Beverley's Latest Attraction - Our Hole in the Floor

Beverley is a quintessential country town. With a population of just over one thousand residents, not that much happens around here. Beverley and the surrounding shire are really governed by the seasons and the production of grains, such as wheat, along with sheep. We have busy times of year in town, such as the annual Art Exhibition, monthly markets in the old RSL, performances staged at the outdoor Platform theatre and the Beverley Heroic bike rally. This month, we're launching a triathlon. The rest of the time, the entertainment is provided by the two pubs, an array of sporting fixtures that dot the calendar and the usual mix of clubs and groups. And the television.

The last really exciting events, other than Santa delivering lollies from the Fire Truck, involved the discovery of a toe outside the Post Office and a fist fight. Just a toe was unearthed. With no other bits attached. News crews were dispatched from the Big Smoke. Beverley was the centre of the universe for about two minutes. The lasting effect was the plethora of appalling jokes that hit social media for a few days. We all returned to normal just in time for the now departed baker to allegedly punch one of the pubs' chefs and allegedly break his nose. That excitement got the red corpuscles moving quickly for a while.

We have survived a baking summer, the days are becoming more pleasant and the nights are positively cool. And now for an added tourist attraction, we have created a forty-five square metre excavation in the front of the biggest shop and the last to be renovated. This was necessary to create a safe, stable new foundations and the new floor.

The floor perched on top of the old cellar pillars was not going to cut it. If we had squillions of dollars and more time, we may have dug out the old cellar and rebuilt it. That was too hard, too expensive and asking for disaster. After the Meckering earthquake in 1968, all the water courses changed in the Wheatbelt. Water entered the once dry confines of the cellar, pushing against the existing walls. The cellar was duly filled with yellow sand, had a floor plonked on top and was forgotten about. Until we bought the building in 2012.

After our Christmas Exhibition, we decided to extend the Gallery into the last shop. Hence the urgency for now fixing the floor. And repairing the walls. We have twenty-six days until we're due to launch the Autumn Exhibition. The steel members are installed. The cleats for the pine joists were made today by Michael and offsider Gary. There is still so much to be done. In under four weeks!

Michael is confident of meeting the deadline. I am confident that he is confident. I'll just be really happy when this plan comes together.

still life of steel members and Gary's legs

from the completely unrenovated end

from the door. Note Davros the MIG welder onsite