Phoenix & Eric's Australian Adventure

It’s Sunday I’ve got Dad up so he can be ready for the second bowls competition which is held over the next four days where they are a team of four in a section of six teams with five groups. They will play each team in their section over the next two and a half days, then the winner and runner-up from each group will play through to the final on the last day.

Myself, Lucy, Bill, Mum and Christine are off to the local park for a walk. The sky is looking very angry as if it’s going to rain, so we will try not to get wet. We had a good half hour before heading back to the caravan.

We have just had a text from Dad and Barry saying their morning match has been abandoned due to rain, so they are heading back to Deer Park to have lunch and await a decision at 1 PM if the green is playable for the second game at 1:15PM. It is so will see them around 6PM. They were winning their first game but lost their second.

Today is a day off from competition and Mum, Dad, Barry and Christine have caught a train into Melbourne, so they can go around the Victoria Markets built in 1928 selling lots of the same Chinese rubbish, but lots of fruit, veg, fish, meat, cheese, salami etc.

Mum & Dad visited the Lego shop but their brick wall was no better than the ones in Perth so did not buy anything.

Time for refreshments in a local bar before having lunch and letting mum and Christine do a little bit more retail theropy before catching the train back.

This is the best part ME, BILL and LUCY get picked up from the kennels.

Back to home sweet home.

Thanks for not forgetting to pick us up we were so happy to see you.

Today is Saturday 2nd May 2026 four days since i got dropped off and Mum & Dad have turned up to pick me up from the kennels, so happy to see them.

After interrogating them to find out where they have been and what they have been doing i can now bring you up to date.

28th was practice day at Deer Park in the afternoon where they found out that the NEW indoor greens would not be ready to use for the duration of the competition. Now knowing this everybody would be playing on the two old grass greens.

29th was first day of Interstate competition, when they were informed that there was not enough rinks at Deer Park to be able to play all the games so teams would be transported by minibuses to Keila Bowls club 14km away to play.

This involved teams being picked up early from their hotels and transported to the venue in the morning, followed by the teams that played at Deer Park in the morning having to rush their dinner to catch the buses to then allow those at Keila to be brought back to have their lunch before playing at Deer Park in the afternoon.

This happened for the next two days what a pain for everybody. With mum, dad and Barry not being at the hotel they had to make their own way there, which ment they missed a lot of the briefings by the manager.

RESULTS

Mum and Dad played in the same team, mum lead, dad second with Tom third and Cookie skipper, they lost their first game against Victoria by two points, then played Queensland and won this game by six points.

Day Two first game against Tasmania where every team from WA won. Second game was against NSW ad they had a draw.

Day Three playing against South Australia and today mum had moved to play with another team which she had another win with and dad had a loss.

Overall result Mum 3 Wins 1 Draw 1 Loss, Dad 2 Wins 1 Draw 2 Loses

Overall winners were NSW.

Well i was right, we have been taken to a local kennels, for how long we are not sure,

Mum, Dad and Barry have been to Deer Park for a practice day before the competition starts tomorrow. They have found that the New indoor greens are not ready so will be playing outside and having to be bused to another club 30 minutes away to play on their greens. on Thursday. The greens are grass and running at approx 14 Seconds (very Slow) to what we are used to in WA (17- 18 Seconds) so almost having to throw the bowl down the green.

Will report tomorrow on their progress.

All packed up and ready for a short drive 240kM to Rockbank where we are spending the next eight days while mum and dad are playing bowls for RSLWA (Returned Soldiers League Western Australia) against the other States, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria who are the host state this year. The campsite is about 8kM from the Deer Park Bowling Club so will be travelling each day.

Listening to the grown-ups talking I have a funny suspicion that I, Lucy and Bill will be going into kennels for a few days.

I have had my usual walk and we are going out for the day, we are going to a place called the “Beer Farm” about 8kM from where we are staying. On arrival we pay our entrance fee, buy a stubby holder (to stop your hand warming up the beer) and a beer to walk around the museum.

The museum is a shrine to beer with over 4000 different steins, thousands of beer cans going back to the 1930’s and anything else that you might associate with beer in the last 90 plus years.

The person that started the collection unfortunately died at 94 years of age just 10 days prior to the museum opening.

Dad’s just about finished his second beer so we are then off back into Echuca to look around the wharf which we did last time we were here five years ago. Nothing much has changed, you can still go on the paddle steamer up the Murry River, have a horse draw cart ride etc.

Christine is a keen photographer and has just sent these pictures to me of one of the nights we where on the Nullabor with no light pollution. These are pictures of the Milky Way that we cannot see at home.

We are staying on a small caravan park about 2km from the town centre called Rich River caravan park. It has a doggy off-leash area where we can all run around.

Today dad and Barry are going to play bowls at Echuca bowling club while we go for a walk around the area and along the river.

We get back and wait for dad to return about 12:15 and i get told dad made it into the final, that’s why they where later back. Dad came 4th so no prize money.

Dad stayed with me in the afternoon while mum and Christine went into Echuca and went around the museum and wine tasting area.

Picture of visitors to Echuca Bowls Club on 24-4-26

On my last walk before we depart for Echuca 400kM. Dad has everything packed up and car hitched up ready to go when we get back.

Were off ! 12kM down the road and roadworks 7 minute wait for change of lights. Another 35kM and another lot of roadworks, finally we are away.

We turn on to the B400 as the shortest route, between the the two places and to save us having to drive through the centre of Adelaide. The road started off fairly smooth for a Victorian road, I spoke too soon we have just gone to the fair and got on a rollercoaster.

The next 180kM included potholes, sunken filled in cattle grids and generally badly degraded road surface, just how we remember the roads from when we were here two years ago. Thank goodness mum and dad bought an off-road caravan.

Finally arrived at the Rich River Tourist Park for a three night stay. All set up and we are all going out for tea in Echuca.

6am i get dad up because i need a walk. We take a walk around the campsite and down to the river’s edge, dad won’t let me go in for a swim.

We are having a chill day today and mum and Christine are taking me,Bill and Lucy for a ride to the local dog park for playdate. This is about 5km from the caravan park.

View from the caravan site along the Murry River

Mamma Duck and her nine chicks

View back to caravan site from the other bank of the river

One of the paddle boats that run on the river