"Sink holes" form in limestone plains when the roof of an underground cave falls in. I expored a few of these in the Nullabor in 1961. Well, Mount Gambier has two of them in the city area. Both have been turned into sunken gardens. The biggest is the Umpherston Sinkhole (named after the family who were pastoralists there when the first attempts at gardening were tried). Photos show that in the late C19 the sinkhole formed a lake (the water table was very high then). By 1930's the floor had dried out and extensive gardening was possible.
The sinkhole is surrounded by delightful gardens featuring Australian native trees.
South Australian magpies have slightly different markings to the Victorian ones. This one is eyeing Tia (who is just out of the picture). Tia thought she could fool this bird by pretending not to notice her and to skip about nearby and THEN jump at her. Needless to say it didn't work and the magpie waited just long enough before slowly moving away. She has obviously met young city-bred dogs before.
We moved on to the Blue Lake, the stand-out attraction at Mount Gambier. The locals said we shouldn't expect it to be too blue at this time of the year but I don't think it was too bad.
That night was cold but the clear sky gave us a lovely travelling day the next day. We set out to drive to Tailem Bend (about 380 K) but decided to slip off to Meningie (still 345K for the day). Meningie is a small rural/holiday town on Lake Albert (which is attached to Lake Alexandrina - the last lake before the sea on the Murray River). Full of water and looking good.
There were some pelicans which kept us amused.
"OH goodness - I AM late home from the pub"
("If I look very contrite maybe she'll let me back!")
"Ah yes! She's a good old stick!"
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