Saturday 26th October - Greenvale
Another hot one so I again had the aircon on today. Last night was a warm 22.1 and upto 33.1 today. A slight breeze outside where Clive spent most of the day. This aircon is fantastic. After about 30 minutes it has dropped the temperature right down, and with the two fans on it moves the air around nicely. An R & R day today. There are now 3 vans and a 4WD in the park tonight, but we are all spread apart - thank goodness. Did I say that we have to use the sat dish as there is no TV reception. At least it's earning it's keep now. Clive went for a walk into town this morning and also around the park. There and back is less than 1km. On the way he saw the Seniors Hall and outside they had a book exchange. So after that walk he came back and swapped three books. The local is called the 'Three Rivers Hotel' which has a tribute to Stan Alfred Coster. Stan wrote many country and western songs and of these 71 were recorded by the great Slim Dusty. Stan started writing songs at the age of 25, but it wasn't until 1979 be began touring and recording himself. In the years that followed, he went on to record 12 albums and great success, including many awards and an Order of Australian Merit. Greenvale was a town created for mining nickel. The mine was opened in 1974 and closed just under 20 years later. In it's heyday, about 3000 people lived in the town, but now only about 250 do. There are mines in the area that are now worked, hence the population of the town is steady. There is a school, post office and police station. Greenvale also has a Sausage Tree, which is one of four recorded in Australia. Two are in the Townsville Botanical Gardens and the other is in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. This tree is supposedly a drought area a tree and has no known uses. It flowers in Spring and the flowers are burgundy coloured, sweet smelling and short lasting.