The Captain's Walk -- Cootamundra...

Less than 24 hours to go on my focus week! I am looking forward to getting home. This is not because I have not enjoyed Cootamundra, the high school (staff and students), or the White Ibis. It is simply because I miss my family. Although Sydney is not all that far away at about four hours drive, it is too far away to drive to and from school everyday!

That said, I am looking forward to coming back to finish off the final four weeks of my practicum life as this represents the culmination of my Masters. I get a satisfactory grade on the practicum and then I am applying for a casual teaching number, and then I am on my way. I have casual teaching work lined up for the first working day after I finish. However, all that depends on successful completion of this practicum placement. So, there is a need to remain a little focused.

The focus week has been relaxed. I was expecting it to be. After all, it is the last week of term 3 and both the students and staff have wound down in preparation for the school holidays. Nevertheless, I have done what I needed to do; found out what I am teaching and who, and observed plenty of classes. I am thinking that I might get roped into helping out with the LOTE class as the LOTE stream here is Indonesian.

I must add that "roped in" is said in the most positive of ways. It is something that I would enjoy doing; passing on my enthusiasm for Indonesia and the Indonesian language to others. Going to Indonesia and learning Indonesian was a wonderful experience and has provided me with a lifetime of memories already. Not to mention that my better half is Indonesian and my Will is half Indonesian as well!

Anyways, I digress. This post is about this really cool walk that they have here in Cootamundra. It is called the "Captain's Walk". It is just a short winding path through a small park just down from Cootamundra High School. I think the park is called Jubilee Park (I will check on my way to work in the morning). The path has brass busts / sculptures on either side of the path of each of the men who have captained the Australian Cricket Team from the very first to the current.

I photographed each and every head. Unfortunately, I have not formatted the photos in order to decrease their size. So, I will only post a few here. I am not sure that it is worth coming to Cootamundra just for the Captain's Walk, but if you were ever in town then it is certainly worth a look. I figured that I would be able to use them at some point in teaching Australian / Modern History. I am guessing that I could put them into a PowerPoint presentation and add some biographical information to each slide.

The first captain is an Aboriginal gentleman by the name of Unaarrimin (Johnny Mullagh - there seems to be an alternate spelling of his Aboriginal name; Unaarrimim). He was part of the first ever Australian team to tour to Britain in 1868.

The following is Australia's greatest ever cricketer, Don Bradman.

And the last, is the current captain, Ricky Ponting.