Writing about YOUR LEARNING in Term 4

This term we will reflect on learning in a structured way. This means you will write about what you learnt during the week, including:

1. how you participated in class;
2. what you did outside class to practise your English;
3. What you learnt that was most useful to you and why;
4. what you need more help with; and
5. what feedback you would like from your teacher.

I would like you to write at least four times in Term 4 about these aspects of your learning.

You can write these reports in your Learning Journal or on the document 'Structured Writing about learning' and then share them in posts at your Kidblog page.

Here is a sample Learning Journal 'post'.

SAMPLE: writing about my learning this week

Here is the document 'Structured Writing about Learning' to help you keep track of your weekly activities.

Binomials and Trinomials

We're looking at those two and three word phrases that are worth learning - like husband and wife (or man and wife in wedding ceremonies), and sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. (In fact, Rock and Roll is a binomial in itself.) 

Make sure you learn the correct order as well. (You can't say: drugs, rock 'n' roll and sex...)

More examples and a short explanation can be found here. Can you find any other websites with trinomials?

Review of Prepositions following adjectives

Here's a review of prepositions which follow adjectives: as with the first Prepositions Review slideshow, you can test yourself by reading the sentences out loud and choosing a preposition to fill the gap.

Then press Enter to move to the next slide to check your work. Read the sentence again with the correct preposition.

 

Practice with prepositions part 2 from Jill Koppel

Term 3 topic: Being Connected

This term we will connect with each other for learning outside of class hours via SMS or WeChat (on internet connected mobile phone or tablet) or email, and with other classes via our Kidblog.

Connecting via SMS text message or WeChat and email

If you have an internet ready mobile or an ipad/ tablet, please download WeChat so I can add you to our Group chat.

I will post no more than one or two chat items each week and I look forward to your participation in the chats. OR you can reply to my text messages about class work.

I would like you to let me know when you have received and read my email (no more than one per week.)

Connecting on our ESL3 at CNLC Kidblog

I would like you to post at least three times at Kidblog. You can do this anywhere as long as you remember your Username and your simple password because our Kidblog is closed at the moment.

Please write the following posts:

1. Some instructions for using a mobile phone feature, like how to delete text messages or how to put a photo on your Wallpaper.
2. A news story from a local newspaper or Council newsletter - write main ideas and give your opinion about it
3. A new technology or skill that you have learned to use recently that helps you get connected either for learning (WeChat / Kidblog) or for another part of your life, like lodging your Centrelink form or filling out a form online to apply for something.

Please reply to at least 3 blog posts by other students to:

• give them feedback on their work, and 
• give your opinion about the subject.

Here is the news story about volunteering in the Companion Animal Support Program. You can write a post about this program - main ideas and what you think about it. We will practice some job interviews for this position too.

From the City of Yarra August Newsletter

Do you need help with starting to use Kidblog?

Look at the How-to post at Kidblog presentation here.

Have you got an iphone or iPad?

You can download the Kidblog app at the iTunes App store on your mobile iphone or iPad. You will find this very easy to use to access and use the Students' kidblog.

Term 3, Weeks 5 to 10 - Interviews

Over the next few weeks, we will listen to interviews and think about how to answer some interview questions.

Here at VILC is a video interview with an Ambulance officer who describes how she copes with night shift work. You'll have to log in to VILC with Username: 500vilcst and our password for 2014 (see noticeboard in the computer room for that).

There are tasks to complete after listening to the video. You can also download the video to listen again.

Find more information about being an Ambulance paramedic here and here at ACE jobs.

What are some of the challenges of being an Ambo?

Think about the job duties (tasks) and the working conditions (the patients and the stresses).

Why do Ambos vehicles have writing all over the windows?!

Have you noticed that many ambulances have writing on their windows? Here is the story of the industrial dispute (fight) they are having with their employer (the Victorian government).

Prepare to be interviewed for a volunteer job

We are going to practice answering some common interview questions in relation to some volunteer jobs.

The position of 'Walk with me' has gone now but there are other positions available at the website 'Go Volunteer' where you can locate suitable volunteering jobs that meet your needs and requirements.

Prepare and practice some answers to the following questions

1. Can you tell us something about yourself?
2. Why are you applying for this position?
3. Which of the jobs are you most interested in? Why?
4. What special qualities or skills can you bring to this position?
5. What is your availability?

Thanks to Business English magazine for this image.

Term 3, Weeks 1 - 4: Giving instructions - making pastry

During the next few weeks you are going to prepare two presentations that instruct someone (or a group of people) in how to complete a task. Some examples of tasks are:

• preparing a dish
• learning an exercise or dance
• operating a machine or device (your mobile phone, an office machine...)

On the first day, Jill demonstrated how to make pastry and prepare to bake a Tart. Here is the Recipe.

Term 3: Being Connected - our Learning Places

Welcome to Term 3 in ESL3

It's awhile since I posted here at the Class Blog so it's a good time to review our Learning Places on the internet to get ready for our term Topic: Being Connected.

Our Learning Places

ESL Three Class Blog

• is a starting point for all other places (see the links to those places in the Sidebar on the Right?)
• explains whole term activities
• is for catching up on missed work and doing extra work
• will direct readers to the latest posts in our Class Record
• is PUBLIC

Are you having trouble locating this blog by searching for: ESL3 at CNLC? Then you can type the QUICK link into the Address Bar in your browser: bit.ly/eslthree 

Term 1 / Week 6 - 9 Turn your ideas into a readable story

We have only a few weeks of term left, and much of our class time will be spent on doing assessment tasks. That's because the teachers need to see how your work has improved during the term.

It feels like the term has gone incredibly quickly. In particular, the unit called Write Narrative is quite demanding. You will complete two narratives over these weeks.

Is this diagram of the narrative structure better than the table in our first post?

Think about these tips for successfully completing your narrative story:

• is your story interesting to the readers? - try to relive it and paint a picture of every detail that gives the reader a sense of place and time - the setting. Who was there? What are the relationships between the people and how were they feeling before and during the Complication (key event or incident)? 
• your plan might be just a list of words in the order of the events in the story - this will help you decide if your idea is BIG enough (even if the event is little, eg. losing a ring and then finding it two months later - important, lost before, nearly got stuck in an accident, missing it every day, about to buy another one, then finding it just before vacuuming it away accidentally)
• can you tell your story to someone before writing it? What is that person's feedback? Did they suggest any changes?
• use dictionary and any other resources to help broaden your vocabulary - classmates, teacher, bilingual dictionary, etc
• look at the correction codes that your teacher provides on your draft and if you don't know how to improve some of your sentences, ask others for ideas.

Idiom of the Day

put flesh on (the bones of) something

to add more detail to something in order to make it more interesting or easier to understand 

Which of the above dot points is asking you to put flesh on the bones (of your writing)?

Ingredients of a good story: some meat left on the bones to engage the reader!

Here is an example from Kingsley's story about Gordo:

It was a cold day on 28th August, 2003. There were big white waves at the sea and the wind was strong. We were walking along the beach at Warrnambool when I saw something lying on the beach. Then I ran quickly to have a look at it.

Some of your writing lacks meat:

Did he give you any details? - No, he just gave me the bare bones of the story....

The other unit: Read narratives

By now, I hope you practice some strategies for reading texts - other than just trying to understand every word. Sometimes this just doesn't work! This simple method won't help you with idioms and sometimes you just don't have the time to understand and learn the meaning of every word.

It's much quicker and more efficient to try to understand the word from its context in the whole sentence and the other sentences before and after it.

Here are some reading strategies from the ESL3 Class Record Slide 21 that should help you with the reading tasks.

1. Scan heading/ title, photo, photo caption, 1st paragraph, last paragraph for main ideas;
2. Underline new words as you read through the first time (try to get main idea of each sentence without stopping to look in dictionary);
3. Work out meaning of a new word from its context in the sentence (what is the subject? what is the verb? who is doing what?); and
4. Look up only those new words that you really need to understand for the whole story.

Learning and Independent learning unit

Hopefully you can show that you are filing your work in an organised way in your folder (or equivalent system) so you'll need to bring this to class so I can see it.

Independent learning tasks are recorded in our Independent Learning Record so make sure to hand your Journal to me for checking. Have your independent tasks been noted in the Learning Record? Please check that too and let me know if I've missed any of your efforts there.

All this extra learning work outside class should pay off! The more you practice, the more you learn!

Term 1 / Week 3 - 5: Plan and write a narrative - what are the narrative stages?

Over the next few weeks, we will read and listen to a range of narrative stories. We will plan and write our own stories following the narrative stages. Here they are.

Abstract	lets the reader know that a story is about to be told and tells why it will be told
Orientation	describes where and when the events took place, and if other people were there too
Complication	describes what happened
Evaluation	describes how the main character coped with the problem/ situation
Resolution	describes how the situation was resolved (sorted out)
Coda	tells why the story was worth sharing with us

As you listen to the Emperor's New Clothes, think about which parts of the story fit in each stage.



The Emperor's New Clothes was first published in 1837 by Hans Christian Andersen for children. It was based on an earlier Spanish story from medieval times.

Consider the following questions about the story

• Why don't the Emperor's advisers tell him the truth about his new suit of clothes?
• Why do the people in the village pretend that they can see the Emperor's clothes?
• Why does it take a child to point out what all the adults can see?
• What lessons can children learn from this story?

Welcome to ESL 3 Class blog in 2014

Welcome to our Class blog where we will post work and links to the internet each week.

This will help you revise what you did in class OR catch up work you missed if you were away OR do extra work for independent learning away from class.

Our places on the Internet

We will use a Class Record to keep a record of new language learnt in class. You can visit this Google Presentation any time and anywhere!



We had a similar Google Presentation in 2012 but this one will be more accessible - you can view it as long as you remember how to find the Class Blog.

Your Independent Learning Record in 2014

We kept track of your Independent Learning in 2013 with a Google document. This was successful because it is a list of all independent learning topics that students choose to write about in the Learning Journal or in Kidblog. Here is a link to the new document in 2014 and the link will always be available for you to access in the right Sidebar of this Class blog.

Our Kidblog

We will continue the wonderfully successful ESL3 at CNLC Kidblog in 2014. It is open to the public to view but you will need to join up to write posts.

You can post your Independent Learning here INSTEAD of in your Learning Journal. Can you see how many visitors have viewed our Kidblog?

Screenshot taken 2 February 2014

CNLCTalks Students' wiki

Last but not least, is our learning place for the whole of CNLC, here: CNLCTalks wiki.

The HOME page is open to view but you'll have to sign in to view Our Photos and Slideshows Page (do you remember the username and password to sign IN?) and ESL3 Pages.

Grammar corner - extend yourself

Reported Questions:

We practised reporting questions that were asked earlier. Look at our Class Record, Slide 3 for examples.

Here is a great lesson on Reported Questions at BBC Learning English: it includes a conversation and some worksheets.

Term 4 / Week 5 - 6: Write a report

Some important Language features

Using Past continuous to describe what was happening

Have a look at the video below. Can you describe what was happening as the young woman walked past?


 

Noun groups


Here is a presentation (slideshow) reviewing the parts of a noun group.

 

Noun Groups from James Buchanan

Reporting verbs

Try to use the following verbs instead of 'say' (but choose the correct one for each occasion):

• advise
• state
• claim
• suggest
• maintain
• insist

Term 4 / Week 2 - 4: Blogging your Learning Projects

Some students have typed up their Learning Projects on Active Citizens in Kidblog and they are looking great. In the screenshot below you can see who has finished (or almost finished) blogging their reports.

Screenshot taken on 31 October of our Blog posts in Kidblog

 To view the blog posts, click the Page link on the right sidebar to go to Kidblog and then log in.

Can you see how many Comments there are on each post? if there's only one Comment, then it is likely to be Jill's!

Reading other people's posts

When you read a blog post, it's polite to reply - try to write something acknowledging that person's work. You can thank them or, even better, ask a question or make a comment.

Looking for replies to your posts

Check for any replies - if someone asked a question, try to answer it. For example, I asked Jason a question about his post on the Moon Cake Festival, so I'm still hoping that you can answer that, Jason....

ABC News in 90 seconds - Extend yourself

The other day I had trouble searching for this program. I think I searched for 30 October instead of 29 October - I got a bit ahead of myself.

So here is the link to the video and here is the worksheet with the questions.

Locating the ABC News in 90 Seconds for a particular day: I searched for 'abcnews in 90 seconds 29 october' and found it without any problems!!!!!!!

 

Did you miss ..... in Weeks 1 to 4?

• Here is a very important worksheet practising Passive Voice (complete the sentences before checking the answers!) - put the Active sentence into passive by removing the Subject and making the Object the New Subject- in simple present, simple past and present perfect tenses.
• In Week 2, we also practised writing passive sentences with an Agent, using 'with' or 'by' in this worksheet and here are the answers.
• And in Week 3, we practised using the Past Perfect tense (the past before the past) with past tense in this worksheet (complete the sentences before checking the answers!).

Term 4 / Week 1: Breaking news. Making news. Locating news.

Note: this week Jill is still working with ONE arm - so we will keep this post brief.

Here is the News

 

Police and protestors clash at East West Link drill site in Carlton

Listen to this radio report by reporter Gus Goswell, from outside CNLC. We will reconstruct sentences from a shorter report which we read in the Wednesday class.

Wednesday people will share their learnings and take a leadership role in building sentences. See the Worksheet: Writing workshop - Report: 'Protestors clash with police at East West Link drilling site'.

• Do you want to read the news report?? Just Google the title (headline):  Protestors clash with police at East West Link drilling site and you will locate the full written report.

Term 3 / Week 7: Learning Project: Active citizenship

We chose the theme of 'active citizenship' for this term at CNLC largely because there is a Federal election in September and some students will be actively exercising their right (and responsibility) to vote for politicians and political parties to represent us in the two Houses of Parliament: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Being a citizen is not just about getting Citizenship

Let's review some of the examples of active citizenship that we discussed a few weeks ago. As you can see in the photo below, we came up with a wide range of ways we can be active citizens in our community. And there was one more point which we added after this photo was taken - we called it 'doing an act of honesty' or doing the 'right thing' (like, returning a wallet found on the street to its rightful owner - with all the money still in it!)

Some of the ways we can be active citizens - 7 August, 2013

So if you're going to vote in the Federal election, you should take this responsibility seriously. (Heaven knows, there are many people who don't!)

It's a good idea to make sure that:

1. you know who you want to vote for; and
2. you vote correctly (formally) so that you're vote counts.

Our Learning Project - write a report about an active citizen

This is an opportunity to find out information about a well-known person who has contributed something special to public life in Australia. Hopefully, you will find more than one source of information and locate a photo of the person to include in your report.

An important part of this project is sharing your work with other students in class. You can use a few Powerpoint slides to help you tell their story.

A great place to start is the Gallery of Australian Biographies. Here you can find information about people such as:

• Waleed Aly
• Trish Broadbridge
• Tan Le (a TV program has been made about her)
• Michael Long
• Jimmy Pham
• Mandaway Yunupingu
• Fred Hollows

You may complete your plan on the worksheet provided and write your full report in your Journal or as a blog post in kidblog.

Results of our Two Party Preferred Count

You can view our short report and a few photos from last week at Sue Phan's blog post (you'll need to log in to view it) and watch the video explaining how the votes are counted here.

Did you miss.... in Week 7?

• This week we listened to a news report Garden in the Clouds from BBC Learning English Words in the News
• Here is the worksheet: Reported Speech Explanations and Practice for you to print and complete. When you are finished you can check your answers - on pages 3 and 4. 

Writing for Web 2 with Kidblog

This week we will continue to explore the kidblog we are using for students' writing and internet learning.

If you attended computer class last week, you'll remember that we just got started with Adding a New post. No-one finished the post - this is what the work looks like for the teacher.

After you log in, don't forget to TAB to your Blog to see your unfinished Draft. In Edit view, can you also see how many words you have written? This is the Word Count.

When you have finished your Draft, select Submit for Review. Teacher will then check it and Publish.

While you are waiting for that to happen, you could Tab to All Blogs and read the ones that are published. Please Comment on one of the blog posts there.

Again, your Comment will go to the teacher for Moderation before Publishing. Yes! Teacher has the responsibility to ensure that all posts AND comments are good enough for all the other students to read.

Happy blogging!

Have you got an iphone or iPad?

You can download the Kidblog app at the iTunes App store on your mobile iphone or iPad. You will find this very easy to use to access and use the Students' kidblog.

Blogging with Kidblog: Add new post

It's time to start using Kidblog to share your writing with others in the class. Over the next few weeks we will explore the features of Kidblog, such as:

• drafting a new post
• submitting it to the teacher for review
• publishing your post for others to read
• reading other people's posts
• commenting (giving feedback) on other people's posts
• replying to comments made by others on your posts
• adding photos and weblinks to your posts
• and more...! 

Play the Presentation below if you are just starting out or if you have forgotten how to log in and add a new post.

Research, draft and format a Powerpoint slide with photo and caption

This is our second learning activity with Powerpoint. I really enjoyed our Graffiti presentation - so here is the Kakadu presentation.

Anyone who hasn't finished yet is welcome to finish and I can add your slide too, anytime.

What skills did we use?

I would like you to think about your learning in terms of technology (T) and research/ language (R / L) skills. Which of these 9 tasks are T, R or L???

1. After going to the internet, we explored and then selected an image from a Google Album.
2. Then we downloaded the image to our folders using Windows Explorer.
3. In Powerpoint, we inserted a New Slide (one with Title, Caption and Photo).
4. We inserted the photo and typed the title.
5. We 'googled' the animal, plant or bird using the Google Search tool
6. We located a useful website that had some information about the subject. I asked for some information about where it is found (location and habitat), some of its habits, eg what it likes to eat and if it is common or rare.
7. We read the information and wrote notes (some of us just pasted sentences directly into the slide, didn't we?) 
8. We typed the text and checked the spelling, grammar and punctuation.
9. Finally we changed the size of the text so that the text and photo filled the slide (formatted the text) and saved the presentation to our folder and to Jill's folder.

What was the source of the information you used?

We forgot to write the name and location of the source information on each slide. You can easily do this by copying the web address of the website and pasting it in to the slide. We will definitely do this next time: it's polite and important when doing research about a topic.

Well done, everyone. Once again, I really enjoyed viewing all your work together.

Term 3 / Week 5 - 6: Write a short report

It's time to practice writing a short report of an event that occurred recently or something that you viewed on TV. You can view it several times to collect the details that are important to the report.
Use this template for writing a News Report to write notes about:

• the background to the event
• when and where the event took place
• who was involved
• what the result was

Then organise your ideas by writing the information in sentences in the three paragraphs below.

Here is a short video news report which we can write up as a report. And here is a humpback whale.

Humpback whale from wikipedia

You might also need to use the following words: 'yacht' and 'Moreton Bay'.

Here is a possible News report (answer sheet) about the experience with the Humpback whale.

Dictation: New citizens will vote for the first time

This dictation is a little different to others we have done this year. Listen to the sentences and try to write as much as you remember. But this time, you don't have to write exactly what you hear as long as the meaning is similar. The main thing is that your sentences are grammatically correct and they make sense - the reader can understand the meaning.

Did you miss.... in Week 5 and 6? 

• Here is the News item we read last Friday: Small town a new horizon for 19 citizens. The last two pages have some possible answers - you can write different sentences - just check spelling, grammar and punctuation are correct. Thanks to Jane Lucas for adapting the text and developing the reading tasks.
• Practice writing notes for work - the first page of this worksheet has space for you to summarise the notes using dot points - the second page has the ANSWERS. Thanks to Sophie for her answers.
• The second news report is: Man impaled through head on Sydney construction site from Yahoo CH 7 news service. You can use the above Write a News Report template to help you plan, organise and write your report.
• Here is the worksheet: Reported statements with a change of tense for you to print and complete. When you are finished you can check your answers - on pages 3 and 4.

Election '13 - Counting your vote video and quiz

This is what kids do in school! This video introduces the different voting systems, including preferential voting. Listen and test yourself with the quiz afterwards.

Term 3 / Week 4 - Read the News: decode the headlines

Here is a presentation with a slide for each headline to decode (make sense of it) and to correct the English language. This will help you to quickly decide what the story is about.

Follow the instructions for each slide. You can click on the links to the source (the story as published on the internet) and to some word definitions using the Cambridge online dictionary.

Your challenge

Find a headline and decode it. Explain it to the class. We will add these to the presentation throughout the semester.

Did you miss....?  Work in Week 4

• Reported Speech: Here is the link to Reported Speech with a change of tense - from Walker, Unit, 78 
• Reported Speech: read the news story - New Australian citizens prepare to vote for the first time and answer the 4 questions on the last page using your own words to make sentences with indirect speech. 
• Practice writing notes for work - the first page of this worksheet has space for you to summarise the notes using dot points - the second page has the ANSWERS.

Term 3 / Week 3: Good evening, here is the news....

This term we will develop our reading skills with the News - we'll also listen to the News and write about the News. The language of the News is often very difficult: the writers pack a lot of words into each sentence using big noun groups and the readers often speak very quickly!

News on the internet

It's good to listen the news on the internet because you can pause any time to think about what you heard and you can play it again.

On some news websites you can read the captions at the same time as listen to the words - this is a brilliant way to improve your language skills.

Real news: useful websites

• News in 90 Seconds - you can read the transcript as you listen to this version of ABC News 24.
• If you have a Yahoo email account, the Yahoo 7 News is right there whenever you sign out. Click on a news item and you'll usually also see a video of News highlights at the end of the text.

•  If you have a Gmail account, you have probably noticed Google News - this is very easy to find, just 'Google' it.

What other news sites do you like? Let us know so we can add them here.

Language websites with 'news'

• VILC - new News is put here every two weeks - listen then click on the book icon to read the text too. Test yourself with the exercises. Challenge yourself with the Intermediate Level news. Listen to the old news too. Remember our username is 500vilcst and our Password in 2013 is in on the noticeboard in the CNLC Computer room (it's only for students and teachers of CNLC but you can sign in at home too).
•  VOA (Voice of America) Learning English has real news stories spoken slower than usual and you can read the captions at the same time. Scroll down the page to find news items.
• ELLLO English learning website also has news items but these are not real. 
• Simple English news has short stories which you can listen to and read at the same time. Choose a category of news on the right and select an item. Careful - don't click any advertisements! Can you see all the advertisements circled in the screenshot below: 

 

• BBC English has Words in the News - this features a news story each day with help with vocabulary and exercises you can do by yourself. It's great - try the story 'Sharkproof Divers' from Australia.

What other language websites feature 'news'? Let us know so we can add them here.

 

And just for fun: what is a blooper?

Have a look at this video: Best News Bloopers March 2013 and work out what a blooper is (Skip the Ad as soon as you can).

Independent learning

Choose a news item on your favourite website and write about it in your Independent learning journal: explain the who? what? when? where? and then describe what you learnt.

 

Did you miss....?  Work in Week 3

• Reported Speech: here is the link to the Worksheet: She said that / He told me that - from Murphy, Unit 49 
• Sing along to the song Waltzing Matilda (Queensland version).

Touring the Top End

Our camping and touring the Top End of the Northern Territory is nearly finished. We have stayed in several national parks for two or three nights at a time so that we don't have to set up camp too frequently. Putting up the tent and then finally packing everything back in the car are the two time consuming tasks.

Setting up is a lot quicker if you don't need the fly on the tent

At Katherine Gorge and Edith Falls (both in Nitmiluk National Park) we spent time walking to spots on the river to have a swim. The weather is so warm that you don't need a towel when you get out of the water. In fact, it's best to stay wet for the walk back to camp to keep cool in the hot sun.

Sweet water Pool above Edith falls

In Kakadu National Park we did the same at a place called Gunlom where we could climb to the top of the waterfall and swim in numerous pools at the top as well as the pool at the bottom.

But in the north of Kakadu, you are not allowed to swim in the rivers at all - it's crocodile country. So we took a cruise in a flat bottom boat to view the crocs and spot other wildlife, mainly birds that you don't see in the south of Australia.

We also paid for a day tour in Arnhem land - this is Aboriginal country and you have to apply for a permit to go there and usually pay for a guide there to show you around. Iseriah was our guide and he showed us around a hill where there are secret rock art sites and even a burial site (we saw human remains which are kept secret so that people don't steal them).

Iseriah explains the body painting for dancing

Have you googled any of the new words that I used in the previous post? I hope you can tell me some information about places or animals I mentioned when I return!

Finally, what does this sign mean? Can you correct the English?

Eight days' driving to Mataranka in the Northern Territory

Well, it's not always that long, but we decided to take the route through western New South Wales and Queensland.

Day 2 - at Griffith, we bought oranges and broccoli from a Sicilian roadside merchant who arrived in Moonee Ponds in 1964. Along the roadside, we started noticing lots of white litter which turned out to be balls of cotton- for 100 kms perhaps.

We spotted emus frequently but whenever we pulled over to take a photo, they would move off quite quickly.

Day 3: Cobar to Charleville (619kms) Goats and more goats

Back o' Bourke - there are dead roos (red and greys) at least every half a kilometre. In town, whistling kites circling overhead. Street trees: ficus and boabs along with other eucalypts.

At the Port of Bourke the river banks are high and steep - with levy banks beyond them - an indication of regular if infrequent huge floods though houses have been built right near the banks.

In Charleville the sulphur smell is obvious when you turn a tap on - the sign on the bench in the motel room assured us that the water is fine to drink.

Day 4: Charleville to Longreach (515 kms) No place for Old roos

The road trains are 50 metres long with as many as 3 trailers. I noticed several stock transports actually carrying goats! Maybe all those goats we saw on the road here were not feral! 

The rest of the vehicles are caravans and camper vans pulled by Grey Nomads touring the country. 

We didn't see inside the Workers' Heritage centre at Barcaldine but the timber sculpture over the Tree of Knowledge was impressive and the heritage streetscape of old hotels was well preserved.

Day 5: Longreach to Cloncurry (545kms)- Brolgas in the desert

Every town around here (Longreach, Charleville and Winton) claims the birth of Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Airways). But Winton owns the famous song, Waltzing Matilda. Here is a great 'Queensland' version of Waltzing Matilda on Youtube. And here are the words to the song (the lyrics).

The landscape is empty of stock and even the roo carcasses are fewer here too.

Whilst we ate a sandwich prepared on the tailgate at a roadside servo called Kynuna we were entertained by Apostlebirds scrounging Crumbs. I tried to ignore the cattle in the road train shuffling around impatiently and occasionally moo-ing sadly. Then as we accelerated out on to the highway we watched a pair of brolgas wandering along in the gravel. Where's the water? 

Day 6: Cloncurry to Camooweal

This country is starting to look hot, even when it's not- red anthills, ghost gums, broad sandy riverbeds and whistling kites overhead.

Day 7  - From rural outback Queensland to the Northern Territory via the Barkly Tablelands and the Stuart highways.

There was a whole lot of nothing between Camooweal, Barkly homestead and the Stuart highway.

The days are getting longer- this is what we observed at 6 pm whilst preparing dinner outside our rustic motel room at Renner. However, the mozzies drove us inside at dusk.

Days 8 and 9 - Mataranka Hot Springs - delightfully warm, mild weather - Time to stretch and relax!

The whole springs area has been cleverly arranged (back in 1999) so that everyone steps into the clear blue water of the Little Roper River at one point and floats down on the current to another entry about 70 metres downstream and then you all walk back to the start and go in again, as often as you like. This was so pleasant and relaxing that we decided to spend the next day doing the same, to stretch our sore back muscles from the constant and long days spent driving.