History Tour 1

For History tour 1 we went to the classroom at 8:45am and Moff told us what was happening. Half of us then boarded the bus while the other half stayed behind and did leisure options. Moff took the history tour group and we set off. We first stopped and looked at a certain pine tree. This pine tree was called the Norfolk Pine Tree as it came from Norfolk Island. This tree was very useful as it had an almost perfectly straight trunk. These were used in the olden days for masts for ships. We then headed off towards Innes National Park. We then stopped off at areas before we reached the Park. Moff told us about the types of trees such as the Mallee gum tree which has its trunk in the ground. So if a fire comes then all the branches are harmed but the trunks remain. We then stopped at an area which had heaps of small aboriginal wells. We also stopped to look at old houses which the settlers used to live in. They were really small and some of them, according to Moff, weren’t suited to the Australian environment.

We finally got to Innes National Park where we headed towards Cape Spencer light house. We ate lunch here and then went to the Inneston Township. This was a mining town where the settlers used to live. There was a huge lake there and Moff told us to drink the water. Not trusting Moff I dipped my finger in and licked it. The water was very salty. Some people got huge handfuls of water and drank it. They then spat or vomited it out. At the Town we saw the old bakery, stable and other things that a society needed.

We then moved on to the Ethel wreck. This was a place where a ship was washed up. You can now see the skeleton of the Ethel on the beach. Next to it was a tug boat called the ferret which attempted to help the Ethel but knew it couldn’t so turned around. It washed up on the beach 17 years later ironically next to the Ethel. The wreck was on a bay and there was a headland. Since it was really calm and the tide was fully out we could walk around the headland. Moff was really surprised as he had never passed the headland before. The landscape was beautiful and you could see where the see had eroded the rock in such beautiful forms. The sand was soft and very fine and it was just magnificent. Some of the people went exploring and found an old car which had driven off the cliff. It was very rusty and Moff said it would have been there for around 2 years. We then headed back to Wambana filled with knowledge of the history of Innes National Park.

The Highs of the day were going to the Ethel wreck and finding the hidden cove, seeing emus and finding out about the interesting things about the Inneston township.
The lows of the day were it was a bit boring and that it took a long time to get to the park.