September 3 Rockhampton

“A Wet Day in September.” Didn’t someone write a song with those words? It started raining early this morning and continued through until just before lunch. With not much to do, mum ran through a load of washing and we headed off to check out the local shopping centre – Stocklands Rockhampton. It leaves Shellharbour Square for dead and even has a 25 m pool in the basement car park. The main tenants are Woolworths, Big W and Target. We didn’t actually do much shopping but treated ourselves to Gloria Jeans (with scones, jam and cream). Very decadent! Just across the creek/storm water drain from Stocklands is a Centro shopping centre with Coles and K-Mart. We’re saving a visit there for tomorrow when it’s again supposed to be wet but just having all these major outlets in such close proximity makes for a massive complex. When the weather cleared we ventured outside to visit the Dreamtime Cultural Centre. We’re never too sure what to expect with some of these but this one was quite good. The tour was led by two guides who were very informative and spoke extremely well. As a result our knowledge increased significantly. The centre covered the Central Qld Sandstone Belt to the west/south west of here which includes Carnarvon Gorge and the Torres Strait islands. Two types of artwork were explained. The “cross-hatching” looked like it had been formed by continuous lines but in actual fact was a composite artwork made up of single pieces. The artist placed his hands fingers extended, palms facing away and thumbs crossed so there was a space between the index fingers. Ochre was then blown from his mouth into the space to form a line. Moving the hands enabled the original line to be extended while turning the hands sideways enabled a horizontal line to be formed. Another artwork consisted of a series of vertical lines. These were produced by the artist forming a diamond by placing tips of the index and first fingers of both hands together. Ochre was then blown into the space. One of the guides demonstrated playing the didgeridoo and while I’ve heard a lot of these over the years, this guy was sensational because of the variety he was able to produce. This was followed by boomerang throwing using the returning boomerang. Mum and I proved to be quite competent. (Instructions: Hold the boomerang above the shoulder, slightly off the vertical to the right and aim the throw at 45 degrees to the oncoming wind direction. Throw with a strong flick of the wrist and the boomerang should do the rest.) The second guide explained the culture of the Torres Strait islands. The most fascinating thing for us here was the construction of the native hut which was made by weaving coconut palm fronds. The frond was split down the stem and then the leaves on that side woven together. The photo shows the end result. Tonight we went out for dinner to the Cambridge Hotel. Very disappointing food quality. We’d have been better off paying a few dollars more and going to Sizzlers. Live and learn!