Under a hotter Sun; Tucabia;

How do you pronounce “Tucabia”?The dirt road passing our property is called the Tucabia road. Further on is the tiny, sleepy township of Tucabia.

We had heard from neighbours that somewhere out there were Swiss people living.

We went to the Tucabia post office to inquire where these people might live. Like mentioned before we were not really sure if they were Swiss or Swedish. When we arrived at the post office we could not believe our eyes.We had never seen a post office like that.

The weatherboard house was dilapidated to the stage of collapse. To get into the post office we had to walk over an array of household items laying around, old rusty iron sheets, washing which probably had fallen from the line aeon's ago, old bikes without wheels, rusty bits that by the look of it must have been ones a car or two.
The floor in the post office was badly sagging and by the look of it someone had the misfortune to have fallen with a foot through a rotten piece of flooring, as still the heel of a black shoe was sticking out of the hole.

After we reassembled our shocked faces we called out for the lady of the house, as nobody was around. After a while a friendly, comfortable looking lady presented herself as the postmistress. We asked her about the Swiss people we were told lived somewhere in this area.

She looked us up and down and said there was a new family living along the Tucabia road. They are really weird people. It is said they have only one entrance door in their house because they are afraid of snakes. And then she let out a roar of laughter she had not heard of something so hilarious for a while and with a little sniff practically as an excuse, foreigners.

After we got the hint what and about whom she was talking, we said that we were actually the people she was telling us about. She swallowed once, but caught her equilibrium very quickly. Accentuating her answer with a vague hand gesture said there are some Swedish people living out there somewhere. She did not know exactly where so we left it at that. We will never know if we missed something, we never met the Swedish-Swiss people.

Tucabia is a sleepy village isolated like everything around it. It is very flat and sandy, has already a tiny whiff of the sea. The houses are far and wide nestling on acreage. Only a few tall, stately gumtrees dot the landscape.
Some of the tall Eucalyptus have big, black ants nests attached which are cleverly used by Kookaburras as nesting places. Around Tucabia is bush…bush ..bush…it is a village in the bush. (bush is the word used to describe woodland.
The road a straight, narrow ribbon leads the way up and down along bushland towards the coast and the small holiday village of Wooli.
On our way we encountered a forest completely ring barked. The skeletal trees a cemetery of ghostly, ancient giants, limbs broken, numb and powerless under a deep blue, innocent sky. Yet the trees even in their battlefield status have not lost all their purpose. Lots of birds and small animals still find shelter and nesting places in the hollows of the trees.

Coarse ferns, scrub and tough blady grass still provide shelter and hiding places for lizards and other animals. Small saplings raise intimidatingly their vulnerability towards the light. The bush looks rough and unkempt, primeval and still there is serenity to it that a groomed and landscaped ground can never achieve.

A wooden chapel stands lonesome on the side of the road oblivious to its neglect.
Cherishes now the only occupants, the spirit of its long dead worshippers.

The landscape is bare where in earlier times the trees have been ring barked to make room for more farmland.

Now only rusty, holed iron sheets bear witness to a lively homestead that occupied the site and oddly, completely intact stone steps lead up to nowhere.

A small tumbledown shed ,its roof caved in, are the sad looking leftovers.

Tough, hardwood fences, silvery from sun, wind and rain hang on for a while longer and still display the craftsmanship and hard work of people long gone. They give suddenly way to a tangle of never mended wire fences.
Ground hugging Banksias with their golden candles held up high grow in dense profusion along the road. The road is a narrow ribbon of bitumen with on both sides half a car space of dirt road. You have to drive half on the bitumen and half on the dirt track; if you don’t follow this rule you’re pushed out completely into the dirt and further down into a ditch, as the oncoming cars pass with astonishing speed in the middle of the road which they abandon quickly to hug the other half of the dirt road leaving only a cloud of dust.

The road wends its way up and down, along grazing land, the odd homestead, bush and more bush then suddenly you arrive on top and from there you have a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean, like a glorious gift presented to you. The horizon merges sky and sea tantalized by transparent sunlight. Born of the sun and lives by the light fits perfectly here, so Alphonse Daudet said this about the Provence. Golden, sandy beaches hug green blue water, sparkling, inviting and besieging, we have arrived in paradise.

Photo TS

Under a hotter Sun; Purple Thistles;

The paddock

We walked down to the river flats. All five of us shouldered hoes and bush knives.  We had the task to eradicate thistles, rushes and more weeds that had the tendency to choke the grass. Thistles grew in abundance. They were never in jeopardy by wild swinging hoes and bush knives by a bunch of determined Swiss declaring war to innocent weeds. Reg said, where thistles grow the soil is very fertile. What I thought was that Reg just wanted to console us, when he saw the task we had ahead of us.
While we hacked and slashed at the big whoppers,
my eyes strayed to the riverbank. The water dark and serene. Tiny flower petals fell gracefully and settled on the water highlighted by the odd sun ray penetrating the thick vegetation.

The heat, the buzz of insects, the monotonous task soon led me into a dazed dreaming.
The sunlight sharp like molten silver pierced my eyelids; there suddenly, I glimpsed graceful people whom had lived in this area a long time before us. The tall, proud men ahead, strode with long measured paces. Women and children with delicate limbs, followed, happily chatting and laughing .

They stopped in their track when they saw me. Their hands with long slim fingers flew up and waved. A very old woman gazed at me; fathomless, black eyes met mine.

The earth stood still, when she reached out and handed me a small woven dilly bag. I hesitated to take it. I had nothing to give her in return. She quietly pressed the gift into my hands a tiny smile on her lips.
My fingers curled around the small bag, felt the exquisite work of the woven fibres.
The chatter and laughter resumed, faded, far away the last tinkle of a child’s laughter died.
My hands hung empty, the fingers still curled around nothing. I felt bereft. The hoe left laying on top of wilting, silvery purple flowers.
The world returned to its endless chores. The buzz and hum of insects, the twitter of a bird, the flap of a wing, and the silent pursuit of underground creatures.
The heat continued its onslaught; sun rays radiated glittering stars into the sky.
Sweat trickled from my hot brow, pale rivulets on my dusty face.
I dried my moist face with my sunhat, blinked into the shimmering heat. I adjusted my sunglasses that had carelessly fallen to the ground and looked around to my family; they were busy at their task.
I gazed up to this immensely blue sky; swatted lethargically at flies and my spirits vanished when I looked at this sea of purple. The hoes went whack, whack and the purple heads fell to their grave. Their dry, prickly heads hold also trillions of seeds for next years crop. I shuddered when I thought of it.
The girls had enough and vanished, drawn to the cool, dark river that beckoned and promised relief from the heat and monotonous work. I listened to their noisy splashes.
Peter and I plod on, whack, whack slash one more purple thistle gone.
Our reward for this hard work came when letters from the abattoir said that our cattle were completely free of any residue of poison. Unfortunately we did not receive more money for our organically grown cattle. People were not yet talking about organically grown food.

(We were always a nose length ahead with newfangled ideas; which came much later worldwide into fruition with "slow food and organic food.)

Under a hotter Sun; The pigs;

To augment our income, until the steers were ready to sell, we decided to buy three sows and one boar. We went to a pig breeder in the area. We selected three nice looking sows and one boar. When we selected the boar P. counted the boar's teats. The pig breeder and his wife thought that was very funny and asked Peter why he counted the boars teats. Peter explained that this was very important because his female offspring would have then too as many teats as possible to suckle many piglets. They said they had never heard of that.

Soon it was known in the area that P. was a good manager and the Swedes were well known for their pig breeding. The people did not take much notice of the difference between Swiss and Swede. To them it was all the same somewhere in the north of Europe. To us it did not matter if we came from Switzerland or Sweden.
Some times at gatherings people asked me to say something in Swedish. There was
no point in making clear that I can not speak Swedish, I tried to tell I speak Swiss German. I just said a sentence or whatever I was asked in Swiss German dialect because I could not speak Swedish.
The three sows and the boar were delivered. Peter had their luxury accommodation ready. They were Babette number one and two and three. One Babette was later named “cripple toe” because she had an accident with her foot and damaged a toe. The boar was called Willie. The boar and the three Babetten were happy pigs.

They had also a big paddock to them selves where they frolicked, buried their snouts deep into the earth to get to roots and probably grubs and earthworms. After a rain they loved to eat the sprouting mushrooms. They had a mud bath to get rid of insects and also to keep the skin protected from sunburn, as they had such a fair skin.
When their time came to give birth they gathered grass and leaves and soft twigs to make nests for the piglets. When they gave birth at night we went down to their paddock to watch them. In the morning the newborn piglets were usually happily suckling.

Peter found one newborn piglet completely flat, with no sign of life lying near its mother. She had probably lain on it, as the sows are sometimes very clumsy when it comes to look after their offspring. He took the piglet away to bury it later, it was cold and looked dead.

The sun must have warmed its little body because when Peter returned later on to bury it, the piglet had disappeared .He found it near its mother. It still looked a bit flat but was vigorously suckling with the others. We always knew it as it grew up with a little bent to its body.

The little pigs could roam the whole property; for the time being they lived a charmed and happy piggies life. When it was feeding time Peter called them with a gong and they came running from all directions. They came up to the garden and loved it when we scratched their fat little tummies. These were the good times for the pigs.

Not all is beautiful when the little pigs grow up to be porkers. I never got used to this and always fled cowardly the scene when the steers or the pigs were shifted to the abattoirs. I know Peter hated it too.

Under a hotter Sun; Susie;

"Susie"
One day I found a female Wallaby lying on the side of the road. I got out of the car to check her. She had been hit by a car and was dead. She had a tiny Joe, confused, crawling all over her trying to get into her pouch. I always had an old blanket in the car for such an occurrence.
I bundled the Joe into the blanket and took it home. It was a female, she was tiny but she already had a nice fur. We called her Susie. I made a pouch for her from an old jumper and bolstered it out with a woollen blanket so she would be comfortable and warm.

I went to the Wildlife Services in Grafton. They gave me a permit to raise Susie. A bottle with a special dummy and instructions how, when and what to feed her. All went very well.

She liked her food. I took her in her pouch everywhere with me, even in the car to go shopping. I knotted the pouch to a coat hanger so I could hang her up on any hook or handle nearby. In the house I usually hung her on a doorknob.

She liked her pouch yet at night she would snuggle up with one of the girls. She would curl herself at their feet under the doona . Mainly she ended up in Lilli’s bed because Lilli had a special gentle nature with animals.

At first we fed Susie with the bottle. We mixed milk with finely ground chicken pellets and a few drops of lemon juice. She did very well and grew quickly to a naughty toddler. In the living room I had one wall covered with bookshelves. She did not read the books she liked to nibble the spines!

She was not at all an absolute herbivore. While she grazed I observed her digging for beetles and worms, which she ate with gusto.

She loved small pieces of steak or frankfurters sausage when we had a barbecue.

Her weakness were almonds. As soon as I was around she nuzzled into my hands and pockets to look for the nuts.
She grew well and soon was a teenager. She grew tame in a way but not absolutely, there was a certain wildness in her. She started to leave us for days. I was worried and went all over the place looking and calling her. Suddenly she came hopping, nuzzling my pockets for almonds. If I did not have any she was angry and boxed me with her paws.
And than there was sadly a time when she did not respond anymore to my calling.
I like to think she rejoined her relatives and lived happily ever after.

Photo TS.

Copyright TS.

Under a hotter Sun; The Road;

Ali and Tommy good mates.

The Road
The road leading to our property is called a “dirt road”. It winds its way from the
Highway through the bush. Its surface is rutted at certain stretches corrugated. The car bumps and clatters noisily like every nut and bolt were loose threatening to fall out. After a few trips the driver is ready to take on any stock car race. The drivers who use this road are not considerate drivers. In the dry season they drive at the height of their speed. In their wake clouds of dust settling on both sides of the road on shrubs and trees, leaving these breathless, poor ghosts waiting for the next rain to be washed clean.
When we were working near the road we usually laid a small tree over the road. This action brought a lot of swearing from the driver, as he had to slow down, stop and remove the tree. This was the intention of our action so the fine red dust would not suffocate us. Before we took this drastic action we were the ones coughing and sneezing, emerging from a red cloud, fighting for a breath of clean air.

We also had another option, that was by the first sound of a motor to leave our tools and run away from the dust, sit down and wait until the dust had settled, but that was very impractical, because once we laid down our tools, sat down and got used to the rest, it was very hard to get motivated to go back to this sort of work. Regarding our work ethics Peter opted for the first.
In the wet season this road runs with water, has deep ditches on the sides, holes in the middle treacherously filled with water.
I landed ones in a ditch while I was righting the milk bucket which had fallen on its side, While doing this I went a little to the left and slithered into the deep ditch, the car was lying on its side. I had to go and get Peter with his tractor to pull the car out.
When the road is slippery wet, the drivers slow down. This was a respite for all,
especially for the animals, who have the habit to live on both sides of the road.
On my trips to the bus stop to bring the girls to their school bus I saw sometimes a wallaby hit by a car. The mate would linger around for a few days, sit nearby and then disappear into the bush. I made the habit of it to always check if it was a female and perhaps a Joe in her pouch. Mainly male wallabies, mostly curious youngsters were hit. The females were much more cautious.

Under a hotter Sun; Melina, a dairy cow;

Every morning after I brought the girls to the school bus I went to the dairy farm to get a bucket of milk. One day I got a bucket of milk that was different than the usual milk. It was thick and very yellow and left long strands when I was pouring it into a jug.

Peter, when he was a lad had spent a lot of time at a dairy farm, so he knew instantly what was wrong with this milk. He said it was colostrum milk the calve feeds on when it is just born. This milk was not appetising and I did not use it. After that experience I said we should buy a dairy cow.
How nice it will be to milk our own cow and have fresh, frothy milk everyday. We asked our dairy farmer, Jean's, my gardener friend's husband, if he could sell us one of his dairy cows. He agreed and showed us a gorgeous looking dairy cow with lovely, brown eyes for seventy Dollars. She looked at us and said moo,

I thought what a good sign she agrees with us. The next day she was delivered. Jacky christened her Melina. She liked this name a lot and was keen to use one of the names since she had read an adventure story about Melina and Haska.
Melina was as stubborn as she was beautiful. She hated to be caught and we had to bribe her with the now famous blue bucket filled with corn. She also hated to be milked. She had not a clue what her duty was and did not like to be milked. She gave us only one meagre drop of milk. She did not like us one little bit. She kicked and pushed Peter until he said enough is enough my princess you are going to be tamed. Peter made a small wooden plank that was attached to a rope. It was not easy to fit it around the very reluctant neck of Melina. Now she can not run away we thought and with a lot of tender loving care she might consider us as her friends do her dairy cow job and let us milk her.
When Peter wanted to milk her, she was wild, threw around her weight and hit him with her "necklace" the wooden plank in his shins. With angry looks at him, she braced herself, started to scratch with her hooves and threw soil into the air. Peter had enough of her tantrums. He left her to calm down and the next day he took off her yoke and released her in the paddock with the Herefords.

She ran off looked back and poked her tongue out. With this ended our dream of frothing, fresh milk.
In winter she gave birth to a beautiful Frisian bull calf that she thoroughly spoiled with lots and lots of milk.
Unfortunately Melina had not a happy ending. When we had a drought,Melina was not in her best condition and fell between a drain. Peter wanted to lift her out but she had hurt herself and was not able to stand up anymore.
Peter had to put her out of her misery.

Under a hotter Sun; Insects and Snakes always attract attention;

Fiddle Beetle Eupoecila australasiea

While pottering around in the garden I observe all sorts of interesting beetles. The
Bombardier beetle is one of the funny ones. It produces an audible chemical explosion from his rear accompanied by a puff of smoke and acrid smell when he is disturbed or touched.
One of my Hibiscus shrubs sports jewel like bugs hanging to branches and leaves. This is the Harlequin bug it flaunts its iridescent colours of bright blue, green and red arranged in sophisticated patterns. It is very beautiful considered a pest as it sucks the sap from the Hibiscus plant, so be it.

The Fiddle beetle is a thoroughly benign and lovely bug. It has a strong green violin pattern on its wing covers. It feeds on nectar in the flowers of the Eucalyptus tree. Their larvae live in decaying wood and compost and oddly crawl on their backs.

It is Christmas in Australia when the beautiful, beige golden Anoplognathus porosus, the Christmas beetle emerges from its dark tomb where it lives as a white curl-grub until it flies off as a pretty Christmas ornament into houses attracted by the lights.

The Bombardierbeetle


Sometimes I spot Giant Stick insects. It is always just by chance when I see them they are so well camouflaged, blending in just as any other stick.

I was fascinated when I saw my first Goliath Stick insect. They are more than 2o cm long. Grass green with a flash of red on their wings. They are very impressive Insects. They feed on top of tall Eucalyptus trees so they are never seen only when they have been blown down during storms.
The heat should prompt us to take it easy. Retire through the hottest hours of the day and have a siesta like in hot Latin countries. Oh no not in this country it was settled by Englishmen. They have a song, “Mad dogs and Englishmen are out in the midday sun.” I might add to this, the Swiss are the same. Peter is out on his tractor, pushing ,pulling ,slashing.

In the heat of the day snakes abound on the property. The Red-bellied Black Snake especially. They are sunning their fat, shiny black bodies. Every time I encounter one, nearly treading on it, a little shock wave electrifies my body.
Lots of tall stories are told about snakes. One man was bragging how he would take a snake by its tail and swing it around his head.

We were cleaning up old wood and debris from a previous flood, which were deposited over the property. Peter started to remove a woodpile when he saw the tip of the tail of a Black one.

He could not resist that challenge remembering the guy’s story. He grabbed the tail end and pulled. Peter got the shock of his life when

the snake’s head emerged a few centimetres from his hand to check who was pulling her tail. This day there was no swinging of a snake and I think, from then on, he left them well alone; the snake had earned his respect.
We all come upon snakes from time to time. Generally they are shy creatures slithering away not looking for confrontations. Mostly we do not know when they are around the house, unless our Australian Terrier Ali frantically sniffs around and chases them off.

Along a sunny spot on the river Peter concreted a place complete with a small springboard for the girls were they can spend the hot summer days.

The whole riverbank was a tangle of scrub and trees. A paradise abundant with wildlife. Tiny birds like butterflies flitting around. Goannas and Lizards revelling, sunning their bodies.
Lilli sunning on a towel after a refreshing swim, did not know what prompted her suddenly to look up. There was a fat, long Black Snake right coming towards her practically wanting to slither over her. Frightened Lilli jumped up, the snake jumped at the same time exposing her bright red belly. Both scared of each other fled in a flash.
Pythons, simply called carpet snakes were permanent bed and breakfast guests. They lived in the rafters of our various sheds. We liked their silent company. Noiseless they slide their smooth, patterned bodies along to hold on to anything even the tractors steering wheel. It was possible to touch them when they were in the mood, if they were aggressive you left them best alone.

We were really afraid of the Clarence River Snake, the Eastern Brown Snake and the Coastal Taipan. They are very poisonous and dangerous snakes. So, they are very shy, they are also nervous and aggressive if cornered or harassed also unintentional.

I really like the green Tree Snakes. They are not venomous. I found them curled around the garden gate showing off their green and yellow colours. They are beautiful creatures slim and sleek with tiny heads. Sometimes they have small bumps and nicks in their skin probably from an accident and getting away with it. They also lived in the climbing plants, which were trained on wires along the veranda.

Somehow one got under the roof of our sun room probably to hunt for frogs. One morning there was this particular nasty smell and Peter exclaimed, “oh no!’ He had to open the roof and with a broomstick he fished out what were the remains of a green snake, Yuk!
In the middle of our property stands an ancient, gigantic Morton Bay Fig tree. Its grey roots exposed to form rooms of which animals take advantage to shelter from storms.
All sorts of animals and birds like the tiny fruit that grow on the tree in abundance.
The Lorikeets feast on the fermented figs and get drunk, laying on their backs their feet up in the air. When I first saw this spectacle I thought they were sick until I realised what had happened. Also the horses were fond of the fermented figs. When they were freely grazing, we always found them munching under this Fig tree ..after having eaten a quantity they behaved rather strangely.

Peter was having a rest, sitting down and leaning against its ancient roots when suddenly a very large Tree snake was sliding straight in his direction. He saw her when she was only about half a meter from him. All what the snake wanted was to go up her tree were she lived. Peter took one jump and was away. One really gets quite acrobatic in haste to escape.
When overseas Tourists came visiting, Peter would in detail tell them where it was possible in the wild to observe snakes. One option was to look for a bridge, which are always in plentiful supply. At noon on a hot summers day snakes like to congregate under bridges to soak up the warmth.

So if you see people in shorts with pale thighs and knees, with anticipated terror on their faces, bending over bridges, those are the tourists looking for fat, red-bellied Black ones!
I know of two people who have been bitten by snakes, well one person I know the other is sort of that somebody else knew this person and told me about it. We had a friend, a grazier, who would on his way around his property collect poisonous snakes to bring to a place to milk their venom to produce antidote. Once he found one and as it was to late to bring it to this place he shoved it in his toolbox.
The next morning he had forgotten about the snake. He took his jeep drove out to his property and had a breakdown without thinking he put his hand into his toolbox and got neatly bitten on his wrist. He was a tough man and he did not go to hospital to get antidote.

He was very, very sick it took him three month to get better. He got bitten a second time from a Black snake when he was walking barefoot through high grass just opposite the river from our property. He was very sick again but did not have any antidote either. I don’t know why he did not let himself help with the antidote that he helped to collect. Mike later on had a very bad fall from his horse and lost his kidneys. He had a kidney transplant and lived for an other 10 Years. He died before he was 60 years old. Very sad, we all liked him much. Peter told him once, that the bites of the poisonous snakes could have influenced the failure of his kidneys. He agreed. It was not further investigated.
The other man was a doctor who collected and played with snakes. He was alone in
his surgery where he was found dead bitten in a cheek. The rumour was he could not put a tourniquet around his neck.

Our hens get sometimes bitten when they try to tackle small snakes. We found our cockerel that could barley walk and we thought he had been bitten. We found a nest full of small Blacksnakes under a bail of straw.