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Living Rural - www.livingrural.net

Anecdotal stories, observations,comments and discussion pieces as insights into living in Rural Australia

Museum mystery - identify a pattern or item

October 23rd 2008 05:13

I know this is not a "Can you help?" site for Museum people - but I am really stuck! I took on the job of trying to identify the origin of the item pictured below.

Mystery Item

Our museum people are fairly sure that it is ceremonial - as it has a pattern on all four sides of the blades. We also believe that the head part was not with the handle originally - as the handle is a pipe and it is attached with a fish or snake skin and some leather thonging. Some dictionaries say it is a Halberd and that may be right, except that most of these have an axe on one side and a hook on the other. I was hoping for help in identifying both it and/or the pattern on the blade. Don't be afraid to be "way out" and think "no that can't be right as it wouldn't be in Australia", because it could well have come here as a family heirloom and be stolen or thrown out ages ago.

It was found by school boys stuck in a tree in Kojonup - a country town in WA about 50 years ago. Their teacher took it off them(!) and has only recently returned it to town. The school boys are also still with us and can verify the story. We are mainly interested in why it may be in Kojonup!
Kojonup is one of the first towns in WA and had a military presence here early on. Some of these soldiers and later some Pensioner Guards had been in the British forces in Indian campaigns. Whether a dress uniform from there had a harberd is one idea or whether they had ancestors in Armed forces is another idea. .

We know that the Swiss guard had a harberd. Some of the early Italian migrants came through Switzerland - another idea.
Someone suggesed a Masonic ceremonial item, but our ex-lodge members do not recognise it as such. However, there may be early items not used in later years.
The pattern that appears on all four sides of the blades could help us find an answer, so if you know something about the pattern, that could help.You can click on the image to see the pattern better. Good luck and thanks!

Do you recognise this pattern?

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: observations

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An investment better than Gold

October 11th 2008 01:49

Time to invest in good health

In these troubled financial times many of us feel that we have failed our families or ourselves in our decision making. Many of these are losses on paper or property value losses and in both these areas time may set things straight – if time can be taken.
So “how we spend time” is the investment on which we all need to concentrate.
Time to take a deep breath and realize not all material investments are lost.
Time to work out what is in our control and to concentrate on those things,
Time to look at our priorities in life,
Time to spend with family - to talk, to hug, to reassure each other of our love,
Time to invest in good health – physical, mental and spiritual,
Time to be thankful for the provisions that continue to come each season and every day- nature’s abundance, friends and family, a smile from a stranger.

The thing about time is - while there is a day on which the account will be close off, until then, every person on earth has an equal allocation every day, and how you choose to invest it is 100% under your control.

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A Smashing time - Crime in towns

August 30th 2008 02:28

Choosing the way to go

As I live out of town on a farm I tend to forget or not be affected by the night time events that occasionally occur in town. Don’t get me wrong, our country town is, on the whole, peaceful and law abiding. But there have been a spate of incidents lately that make me wonder at the psyche of some people. Perhaps it is alcohol and drug induced or boredom or simply high jinks, but all are disturbing in their own way.
Take for example the drag racing. WA State Government TV ads say that these can be stopped with a phone call. But if the phone call is to a main Police centre 150 km away and the receptionist believes it is not important enough to rouse the local policeman – then one is in for a fairly restless night.
One of our ex- residents is doing well in the AFL. So to celebrate his success, his so called mates – instead of taking his example to do something constructive with his life - decided to “celebrate” by going around the town breaking windows at the school canteen, the charity shop and a couple of businesses. This followed an incident after an 18th birthday where others (or some of the same) smashed church windows and Sports Club windows the week before.
It is not as if these people aren’t being assisted in getting employment or live in derelict houses. They don’t even seem to want to hide their “crimes”. A letter in our local paper states: “Break-ins and attempted break-ins are looked upon as ‘opportunistic crimes’ by our local police. … but… these windows and doors have mesh on them and individuals have been caught with crowbars attempting to get in….. This is premeditated. Once again though we seem to applaud individuals in our community –“Locals learn shearing skills”…but a few of those individuals published are related to these crimes. My frustration lies with those individuals commiting these offences and constantly flaunting the law.” And another – referring to the Local shearers story “Take a stroll down the alley way between … and …. Street where the names of some of the participants are “artistically” plastered over resident’s fences”.
So how is the problem to be solved? Is it a more hands-on approach from police – a few bog laps around the town at night to display a presence and a local police number to call if there are problems? (At least our town has a police presence during the day – not like several towns where our present Government has closed the stations.) Is it a need to name and shame continuous offenders even if they are underage? Would that have an effect when, even now, they boast of their antics and thumb their noses at the police because they remain untouchable. Do we ban alcohol usage as occurs in some of your Northern towns – a great success for the towns involved, but the problem drinkers tend to move elsewhere. Setting up programmes to arrange employment help some, but not all. Or perhaps it is now so much part of our culture to “play up’. On some levels we all have laughed off the misdemeanors of our youth, and many have failed to guide their children by their own example.
Yet I manage to have two boys that never steal, get a taxi if they drink too much, never steal time from their boss and can be trusted to work on their own with company cars and company equipment. Andy many others have such children too.
Last week I was having a meal at lunch time in an open air restaurant. At the table next to me was a young couple and a boy of about eight. The boy could not finish the pizza, so his mother asked if they could have a take away box to take it home. When it came, to my surprise she laughingly placed the restaurant china plate in with the pizza in the box and after a while they left. I happened to be leaving at the same time and told the manager want was happening. He was so short staffed, he said, he could not follow them. Perhaps I should have said something to that mother myself (Excuse was I have just had a op. on my foot and wouldn’t have been able to make a quick exit) But perhaps here lies the route of our problems. There are too many people who seem to believe that if you can get away with something, then it is OK. It is there in all our dealings – from avoiding paying some taxes, taking an unneeded sickie to smashing windows. There does not seem to be a lot of rewards for being honest and respecting others. For me, my conscience would make me take that plate back, even if I had been tempted in the first place, but I am concerned that we are producing a society where a clear conscience is not a criteria for happy living any more.
I have practice what I should have said to that mother – “Don’t be surprised when you find your son stealing from your bag or smashing a shop window. You have just taught him that it is cool to steal.” I wish I had spoken out – but I doubt if it would have made a difference. Perhaps that is why the police don’t go out and about at night – they doubt it would make a difference. Are we all just giving up?

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: town life

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Country dog visits the city

August 5th 2008 06:18

Home again

Sometimes we don’t give our dogs the credit they deserve in the way they can adjust to new situations.
When we travelled recently we had no alternative but to take our old dog that had never lived anywhere else than on the farm to the city, to reside in a small backyard of our boy’s home. The four hour trip was amicable enough - happily sitting in a confined space among holiday cases and boxes

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: observations

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Cyclone Coast

July 22nd 2008 01:59

pylons - Onslow

I gently carry a tiny shell,
leaving it on the shore- unbroken

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: observations

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Mining Town's dilema

June 26th 2008 03:45

Mt Whaleback Mine- Newman

Travelling in the north west of Western Australia is a time to reflect on the rural life in relation to Mining towns such as Meekatharra, Port Hedland and Tom Price, to name a few.
Recently there was news that Rio will be receiving a windfall in prices for iron ore, which will no doubt seep down into other companies as well. This will reap the state government an extra billion dollars in tax. People say, why aren’t the companies putting more into the towns, but the question is also why isn’t the government?
I feel the problem is not a lack of money alone, but money and manpower combined. Mines pay a large amount of money to their workers to entice them into remote areas of the state. As a result other workers – teachers, nurses, council workers etc look at their meagre wages and decide they are better off working for the mines – so there are fewer people willing to clean up the streets, teach the children and nurse the sick. Governments refuse to increase the wages for their workers to come to anywhere near other wages so the temptation increases

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: town life

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Federal Budget 2008

May 21st 2008 07:51

I have just been into the ABC website / rural and been reading what Canberra is delivering – or probably more accurately not delivering to rural areas of Australia. I will list just a few – but you may want to read the rest.
I quote “Total spending on agriculture, forestry and fisheries for the next financial year is estimated just under $3 billion.. – a cut of 25% … because the Government was forced to provide more money to two disasters – drought relief and tackling the horse flu.” So that means that when Governments are saying they are helping the regions in drought times what it really means is they are taking out money from development and research programs to fund drought relief. So much for my innocent belief that they really cared and would lend an EXTRA helping hand!
Water: I quote “Rather that choosing to spend money on water saving measures on farms (and in communities) the Government will move to buy back farmer’s water for the environment.” What does this mean? Farmers will not be rewarded for finding ways of maintaining their farms and saving water at the same time, but only rewarded when they give up and leave. Perhaps I am exaggerating, but where is the incentive to fix the leaking pipes and cover the open drains? This also means that Community Water Grants are not being offered. In our town such a grant to help turn 2 bowling greens into carpet greens would have saved almost 4 million litres of water per year. Instead we have more “think tanks” being funded. We KNOW what to do, we just need help doing it

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: farming

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Easter Sunrises and God's Sunsets

March 16th 2008 07:37

A cross over a town

I’m not a great fan of sunrises. For a start I would have to get up really early and I prefer to make the most of that extra ten minutes sleep. I will leave them to my husband who tells me he enjoys them.
I do however get up one day in the year, travel to town and celebrate the sunrise with others for our Easter Day Church Service. There is a quietness to the morning in the Rose Maze - a sense of “oneness” with those who attend. I’m never sure if that is because we have all just been through the mill to get there on time and we are all shivering in the heavy dew - or perhaps we can sense a special unity celebrating Christ’s resurrection - people from all the town’s churches in this service together.
However, I have yet to see a decent sunrise. We have had rain one year, and clouds every other year. The sun comes up and all we get is light. OK Thank God for the light, but we don’t even get silver linings on the clouds

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: observations

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It's for You - Telephonists

March 1st 2008 02:25

Across the miles - communication

When I first went out into the country to work – in the early ‘70’s (OK that gives away my age) the main form of communication was the land line telephone – and, believe it or not, there was still a human (usually female) operator who would make the connections. Coming from the city I was not that familiar with such workings, so I was duly warned by my flatmate to be careful what I said on the phone. While telephonists (the word isn’t even in most dictionaries any more) will swear that they did not listen to people’s conversations, ….. of course they did - be it deliberate or not. Compare it with today - if you are next to someone on the bus who is talking on their mobile, you can’t tell me you don’t half listen!!!! Of course you do! We are all curious human beings after all!
Anyway, back to my story. My flatmate warned me to be careful and told me her story. When she had arrive in the little house we occupied she discovered the previous occupant had been using the bath as a place to store hay – because she had a horse. I won’t try to imagine how that girl kept clean. However…
My friend was discussing the same with a pal in the city on the phone and as a joke said “I’m not sure where I am going to put my horse

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: town life, people, observations

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Country Newspapers

February 11th 2008 07:01

Road Closed - read it in the local Newspaper

What is the main source of information in a country town? It is not the town gossip – despite the characterization of such people - it is the town’s local newspaper. These may be part of a wider network of Community Newspapers that are bought from the local newsagency and come on the usual newsprint and newspaper size. Or, as in the case of our town, it is a fortnightly paper run by volunteers with articles written and edited by volunteers, printed in the local telecentre and folded by volunteers. The costs here are met by local businesses that pay for their advertising. It requires a large degree of dedication from a few people and the co-operation of many organizations who contribute articles and information for future events.
There are, of course many regular items: sports results for all levels of every sport in the town – from bowls to bingo and everything in between, Church notices, CWA, Red Cross, Garden Club and other meeting notices. There are also children’s writings- a different class from school contributing stories for each paper. The Shire uses the paper to get out essential information such as which roads will be closed for repairs, when the fire breaks will be inspected or why the rates are going up again. Achievements of individuals and community groups – whether it is winning a state competition, the school productions, quiz kids or work milestones may make it into the paper.
Juicy gossip – births, marriages or who is having a special milestone are celebrated

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: farming, town life, people, events, observations

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October 2008

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August 2008

2 Posts

July 2008