Rain locusts and serendipity

Finally in beautiful Victoria after a delayed flight - arrived to rain rain and more rain. What a contrast to Western Australia. Picked up our hire "bus" and headed out to our first stop of Bendigo. Most of us haven't seen rain like this all year. The landscape is so undulating that the black clouds seemed to merge with the paddocks. Quite spectacular although a bit challenging for the driver! Tonight we attended the Loddon Mallee women's health forum where we met a group of women from farms mostly north and north west of Bendigo. One woman I was chatting to came from a town called Speed and said the crops this year looked amazing bit everyone was getting concerned about the impending locust plague. They are obviously experienced with locusts and the damage they can do, in fact she told the story about a locust plague they had back in april where in just one morning they lost all their stock feed supplies - wiped put by a single locust plague. If it's not one thing it's another!
The guest speaker tonight was Professor Kate Auty, Magistrate and Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability. An interesting lady who spent a great deal of her childhood in Australia's north which influenced her highly successful career in law, particularly in regard to her involvement in establishing the Indigenous Koori courts in Victoria and WA. Her simple but effective message was that success is determined by Transience (broad geographical experience), Serendipity (being in the right place at the right time),and plain hard work (can't avoid that!). Off to Birchip tomorrow.