Hello Grade 3 and especially Luca,
Flat Luca has arrived safely in Tasmania today. We have really been looking forward to being a host and Flat Luca is sitting beside me as I type this message. Tasmania is a State and we are an island off the bottom of Australia. Some people think Tasmania is a different country because we are separated from the mainland by Bass Strait and sometimes, when people are drawing maps of Australia they forget to include Tasmania! Tasmania is known as the Apple Isle, not just because it is sort of the shape of an apple – we used to grow a lot of apples to export to mainland Australia and the rest of the world. This is no longer possible because other countries can grow them cheaper, so our major businesses are now mining, agriculture and tourism.
It is Spring, the flowers are starting to bloom and we had a lovely warm day; it was 24 degrees Celsius.Tomorrow is going to be warm as well, I hope Flat Luca keeps cool because he is going to visit South Arm Primary School with my son Conor who is in Grade 5 – he is 11 years old. Next year will be Conor’s last year at Primary School, then he will go to High School for four years and College for two years.
South Arm is a small seaside community approximately 40 kilometres from Hobart, which is the capital of Tasmania. The population of Tasmania is just over 510,000, so it is not very crowded at all. I think there are around 120 children who go to South Arm Primary and because South Arm only has 576 people living there, some of the children come from the surrounding areas of Sandford (where we live) which has 1902 people and Opossum Bay which has 328 people.
Grade 5 and their teacher, Ms Cormack will probably send a message to tell you all about their school.
Hope you are all well and learning lots about Australia.
Kind regards
Eileen Eaton
SEPTEMBER 22nd, 2014:
SEPTEMBER 23RD, 2014:
Flat Luca had a good time on the play equipment, including the swings and slide.
This is a picture of our school from the air, it was taken a few years ago because we now have a new library and a new building for the Kinder class.
Last weekend, our parents worked hard around the grounds doing lots of work. We have a very good sense of community and everyone pitches in to make our school the best it possibly can be.
This is Flat Luca enjoying himself on the glass pictures out the front of the school office. The shells come form the beach really close to our school, as do the pebbles. The orange glass around him is a picture of an octopus. There is also a whale next to the octopus and on the left is a penguin.
These pictures show how we are surrounded by beaches.
This is Flat Luca standing next to the penguin. It is an Emperor Penguin and is found in Antarctica – there is nothing between us and Antarctica which means it gets pretty cold in Winter. But it only snows on Mount Wellington, which is in Hobart. Even then, it only snows a few times a year – sometimes, not at all.
This is Flat Luca next to our school logo on one of our students t-shirts. Our school logo is the Iron Pot – it’s a lighthouse at the mouth of the River Derwent with a yacht sailing past it.
The River Derwent is the deepest sheltered harbour in the southern hemisphere. There is a bridge over the river called the Tasman Bridge (after Abel Tasman who discovered Tasmania). The bridge was hit by a ship in 1975 and the middle part of it collapsed. It was rebuilt and now, when a big ship is going under it, all the traffic is stopped. This plaque shows what the bridge looked like till it was rebuilt in 1977.
SEPTEMBER 22nd, 2014:
Hello Grade 3
Flat Luca has arrived safely in our Grade 4/5 class at South Arm Primary in Hobart Tasmania.
We are looking forward to doing some fun things with him over the next few days before our school holidays.
We have attached a photo of our class
Best wishes from Banksia (our class name).
Felicity Cormack
Grade 4/5 Teacher
South Arm Primary School
Hello Luca and Grade 3,
Today Flat Luca went to South Arm Primary School to spend the day with Grade 5. This is Flat Luca hiding in the native grasses in the playground.
Thank you very much for sending Flat Luca to us, we will take many more photos for you – from Conor.
Tomorrow, we will show you around our farm and pets.
Kind regards
Eileen Eaton
SEPTEMBER 24TH
Hello,
Today it was raining so instead of working around the farm, Flat Luca came to work with me. I work with the Australian Government, so Flat Luca got to spend lots of time talking (and listening) on the phone to people all around Australia. This is Flat Luca on the phone to Queensland.
We read lots of documents and filled in lots of information
Tonight Flat Luca was introduced to our dog Bonnie, who quickly took him for a ride.
Flat Luca also went down to the cherry orchard to see where the possums might be getting in. Possums are nocturnal marsupials who love to eat absolutely anything. They really like eating all the buds and leaves off the cherry trees which means we don’t get any cherries. Bonnie the dog loves to chase possums, so we took her and Flat Luca down to the orchard when it was dark.
Possums look cute and cuddly, but they do lots of damage to crops.
Flat Luca may get to meet the chooks tomorrow!
Kind regards
Eileen
September 25th
Hello Grade 3,
Flat Luca had a lovely day today – he spent more time with the Banksia class at South Arm Primary, watching them work. Tomorrow they have their school swimming carnival and Flat Luca will need to be very careful not to get wet! Banksia class have put together a lovely book full of information and wonderful pictures which we will send you. Flat Luca had a good time cuddling Bonnie the dog (they are really good friends).
This is our front yard. Flat Luca is on the balcony of our house and in the distance you can see Betsey Island. The entrance to the River Derwent is to the right, every ship coming into Hobart goes around the back of Betsey Island. Every Boxing Day there is a yacht race which goes from Sydney to Hobart and we can watch the yachts as they come across Storm Bay and into Hobart.
Flat Luca also had a good time with Conor on his motorbike.
Hello Grade 3,
Hooray! It’s Friday and the beginning of school holidays. We have the next two weeks off school and the weather is looking great. We have a cool climate compared to the rest of Australia, so we have a mild Summer and a cold Winter. This means we are always planning our activities around the weather and when we have visitors, we always hope the weather is nice so they can get around and enjoy our lovely State. When people visit Tassie they like our clean air, bushwalking, clean water and our natural environment. Although the water is cold, we also have lots of surf beaches and our local beaches are very unpopulated – there are very few people around.
We have Cadbury’s chocolate factory which is always a popular attraction for children – you used to be able to do a tour around the whole factory as they were making chocolate. Any children used to fill their pockets with samples and usually couldn’t eat any more chocolate by the time they left! Unfortunately, due to health regulations you can’t access the factory any more but they still have other tours and you can sample the chocolates (and also go to the factory shop to buy chocolate in bulk!) Tassie is well known for really good, fresh food - there are lots of gourmet places to eat and we have an approach to food called ‘paddock to plate’ – this means that most of the food is grown locally and cooked by chefs who know the farmers - only the freshest ingredients are used and the food isn’t transported very far. Many farmers (like us) have roadside stalls, so you can buy the freshest fruit as you drive around – over Christmas we sell cherries, garlic, Silvanberries, Tayberries and Youngberries – as well as jam made from all these fruits.
Today Flat Luca helped get the tractor out of the shed so we can get ready to do some work around the farm.
Then he helped Rory feed the ‘chooks’. We have over 20 hens and 3 roosters.
This is the chook pen where some of the hens sleep at night and lay their eggs.
Flat Luca didn’t go to the Swimming Carnival today, but he did help us to start cleaning the pool in our backyard so we can go swimming on the weekend.
Kind regards
Eileen
Hooray! It’s the weekend and that means we have lots of work to do. In Hobart, we go shopping at the Salamanca Markets which have lots of Tasmanian made goods and great food.
This morning, Flat Luca helped make bread rolls for lunch. 
We have cottages where people come to stay, so today when we had Guests arriving Flat Luca helped make bread and collect some more blue eggs for them to enjoy. 
Tourism is a big industry in Tassie. We have people from all over the World come to stay; Poland, England, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and of course, other States in Australia. Have a look inside atwww.catherinelodge.com.au
After we welcomed our Guests (they came from New South Wales), Flat Luca helped around the farm:
Flat Luca hid in amongst the garlic – this is Tassie Purple Garlic. The garlic grows underneath the green stem and it has purple streaks. I think Flat Luca was playing hide and seek with Bonnie the dog, you can see her looking for him..
Flat Luca sat amongst the blossoms on the cherry trees. Tassie exports cherries to over 20 countries, including Asia, Middle East and Europe. We don’t export the cherries from our farm, we only sell them locally. We don’t have many pests in Tassie because we are an island and have been protected from pests entering our countryside. This means we have to have strict quarantine controls, you cannot bring fruit, vegetables, meat or fish into Tassie when you fly or catch the boat. At the airport there are cute dogs which sniff your bags to see if you have any fruit to declare.
Australia is a dry continent and even though Tassie has a cooler climate, it is still quite dry in some areas – especially where we live. In Sandford we have:
| Wet days: | 173 |
| Dry days: | 193 |
| Daily average: | 1.5 mm |
| Total rainfall: | 541.9 mm |
This means that we need to have dams to water the cherry trees, berries and other crops.
This is Bonnie the dog having her morning swim – she has only had one bath in her life (she’s 10). She is a bit smelly!
Kind regards
Eileen
Hello Grade 3 and Luca,
Flat Luca has left Tassie and is on his way back to Canada! Hopefully he won’t get wet because it has been raining all day long.
One last treat for Flat Luca was to attend a Country Women’s Association meeting – this is known as the CWA. The CWA exists to ‘improve the conditions for women and children and make life better for families, especially those living in rural and remote Australia’. In South Arm we had a Branch for many years, unfortunately as members got older there were less young women to take their place – until now. This is Flat Luca at the first meeting.
We have really enjoyed hosting Flat Luca, we will miss him but we know that you will enjoy having him back and some of the things Conor’s class have sent with him.
Kind regards
Eileen
HOW EXCITING.... FLAT LUCA ARRIVED BACK WITH SOME GREAT SOUVENIRS. THANKS TO SOUTH ARM PRIMARY SCHOOL FOR THE GREAT BOOK. HERE ARE SOME PICTURES OF FLAT LUCA'S RETURN.
HOW EXCITING.... FLAT LUCA ARRIVED BACK WITH SOME GREAT SOUVENIRS. THANKS TO SOUTH ARM PRIMARY SCHOOL FOR THE GREAT BOOK. HERE ARE SOME PICTURES OF FLAT LUCA'S RETURN.
No comments:
Post a Comment