http://www.actnow.com.au/Issues/Rural_Australia.aspx
Australia is one of the driest continents on earth. Drought is common. Despite regular droughts, Aboriginal people have lived successfully in large parts of the arid inland regions of Australia for thousands of years. Over time they developed a sophisticated and intricate knowledge of their environment that was vital to their success in these conditions. There were two key elements to their subsistence strategies: knowledge of where and how to find water, and how to collect and make flour from a range of native plant seeds.
'Dryland salinity, the gradual loss of farm and grazing land to rising salt, is a massive problem, hard to comprehend and harder still to stop. There is salt everywhere in Australia; vast amounts of it, mostly located underground. It has built up over many thousands of years, originating from the weathering of rock minerals or the simple act of sea salt dropping via rain or wind. The native Australian vegetation evolved to be salt-tolerant. Many of the woodland species, for example, have deep roots and a high demand for water. Whilst the system was in balance, the salt stayed put. But when European farming arrived and replaced the native species with crop and pasture plants that have shorter roots and need less water, the inevitable happened. With every fall of rain, unused water "leaks" down to the water table, raising it, and bringing the salt up with it. That process continues today, and the volumes of water and salt are vast. Under the soils of the Western Australian wheabelt and part of Eastern Australia the salt store is so immense, and the movement of sub-surface water so slow, that restoration to fertility of salt-affected land will take generations. Some areas may never recover. In Australia, it is estimated that many billions of trees have been removed. 2,5 million hectares of land are affected by salinity and there is a potential for this to increase to 15 millions hectares, much of this in some of our most productive agricultural land. It's taken a long time for the political establishment to grasp the seriousness of the problem.'
http://www.wadidge.com.au/didgeridoo-news/revegetation-project.html
salt crust
a shop being described as a 'universal provider'......... a shop that would provide all your needs... a shop that would have anything you want.. what would people want . i have been asking people what they cant buy in Kellerberrin and will compile a list .. I may ask what they would want if the shop could have anything
. Including, relating to, or affecting all members of the class or group under consideration
Some of the shops on Massingham street Kellerberrin are empty so on first impressions it seems nothing much goes on here but once here for a while you realise there's alot more going on .
'although Kellerberrin major thoroughfare Massingham street can on days be near - empty. This can be deceptive. It is not a true measure of the towns standing. There may not be as many people around anymore but beneath the surface there still flows a strong community spirit undiminished by the burden of agriculture's changing face and its affects on the district. Thus spirit is applied conscientiously to its commercial , social and welfare activities '
boomin the bush
late night shopping in Kellerberrrin in 1967 a recent innovation - was proving to be very popular and there were plenty of chops in which to spend that money burning a hole in your pocket. one report of the times boasted that in contrast to many country towns Kellerberrin has no empty shops to rent'
shops had changed . gone now was the friendly highly personalised service of the shopkeeper. Before that happened going to town was still a dress up event.. best dresses, hats ,, gloves stockings etc for the women and suits or sports jackets ties and hats for the men on arrival to town were were able to place our weekly order at eh co-op ' then it would be off to do some socialising returning later to pick up the orders already packed into boxes and set off back to the farm'
Kellerberrin farmers cooperative
'trading began there in 1917. In the intervening years farmers and townsfolk alike have shopped for all manner of things at what became known as the Co-op. The cooperative movements emerged at eh beginning of the twentieth century in Western Australia. Farmers at that time had come to the conclusion that by cooperatively buying and selling products they needed to run their farms, any profit made from such sales could be returned in the form of dividends rather than to merchants they would normally deal with'.
hairpins to hams to hardware
'Kellerberrins co-op actually got under way in the dying days of 1916. It was probably in the next year that it rented and set up shop in Mr Mc Cabes generally store in which you could buy anything from hairpins to hams to hardware . . Emblazoned across its facade was its new name The farmers co-operative co.Ltd. and other advertising made the bold claim that the co-op and its agencies were UNIVERSAL PROVIDERS'
a man his dog and a dead kangaroo . terry spence
Waggas or rag rugs used to be made with the bags inside or outside and another piece of material and you joined the cloths with a big running stitch usually from wool left over from knitting. The flour bags were usually inside- they couldn't be seen and some old rugs had all the family's old clothes inside in several different layers stitched together to make blankets 
The origin of the word "wagga" may always remain a mystery but it is thought to be derived from the finely woven "Wagga Lily Flour" sacks made by the Murrumbidgee Flour Milling Co-operative in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. However, they were made and known of right across Australia and were given different names such as a 'bluey', 'bush rug', 'wogger', 'Sydney blanket' or a 'Murrumbidgee rug'.
farmers who remember the days of bag sewing with anything but fond memories say that if in a full day a man who could sew one hundred plus bags he was doing pretty good . That's why they greeted with disbelief a newspaper article reporting a couple of records that were being claimed in the eastern states
worldwide public knitting day http://www.wwkipday.com/
http://www.castoff.info/press/pages/indie_review_23-3-04.html
RED CROSS
raw wool was received from all country branches and the society organised spinning by members. the oily raw wool was particularly important for socks for sailors but few women recall working with it with any pleasure; most preferred the fine machine wool provided by firms such as Paton and Baldwin. Hand knit garments reassured the recipients of the support of people at home. But 1943 voluntary workers at the Australian comforts fund handed over 400 000 garments ready for shipment.
womens involvement was primarily in traditional crafts and 'keep the home fires burning'. The war it seemed would call women 'not to arms but to knitting needles'
in the living rooms across the country in the quiet hours after dinner , listening to the wireless and waiting to hear news of the front the army of knitters increased their production until their efforts exceeded the requirements of the comforts fund. Once the basic steps of mastering the technique were accomplished , the tranquil and repetitive process of knitting provided a therapeutic form of creative relaxation in times of stress. the way the needlework, knitting or crochet slowly grows and can be picked up at the odd moment serves to calm the nerves and assist people to get over times of family crisis.
slow making
What is Slow Making? Its not a nostalgic return to some bucolic fantasy, but a philosophy that wants to discuss placing the maker, the artist, the designer in an ethical context. An ethical context that respects the speed of the hand in making, that understands the unique tempo of crafted production, knows too that its materials have been sourced by sustainable means and respecting of the communities where it came from. An ethical context that also encompasses ethical business practices. A philosophy that engages with the longevity of an object, & how it can be maintained and repaired over generations. A philosophy that values appropriate excellence - objects, art and design that fits within the social and economic context of its end user.
Slow Making Manifesto
1.To strive for appropriate excellence in the making process
2. To make objects that enhance the life of the user
3. To know the origins of our materials, ensuring that they respect country; the communities who produced or harvested them and are from sustainable sources
4. To make objects that will last, can be easily repaired when necessary and are made using materials and processes that do not harm the makers, the community or the environment
5. To deal with our co-workers, clients, suppliers and sellers in an ethical and fair manner
6. To foster, utilise and pass on skills that enhance the making process
7. To enjoy and relish the way of slow making
As makers, artists, designers and craft workers, we all recognise the difficulty of surviving in a world geared to mass consumption, mass manufacture and mass obsolescence. Slow Food has been about not just describing and demanding change to the way that food is produced, but just as important, it has worked very very hard at educating people about the importance, the difference between Slow Food and mass food. Can Slow Making be used to do a similar thing? To educate an audience about materials, aesthetics, skill and beauty. And the possibility of making your living ethically .
that were stylish at the time . The author recalls working on a farm om the fifties when one harvest the farmer left him in charge and went off on holiday.. He returned two weeks later in a brand new jaguar Mark V Saloon. True to tradition he later had no compunction about bumping out into the paddocks to load ailing sheep into the boot of his gleaming race-bred car to transport it back to the homestead .
i have just discovered a top tip in the local Kellerberrin community paper 'the pipeline '
The first fat-tailed sheep into Australia arrived in 1788 with the First Fleet, while the first merino arrived in 1797 with only 13 sheep being purchased from the Spanish.Some of these sheep were sold to John Macarthur and Samuel Marsden, two notable pioneers of the wool industry. They began selective breeding by crossing their Merinos with other breeds in the colony.On his arrival in 1800, Governor King saw the potential and benefit to the colony in producing wool. His vision led to the establishment of a textile industry with the setting up of the first wool mill at Parramatta.The Australian rural landscape is uniquely suited to sheep, with a relatively mild climate extending over vast areas of natural grassland. Wool production is the country's largest and most important form of land use, with some 70,000 wool growing properties spread in a continuous crescent from the north of Queensland to the mid-north of Western Australia and including Tasmania and the Islands of Bass Strait.
'equally curious would have been the wool covered bleating animals which in flocks were driven before the white men and their horses. It was the beginning of the era of the pastoralist settler and his sheep in the kellerberrin district'.
killabin...kellerbrin...kellerberrin a man, his dog and a dead kangaroo by terry spence
from sheep to gold
gold sock Deirdre Nelson 2008 .
features in A' Fighe a'Cheo (knitting fog),
an exhibition of new work developed by Deirdre Nelson during a four month residency at Taigh Chearsabagh on North Uist earlier this year.
The discovery of gold in Western Australia in the late 1890s heralded a population explosion as fortune-seekers from all corners of the glue descended on the Goldfields region to cash in on its natural bounty. 
It began as a whisper but the news soon spread as fast as the region’s wildfires. Gold hungry men by the thousands packed up and set out to the dusty landscape of the Kalgoorlie Goldfields and Murchison regions. They came slowly at first but as the finds grew so too did the populations. Lonely clusters of tents and rough and tumble bough sheds soon transformed into booming gold rush towns.
Grand hotels lined main streets and bustling town centres soon boasted butchers, bakers, schools and churches.
from gold to wheat
The Gold rush generated demands for Chaff wheat . Until this time wheat on sheep stations had only been grown by pastoralists to supply working horses with hay. By the late 1880's there was a larger industry. Chaff was needed to feed the horses who provided transport for the many people coming to the area. .. on the threshold of a new era of agriculture
wheat
they could not forsee that in the future years a stream of gold would flow from the soil which for them initially simply produced just natural pastures for their flocks . The gold was not the precious metal which at times crazed the minds of men desperate in their efforts to unearth it. That sort of gold would soon be discovered some distance away from the Kellerberrin district. ....rather it is the wheat we speak of GOLDEN GRAIN, the staff of life- whose potential would be released in time
