the adventures of pen and jane issue 6

zz

The Adventures of Pen and Jane

July 2015 Issue Number: SixBen Campbell

and Jade Baker-Edwards

White Ford Falcon Station Wagon

Somewhere in Australia

TELEPHONE 0401 514 832 328 SKX

Our two week road trip from Perth,

Western Australia to Willalooka, South

Australia

B. Campbell and J. Baker-Edwards, White Ford Falcon Station Wagon, Somewhere in Australia | 0401 514 832 | [email protected]

One . Last . Time . So here we are, in the last ever Australia edition of The Adventures of Pen and Jane which has documented our lives during the last two years of living, working and extensively travelling in Australia. It pains me to be writing this final account as it is forcing me to reminisce about a life that I am not yet ready to leave behind. Australia has been good to us and will always have a special place in our hearts. On April 9th, we finally crossed our theoretical finish line in Port Augusta, marking an entire loop around the country. Of course this was a very bittersweet and anticlimactic occasion because although we were proud of what we had accomplished, the finality of it all reaped lament. We had seen all that we set out to and there the adventure ended. My accurately annotated pirate map featured below illustrates the route we have taken. Let your eyes start at the top in Darwin and follow our adventure, finishing in Willalooka in the south. The blue pins show where we have stopped for prolonged periods to work.

The Splattered Butterfly


The Adventures of Pen and Jane PAGE2

Our Journey

Alice Springs to Cairns (Green Line) We then headed north east to beautiful Far North

Queensland where we spent four months working in hospitality in Palm Cove (near Cairns). By the time we left in January 2014, we had become very attached to the area which boasted idyllic beaches, rainforest, mountains and swimming holes. Additionally, we had had a fantastic time working with and befriending wonderful people that made us feel at home. (See TAOPAJ Issue 1).

The Splattered Butterfly: our route and the end result of our ever-changing plans. Here is

a breakdown of our wanderings.

Rock art in Kakadu Devils Marbles

Kings CanyonAyres Rock

Darwin to Alice Springs (Top Yellow Line) We arrived in freezing Melbourne on the 25th July, 2013

and flew up to Darwin three days later. There, we spent two weeks sorting out important things like bank accounts and buying our partner in crime, Sky (our Ford Falcon Station Wagon). We then started our first Australian road trip down to Alice Springs via Kakadu National Park for a shot of Indigenous Culture. We experienced the outback first hand and visited famous sites such as Ayres Rock and the Devils Marbles.

Cairns to Melbourne (Right Blue Line) In January 2014 we started our biggest road trip and

therefore the longest period of living out of Sky. We drove all the way down the east coast hitting popular spots such as Airlie Beach, Fraser Island, the Sunshine Coast and Sydney. From there we carried on all the way to Melbourne, taking our time and visiting everywhere that we could. (See TAOPAJ Issue 2).

Cape TribulationMy work friends

Palm Cove Milaa Milaa Falls

The Whitsundays

Coffs Harbour

Nimbin Museum

Sydney Opera House

Tasmania (Pink Line) From Melbourne on 28th Feb 2014, we flew to Tasmania

for five days where we hired a Nissan Micra with a roof-top tent. We drove a loop around the tiny and cold, but beautiful state.

When we got back to Melbourne we flew straight to New Zealand where we spent three weeks going around both North Island and South Island, fitting as much in as we possibly could. (See TAOPAJ Issue 2).

Near Queenstown, TASRichmond Bridge

Near Wanaka, NZ Fox Glacier, NZ


Barrabup Pool, Naanup

Willalooka to Broome (Purple Line) On the 2nd July 2014, we spent three weeks travelling up

through the red centre and west to Broome. We visited the Barossa Valley, the Flinders Ranges, and the Kimberley which is a beautiful area full of gorges and waterfalls. We even made it to Wolfe Creek! (See TAOPAJ Issue 4).

We stayed in Broome for six months working in Matsos Brewery which specialises in craft beer and is famous within Western Australia. We worked with a lot of awesome people which made our time in Broome pass very quickly. (See TAOPAJ Issue 4).


Sugarloaf Rock, near Margaret River Reef Beach, Margaret River

Snorkelling in Exmouth

Bells Beach, GOR

The convoy at Knox Gorge, Karijini

Melbourne to Willalooka (Bottom Yellow Line) After flying back to Melbourne on 28th March, we

travelled the Great Ocean Road, which is a scenic coastal drive with beautiful beaches, turquoise waters, interesting rock formations and lots of wildlife. (See TAOPAJ Issue 2).

On the 4th April we settled on the Johnsons sheep and cattle farm in Willalooka, South Australia. Here we had the authentic experience of working on the farm for room and board so that we would be eligible to apply for a second Working Holiday Visa. (see TAOPAJ Issue 3).

The 12 Apostles, GOR

Building a new feedlot Murray Grey Cattle

Gantheaume Point, Broome Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater Amalia Gorge, The Kimberley

Matsos Crew

Broome to Margaret River (Orange Line) In January 2015, we left Broome with 6 friends and

travelled in convoy down the coast of Western Australia. Highlights of the trip included Karijini National Park and Exmouth for snorkelling. (seeTAOPAJ Issue 5)

We stayed in Margaret River for a relaxing two months where I worked in Wise Winery which had a great view overlooking Eagle Bay. (See TAOPAJ Issue 5).

Margaret River to Willalooka (Bottom Yellow) On 28th March we picked up Ben's sister, Abi from Perth

Airport and she joined us on our two week trip from Perth to Adelaide via the coast. We climbed an 80m tree, attempted Shark Cage Diving (although there were no sharks) and saw lots of wildlife. (See page 4 of this issue).

We then started our 3 month stint managing the Willalooka Tavern which took us to the end of our visas (see page 6).

Shark Cage Diving, Neptune Islands

The Willalooka Tavern Behind the bar

and took



Now you are familiar with our route, I will pick up where I left off at the end of the last issue. Ben had flown over to Willalooka for 3.5 weeks to learn the ropes for our new jobs managing a tavern/roadhouse. He learned a huge amount and worked a lot of hours in those weeks and was in much need of some rest when he flew back to Perth on the 29th of March, however rest was not an option! As soon as he arrived we went to find his sister, Abi who had flown in from England. With only two weeks for the 4000km trip, we had to move fast so we drove to Yanchep National Park; a sure-fire way for Abi to tick off seeing kangaroos and koalas. On the second day we visited Penguin Island where we saw Little Penguins, did a walk around the whole island and went snorkelling. The next day we spotted wild dolphins in Bunbury and showed Abi around the Margaret River area. We took her to Wise Winery (where I had worked) for wine tasting, visited Hamelin Bay where we saw giant sting rays which were a metre in diameter and introduced her to Silvia and the kids (where we had lived for 2 months). That night we stayed in the campsite where the remaining convoy Shogo, Fifi and Max were staying and had a good last night with them with drinks and dinner.

Perth to Adelaide

Kangaroos at Yanchep National Park

Barrabup Pool

Bunker BaySugarloaf Rock

Wise WineryPenguin Island

Little penguin on Penguin IslandYanchep national Park

Sad old man koala at Yanchep National Park

Sugarloaf Rock Meter wide sting ray

The Adventures of Pen and Jane PAGE5On the fourth day, we ventured into unknown territory for us and started our adventure across to South Australia. We had Barrabup Pool to ourselves for some swimming and climbed Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree which is a 75m high Karri tree with metal rods hammered into the trunk. The Valley of the Giants treetop walk seemed very mild in comparison! In beautiful Denmark we stayed and partied at Karlies house (whom we worked with in Broome) before moving onto Esperance, for a scenic coastal drive. The Nullabor Highway is a 1700km stretch of outback between Western Australia and South Australia and took us 1.5 days to cross. There wasnt much to see except

from the Bunda Cliff lookouts on the South Australian side. From there we drove to Adelaide via the Eyre Peninsular where we attempted Shark Cage Diving from Port Lincoln however we were very unlucky as there were no sharks in sight! We packed a lot into those 2 weeks including driving 4000km. It certainly wasn't a relaxing or glamorous holiday for Abi who stayed in our spare room (read: tent), but she she enjoyed herself nonetheless. In no time at all she had integrated into the backpacker lifestyle; drying her clothes out of the window and getting excited about finding public showers.

Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk

From the 25m platform

From the 25m platform

Sea lions near the dive site

Ben and I in the cageElephant Rocks, Denmark

The Nullarbor The Bunda Cliffs

Greens Pool, DenmarkFrom the 75m platform Cooking dinner

Frenchman's Bay near AlbanyAbi getting out


Valley of the Giants

Ben falling over

Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree

for

an 80m


A stranger driving down the highway through Willalooka wouldnt think that there was much going on or even many people around. However, surrounded by farmland, the Tavern is the focal point of the tight-knit community and a popular hang out spot for old and young alike. Good atmosphere, flowing beer, hearty home-cooked food and South Australian Farmer banter (which we never fully understood but smiled along anyway) are attributes that draw customers in from miles around. Managing the Willalooka Tavern by ourselves has been a welcome challenge after spending so long in repetitive lower level hospitality positions. We have learnt a huge amount and I hope that we have made a lasting difference to the place in the short time that we have been here. Warning: if youre not interested in intricate CV-style details skip to page 10!


Decoration

Pinterest has been my personal assistant when it comes to prettying the place up. Any spare moment that I had I devoted to making rustic, eye-catching decorations in attempt to attract people driving past and to create a warming and homely atmosphere inside. My projects included colourful hanging flower bottles, outside twine and fairy light lanterns, centrepieces for the tables and lights for the bar.

Administration

When we stepped in, all of the admin and general behind-the-scenes duties were quite overwhelming. Luckily we had the owner, Catherine at the end of the phone whenever we had problems or questions. Once we had gotten on top of everything, things started to get a lot easier and less stressful and the stomach-sinking feeling of realising we had forgotten to do something grew less frequent! Ben and I fell into our own places and specialised in different tasks to make the workload easier. Our duties included:

Ordering: Predicting the demand for all products across the bar, bottle shop and shop as well as ordering all food, cleaning and packaging items for the back of house. Staff: Working out the rota, paying and recording wages. Paying bills: Matching up every invoice and statement to ensure no mistakes have been made before paying our creditors. Managing the extensive computer system: Including correcting discrepancies and problems as well as having enough understanding to extract helpful information. Money: Balancing all of the tills and sorting and recording the weekly banking.

Whilst our business degrees gave us a good idea of what it takes to run a successful business, nothing can compare to hands on experience. Even in this short space of time we have gained a lot of practical knowledge and despite needing help from Catherine from time to time, I am proud of what we have achieved.

Outside

The Cafe

The bottle shop

Tables after Tables before

Bar LightsOld vodka bottles and twine My homemade twine lanterns

Cooking

I was quite nervous when Ben first told me what was expected of us in the kitchen. Apart from being a kitchen hand when I was 15, I had had no real experience churning out high quantities of edible food in a timely manner. On top of this I was expected to set and prepare specials for the week and do all of the ordering ensuring that we have enough (but not too much) of everything! I was a bit overwhelmed at first but I have tried my hardest to rise to the occasion of becoming a chef. I still cannot handle being on the grill when we have a full restaurant but thankfully we have great staff (Amber, Cat and Alison) to support us on our busiest nights. My personal record and finest kitchen accomplishment was successfully handling a night with 31 diverse meals when I was in the kitchen all by myself ! Living up to my Baker name I have been busy baking all of our tasty cakes, slices, cookies and fudge to sell in the shop.

Bar

With myself mostly in the kitchen, Ben spent most of his evenings in the bar with the punters and handled high volumes of customers ordering food and drinks by himself. During our time at the Tavern, we hosted several events including Larrys Head Shave for Cancer, several Steak Nights and a Hunters and Heads themed night. In an attempt to get the women drinking more and the men to buy poured sprits (rather than less profitable premixed cans) I developed a Winter Warmers drink list consisting of winter/dessert inspired mixers and cocktails. The drinks had to be easy, quick and uncomplicated to make using non-perishable products (so no garnishes) whilst being appealing enough to entice people to buy. I concocted a list of delicious and unusual mixes which Im hoping will take off. So far, the cocktails proving to be the most popular are my own creations (though I highly doubt Im the first to think of them). In South Australia, a popular soft drink is Coca Cola with raspberry cordial and is called a Dead Lizard. Using Chambord (black raspberry liqueur) I created the very obvious adult version: The Extremely Dead Lizard, a name both relevant to the customers and familiar to them. From there, I added Amaretto for a more deluxe drink and chose a descriptive, funny and appropriate name: Dead Lizards Nuts. It is early days yet but Im hoping that the menu will be worth the time and effort. Having filled the gap in the market and being the only place in the area selling anything close to a cocktail, Im hoping for the Tavern to get a reputation and entice more female customers looking to treat themselves. Its a shame I wont be around to see how it turns out!



Homemade Oreo Cheesecake

Homemade Vanilla Slice

The bar

The cafe counter with homemade goodies

WW Menu. I did my best with only a black and white printer and laminator available!

Homemade Caramel Slice

Marketing

This is the area which I have found most interesting. Paper: We have used the local paper the Border Chronicle several times for marketing purposes. Firstly, Ben and I were featured in an article about us being the new managers which went on to generate a very busy weekend for us. You can find the article here: www.borderchronicle.com.au/story/3054458/new-managers-at-tavern/ I was later published in the Letter to Editor section of the paper following up our charity night which again sparked another busy weekend. In an attempt to carry on with the momentum we paid for an advert, which interestingly enough seemed to have no effect at all! Radio Adverts: Rather than waste more money on ineffective paper adverts, for the Hunters and Heads night I wrote a radio advert which played twice a day on the local radio station 5TCB for the two weeks leading up to the night. Lots of farmers listen to this station all day whilst theyre working so this was a great way to reach everyone in the local area.

New website: We were heavily involved in developing the new company website; I wrote all of the text myself and now have an understanding of how to alter websites using Wordpress. Im very pleased with the outcome and am impressed with Annie Johnsons current backpackers Emil and Geraldine who designed and created the fresh and modern website from scratch. You can find it at www.willalooka-tavern.com.au.

Social media marketing: Once we finally had access to the Taverns Facebook page we made sure to keep it updated with our latest news and specials. It was fascinating to see how people responded to different types of posts and how links, photos and times of the day and week made a difference to the response we received.

Branding and design: I had a lot of fun branding my Winter Warmer list using the dessert/winter themes and making them relevant to the consumers. In addition I have tried to create a more professional look by standardising all front of house signs and print outs by including the company logo and using the same fonts and borders.

After a suggestion by some locals about having another Open sign more visible from the road, I designed a 10ft teardrop banner/flag. I included our logo and the logo for the coffee we use to kill two birds with one stone. Passers by can see we are open from further away (giving them more of a chance to slow down and pull in) and they can see we sell quality local coffee from a proper machine (which people dont necessarily expect from a roadhouse).

Promoting specials: We have seen a rise in meal specials and dessert sales since I started producing copies of the specials and putting them on the tables (rather than just relying on customers to look at the chalk board in the corner of the room as before). Creating discounts and sales in the shop has resulted in us pushing out stock approaching their best before date, low sellers and products with high profit margins.



17FRIDAY

JULY

HUNTERS & HEADS NIGHT

a chance to win:

rangefinder hunting apparel

and more

Hunting heads displayed from africa, new zealand and

australia

hunting games pig on a spit

game meat nibbles

don your hunting gear and come on down for:

My open sign

My own infusion and branding

The photo of us that was in the Border Chronicle

My event poster

My new, rustic wine price tags vs the old ones


Hand over

When we leave, the tavern will be taken over by a family from Port Lincoln and it has been our job to make the transition as easy as possible for them. To do this we have organised the computer and till systems, ensuring they are up to date, correct and easy to navigate. In addition we have assessed everything that we found difficult and problematic when we stepped in and made guides, lists and manuals to make everything as simple as possible for them. Ben has spent hours creating a comprehensive and very detailed step-by-step manual for the everything they will need to do on the computer system so that even someone who is computer illiterate would be able to complete important tasks. We wish them all the best and hope they find our work helpful.


This is the end of our time in Australia and I would have loved to have written a heartfelt summary of our experience but I have neither the time nor the energy to find the words and do it justice. So rather than end on a serious note I will stop writing and leave you with a fun section about Australias Big Things!

Looking through the cafe and bottle shop right down to the bar Rustic cafe with our famous vanilla slice!

The roaring fire in the bar

Our popular steak sandwich with bacon, egg, onion, salad and bbq sauce

Herbie the feral cat that lives under the Tavern

WinterWarmers

Mixers

Apple Pie: Fireball Whiskey with Apple Juice

Orange Smarties: Kahlua and Orange Juice

The Extremely Dead Lizard: Chambord and Coca Cola

The Fruity Nut: Amaretto and Cranberry Juice

Sneaky Peach: Vodka and Peach Iced Tea

A collection of fun and delicious variations of spirits and mixers inspired by winter and dessert

Cinnamon

Coffee

Almond

Black Raspberry

Cocktails

Chocolate Raspberry delight: Baileys, Chambord and Milk

Velvet Tongue: Canadian Club, Peach Schnapps and Ginger Ale

Caramel Kiss: Vodka, Butterscotch Schnapps and Coca Cola

Dead lizards Nuts: Chambord, Amaretto and Coca Cola

Captains Coffee: Captain Morgans, Kahlua, Coca Cola, Bitters

Black Raspberry

Black Raspberry

Coffee

Almond

30ml alcohol plus mixer

60ml alcohol plus mixer

$9.00

$14.50

My blue flower bottles which have proven to catch peoples eyes and entice them in

Event themed humorous specials board

Our lounge

Any backpacker worth their

salt has been to several of

Australias Big Things, a

phenomenon designed to attract



The Big Tasmanian Devil, Mole Creek, TAS

The Big Barrel, Bundaberg, QLD

The Big Oyster, Taree, NSWThe Big Trout, Adaminaby, NSWThe Big Potato, Robertson, NSW

The Big Banana, Coffs Harbour, NSWThe Big Prawn, Learmonth, WA

The Big Crocodile, Wyndham, WA

AustraliasBig Things

tourists to lesser known areas. Helping to make long drives pass by more quickly, the game of visiting all of the big things on your route can become quite addictive. Addictive enough to entice detouring which ends up negating the whole purpose! We have been to our fair share, but have barely scratched the surface. Some proved to be better than others as you can see from our facial expressions. HINT: Dont make a 50km detour just for the Big Potato.

The Big Pineapple, Gympie, QLD




The Big Prawn, Ballina, NSW

The Big Ayres Rock, North Arm Cove, NSW

The Big Rum Bottle, Bundaberg, QLD

The Big Mushroom, Belconnen, ACT

The Big Winch, Coober Pedy, SAThe Giant Koala, Dadswells Bridge, VICThe Big Cherries, Latrobe, TAS

The Big Olives, Tailem Bend, SAThe Big Platypus, Latrobe, TAS

The Big Mosquito, Hexham, NSW The Big Penguin, Penguin, TASThe Big Wickets, Westbury, TAS

the adventures of pen and jane issue 6

Documents

western australia

australia telephone

australia edition

blue line

cairns green line

yellow line

taopaj issue

fantastic time