The Tingle Factor Box

Rover Discovers An Onion Of A Different Sort - Granite Tors and Onion Skin Weathering

This week, Rover decided it was time to answer a question which one of his friends asked him some time ago. This friend was travelling through the Central West area, and saw lots of huge, rounded rocks in the paddocks and along the side of the road. The question was, what were they? Rover is fascinated by these rocks, which are not only geologically interesting, but really quite beautiful. What are the rocks called? Granite Tors.

These particular tors were photographed in Cowra, but granite tors are scattered throughout the Central West. You can see them on hill tops, in paddocks, and even just beside the road. They’re fascinating rocks, weathered over many, many years to be their distinctive shape. In the Central West, most of them are quite rounded. 

Granite tors are extraordinary, jutting out the landscape seemingly randomly, or appearing in groups. They are often quite massive, and look like some giant threw them randomly, allowing them to settle into the landscape thousands of years ago. So how were they created? Granite tors are, essentially, large lumps of granite, but how they form is something of a mystery. Many believe that tors were once surrounded by other outcrops of granite, but the granite which became tors weathered more slowly. According to this theory the surrounding granite would have had many fault lines and joints, which helped normal weathering processes to speed up. The tors though had few joints and faults, so they weathered slowly, and were left in place long after the surrounding granite was gone. 

The tors weathered slowly, over a long period of time, which is why they remain in the landscape. Yet they do weather, just like any other rock. They often weather in a very specific way though - a type of weathering called onion-skin weathering (or sometimes called exfoliation). Essentially, when onion-skin weathering occurs, the outer layer of the rock peels off, like the skin of an onion. This type of weathering occurs because of extreme variations in temperature - the rock becomes very hot during the day, and very cold in the nighttime. Sometimes, water might even freeze inside the rock, and all of these changes in temperature force the rock to split and the outer layer to fall away. You can see an example of onion skin weathering in the photo above. 

Roaming Roy Discovers Birds Of A Beautiful Feather At Abercrombie House

Last year, Roy was lucky enough to make a visit to a beautiful property in Bathurst - Abercrombie House. He was amazed by the history of the place, and also by the beautiful gardens he discovered. One of the most stunning features though were the beautiful peafowl (also known as peacocks) to be found roaming the grounds. 

Peafowl can be found in a number of larger gardens and parks around Australia. If you would like to visit the peafowl at Abercrombie House it is located in Bathurst. To get there, follow Ophir Road and then follow the signs. The house is open for self guided tours between Wednesday and Sunday. 

 

When we think of peafowl, we tend to think of stunning blue birds with amazing tail feathers, known as a train. Yet these are just the peacock - the male - of the Indian (sometimes known as Blue) Peafowl. There is, of course, also a female, known as the peahen and in fact, the whole point of the peacocks amazing feathers are to impress the peahens! Yet peafowl are not always blue, as we usually see them. There is also a Green Peafowl from Indochina and Java, and even an African species called the Congo Peafowl! There is another, rare colour of peafowl, which is white. Occasionally, these peafowl are true albinos, but most have a condition called leucicm, which deprives the feathers of their coloured pigments.

 

So, if the peafowl which we all know so well comes from India, how did it come to feature in so many Western gardens? We actually know that the Indian Peafowl was introduced to Mesopotamia more than 4000 years ago, and was taken to China even earlier. In fact, many believe it was the first bird to ever be domesticated. The Phoenicians took the peafowl to Egypt, and then to other areas of the Mediterranean. Even the Old Testament of the Bible mentions peafowl and King Solomon is believed to have kept several birds for himself. By the time of the Romans peafowl were raised both as a food and also as a beautiful creature in their own right. The Romans probably took the bird to Britain. By the 14th century peafowl could be found throughout Europe, but they were very expensive and only owned by the wealthy. They were even considered by some to be a religious symbol. Today they are held sacred by some Indian cultures, and are the National Bird of India. 

Roaming Roy Finds A Peaceful Garden For Reflection - Ohukuma Japanese Garden, Bathurst

 

This week, Roy decided to share with his online friends a beautiful, unexpected discovery he made when wandering along the river in Bathurst. The Macquarie River Bicentennial Park is a beautiful place to walk, but it also contains the beautiful, if small, Ohkuma Japanese Garden - a wonderful surprise for Roy!

 

 

If you would like to visit the Macquarie River Bicentennial Park, it is located in Bathurst, in NSW Central West. The park is adjacent to the Macquarie River and can be found at the lower end of William Street. There is plenty of room to wander or kick a ball (though be careful it doesn’t end up in the river!), picnic tables, a children’s playground and some beautiful planted areas, including the Ohkuma Japanese Garden.

 

 

Bathurst’s Macquarie River Bicentennial park was opened in 1988, as part of the Bicentennial celebrations in Bathurst commemorating 200 years of European colonisation. Of course, in these early years of settlement, there was little in the way of contact between Japan and the new settlers. More recently though, Bathurst has established a strong sister city relationship with Ohkuma, a city in the Fukushima area of Japan. The sister city relationship began in 1991 and ever since this time there has been an active relationship and exchange between the two cities including between the students and town officials.

 

One of the visible signs of this relationships is the Ohukuma Japanese Garden constructed next to the Macquarie River, and in the Bicentennial Park. This garden, constructed in 1998, was made possible by the support and knowledge provided by the people of Ohukuma. In fact, it was the people of Ohukuma who provided the funding to construct the garden, and sent a professional gardener, Hideaki Matsumoto, to guide the construction. The garden has become an even more poignant reminder of the people of Ohukuma since the Fukushima reactor disaster though. Ohukuma is within the exclusion zone, and was evacuated, but this has not stopped the sister cities from supporting one another. People still keep in contact between the two cities, and Bathurst people raised $80,000 for the people of their sister city in the wake of the disaster. Despite the people of Ohukuma being displaced, the sister city relationship remains strong. 

Rover Finds Some Rocky History - Australian Fossil And Mineral Museum

This week, Rover decided that with the weather these holidays not always being quite right for outdoor activities, he would like to share his recent trip to a fascinating museum in Bathurst - the Fossil and Mineral Museum. Rover loves rocks and fossils, and was absolutely amazed by the range of rocks and other specimens to see. 

If you would like to visit the Australian Fossil And Mineral Museum, it is located at 224 Howick Street in Bathurst. Entry to the museum is $14 for a full priced adult, with children being just $8, and there is also a family pass available. There is plenty to see at the museum, and of course plenty more to see out and around Bathurst itself!

Many may not expect to find one of the most significant and spectacular collections of fossils and minerals in the Central West, but that is just what the Bathurst Fossil and Mineral Museum displays. The museum, which is housed in the old 1876 Public School building, is home to the Somerville Collection, which contains some of the best and rarest examples of fossils and minerals in the whole world. The collection was created over a lifetime by Warren Somerville AM, and the specimens which are on display at the museum are only about a quarter of the complete collection! Some of the highlights of the collection include crystals from over 100 Australian mines, beautiful gemstones, Australia’s only T.Rex Skeleton, fossilised dinosaur eggs and a selection of Australia's unique opalised fossils. 

So who exactly is Warren Somerville? Somerville gilds five degrees, was a university lecturer, TAFE teacher and orchardist in Orange. However, his great passion was always fossils and minerals. He started to collect unusual rocks at age six and found his first fossil when he was nine. Yet it wasn’t until he was a teenager and a visiting scientist looked though his 1000 piece collection that this fossil, a 400 million year old piece of coral, was identified. From that point on, Somerville dedicated his life to the study and collection of geology and palaeontology. Yet when his wife Joy was diagnosed with cancer, he realised that he would have to sell the family orchard and close his unusual private ‘museum’. The question then was what to do with the collection? Despite offers to sell it overseas (with some offers apparently of up to $15 million), Somerville decided to donate the collection to the people of Australia.  

Roaming Roy Finds History in A Can - Asparagus In Bathurst

This week, Roy was visiting Bathurst when he discovered something most intriguing. Roy loves food, and he really enjoys fresh vegetables. One of his favourites is asparagus, and Roy was fascinated to discover that the history of asparagus, at least in Australia, seemed to be closely tied to the Bathurst area. Certainly, he came across references to the delicious vegetable in more than one place! He was eager to discover more.

If you would like to find out about the history of asparagus in relation to Bathurst, there were two specific places which Roy would recommend. One is the Gordon Edgell Bridge, which crosses the Macquarie River. The road which runs over the bridge itself is Hereford Street, which branches off from Stanley Street. The second place which Roy would recommend is Abercrombie House, which is a beautiful historic house on Ophir Road in Bathurst. Roy will be visiting Abercrombie House itself sometime in the future!

The history of Asparagus in Bathurst begins right back in 1902, when Robert Gordon Edgell, who was then a road superintendent, was transferred to Bathurst. In 1906 he retired from public service and turned his hand to farming, planting apples, pears and, most importantly, lots of asparagus on his Bathurst property, Bradwardine. He was very interested in the latest technology, and in 1925 he sent his oldest son, Maxwell, to America to learn how can asparagus. The next year he and his two sons, Maxwell and Hampden, opened Australia’s first cannery in a shed at Bradwardine, and set about canning Asparagus. At that time, they made their own cans, and sealed them with a hand-held soldering iron, but in 1930 the company was registered as a public company, and under Gordon Edgell’s guidance, the company quickly grew, as did their product list. The bridge, which is today named in honour of Gordon Edgell, was first built by him as a way to transport, you guessed it, asparagus from Kelso to his cannery!

The history of asparagus in Bathurst does not stop here though! Bathurst is home to a grand, Gothic style mansion known as Abercrombie House, and while a stately home may not be, at first, clearly associated with farming of asparagus, there is none the less a strong link. In the grounds of the house, is one of Gordon Edgells asparagus skips, one of only three which is still surviving today. One might wonder why this piece of machinery is located in such an odd place, but during World War II, Abercrombie House was used as a billet, or home, for members of the Australian Women’s Land Army. They worked in Bathurst bringing in the harvests, which of course included asparagus. The asparagus would be cut off at ground level using a knife and laid in the skip, then later in the day it would be taken to the cannery. The canned asparagus was then sent to feed American forces fighting in the War in the Pacific.

Rover Discovers A Chocolate Paradise - Luka Chocolates

This week, with Easter upon us, Rover decided it was the perfect time to show his online friends a place he discovered a little while ago when making a visit to the Wyong Milk Factory. Luka Chocolates have been operating from the Wyong Milk Factory for a little more than a year, having won a government grant to open. They have a fascinating shop, with a viewing window where you can watch them craft their delicious chocolates and of course plenty of chocolates to try and purchase. It was the chocolate wall which really grabbed Rover’s attention though. Rover had never really thought about where chocolate comes from, and he had certainly never realised that the place where chocolate is grown can have such an effect on the flavour.

If you would like to visit Luka Chocolate Factory, it is located at the Wyong Milk Factory. Wyong Milk Factory itself, is located in Wyong, not far from Gosford on the NSW Central Coast. The Milk Factory is at 141-155 Alison Road, and is not only easy to find, but has plenty of parking. There is a cafe, a fabulous playground, and interesting shops to visit (including Little Creek Cheese Factory and Luka Chocolate Shop) as well as a gym and boats for hire.

Chocolate is made from the beans of the cacao plant, which grows naturally in the tropical rainforests in Central America. Mesoamericans including the Olmec, Mayan and Aztecs were the first to cultivate the plant and they made the bean into a drink which was popular with the elite of these societies. This chocolate was very different to what we think of today though, as it was quite bitter. The Spanish conquistadors were the ones who took chocolate to the world, and they were also the first to sweeten the drink, adding sugar and cinnamon. Of course, chocolate was very expensive and continued to be a symbol of wealth and status. It also continued to be quite a secretive thing, with the Spanish keeping their chocolate away from the rest of Europe for nearly a century. Then, the daughter of the Spanish king married King Lous XIII of France, and took her love of chocolate with her. Soon, chocolate was becoming sought all over Europe and in order to supply the growing demand, plantations of cacao plants and also the sugar which was used to sweeten it were created in equatorial regions.

Many of these plantations continued to be in the Central Americas, and they were worked by the Mesoamericans who had cultivated the plant for so long. Yet the Spanish and other European explorers brought disease to these people, and the populations were decimated. To replace the lost workers, African slaves were brought to the plantations to work the land and keep the supply of chocolate steady. Despite the growth in chocolate cultivation, chocolate remained expensive and only for the elite until 1828 when the Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten invented the cocoa press. This not only increased the amount of chocolate which could be processed, it also allowed solid, edible chocolate to be made for the first time. Chocolate was no longer just a drink, the era of chocolate as a confectionary had arrived! Today chocolate is grown in many countries, including Australia and you can learn more about where chocolate comes from at Luka Chocolates,and of course buy some to take home .

Roaming Roy Finds A Bridge Out Of Place - Sofala Foot Bridge

The Sofala Foot Bridge is an amazing construction, resting comfortably on dry land in a Memorial Park. When Roy first saw it, he had to find out its story. As with so many amazing places Roy visits though, finding out exactly what this amazing story was, was not easy. Plenty of people knew of the foot bridge, had taken photos of it and knew about its later history, but it's early history was more elusive. Research reveals though a story which is rather remarkable.

Roaming Roy Tries His Luck - Lucknow

This week, with Summer holidays not too far away, Roy decided he wanted to show his online friends some of his favourite places around NSW. Many of the people he knows like to head towards the Central West for their holidays, enjoying the beautiful scenery and fascinating towns around Orange, Bathurst and Mudgee. Roy also loves these areas, particularly the little towns dotted around and about with an extraordinary history. This week, he decided to tell you about one of his favourites, Lucknow which he visited earlier this year.

Roaming Roy Remembers - Boer War Memorial

This week, with Remembrance Day so close, Roy decided it was time to reflect on war. Roy has visted many places which commemorate the two World Wars, and knows that his friends expect him to visit another this Remembrance Day, but Roy decided he wanted to do something a bit different. The First and Second World Wars were not the only time when Australian soldiers went to fight overseas. In fact, the First World War wasn't even the first time. Roy wanted to find out about the first wars Australian's were widely involved in, The Boer Wars.

Roaming Roy Steps Back In Time - Millthorpe

With the holidays upon us and the weather just beginning to warm up, Roy decided it was a perfect time to head towards the central west. He loves this area, and knows lots of people head towards Orange and Bathurst for their September holidays to see the beautiful countryside. However, he also knows of several hidden gems in the area which, although they are featured on tourist maps and in guides, are all too often overlooked. This week, Roy thought he would take you to just of these places, Millthorpe, which he visited recently.