Planting Trees

We started today with a nice lay-in, as we didn’t have to meet Joe and the bus until 1145 a.m. Megan and I woke up pretty leisurely and then a few of us headed into town to get stamps at the post office. Good news: most of my postcards are in the mail and should arrive within a week (hopefully!).

Joe met us in the motel parking lot just before noon and we headed off for Gnowangerup. It is a bit of a hike from Katanning, but the countryside offers such a pleasant backdrop for traveling that I don’t mind the bus rides. Once there, we were met by a large contingency of elders, community members and conservation workers at the local swimming pool. While this may sound like a strange place to do conservation work, the pool was actually the second pool in the whole state and was fed by natural springs that have been flowing in Gnowangerup for hundreds of years. According to one of the community members, the springs produce 20 gallons of water every 4 seconds and have been doing so for years.

Western Australia was once covered in bushland, but as it was settled, trees were cleared away to make room for pastures and fields. After more than a hundred years of this, though, this clearing has taken its toll on the land as the lack of trees has led to salinization of the earth. Therefore, in the past few decades efforts have turned from deforestation to reforestation. We contributed to this effort by planting trees on one plot of land at the swimming pool site, helping to reforest and care for a sacred Noongar and important community site.

After we planted trees, we had a delicious lunch that of course included sausages, but had a wider spread, as well, including fruits and veggies. Having been so overwhelmed with lunches of salty meat and mayonnaise-y salads, our plates were heaped with green salads and fresh fruit.

Our day was pretty relaxed, though, so after only a few hours of work and lunch, we returned to Katanning and were able to explore the town a little bit. Danielle, Leighann and I found a really cool store that had a hodge-podge of cultural artifacts from around the world. As I was speaking with the owner, he said “Katanning has such a mix of cultures, so I wanted me store to have a little of everything too!” Overall, very interesting to explore.

We ate dinner again at our motel’s restaurant, and fortunately the meal was a lot better than last time! Ellen’s husband also arranged for us to have a cake to celebrate her birthday, which was a great surprise for her! Overall, it was a more relaxed, but still very nice day.