We decided to visit the much talked about Moot Yang Gunya Festival and Mundulla Show. Mundulla (the English name of the town) has a population of just over 1000 people and is a very happy and thriving community. Moot Yang Gunya is an aboriginal word which I think means place on the swamp. We didn't see much sign of the swamp as it's been so dry in recent years but apparently it's there when it really rains. The effort the community put into this annual two day event is amazing. There was something for everyone to take part in even if it is just spectating and crowds of 3,000 were expected.
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| Lady letting very excited children out of air tunnel. |
There were so many attractions from a free Kiddies entertainments tent which, among other things, featured a very popular Air Tunnel for the Littlies to enjoy. Basically a material tube abut 10 meters long which had air gently blown into it. The very little kiddywinks ran from one end to another and for some reason just could not get enough of it. It was a great sight seeing them laughing and giggling, bet they slept really well after that.
Loads of competitions like decorating round bales of hay, wood chopping, singing, all sorts of arts and crafts, from pumpkin carving, photography to cake baking and beautiful needle crafts, to name but a few.
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| Don't text and fly! |
This was fascinating to watch, all ages and levels of skill using razor sharp axes to chop their way through the log in the fastest times. The most skilled starting sometimes 60 seconds after the least skilled. How they still had all limbs intact at the end of it was beyond us.
The local heavy working horses from Clayton Farm put in an appearance, all Clydesdales.
I can not imagine how hard it is to get a team of six to work so well together. Each pair seemed to be doing a slightly different job, especially obvious when the young lad driving them wanted to turn the cart. Just to think that it wasn't so long ago that these beautiful animals were used for practically everything on the farm.
And then there were the carved pumpkins.
And the skills of a local artist on show, one of her pieces was the first prize for the local schools competition. Magic Trees and Fairy Tales was the theme to be interpreted however they wanted, all very clever but for some reason I didn't manage to get a photo of any!
It was a really great day out with so many things to see and do.
And then the following weekend it was The South East Field Day
Which is our version of the South of England Show but seems more geared to all things agricultural. It is held at Lucindale, a very sleepy little community with a population of about 1,000. I have to say whenever we have driven through it I have never see anyone in the main street.... only the occasional car... yes that sleepy. But my goodness it comes alive for the really well organised Field Days. Two days of yard dog trials, cookery demos, showing and selling of local produce and crafts. This show, the local paper announced, attracted 23,000 people.
It is so big but so well organised, the stands are set out in blocks with named roads, there is a free courtesy bus for those who are weary and free goofers for those less able to walk. We walked around for the whole day and still didn't managed to see it all.
Again there are competitions for the kids, this time in the form of scarecrows and outback post boxes.
All made out of scrap by the local school kids quite brilliant.
One of my favourites was in the South East Natural Resources Tent...
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| Meet Lucy a Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat (SNHW) |
| This ones a borrowed image so you can see what they are like the other way up.
Lucy was rescued when she was orphaned and reared to be handled and shown around schools to educate people about the plight of the SHNW. They are sadly an endangered species and live here in South Australia. Except Lucy who now has a fabulous life doing what ever pleases her. She does attend an occasional natural resource tent, but is no longer petted. She lives at a very special animal rescue sanctuary in Victoria, to tame to be released into the wild. but with loads of space to burrow to her hearts content.
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