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Sleepy towns


I just remembered that I haven't shown you a photo of any of the country towns. Lockhart is a nice example. It calls itself the Verandah Town. While most old towns have verandahed shops like this they generally are not as intact. Remember it was Christmas day so no wonder the town looked sleepy.

The photo below is of Pepperina, a tree often favoured as a street tree in such towns. Just looking at it makes me think of hot sleepy country towns, singing cicadas and crows cawing. I didn't hear a single cicada on this trip ... where were they?

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  1. MartinaFebruary 21, 2010 at 7:56 AM

    I like the perspective in the first photo :-). Yes, looks like a ghost town.

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  2. JulieFebruary 21, 2010 at 8:14 AM

    Love this shot and the fact that so many of the verandahs are intact. That is what is missing in Sydney nowadays when I look at the old photos.

    I feel certain that tree is what I know as a peppercorn. We had them when I was growing up and the "corns" were ammuniton.

    Is this where the term "peppercorn rental" comes from, I wonder?

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  3. JulieFebruary 21, 2010 at 8:15 AM

    Is that YOUR vehicle on the left ignoring the parking space markings?

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  4. Joan ElizabethFebruary 21, 2010 at 8:33 AM

    Julie, it is no doubt the same tree but these are not real peppercorns. The fruit is actually toxic. Regarding peppercorn rent -- "In the Middle Ages and Tudor Times rents were sometimes paid in peppercorns because pepper was so expensive. Peppercorns were actually used as a form of currency."

    As for the car ... yes tis ours ... not much chance of getting booked that day. However, once I parked in a fully empty street in Chatswood late one Saturday and didn't park in the lines ... I got a ticket!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownFebruary 21, 2010 at 6:09 PM

    Lockhart looks like a movie set. There are a lot of those pepper trees in southern California. As I recall they smell good. I'm enjoying your trip.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joan ElizabethFebruary 21, 2010 at 8:29 PM

    Bill, yes it does have that movie set quality about it. I wonder how busy it is on a weekday? The pepperinas do have a nice fragrance when you crush the leaves.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownFebruary 22, 2010 at 5:47 AM

    I enlarged the photo and even so I couldn't see a single person! Amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  8. freefallingFebruary 22, 2010 at 9:15 PM

    My dad gets very nostalgic when he sees a pepperina tree.
    He used to have them in his yard as a child when he lived in a sleepy little town.
    (it's here if your are interested:
    http://freefallingskyward.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-dads-country-town.html )

    Love the main street of Lockhart.
    (I hope that is not your car illegally parked on the left)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Joan ElizabethFebruary 22, 2010 at 9:33 PM

    Letty, thanks for the link. Though my home town is in the South Burnett rather than the Darling Downs the climate and characteristics would be similar (but my place is about two times bigger than Leyburn). We had pepperinas dotted all over the place.

    Yes it is our car.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ABFebruary 23, 2010 at 3:04 AM

    I guess the verandahs were built before the shops fled into air-conditioned shopping malls.

    ReplyDelete

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