What floods?

We have been very alert to the road closures due to floods.  This included the Google Maps suggested route from just West of Beaufort to the Glenelg  Highway.

We headed off on 17 October to Dunkeld in the Southern Grampians.  The first illuminated sign was not about floods, but congestion on the approach to the Westgate Bridge (which turned out, in the lanes we chose to be less congested than has previously been the case).

We rumbled off to the West, seeing no signs of congestion or flooding.  Past Ballarat we saw our first (distant) windfarm.

When we turned South, just after Beaufort a closer wind farm was seen.

Much closer!

This installation was accompanied by some other decorations along the verge.  I think it is permanent rather than the installer emulating the retail industry and urging Christmas spending shortly after the Queens Birthday!

The decorations were an interesting mix of items including house parts (eg chimney cowlings) as well as mor e Christmassy items, such as the angel-with-horn. 

The first view of the Grampians was impressive: the image is about 1/3rd of the width of the visible extent.

This very floriferous shrub was growing n the shore.  On submitting it to iNaturalist the AI suggested Acacia paradoxa.  

Being of a curious disposition, and unfamiliar with the species I checked the entry in Flora of Victoria.  Problemo: the leaves shown there all looked basically ovate rather than the crinkle-cut appearnce of the specimens we came across.  However two humans have responded to my entry of iNaturalist confirming the ID so that is what it is.

There were some good birds around.  BAD was this pair of Great Crested Grebes.

Musk Duck

Long-billed Corella - still exciting, but about to become ho-hum.

There were clouds of of insects of a mosquito like appearance around.  They didn't seem too bitey.

A rather statuesque old Gum tree.

I initially thought it a River Red Gum but this bark looks a bit strange for that.

This is the Wickliffe War Memorial.

And here is the Dunkeld Memorial which is quite modern.

Following n the steps of Holbrook here we have an inland town memorialising a submarine.  It did great work in the Dardanelles and one of the crew came from Dunkeld.

There's mountains in them thar hills!  See below for names.

We crossed the road and got some lunch.  The place seemed pretty good but just about everything needed to be grilled so took time to be served.  Then they seemed not to have most of the pie types I asked for.  When delivered the article rated 7 on my scale but I am inclined to delete 1 for the overall inadequate service.

We then took a stroll round the Arboretum which was set out around a lake and pleasingly had some areas deliberately left unmown to promote local plants.  Here is an eBird track of our walk.

Two Peak finder images of the mountains visible from our accommodation.  The app gave the elevation of our house as ~240m.  The Piccaninny (see 19 Oct) is 400m.

These mountains are further way so appear smaller but are obviously a lot higher.  They're very impressive in reality.