A Trip to Portland

After breakfast, Joanne and I hiked over the Glenelg River, just a few blocks from our B&B located on Clarke Street, to the pickup point for our mini bus ride to Portland.  John Carmichael, our sheep shearer, now turned into our bus driver for this trip to the largest town in the area.  I rode up front to get the best view of Glenelg Shire scenery and, hopefully, a kangaroo or two.   With sheep and cattle dotting its rolling green paddocks and red gum trees lining the roads, the shire is a beautiful part of Australia.  We passed through forests of blue gums and pines where kangaroos hide during the day.  Right on cue a small wallaby hopped across the roadside!


 Our host, Bruce Cross, wanted us to visit Portland since it is the seat of government of Glenelg Shire and is an interesting coastal city. We were so surprised when he greeted us in full Mayorial Dress (see picture above! double click to make them larger) and provided an overview of Australian politics.  It's interesting that only 3% of tax revenue is distributed to local government for all the road intrastructure and social service agencies. He explained that in his role of Mayor, he and Council also set the budget (this past year it was $40 million) and expenditures are under review by the federal government.  

Bruce was able to arrange for a special tour of a gannet colony.  These rare colorful sea birds have only recently established a colony on the Australian coast and visiting is allowed by special permission. We were able to get a close up view and meet the 2 dogs that guard them day and night from preditors like foxes that could harm them and destroy their nests. 

It was interesting to see a huge American-owned Alcoa aluminum operation in the town that provides substantial revenue to the area.  There is a large market for aluminum ignots that are shipped over to China for further processing.  Portland is not only a beautiful beach town, but also a major port for shipping the aluminum, timber (mostly red gum and pine chips) and other products to China and Malaysia.

Bruce showed us huge cannons that were built in the late 1800s to defend the coast against a threat from Russia.  I was amazed because I always thought Australia was too far away to be threatened by a country such as Russia!


It's surprising how grateful they still are to the U.S. I guess we were never told in our own American history how involved Australia was in World War II. It seems that all their men were in Europe and Great Britain refused to let them come back to defend their own country. I was told yesterday "the Japanese would have cooked their bacon" if it wasn't for the U.S. who sent their submarines and troops over here to save them from Japanese attack. Apparently, many Japanese subs were all over their coasts and even in Sydney Harbor.