Go team, Paul. Which side do you support? Are you an AFL man or a rugby league fan? Not sure if there are any other codes besides those.

On behalf of every RU fan and every “world game” fan, it saddens me Darlene but this simply must be done:

You’re not going to struggle when we put you in the pod, are you?

Feel free to contact me on darlenectaylor (at) yahoo.com.au and let me know what you’re after.

The Grampians is an absolute treasure. Check it out in spring for the wildflowers. Also go see Royce Raleigh’s hakea collection.

They may be basing this bold tourism initiative on the annual Christmas Lights of Lobethal Festival in the Adelaide Hills. (Note obligatory use of the word ‘nestled’ to refer to any town or building on anything less than dead-flat terrain.)

Thanks for that tip, zorronsky. Love a little drop of white.

Mmmm, bread baked fresh and purchased hot.

Incidentally, according to one website, this is all the events happening in Curramulka:

http://www.australianexplorer.com/events/curramulka.htm

“Curramulka Lights Up! 2008 (EVENT)
Curramulka (Curramulka, South Australia - Australia)

06 December 2008 - 31 December 2008 (TBA)

Following the Curramulka Lights Up! 2008 Light Up Night on Saturday 6 December 2008; the Curramulka town lights will be switched on every night throughout December, until New Years Eve. Stroll or drive around town and see the many wonderful Christmas scenes and light displays. The best time for viewing the Curramulka Lights is after sunset.”

Dr S, it’s all pretty depressing. Makes one wonder about why there is a lack of recent medication for schizophrenia. Dare I suggest that the pharmaceutical companies make more money out of the current “depression epidemic”? Dare I suggest that some GPs find it easier (and less time consuming) to prescribe Lexapro or whatever than discuss their clients problems or arrange appointments with psychiatrists?

Apparently there are some drugs for schizophrenia in the works:

http://www.schizophrenia.com/newmeds2004.html

Thanks, melaleuca. That’s a great image. Alas, it seems that Cassinia arcuata looks good, but is a bit of problem. Castlemaine looks like a nice little town. For those who haven’t heard of it:

http://www.castlemaine.org/

http://www.castlemaine.org/

I live near Castlemaine now which has a similar Chinese goldrush era past. As I type I can see outside a window a hill 200 metres into the distance that is covered with “Chinese Scrub” - Cassinia arcuata. Supposedly the Chinese gold miners used this native daisy species as incense.

Ban it. Move on.

The second issue is the efficacy of medication. Depression and mania are indeed well treated. As to schizophrenia, there is little new in thirty years. The modern drugs have less side effects but no greater efficacy. The only exception is Clozapine, which was invented in the sixties and rejected due to marrow toxicity. It does work much better, assuming your heart and blood hold up.

The main difference is culture. The reduction in fear of violence and limitation of acceptable restraint.

Why couldn’t he stick the fork in himself?

I got the impression he thought forks and teapots were women’s work.

It was a strangely powerful experience to see the place where great-grandma is buried, and to see the bareness of her and some other graves. The cemetery is certainly located in a lovely serene area.

Country cemeteries are fabulous that way. The Curramulka Cemetery, which is way out in the middle of the wheat on Yorke Peninsula in SA, contains the graves of both my (paternal) great-grandparents and both my great-great grandparents, plus at least a dozen people I used to call ‘Auntie X or ‘Uncle Y’, half a dozen people I went to primary school with, a couple of those people’s children, the bloke who used to bake the bread we bought hot from the bakery, the woman who taught me to read music and play the piano, and goodness knows who-all else. I go there whenever I get the chance and wander around communing with the dead.

I note that there was an article about ECT (a subject that doesn’t seem to be discussed that much anymore) on On Line Opinion in April:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7179

Sounds like a hideous drive that night. My word, almost a scary movie that experience.

Christ knows what that old bugger would’ve done if they’d used teabags. Why couldn’t he stick the fork in himself?

I drove through Ararat dozens of times between 1980 and 1998 and I associate it with sinister on-road experiences (getting fined heftily for doing 82 in a 60 zone because the 60 sign was hidden by foliage, as I confirmed on the next trip over; taking a wrong turn on the counter-intuitive route through Ararat to Adelaide and ending up in Halls Gap as night fell, after driving through a lot of dark unfamiliar forest like Red Riding Hood; etc). I particularly associate it with the overalled, farmer-looking dude in the roadhouse who ordered a pot of tea, “and don’t make it with fuck’n teabags.” When the pot arrived he pushed it over to the downtrodden-looking woman with him and said “Here, stick your fork in that and see if it’s a fuck’n teabag.”

That stuff about ECT for schizophrenia is interesting - I, too, thought that its main use these days is for major depression (especially where it’s a complication of senile dementia). Given ECTs record of being oversold, the impossibility of blind (let alone double blind) studies, and the relative mystery about how it’s supposed to work I have to confess to some mild scepticism. Subjecting a computer to repeated [Ctrl-Alt-Del]s is not usually an effective way of dealing with major hardware problems.

This is what the Gum San Chinese Heritage website says about it:

“One day in May, 1857, 700 Chinese miners from Southern China, travelling overland from the Port of Robe, South Australia, to the Central Goldfields in the Colony of Victoria, rested at a place at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, some 400 kilometres due east of Robe.

Replenishing their water supplies at a spring, they discovered by chance the Canton Lead, the world’s richest shallow alluvial goldfield that stretched five kilometres at length.

This find marked the beginning of the Ararat Goldfield, which grew to a population of more than 30,000 in a mere few weeks.

In the first three weeks of mining, the Canton Lead yielded ninety five kilograms of gold and in the first three months, more than three tonnes.”

The Chinese were also subject to some sort of tax, but I can’t remember the details (had to get the train and didn’t want to miss it and be stuck in Ararat )

Ararat certainly looks like a pleasant sleepy town. The tourist attractions and sights would suggest it’s all about facilities for the mentally ill, wine, the Chinese digging for gold and that’s about it. Next place to visit for me is St Arnaud, where my great-grandfather is buried.

I must say I was impressed by the V-Line train service, which was much better than what one gets on the suburban trains.

Ararat is still a pleasant sleepy town.

zorronsky, thanks for your insight into life in the Burwood home. I think that’d a fascinating book. Your life sounds like it’d make a good book. Going timber cutting sounds like darned hard work.

There are times when one sees people on the TV who have spent their early lives in these kinds of homes and they look so sad and, at times, quite damaged by the experience. So much for the good old days. Of course, there are also people who got through the experience okay.

“Never did me much good though and didn’t stop me from embracing an institutionalised early life.”

I’d be interested to read more about that.

PDAA, thanks. That’s the J Ward website, of course. Interesting pictures. Those restraints just boggle the mind. That underground bathroom is just so awful. It should be noted that they also used it to smoke meat. Can’t remember if they used it as a bathroom and a smoking room at the same time.

Anyway, if anyone’s up at Ararat, I’d recommend giving the J Ward jail a look. The tour guide was very helpful, friendly and well-versed in his subject.

Meself, I hope the high school has improved since the days you were there (although I suspect they’re all homes for the mentally unstable - high schools I mean).