What the Barwon means to me
I used to go down to the Barwon River nearly every day. We would go for a walk to the dam and back. We would look for birds and fish, and ducks in the water. I also used to go fishing and would catch two or three fish each time. They were Redfin and Trout. The trout comes down from the dam when it’s running. We cooked the fish up on the BBQ.
The river is really fun to take to dog down to. Cadbury (our chocolate Labrador) likes to swim and chase sticks down there. And sometimes I go swimming with Cadbury and my brother, Simon. I chase sticks in the water with Cadbury, who nearly always gets the sticks first! Then sometimes we play tug- of- war.
By Brendan
Grade 5
The swamp
A fun time we remembered, was a sunny day. We were down in the gully at the bottom of the Brown’s big backyard. We were swinging on the swing ropes, when we decided to go over the barbed wire fence to get to the swampy area near the Barwon River where there were 2 young bulls. The first big challenge was trying to get over the barbed wire fence, which was a very big hassle. Then we ran over the horse paddock to the leg-high water crossing. We got the first person across, then the rest of the group, with water in our gumboots. Then we came across the mushy mud part with the spiky low ti-tree plants. One person went the wrong way and got her gumboot stuck in the mud. It was a tight squeeze to get the boot out, but we eventually managed, only having 2 people on the ground in the mud. Then we went out in the opening but decided to go back. We walked along another way that led us to a log jetty lying across a mud pool. We cautiously walked over it ’til we came to the end, we jumped off and ran on hard mud to land. We ran through another cow paddock to a small snowbell and daisy field. We rested for about 4-5 minutes and carried on our way. We split up at a small water stream, some of us jumped over the stream getting very wet and some of us went on further and crossed the cement tunnels. We walked up a dirt track were we met again at a fence. We walked up a steep dirt-gravel hill and stopped at the top and went our individual ways home, to our probably very annoyed parents.
By Ashleigh (Grade 6) and Rebecca (grade 5)
Lake Elizabeth and the Queen of the United Arab Emirates!
It all started with a simple phone call.
It was the royal family of the United Arab Emirates. They wanted to go out on a canoe tour with us on Saturday, two days from the day we got this phone call. On Friday night, my mum told me I had to go out on the tour, I was really nervous, so was Mum! On Saturday, Garth came with three female girls who were going to help paddle, because we needed more female guides, they were called Tara, Sarah, and Laura.
We drove down to the lake and found the royal family eating lunch. When they heard us coming they all came up to greet us! The queen was really pretty, she had a creamy brown headpiece and a black dress. All of the princesses had black headpieces and dresses. The princes were wearing normal clothes. We all went down to the picnic area and had a safety talk, before leaving for the big walk to the lake. It took a while to get to the river, because we had to carry all of the canoes to the lake with us. When we got there we got in all of the canoes in the water and started to look for platypus. I was the last one to get into a canoe, and I was by myself, I was known as the emergency girl. I had to make sure no one fell in. Afterwards, the royal family had to go, because their private helicopters were arriving at 3:30pm on the school oval and leaving soon afterwards. Unfortunately they couldn’t help with carrying the canoes back, because they would be late for their private helicopters. But when they were about to leave, Linda, the Canadian lady, gave me a $50 tip.
It was one of the most memorable days I have ever had!
By Ruby
Grade 5
A walk by the lake
On the weekend I went to the lake. Because Mum wanted to go out for a walk, I rode my bike. Mum and I went to the filter near the Quarry. Then we went down a big rocky hill. On the way down to the bridge, we crossed the filter again. We saw two pelicans on a cement bridge, one fell off and then flew away and then so did the other. You don’t see many pelicans in Forrest. On the way back we saw a small fig tree and I grabbed a not ripe fig, It was an early fig not ready to eat yet. Then we bumped into Susan. Mum stopped to have a chat and I threw the fig for Muddy, Susan’s dog. Then it got chewed to bits after 5 throws. Then I found an ugly looking bone, it was the head of something, I didn’t know what animal it was a part of. Then we went home. The end.
By We-anda
Grade 5