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4 August 2003<br />I spent today driving through western Victoria. Down the Geelong Freeway, onto the Princes Highway, then through Colac and Camperdown, both towns I have worked in before. Near Terang I turned north, heading to Mortlake. There the road joins the Hamilton Highway. It was along this stretch that I stopped for the first time when I saw an abandoned homestead and got the camera out for some shots. I stopped again near the town of Hamilton this time to photograph a small stand of trees in the middle of a paddock.<br />

Castleton 2003

Colin Ewington
2006-03-16 10:20:52

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/>I found the kindergarten without any problems and made myself known to the director. She let me organise the children, when we went outside to photograph them playing in the yard. The morning session was finished around 11 am.
I drove the 30 kilometres back to Casterton and had enough time to drop off the exposed films into my room before heading to next kindergarten session just around the corner to the motel. By time the children had finished their lunch and my coffee was consumed I started work. Again the director let me take organised shots when the children played outside. As I was leaving at 2 pm the mums and dads were waiting to pick up their children.

6 August 2003
This morning I started a 150 kilometre round trip from Castleton, east towards Colarain then north to Balmoral. Blue skies with some cloud was the weather forecast. I stopped a couple of times to film the countryside before arriving in the small village.
Next to the primary school was the kindergarten. As I was unloading my gear, I heard the voice of the director telling me where the front gate was. It was only the day before when I photographed her children at Colarain and there was no need to introduce myself again. Fifteen children, all in the four to five year old bracket and easy to work with. I was on my way back to Castalton before the children sat down for lunch. Again my video camera was brought out to record the scenery along the way.

7 August 2003
This was to be my last day working in the Castleton area. Last night I had a meal in my room instead of the pubs dining room. While I was waiting for my meal I sat down in the public bar and got into a conversation with a gentleman who was running a demonstration on farming practices. Which explained why the lounge was so busy and no room for me to have a meal. When the meal was ready I left him to start his lecture and made my way back to my unit to eat.

It was a long five-hour ...