On our latest mapping project we're looking at Lawsons Creek.
It's just north of the last study area, and a little shorter.
As with the last study, willow and blackberry are the major weeds, though with reversed importance.
Other significant nasties in the area are erosion and african boxthorn.
There were the usual map projection issues to sort out, with some data on the Ipac apparently off by a hundred metres or so. (Why did they move the centre of the earth?) This time we also did a lot more with the video footage, including stills and short snippets on the CD. We even georeferenced the aerials of the study area.
Our first aid skills are a little rusty, having not been called on for over two years.
We were however, able to provide a sling to a local girl thrown from her horse, and a mercy dash to deliver her to the nearest hospital.
Of course Wollar is only a short way from Sydney. It's certainly close enough for a quick visit to the dentist, doctor, chiro. We even managed to visit our cat. Her advancing age has unfortunately caught up with her, and she is now existing on another plane.
We also abandoned the bikes in Sydney. Helen's bike committed suicide while we were in the Kimberly (by jumping off the cruiser). Bill's bike looked ok, but the hub had collapsed internally after more than two years of bouncing behind the cruiser along Australia's rough roads.
Scott took a break from the mapping to have a short holiday with his family during the school holidays.
We took the opportunity to visit Gulargambone.
If there is an icon that represents Gular, it's the RTC building.
While it doesn't have the heritage beauty that some of our old post offices do, it is a fine symbol of the spirit of this great little town.
We were in Gular during harvest. There were so many overloaded road trains using the main street in the summer heat, the tar on the road was melting. After several unsuccessful attempts to save the road by other methods, the council covered it in sand. The outlying roads just fell apart - more potholes this year than many farmers can remember.
We returned to Wollar to finish off the mapping.
Catching a shot of Veronica's pet sulphur crested cockatoo Jacko was easy.
Much more challenging was catching a shot of the wild king parrot in Scott's yard.
The earlier visit to the dentist pinpointed a problematic root canal, so after a bit more mapping we made another visit to the big smoke.
We made one more foray westward before christmas, including a quick stop in Gular. Driving the roads around Gulargambone is great bird spotting. While not quite as good as the bird routes of the Piliga, it makes the commute to work so much more pleasant.
Although we made it as far as Bourke, we didn't manage to visit any of the outlying towns we visited on our last trip.
We did some advertising on the way up, but nothing much came of it.
It was great to see Chris and Kriste again.
During a quick final stop in Gular, Helen got to show off her trigonometry and hammer skills laying out the lines on a new clay tennis court. That done, we headed back to Sydney so Helen could spend Christmas with her family.