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Ophir


We drove on to Ophir, home of the first payable gold field found in Australia. There is nothing there to show the town that was in the 1850s ... just disturbed landscape reclaimed by nature and a few old graves.

Musing:
A slumber did my spirit seal by William Wordsworth
"A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course
With rocks, and stones, and trees."

This is a repost participating in the taphophile tragics meme.
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Comments

  1. PJJune 9, 2009 at 1:06 PM

    Which do you think is the oldest, JE, the tree or the headstone. The poetry and the photo are very soothing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ShaunJune 9, 2009 at 5:56 PM

    This is a really nice picture. Somewhat sad though. I like your photography. Slightly abstract and the poetry along side is very thought provoking.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joan ElizabethJune 9, 2009 at 7:48 PM

    PJ, I'd say the headstone is the oldest. The tree didn't seem big enough to be 140 years old. Also the cemetery originally stood by a church so they would likely have cleared the land. The trees are probably nature reclaiming the space.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JulieJune 9, 2009 at 10:27 PM

    This is a most reassuring photograph - strange, eh? It is a cycle, isn't it. Ashes to ashes ... the answer lying in the soil.

    The aged blade of grass is genius ...

    ReplyDelete
  5. PeterJanuary 10, 2012 at 8:34 PM

    This is one place I would love to visit and you have reinforced this with a wonderful photo.

    ReplyDelete
  6. JulieJanuary 10, 2012 at 8:59 PM

    Hah, I have come full cycle. There are so many small bunches of graves out in our countryside. I feel sure there is a more appropriate collective noun, but it escapes me. no no no ... the collective noun for a bunch of graves surely is cemetery. Duh!

    I stand by my earlier comment. Thanks, yet again, for your support of Taphophile Tragics. It is wonderful to see the sheer range of what people find of interest in this meme.

    ReplyDelete
  7. VioletSkyJanuary 10, 2012 at 9:08 PM

    I really like the processing you did on this photo. It makes it seem so calm.

    ReplyDelete
  8. FranciscaJanuary 11, 2012 at 5:32 AM

    A melancholy image of a departed forgotten.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Red Nomad OZJanuary 11, 2012 at 8:42 PM

    Weird to think that the area was once a bustling goldfield ... did the gold run out? Or were the conditions too harsh??

    ReplyDelete
  10. Joan ElizabethJanuary 12, 2012 at 7:54 AM

    Red, since there is still a small gold mine there I guess the alluvial gold run out. The conditions are not particularly harsh ... they are never too harsh for people with the fever ... look at the Opal fields like Coober Pedy, they are harsh places.

    ReplyDelete

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