One of the great joys of taking the Big Lap is stumbling into new experiences and embracing new opportunities.
While these might typically include staying at cattle stations, going on bushwalks, or taking up watercolour painting, grey nomads might now have to add acting as human scarecrows to the list!
Just outside the Western Australian town of Denmark, a company called Denmark Heritage Cider has successfully been using older travellers to help keep birds off its precious fruit for several years.
It all started after the local council stopped the business from using gas guns to scare the parrots away, and owner Stuart Douglass had to get creative. He quickly realised that the best way to keep the birds away was to have people in the orchard … and the rest is history.
“We put out an ad and from there had people start to come through and we’ve had many grey nomads come through ever since,” he told the West Australian newspaper. “Right now we are focused on two species, the red caps and the 28s. They have very small claws and they just peck away through the flesh and go straight for the seeds and then they just throw the food away … the bird that does the most damage to us is the black cockatoo.”
Grey nomads Rob and Julie Boardman from Adelaide were travelling in the west when they noticed the parrot scaring advert … and now they are happily parked up at the orchard in their caravan.
“We just thought it was a great way to support a farmer, while being able to stay in a great location and see the sights,” Mr Boardman told the West Australian. “We walk the orchard and scare the birds away, it’s mostly walking up and down, shouting and scaring them away but we have found that they very much dislike Scottish music, so we blast that through the orchard and that really keeps them away.”
And the Boardmans, and other ‘human scarecrow’ grey nomads, are making a massive difference with Mr Douglass saying they had helped production to increase significantly.
“This is the most important time of the year so to have a human presence in the orchard is so important … it’s been great and we love meeting the people that come through … they are all volunteers and just love their time here,” he said. “We’ve had so many different groups come through and they find that they enjoy the area so much and actually stay longer; we’ve had people come through and stay for a year.”
Denmark Heritage Cider has a producer’s licence which allows it to use anything it grows to make wine, including apple cider and plum and lemon wines.
The most unusual experience I have had is coming over Mt Hotham in January. Yes January and it snowed heavily.We could not see a thing after going thru the arch Could not see the road, three ton of caravan on and the only thing you could make out was the sign warning you about black ice.Well my co pilot and cook was absolutely silent, yes silent for about 45 minutes.So snow at that time of the year unusual but the boss quiet for that long is truly my most unusual experience.Stevo.