DESALINATION PLANT NO CHILD'S PLAY

Well I caused a little bit of a fuss last week. I was helping my brother put up a playground again. This time it was in the wonderfully historical town of Canowindra. The playground was something special. It was in the shape of a combine harvester. A lot of coastal towns have their playgrounds in the shape of a boat but since this was a rural setting a combine harvester seemed very appropriate. It had wheels on the side, chains and spirals to represent the harvester and water tanks to bulk out the body. A good look, and better than a pirate ship stuck in the middle of grain fields.

At the end of the first day we had the tanks, decks and posts in place. A number of locals came and looked and chatted, asking what it was. To me it looked a little industrial as I was trying to picture the finished item. With all the posts and the water tanks I suggested that it looked like a filtration plant or .....as is topical at the moment.....a desalination plant.
The next morning when we arrived it still looked industrial. So I made a sign to hang on the fence telling everyone what we were building. "Canowindra Desalination Plant". Yep....couldn't resist; so hung it on the fence. Well within two minutes a passing car reversed up, the driver got out laughing and took a photo. A few more locals came and had a look, and a laugh. One of the park committee came and looked and had a laugh and commented how clever it was. So far so good.

However at lunchtime the chairman of the committee turned up just to check on progress. He wasn't impressed at all. Cut the sign down. Told us how the whole town was talking about it. He explained that someone local must be against the park and was trying to undermine him by putting up the sign. Said he would have to have a public meeting to smooth things out.

However I confessed up to the origins of the sign and things eventually smoothed out. And although Canowindra still remains 400 kms from the sea maybe a pirate ship might have been OK after all.