blue, white
    and light tan varieties are more prominent. No doubt this observation will bring some other kelpie people out with their views/observations etc on the breed.
    I miss your map???? So I had to do my own travel routing from Penola on my Aussie atlas which thankfully was not too far - ha ha. Like next
    major town!
    Cheers
    Colin

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    1. Not a ghost town :) It must have been the time of day we drove through. Small towns don't always have people about all day everyday, they are not the city. I expect on some days there would be heaps of people about. It was early spring when we drove through there.
      Pleased you used your noggin and got your map out :)

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  4. the countryside landscape look great with small lakes

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    1. Gosia, they are not lakes - they are small dams or ground tanks :)

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  5. Beautiful, thank you for this treat

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  6. It does look like a very fine place to be.

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    1. A pretty place to drive through Bill. Husband cousin was a teacher there for several years.

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  7. Hooray for rain. Life giving.
    We got a little on Friday. Very, very welcome. More needed.
    Casterton looks really good after the rain too.

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    1. Thank goodness it rained. Some places had a decent fall.
      Had rained at Casterton before we drove through, but of course it was winter and I expect those hills are now brown.

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  8. Glad that you are receiving some rain at last - the Kelpie is a really fine and handsome looking dog, I wouldn't mind owning one myself.

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    1. We are all thrilled that it rained Rosemary.
      Beautiful working dog it the Kelpie, very clever how they ride on the sheeps back and are great working dogs on farms. They live in their kennels outside and need lots of exercise.

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    2. Rosemary
      Unless you live on a farm with sheep, goats or cattle, kelpies are as Margaret has pointed out - working dogs.
      They should never be house or house yard bound, it is against the breeding of them. They are totally OUTSIDE dogs.
      Cheers
      Colin

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    3. Good comment Colin. Urban people who make pets of cattle dogs only end up with a crazy frustrated one and it is quite cruel [I live 30 kms from Casterton].

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  9. Replies
    1. Thanks Linda, and lovely to see a comment from you which indicates you are getting better.

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  10. It's a wonderful place indeed. It's evident in the photos. :)
    I thought I'd ask what the name of the dog is then I read the caption.

    Glad to have found your blog.

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  11. Nice to hear that you are happy about the needed rain!

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  12. When you think of the struggles people went through in the past in order to earn justice and equality, we really have nothing to complain about. We've sure come a long way socially, but still have so much further to go.

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    1. Hard times back then, and we don't know how it was really because we never lived in that time. We all have it so easy these days with so many things.

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  13. They're a fine looking dog the kelpie.

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  14. When I see that first shot I just want to see on that wonderful veranda sipping mint juleps!

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