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A pair of GE AC44CWs, one being former SP 219 navigate through "Buttermilk Curve" just outside of Brady, Nebraska along US Hwy 30.
Brady Curve also known as “Buttermilk Curve” comes from the days of passenger service. The story is that the milk in can, in the old refrigerated cars in prewar days would be turned to buttermilk as the train would take the curves at a high rate of speed. Hence the clever nickname.
***YouTube - youtu.be/cviP0d5dyxo***
Richard Tofel
Principal, Gallatin Advisory; Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Kodak Ektar 100 pushed +2 shot on Pentax 6x7 with SMC Pentax 67 105mm f/2.4. Developed and scanned by The FIND Lab.
both opening prompt and vanishing point for these mostly gestural ink paintings is a quote from artist Alok Hsu Kwang-han –
“the emptiness of the self is the one who can move through the broken heart of the world and feel at home”
the initial impulse to allow the intuition of the moment to guide the brush strokes, as portraits of energy or presencing; a kind of witnessing without accumulation or interference, attunement to murmurations; while occasionally more representational images emerge – as well, entendering – and in the spirit of the initial quotation, everything belongs
I was navigating a complex series of catwalks through a beautiful building in downtown Tokyo. I got so busy looking around at all the amazing structures that I almost forgot to look down. Upon doing so, I saw this, or close to this... after a few minutes of walking around, I found a angle that seemed to make special poetic bits of my brain happy.
From Trey Ratcliff at www.stuckincustoms.com.
Navigating the boulders to ascend a canyon in the Yaqui Hills; the thin blue line of the Salton Sea can be seen in the distance
A coot leaves a wake as it swims along the River Lea Navigation, just to the east of Hackney Wick station.
A London Overground class 378 crosses above with a 'Mildmay' line service.
The freedom of sailing is palatable...looking at a chart and plotting out the day's journey is an extremely satisfying feeling. Even with GPS capabilities, a map provides so much more visual information and mixed with curiosity and adventure, the world is at hand. At least from a different perspective.
I thought I would hate this part of the sailing course; that it would be too difficult. Ha! I always surprise myself. Whenever I come up to a self placed limit and push through, another world opens up. Basically, I loved navigation and being the captain of my ship.....yar!
ANKARA, TURKEY - SEPTEMBER 4: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde attends the 'Navigating through the Global Low Growth and Low Interest Rate Environment' session of Business 20 (B20) Turkey Summit at Congresium Ankara on September 4, 2015. Evrim Aydin / Anadolu Agency
The Underwater Project.
Documenting life below the surface.
© Mark Tipple / The Underwater Project
I can't think of a better combination. Miami sunset t-shirt, stash, and some 80's tunes jammin' on an old radio in the background.
Pour son exposition au Centre d’art contemporain de la Matmut – Daniel Havis, Maia Flore fait se rencontrer deux composantes essentielles à la vie : le rire et le rêve. Ses photographies, créées à partir de souvenirs et d’impressions, nous emmènent dans l’imaginaire de l’artiste. Un imaginaire foisonnant remplit de malice et de poésie.
Maia Flore utilise la photographie comme principal médium, qu’elle souligne par la pratique du dessin et du collage. Comme une conteuse visuelle, l’artiste transforme la réalité et magnifie les choses simples qui nous entourent. Un coucher de soleil, un arbre en fleur ou encore un ciel un soir de pleine lune : découvrir le travail de Maia Flore c’est s’autoriser à rêver…et à rire d’un petit rien ! La photographe s’inspire de ce qui l’entoure pour créer ses compositions, parfois numériquement. Un brin surréaliste, elles sont souvent teintées d’humour. Maia Flore s’empare de situations du quotidien pour en faire des mises en scène cocasses dont elle est la principale actrice. La place du corps est au cœur de ses images : il est toujours en mouvement, en lévitation, gracieux, parfois même en fusion avec son environnement. Toutefois, l’artiste nous cache son visage pour que le spectateur s’identifie mieux au personnage de ses photographies. Le parcours de l’exposition met en avant le travail métaphorique de Maia Flore, qui navigue habilement entre le monde réel et le monde imaginaire laissant place à une intimité visuelle qui unit le corps humain et le paysage. En explorant les galeries du centre d’art, les visiteurs sont transportés dans un rêve onirique captivant et amusant.
La photographe française Maia Flore née en 1988 oscille entre la France et les États-Unis. Juste sortie de l’école des Gobelins, elle devient membre de l’agence Vu en 2010 et reçoit le Prix pour la photographie HSBC en 2015. Les différentes résidences auxquelles elle a participé et les expositions internationales l’on amenées à voyager de Rio à Rome, ou de Moscou à Buenos Aires. Elle a exposé à la galerie Themes+Projects à San Francisco et à la galerie Fremin à New York. Les thèmes du voyage, des paysages, du mouvement et du corps lui sont chers.
For her exhibition at the Matmut – Daniel Havis Contemporary Art Centre, Maia Flore brings together two essential components of life: laughter and dreams. Her photographs, created from memories and impressions, take us into the artist’s imagination. A teeming imagination filled with mischief and poetry. Maia Flore uses photography as her main medium, which she highlights through the practice of drawing and collage. Like a visual storyteller, the artist transforms reality and magnifies the simple things that surround us. A sunset, a tree in bloom or even a sky on a full moon night: discovering Maia Flore’s work is allowing yourself to dream…and laugh at a little nothing! The photographer draws inspiration from what surrounds her to create her compositions, sometimes digitally. A bit surreal, they are often tinged with humor. Maia Flore takes everyday situations and turns them into comical stagings in which she is the main actress. The place of the body is at the heart of her images: it is always in motion, levitating, graceful, sometimes even merging with its environment. However, the artist hides her face so that the viewer can better identify with the character in her photographs. The exhibition itinerary highlights Maia Flore's metaphorical work, which skillfully navigates between the real world and the imaginary world, leaving room for a visual intimacy that unites the human body and the landscape. By exploring the galleries of the art center, visitors are transported into a captivating and amusing dreamlike dream.
French photographer Maia Flore, born in 1988, oscillates between France and the United States. Fresh out of the Gobelins school, she became a member of the Vu agency in 2010 and received the HSBC Photography Prize in 2015. The various residencies in which she participated and international exhibitions have led her to travel from Rio to Rome, or from Moscow to Buenos Aires. She has exhibited at the Themes+Projects gallery in San Francisco and at the Fremin gallery in New York. The themes of travel, landscapes, movement and the body are dear to her.
A swimmer rises to the surface as the wave passes at Bronte Beach, Sydney.
What started as an idea to break into the editorial news industry quickly turned into a project of it's own.
In late 2009 I was looking for a way to bring light to the humanitarian projects I was working on as the reportage series wasn't receiving any interest from the media.
At the time I was working in a photo agency in Sydney sourcing photo essays to publications; through my personal interest in the field when I sent humanitarian articles from renowned photojournalist through the wire they were met with some interest, but usually the magazines opted for human interest (novelty) or celebrity content. I thought that if I could start an easily consumable series to raise my profile in the editorial realm, it would help when I sent my humanitarian work through the wires.
10 years ago after high school I spent a few years traveling around Australia in an old station wagon filming surfing, clutching to dreams of making it in the surf film industry that would facilitate my future of cruising around the world to exotic beaches filming perfect waves. While the surfing and conditions were what I wanted to be filming, the images always left me wanting more. After trying countless experiments of camera positions (helmet camera, board camera) and different places to film while in the water (pole extensions, different lenses), I still couldn't capture what I was seeing in my mind.
Fast forward to 2009 and after directing a film in Mexico on Shark Divers I had an underwater camera which we used to get closer to the sharks than our larger cameras physically could, upon returning to Sydney I started shooting surfing again, however this time from below. A month later I was shooting a small shorebreak and was caught inside by a large set, as I dove under I noticed a group of kids next to me. I turned the camera onto them and shot them as they contorted and struggled to avoid the wave above; surfacing I glanced at the lcd screen and the first Underwater Project image was there. Entitled 'Escape', to this day it's as close to the images that I was chasing a decade ago. Soon after I traveled to remote beaches in the South Australian desert with a good friend to work on the idea further; after 6 hours in the water we ended up with 4 images that made it to the final selection, a solid start to the series.
I continued the project into 2010 with the 'swimmers diving under waves' focus, while winter brought challenges of it's own with few swimmers and rough seas the series morphed into a survival amongst the elements focus. The first editorial send created a reception from the media that is still incredible. Published in a dozen countries and print sales ranging from Brazil to Korea, the response from the industry is more than I had imagined. As 2011 breaks I'm working to link the publicity of the underwater series with humanitarian causes, by collaborating with a core ocean founded organisation for fundraising and project showcasing I'm hoping the new series focus will facilitate my original intentions.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF)'s Hayabusa-class guided-missile patrol boat JS Otaka (PG-826) navigates Tokyo Bay on October 9, 2019.
The Edgar G. Speer slowly navigates its way towards the Two Harbors Breakwater Lighthouse on its way to collect a load of taconite from the railroad. The big lake they call Gitche Gumee was proving to be a bit unruly on this day. Freezing northernly winds were sending waves crashing against the breakwater. Maybe I shouldn't have had that cold Dairy Queen ice cream before going out on the water.
Nikon F4
Nikkor 24-70 1/125 @ f11
Svema 125 from the Film Photography Project
Edited in NIK Color Efex Pro 4
Buy Prints | Blog | Google+
You have to admire the resilience and dignity with which the Japanese people are dealing with the current crisis caused by the earth quake, tsunami and now the nuclear reactor. It is horrible to watch human suffering, but I feel it is worse to watch and do nothing about it. To that end, I would like to help out in my small way. I am offering to give 100% of the profits from any sales of my photos from now through the end of March to Doctors Without Borders. To purchase prints, click on the link above.
My younger bother spent a year studying in Japan and still keeps in touch with the friends he made during his stay. Those friends are thankfully safe and they have been sharing some of their experiences and feelings with him throughout this disaster. There is a common theme of solidarity and hope in all of their stories. Here is a brief collection of posts from Japanese people regarding the crisis:
UN Secretary General, said, “Japan is one of the most generous and strongest benefactors, coming to the assistance of those in need the world over. In that spirit, the United Nations stands by the people of Japan and we will do anything and everything we can at this very difficult time.”
* On a platform
I’m twittering from the platform of Oedo Line heading for Hikari Gaoka. The platform is overcrowded. Actually, many can’t even get onto the platform and are waiting outside the ticket gate. But there is order. We are forming perfect lines. There is no partition rope but we leave room for people to walk through. Everyone is following instructions given by station staff. There is absolute order and calmness here, almost surreal in this situation. I am amazed by these people’s mental strength.
* Morning announcements
Employees gathered for morning announcements and this was said… “Whatever happens, we are in a position of responsibility. Let’s not show anxiety and welcome our customers with confidence to make them feel safe.” I was a bit moved. Let’s do this. Store is opening!
* A station employee
Tokyo Metro extended its hours of operation and operated throughout the night. I thanked one of the station employees and he replied with a smile saying, “It’s our duty and we are proud to serve when our services are most needed!” THANK YOU. YOU TOUCHED MY HEART.
*At the train station
I saw little kids telling a train station staff, “Thank you for doing your best to keep the train running yesterday.” The staff was crying. I cried big time, too.
* At a jammed crossing
I was driving home after the quakes. Streets were extremely jammed and at many crossings only one car could cross the street per green light. At a spaghetti crossing, all traffic was paralyzed for more than 5 min. All drivers, I encountered, waiting to cross streets were calm, giving way to others. All thru my 10 hr driving, I didn’t hear any honking except those showing gratitude to others. Of course this travel was scary but also heart warming. This experience made me like Japan all the more.
* Homeless People
Transport facilities were dead and I was so tired waiting so long. Then, a homeless guy gave me a cardboard saying “use this, it can warm you up”. I used to pass homeless people by even when they were begging…
* Artists
Many artists are painting and drawing to encourage people this time. Everybody is trying to do something they can do.
* Bakery
In the middle of the night, I was walking home from college. A lady at a bakery was giving out bread. She kept her bakery open till late hours and was doing what she could do to help others. I was so touched. Tokyo is still not a bad place to live! Such a heart-warming scene.
* Proud of Japan
I feel proud being Japanese. Everyone, either in the public or private sector, is trying to help each other so sincerely. I’ve heard truck drivers are offering help to transport needed goods to the affected areas. I’ve even heard yakuza mafias are volunteering to direct the traffic in Tohoku. I had been losing pride in this country recently, but I was wrong. Japan is such a great country with great people. I have been amazed by the goodwill of the Japanese people. Let us keep our spirit high and keep up the good work.
* At a supermarket
I was moved when I saw most people showed consideration for others by NOT buying more than what they absolutely need for the time being. Their act of conscience brought tears to my eyes.
* Everybody
I talked to a cab driver, a station master, and an elderly lady. They all couldn’t go home and were really tired, but showed no sign of stress in our conversations. They actually showed concern for me. I’m touched by everyone looking out for one another by realizing that “everyone is having a hard time.” This is the part of Japanese culture that I want to inherit and treasure.
* Keeping the door open
After all the news about trains suspending service, I was determined to walk home. I was heading west on Koshu Kaido Avenue, one of the major streets in Tokyo. There was an office building along the way, which kept its door open even around 9 at night. Who seemed to be an employee of that company was speaking aloud to those of us who had to walk long distance home, that their office was offering a space to rest and its restrooms were available. I was so moved and almost cried
* Free coffee
My husband walked for 4 hours to come back home. He was feeling weak at Akabane and this man offered free coffee saying “It’s pretty cold huh? Warm up with this hot coffee!” Thanks to him, my husband regained the strength to keep walking. It must have really touched him because he’s been repeating the story 5 times. Thank you to the man passing out free coffee.
*We’re closed today
One of our fellow part time workers is from the afflicted area of Tohoku region. My brother told one of the staff to tell him that he didn’t need to come to work today. That staff called him and said, “Hey, the store’s closed today. ”I was so moved by how he rephrased the message. That’s truly an example of consideration for others.
*Pray for Japan!
Cry! I was so touched I cried super hard! That international call from a stranger just now, it was a phone call of worry and support from someone who called their own number, except with Japan’s country code hoping to connect with someone in Japan! I didn’t quite understand the English, but I understood what the person was trying to say! S/he said a lot of people over there are “praying for Japan”!
*Everything’s alright
An American student living in the Chiba prefecture got on CNN. “I got in a panic, but Japanese people around me were different. They remained calm and gave each other considerate words. Check in on others to see everyone’s alright, cheer, and help each other. They were great. Japan will be alright.” The CNN reporter hoping to hear about panic was sort of disappointed…
*Unrivaled effort
I was so touched by the outstanding news that Japan Self-Defense Forces rescued almost 10,000 people from the disaster site. I had an opportunity to talk with the one who lives in Fukushima. He told me about the unrivaled effort of them. He said “people witnessed several of members of the Self Defense Forces carried 4 old people at a time, 2 on his back and 1 on each arm. Carrying 4 people at a time and run – they keep doing that without
enough eat and sleep. And there’s a smile on their face.”
* When I was young…
One day, I will tell my children and grandchildren. “When I was young, there was a huge earthquake. All the world united and helped each other. People’s feeling of goodwill was shining all over.”
*Volunteered
My father is going to be dispatched on a mission to the atomic power plant of Fukushima. I was close to crying when I heard that he volunteered for the mission, even though he retires in 6 months. “What we do now navigates the future of atomic power plant. I’m going there with a sense of responsibility.” He has been rather unreliable type at home, but… I couldn’t be prouder of him. I hope he’ll get back safe and sound.
* Okaerinasai=Welcome back!
O … Osanai (Don’t push)
Ka … Kakenai (Don’t run)
E … Egao wo wasurenai (Don’t forget to smile)
Ri … Riso wo sutenai (Retain the vision)
Na … Naite Stress hassan (Cry and release the stress)
Sa … Sayonara ha Iwanai (Never say goodbye)
I … Ikinobiru (Survive!)
I am certain that Japan’s rich culture will endure this crisis and emerge stronger for it. In the mean time, our thoughts go out to everyone affected.
About this Photo
This photo was taken during my trip through Japan with my brothers a few years ago. We were making our way North and had stopped at Kyoto for a couple of days to get to know the city. During one outing we walked through the Geisha District where all these mysterious ladies dwell. They are surprisingly hard to find and even when you do, you have to stay sharp because they disappear as quickly as they appear.
Grimsby Town to Bridlington
Harry Needle Class 20, 20311
Calder Grove, Wakefield
6th December 2019
(iPhone Foto)
My sister & her boyfriend like to hang out on the boat naked (or mostly naked). I myself kept my clothes on but I could really care less if they don't. Jeremy enjoys a smoke and cracks us up with his skills on the tiller.
bahahaaaaa
circumnavigating Sucia Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington
Mallard Duck (Disambiguation) (ˈmælɑːrd, ˈmælərd) or Wild Duck (Anas platyrhynchos)
The mallard (/ˈmælɑːrd, ˈmælərd/) or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on their wings and belly, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.7–1.6 kg (1.5–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic ducks.
The female lays eight to 13 creamy white to greenish-buff spotless eggs, on alternate days. Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days. The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.
The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Unlike many waterfowl, mallards are considered an invasive species in some regions. It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development. The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring. Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl. The wild mallard is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.
Taxonomy and evolutionary history
The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus. He gave it two binomial names: Anas platyrhynchos and Anas boschas. The latter was generally preferred until 1906 when Einar Lönnberg established that A. platyrhynchos had priority, as it appeared on an earlier page in the text. The scientific name comes from Latin Anas, "duck" and Ancient Greek πλατυρυγχος, platyrhynchus, "broad-billed" (from πλατύς, platys, "broad" and ρυγχός, rhunkhos, "bill"). The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.
The name mallard originally referred to any wild drake, and it is sometimes still used this way. It was derived from the Old French malart or mallart for "wild drake" although its true derivation is unclear. It may be related to, or at least influenced by, an Old High German masculine proper name Madelhart, clues lying in the alternative English forms "maudelard" and "mawdelard". Masle (male) has also been proposed as an influence.
Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile. This is quite unusual among such different species, and is apparently because the mallard evolved very rapidly and recently, during the Late Pleistocene. The distinct lineages of this radiation are usually kept separate due to non-overlapping ranges and behavioural cues, but have not yet reached the point where they are fully genetically incompatible. Mallards and their domestic conspecifics are also fully interfertile.
Genetic analysis has shown that certain mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives, while others are related to their American relatives. Mitochondrial DNA data for the D-loop sequence suggest that mallards may have evolved in the general area of Siberia. Mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species. The large Ice Age palaeosubspecies that made up at least the European and West Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.
Mallards are differentiated in their mitochondrial DNA between North American and Eurasian populations, but the nuclear genome displays a notable lack of genetic structure. Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and eastern spot-billed ducks can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea. The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.
Also, the paucity of morphological differences between the Old World mallards and the New World mallard demonstrates the extent to which the genome is shared among them such that birds like the Chinese spot-billed duck are highly similar to the Old World mallard, and birds such as the Hawaiian duck are highly similar to the New World mallard.
The size of the mallard varies clinally; for example, birds from Greenland, though larger, have smaller bills, paler plumage, and stockier bodies than birds further south and are sometimes classified as a separate subspecies, the Greenland mallard (A. p. conboschas).
Description
The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks. It is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long – of which the body makes up around two-thirds – has a wingspan of 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and weighs 0.7–1.6 kg (1.5–3.5 lb). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 25.7 to 30.6 cm (10.1 to 12.0 in), the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in), and the tarsus is 4.1 to 4.8 cm (1.6 to 1.9 in).
The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and a white collar that demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey-brown wings, and a pale grey belly. The rear of the male is black, with white-bordered dark tail feathers. The bill of the male is a yellowish-orange tipped with black, with that of the female generally darker and ranging from black to mottled orange and brown. The female mallard is predominantly mottled, with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat, and neck, with a darker crown and eye-stripe.
Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult. Upon hatching, the plumage of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face (with streaks by the eyes) and black on the back (with some yellow spots) all the way to the top and back of the head. Its legs and bill are also black. As it nears a month in age, the duckling's plumage starts becoming drab, looking more like the female, though more streaked, and its legs lose their dark grey colouring. Two months after hatching, the fledgling period has ended, and the duckling is now a juvenile. Between three and four months of age, the juvenile can finally begin flying, as its wings are fully developed for flight (which can be confirmed by the sight of purple speculum feathers). Its bill soon loses its dark grey colouring, and its sex can finally be distinguished visually by three factors:
1) the bill is yellow in males, but black and orange in females;
2) the breast feathers are reddish-brown in males, but brown in females; and
3) in males, the centre tail feather (drake feather) is curled, but in females, the centre tail feather is straight.
During the final period of maturity leading up to adulthood (6–10 months of age), the plumage of female juveniles remains the same while the plumage of male juveniles gradually changes to its characteristic colours. This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period. The adulthood age for mallards is fourteen months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to twenty.
Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females that can be confused with the female mallard. The female gadwall (Mareca strepera) has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum that is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird. More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A. rubripes), which is notably darker-hued in both sexes than the mallard, and the mottled duck (A. fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, and with slightly different bare-part colouration and no white edge on the speculum.
In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours. Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc., where they are rare but increasing in availability.
A noisy species, the female has the deep quack stereotypically associated with ducks. Male mallards make a sound phonetically similar to that of the female, a typical quack, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female. When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack. This maternal vocalisation is highly attractive to their young. The repetition and frequency modulation of these quacks form the auditory basis for species identification in offspring, a process known as acoustic conspecific identification. In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with. When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.
The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds. Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south. Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall. Examples of this rule in birds are rare as they lack external ears, but the bill of ducks is supplied with a few blood vessels to prevent heat loss, and, as in the Greenland mallard, the bill is smaller than that of birds farther south, illustrating the rule.
Due to the variability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids, such as Brewer's duck (mallard × gadwall, Mareca strepera).
Distribution and habitat
The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia and Britain to the north, and to Siberia Japan and South Korea. Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere. It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south. For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May. A drake later named "Trevor" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.
The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions. It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline. Water depths of less than 0.9 metres (3.0 ft) are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.
Behaviour
Feeding
The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food. Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and interspecific and intraspecific competition The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, insects (including beetles, flies, lepidopterans, dragonflies, and caddisflies), crustaceans, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers. During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter. Plants generally make up the larger part of a bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.
The mallard usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing; there are reports of it eating frogs. However, in 2017 a flock of mallards in Romania were observed hunting small migratory birds, including grey wagtails and black redstarts, the first documented occasion they had been seen attacking and consuming large vertebrates. It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water. It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as "sordes."
Breeding
Mallards usually form pairs (in October and November in the Northern Hemisphere) until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring. At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period, which begins in June (in the Northern Hemisphere). During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches (for female mallards that have lost or abandoned their previous clutch) or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.
Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.
Egg clutches number 8–13 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles. They measure about 58 mm (2.3 in) in length and 32 mm (1.3 in) in width. The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete. Incubation takes 27–28 days and fledging takes 50–60 days. The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.[citation needed] However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food. When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes (unless they are born and raised in captivity).In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.
In cases where a nest or brood fails, some mallards may mate for a second time in an attempt to raise a second clutch, typically around early-to-mid summer. In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather; one such instance of a ‘late’ clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.
During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them.[86] Males tend to fight more than females, and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions. Female mallards are also known to carry out 'inciting displays', which encourages other ducks in the flock to begin fighting. It is possible that this behaviour allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.
The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female. Lebret (1961) calls this behaviour "Attempted Rape Flight", and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons (1977) speak of "rape-intent flights". Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way. In one documented case of "homosexual necrophilia", a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window.[89] This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.
Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovellers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards. These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.
Predators and threats
In addition to human hunting, Mallards of all ages (but especially young ones) and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish, felids, and canids, the last two including domestic ones. The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes (which most often pick off brooding females) and the faster or larger birds of prey, e.g. peregrine falcons, Aquila eagles, or Haliaeetus eagles. In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from northern harriers (Circus hudsonius) and short-eared owls (Asio flammeus) (both smaller than a mallard) to huge bald, (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), and about a dozen species of mammalian predator, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.
Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as the grey heron (Ardea cinerea), the European herring gull (Larus argentatus), the wels catfish (Silurus glanis), and the northern pike (Esox lucius). Crows (Corvus spp.) are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion. Also, mallards may be attacked by larger Anseriformes such as swans (Cygnus spp.) and geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes. Mute swans (Cygnus olor) have been known to attack or even kill mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring.
The predation-avoidance behaviour of sleeping with one eye open, allowing one brain hemisphere to remain aware while the other half sleeps, was first demonstrated in mallards, although it is believed to be widespread among birds in general.
Status and conservation
Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. This is because it has a large range–more than 20,000,000 km2 (7,700,000 mi2)–and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating. Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.
Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the world – so much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions. They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours. While most are not domesticated, mallards are so successful at coexisting in human regions that the main conservation risk they pose comes from the loss of genetic diversity among a region's traditional ducks once humans and mallards colonise an area. Mallards are very adaptable, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development. The release of feral mallards in areas where they are not native sometimes creates problems through interbreeding with indigenous waterfowl. These non-migratory mallards interbreed with indigenous wild ducks from local populations of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring. Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl. The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.
Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop; the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself. This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck (A. s. superciliosa) subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species (and thus entitled to more conservation research and funding) or included in the mallard species. Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species; for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century. Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success. In summary, the problems of mallards "hybridising away" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading; allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent.
Invasiveness
Mallards are causing severe "genetic pollution" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks even though the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds – an agreement to protect the local waterfowl populations – applies to the mallard as well as other ducks. The hybrids of mallards and the yellow-billed duck are fertile, capable of producing hybrid offspring. If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl. The mallard can crossbreed with 63 other species, posing a severe threat to indigenous waterfowl's genetic integrity. Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources, including nest sites, roosting sites, and food.
Availability of mallards, mallard ducklings, and fertilised mallard eggs for public sale and private ownership, either as poultry or as pets, is currently legal in the United States, except for the state of Florida, which has currently banned domestic ownership of mallards. This is to prevent hybridisation with the native mottled duck.
The mallard is considered an invasive species in New Zealand, where it competes with the local New Zealand grey duck, which was overhunted in the past. There, and elsewhere, mallards are spreading with increasing urbanisation and hybridising with local relatives.
The eastern or Chinese spot-billed duck is currently introgressing into the mallard populations of the Primorsky Krai, possibly due to habitat changes from global warming. The Mariana mallard was a resident allopatric population – in most respects a good species – apparently initially derived from mallard-Pacific black duck hybrids; unfortunately, it became extinct in the late 20th century.
The Laysan duck is an insular relative of the mallard, with a very small and fluctuating population. Mallards sometimes arrive on its island home during migration, and can be expected to occasionally have remained and hybridised with Laysan ducks as long as these species have existed. However, these hybrids are less well adapted to the peculiar ecological conditions of Laysan Island than the local ducks, and thus have lower fitness. Laysan ducks were found throughout the Hawaiian archipelago before 400 CE, after which they suffered a rapid decline during the Polynesian colonisation. Now, their range includes only Laysan Island. It is one of the successfully translocated birds, after having become nearly extinct in the early 20th century.
Relationship with humans
Domestication
Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterways – even to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.
Mallards have had a long relationship with humans. Almost all domestic duck breeds derive from the mallard, with the exception of a few Muscovy breeds, and are listed under the trinomial name A. p. domesticus. Mallards are generally monogamous while domestic ducks are mostly polygamous. Domestic ducks have no territorial behaviour and are less aggressive than mallards. Domestic ducks are mostly kept for meat; their eggs are also eaten, and have a strong flavour. They were first domesticated in Southeast Asia at least 4,000 years ago, during the Neolithic Age, and were also farmed by the Romans in Europe, and the Malays in Asia. As the domestic duck and the mallard are the same species as each other, It is common for mallards to mate with domestic ducks and produce hybrid offspring that are fully fertile. Because of this, mallards have been found to be contaminated with the genes of the domestic duck.
While the keeping of domestic breeds is more popular, pure-bred mallards are sometimes kept for eggs and meat, although they may require wing clipping to restrict flying, or training to navigate and fly home.
Hunting
Mallards are one of the most common varieties of ducks hunted as a sport due to the large population size. The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food. Hunting mallards might cause the population to decline in some places, at some times, and with some populations. In certain countries, the mallard may be legally shot but is protected under national acts and policies. For example, in the United Kingdom, the mallard is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which restricts certain hunting methods or taking or killing mallards.
As food
Since ancient times, the mallard has been eaten as food. The wild mallard was eaten in Neolithic Greece. Usually, only the breast and thigh meat is eaten. It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port.
[Credit: en.wikipedia.org/]
The steep, zig-zagging driveway, most unpaved, sometimes makes it difficult to navigate in the winter.
One of two 1800-series 2-6-2 type engines. Possible 2 more to be built. No. 1801 here in red and with Christmas wreath.
Design goals: L-size drivers, navigates R40 well, Powered Up system, realistic but not necessarily scale model.
Features single PUp train motor in the tender with self-centering (fake) truck frames.
Canadian Musuem For Human Rights - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
I love all the angles and play of light and shadow with these backlit glowing alabaster rampways (of which there is about a full kilometre to navigate).
Heres a view of the navigating house on board the Mauretania.
The Mauretania was built by the shipbuilders Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd, at the Wallsend shipyard and was one of the most famous ships ever built on Tyneside.
Ref: TWAS:DS.SWH/4/PH/7/6/55
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Milang and the Murray River Boat Trade.
In 1853 the governor of SA offered a reward of £4,000 to the first river steam boat to navigate the Murray to Wentworth and beyond. Captain Francis Cadell working with William Younghusband, a close friend of the governor received the prize although Captain William Randell of Mannum reached Wentworth in his steam boat at the same time. Cadell had named his boat after the wife of the Governor, the Lady Augusta and the Governor and a small party travelled on Captain Cadell’s boat. After this financial boost Cadell went on to establish the River Murray Navigation Company based in Goolwa. Randell established his own shipping line based in Mannum. The river trade began in earnest in 1854. The prize was intercolonial transportation of goods into western NSW and southern Qld via the Darling River from Wentworth. In the 1850s there was almost no settlement in SA along the river so the money to be made was in NSW and the upper reaches of the Murray in Victoria. Randell transported flour to Echuca, for example, for overland transport from Echuca to the goldfields at Bendigo. The early river steamers and barges were manufactured along the Murray and the lakes, often at Goolwa or Mannum or in Milang. Wool was the staple product shipped down the river from NSW and the return trips took up flour, sugar, tea, pianos, furniture, engines or whatever outback stations needed. Customs duties were due at the SA/NSW/Vic border and the Qld border. Milang established a niche role for itself in the riverboat trade; it made steamers and barges, provided captains and skilled navigators and handled the bulk of supplies going up to NSW as Milang was the closest and easiest river port to Adelaide. Duranda Terrace in Milang handled 50 to 60% of all SA exports up the river. Merchants flourished here and Landseers established a large wool handling and warehousing business with offices in Morgan, Murray Bridge, Goolwa, Wentworth, Wilcannia and Mildura. But their headquarters were in Milang.
Albert Landseer the company founder was born in England in 1829 and was a cousin to the famous British landscape painter of the same surname. Albert studied sculpture himself but gave it up to immigrate to SA. He became the agent for Captain Cadell of Goolwa in 1856 and from that contract he expanded his business all along the river. He had ten children with his first wife and six with his second. He controlled almost all the trade through Milang and was known as the “Duke of Milang.” His business partner who contributed financial support was William Dunk. Albert Landseer died in 1906 as the river trade was starting to reduce. Landseer contributed to the district by becoming a member of parliament and was a popular local identify. Alas his four storey stone flour mill and three storey warehouse in Duranda Terrace were both demolished a long time ago. (His impressive wool store in Morgan still stands.) Landseer’s flour mill operated from around 1870 to 1890 replacing the Pavy flour mill that was established in Milang in the 1850s to supply flour for the riverboat trade. The heyday of the riverboat trade was in the 19th century. Before any railways reached western NSW almost all trade was carried on the river through SA. Railways reached western NSW and upper Victoria in the 1880s. But the river trade persisted as so many stations were situated right on the banks of the Darling River and so river transport was the easiest and cheapest right into the middle 1920s. The first jetty was constructed in Milang in 1856 to get the river trade going. It was increased in length in 1859 and again in 1869 until it was 217 metres (711 feet) long. A tram track took cargo to the end of the jetty. The great Murray flood of 1956 saw half the jetty washed away.
Although much of the river boat trade died away in the 1920s some services continued, especially the local steamer service across Lake Alexandrina. Once the railway from Adelaide reached Milang in 1884 a service was started to connect with the trains to take passenger and freight across the lakes to Poltalloch station, Meningie and from there overland through the Coorong to the South East and Melbourne. The paddle steamer Dispatch plied this route from 1877 between Milang and Meningie. After 1884 other vessels were also used on this route. Trade declined considerably in Milang itself after 1878 when the SA railway reached Morgan. It then became the major river port, rather than Milang.
Because of the river trade Milang had a thriving boat building industry. George Ross established engineering works in Milang and then branched out into boats. Ross’ major competitor was Frank Potts of Langhorne Creek who built his boats in Milang too. Potts built many of the boats used by Landseer’s company. The last boat built for Landseer was the Marion in 1897. This is the paddle steamer now in the Museum at Mannum. Another well known boat builder in Milang was C.H.F. Kruse. The register of steamers built in Milang lists:
1857The Enterprise.
1872 The Ponkaree.
1873Landseer’s floating dry dock was built and then later sold on to William Randell at Mannum in 1876.
1875The Wilcannia.
1876The Annie and the Bourke.
1877The Avoca and the Dispatch.
1878The Milang, the Elsie, the John Hart and the Victor.
1880The Mary Ann (second steamer of this name).
1891The Ada and Clara. (This was financed by the Bowmans for the lake crossing to Poltalloch Station.)
1892The Advance and the Retreat.
1897The Agnostic, the Marion and the Tarella.
1898The Etona (used by the Anglican Church for services along the Murray from Murray Bridge to Renmark.)
1911The Elsie (second steamer of this name).
Although the river trade was starting to die off in the early 20th century in 1902 the lock system was agreed upon by the states. It was mainly built to provide a constant river level free from snags in the Murray. The locks were also to control river flows in times of drought and keep the Murray navigable. The first Murray River lock was started in 1915 and finished at Blanchetown in 1922. It took another 20 years for the remaining 25 locks along the river to Albury to be completed. The final stage of this project really was the construction of the five barrages to prevent salt water from entering the lakes and Murray River. They were completed in 1940.
A Brief History of Milang.
The settlers of Strathalbyn were anxious to have a port near their town especially after the Wheal Ellen mine began operations in 1857. In August 1853 Captains Cadell and Randell had proved the viability of river trade. In light of this the Surveyor General Arthur Freeling ordered a township to be laid out on the shores of Lake Alexandrina near where the Bremer and Angas rivers enter the lake. A site was selected on high ground away from both river mouths. Milang was laid out by January 1854. The town had a grid pattern, like Adelaide surrounded by parklands on three sides and the lake on the other. Blocks must have sold quickly as in 1857 a private development was laid out beyond the parklands by Dr Rankine of Strathalbyn. The town name was selected from a local Aboriginal word “Millangk” which meant place of sorcery and magic. Some might argue that Milang is still a magical place!
Among the purchasers of the first town lots, as was to be the case in Langhorne Creek too, were the elite of Strathalbyn- the Gollans, Stirlings, Dawsons etc. Other pioneers of Milang were the Landseer family and G Chalken. Chalken owned the Lake Hotel, established in 1856 in a side street. The Pier Hotel facing the lake was built in 1857 and still stands. Landseer soon opened a general store and Post Office. He bought machinery from the original Pavy flour mill and built a new one in 1871. Around this time he also erected a large wool store and other warehouses along Duranda Terrace making him the main businessman in town. Milang blossomed overnight on the expectation of successful river trading. A South Australian Register newspaper article in 1857 described the new town thus: “Milang is becoming a very bustling little port and will shortly grow into a place of importance. Already it has two inns, a steam mill, a store of some extent, a chapel in the course of erection, a timber yard and a jetty on which there were lying on Tuesday the Symmetry twenty five tons, the Blue Jacket five tons and the Enterprise eight tons. There are now about one hundred and ten souls in the township and several hundred settlers within a radius of two or three miles. Cultivation is progressing extensively and wheat and flour are continuously shipped, and also silver and lead from Strathalbyn and the Wheal Ellen mines.” Alas Milang is no longer a bustling port or town!
As with most other towns the first public structures were the two hotels and the early school room in 1856. This purpose built school is still in use. The first church erected was the Church of Christ in Coxe Street in 1857. This church was enlarged in 1899 and again in 1901. By 1866 Milang had two further churches the Primitive Methodist erected in 1866 in Chapel Street and the Congregational Church erected in 1862 in Stephenson Street. The Congregational Church originally had a thatched roof and it is now the Uniting Church. The Anglican Church was not built until 1911 and its completion was financially assisted by the Dunk family. Before then Anglican services were conducted in the Institute building. Mrs Landseer laid the foundation stone of the Institute in January 1884. James Rankine of Strathalbyn opened the Institute later that year. By 1890 it was free of debt and in 1917 further additions were made to it. A District Council was formed in Milang in 1855 and the first meetings were held in nearby Belvedere. A police station opened in Milang in 1865 but Milang began to slide backwards shortly after that. The tramway to Strathalbyn in 1869 bypassed Milang despite pleas for it to travel via Milang. However they did get a rail line in 1884 to link with the Adelaide line at Sandergrove. In 1893 a butter factory opened in Milang, the Lakeside Butter Factory which exported local butter to England. It closed in 1915. It re-opened some time later and was still operating in the 1930s. The infamous shacks along the lake foreshore were built around 1948. The Milang Progress Association controlled the area until the local Council resumed control in 1967. Despite government threats to their existence the shack owners have had several reprieves and they are still there.
1. Site of the former Landseer’s General Store, flour mill and warehouse and wool store. Now a row of shops.
2. Pier Hotel dating from 1857. Limestone, brick quoins, diagonal front door. Note the memorial to Captain Charles Sturt opposite the hotel.
3. Milang Butter factory. Note curved factory roof. Began as Lakeside Butter around 1894. Closed for a short time around 1904. Then operated through to mid 1930s lastly by SA Farmers Union. Milk was delivered from Meningie by lake steamer.
4. Headmaster’s House. This villa houses built around 1900 is in typical Education Department style. Turn left into Rivers Street.
5. Primary School. The first school room was built 1856. Much of the still standing old school was completed in 1865. It has a high gable, single window in the gable and a door on the side with another single window. It is the oldest purpose built school room still being used in SA for its original purpose. The rest is far more modern.
6. Old Bake House. This single storey shop has been converted into salt-box style house called the Rookery. The house was erected in the mid 1850s and the second storey was added in 1868. Shops were then added each end of the house in 1870. The house is restored. Note the small windows to the street in typical 1850s style. Made of limestone with render and whitewash it has a skillion roof. The first Church of Christ services were held here before the church opened in 1857.
7. Ted Burgess Butcher’s shop. Diagonally opposite Robert’s General Store the former shop is now a residence. Note the large shop style window to the street and the attractive concave veranda. The shop was built around 1870 and was for many years a butcher shop. Butchery ceased here in 1947.
8. Robert’s Corner Store. Originally this shop had a shingle roof with diagonal shop doors and a low roof line. It closed as a general store in 1988! Once you walk past it you might be able to see the Robert’s General store sign in the back yard. When it closed in 1988 it still had some stock that was over 60 years old. Was it past the used by date? The Roberts family operated the store from 1905 to 1988.This is a real mid 1850s building.
9. Old Lake Hotel. This hotel was licensed in 1856. It is quite impressive and has decorative corbels in cement which were used to support the roof. Note the metal air vents. It has a stripped painted veranda roof. It has many uses since it closed as a hotel many years ago. Note the old stables at the rear.
10. Milang Post Office. Postal services began in 1867 from Landseer’s store. The Post Office which looks like a residence opened in 1880. The gable end has a single window. It is across Luard Street in what was once parklands.
11. Milang Police Station. A cottage police station was opened in 1866. The fine station we can see today was built in 1874. It has a central gable and a single room breaks the front veranda. Note the decorative barge boards. It is made of local limestone with brick quoins.
12. Milang Institute. This was opened in 1884 by James Rankine. The impressive façade has good symmetry. The slightly rounded windows have semi-circular windows above them and a large round air vent in the top triangular pediment. In the 19th century everyone was concerned about ventilation whilst wearing all those skirts and jackets and ties. The building has good proportions, limestone walls and cement quoins. Note the stunning urns on the corners of the building. The outside stair case and library room were added in the 1920s and the modern supper room was added in 1962.
13. Dunk family home. Turn left in Ameroo Avenue beside the Soldiers Memorial Park. If you look at the back of the house on the opposite corner you can see the original Dunk family 1850s cottage which had the bigger Dunk residence added in Ameroo Avenue. The front house dates from the 1880s by its style. The Dunks contributed to the Anglican Church which is further up Luard Street towards Adelaide. That church was opened in 1911. Continue walking down Ameroo Avenue towards the lake. But if you want to walk further to the west along Coxe Street behind the Dunk home you will find the Church of Christ which was the first church opened in Milang in 1857.
14. Old Railway Station. Unusually for SA Milang got a wooden station. The rail service ended in 1968. The museum here is staffed by volunteers. Allow 10 -20 minutes to visit it.
Milang Cemetery.
Albert Landseer’s grave is here dated 1906. Adjacent plots include his first wife, 1871, and his second wife and some children. Next to Landseer is the Dunk family plots. They business partners of Landseers. Nearby is the Chalken family, the original owners of the Pier Hotel. A usual symbol for riverboat captains is an anchor on their headstones. Such graves include Captain Thomas Jones who died in 1879; Captain Dan Cremer who died in 1942; and Captain George Jeffrey Wallace who died in 1906.
Langhorne Creek.
The pastoralists moved into the well watered areas along the Bremer River early in the 1840s. The locality was named after two adventurers of the 1840s who had driven a flock of sheep to SA from NSW in 1841 for a local pastoralist. They were Alfred and Henry Langhorne and the district took their name. Pastoralism ended early here with the declaration of the Hundreds of Bremer and of Finniss in 1851.This meant that some of the land had been surveyed and was ready for sale to farmers for £1 per acre. The first person to buy land along the Bremer here was Frank Potts. Potts was born in 1815, arrived in SA in 1836 and purchased his land around 1851. He went on to establish vines here and his winery was one of the first established in SA. The rich alluvial soil washed down by the annual floods of the Bremer River were excellent for vine cultivation. He called his winery Bleasdale Winery which is still operating and houses the historic wine press. The press was used from 1892 until 1962 and it is 43 feet long and 23 feet high! From its earliest days the winery has specialised in Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz grapes. Frank Potts also made money from building boats at Milang for the river trade. His boats included the Beltana (1873), the Wilcannia (1875), the Bourke (1876), the Dispatch (1877) and the Milang (1878). His boat names indicate they were used for the wool trade up the Murray-Darling to Wilcannia, Bourke and beyond.
When the Langhorne Creek lands were offered for sale most of the early purchasers were land speculators from Adelaide or prominent landholders from nearby Strathalbyn. The Strathalbyn land occupiers including the McLeans, the Rankines of Glen Barr estate, Sir Edward Stirling of the Lodge mansion and other locals such as Sir William Milne( married into the Stirlings ) Bairds, Bayers, Hills, Greens and Borretts. John Borrett was one of the first to start farming here on his property called Raydon Farm. It was the land agent speculator George Green who laid out the private township of Langhorne Creek in 1854 but the hotel at Langhorne Creek was licensed and opened in 1850 with James Baird as publican. The hotel was used by the Gold Escort troopers going to the Victorian goldfields via the established Wellington ferry. Most town blocks were not sold until 1857 but by the 1860s the township had a school (1861), a Primitive Methodist Church (1867), saddlery, a general store and Post Office. In 1892 one optimistic fellow, Charles Grey opened a brewery here as it had a good supply of high quality water. The brewery did not last for long and appears to have closed about 1895. The town businesses did well from Sunday tourists and picnickers from Strathalbyn and long distance travellers heading to Wellington and the ferry across the Murray. Langhorne’s Creek was changed to Langhorne Creek in 1941 when the state government removed punctuation from all town and place names. Some buildings to look out for in Langhorne Creek:
•The Langhorne Creek Hotel on the banks of the Bremer River. Inside it has a good collection of historic photographs. Dates from 1850.
•The Soldiers Memorial Hall (for World War One) opened in 1934. Note it is the Langhorne’s Creek Hall.
•Langhorne Creek store. On the southern end is the old Post Office. It was operating well before 1870.The Post Office end has typical 1860s multi-paned style widows used in shops or offices.
•Old stables and coaching house. Next to the General Store. Good limestone buildings with brick quoins. Langhorne Creek was a coaching staging place for a change of horses on trips to Wellington and beyond.
•Old school building. This was erected in 1861 long before schools were state government responsibilities. Note the Georgian style many paned windows. An earlier schoolroom operated from 1855.
•St. John’s Anglican Church and tower. Opened by Sir Lancelot Stirling in 1929.
•On the other side of the street is the old hall with the galvanised projection booth for movies. It was the Oddfellows Hall built in 1870. Used as the town community hall until the building of the 1934 Memorial Hall. Projection box added for movies in the 1930s. Note the fine details around the windows.
The Langhorne Creek district only receives 375 mm (15 inches) of rain but its proximity to the lakes mitigates this low figure. Summer breezes have high humidity lowering the temperatures. Frequent flooding deposits new silt, with high moisture holding capacity. Because of the frequent flooding and humidity, supplementary summer irrigation is often not needed. But Langhorne Creek has its own privately funded irrigation scheme. The scheme began in 1996 when over 40 local farmers decided to contribute to it. Water is raised 27 metres above the level of the lake and pumped up to 17 kms away to 52 participants of the scheme. The availability of water for irrigation has seen the wine region expand greatly. There are now six other wineries apart from the Bleasdale winery in the district. After the implementation of the irrigation scheme grape tonnage rose from 10,000 tons a year to 51,000 tons in just a couple of years. It has been expanding ever since. Langhorne Creek is now the third biggest wine grape growing region of SA. Almost 90% of the wine produced is red wine. The district has also expanded the plantings of Verdelho vines in recent years too. And the region also produces the SA Newman’s horse radish.