The main purpose for this trip is chasing Dad’s German ancestors but some of Mum’s family spent time in Strathalbyn. They were Wilsons, not a great name as there are gazillions of them around oz.
I knew that James and Elizabeth Wilson (my maternal Great Great Grandparents) lived around Ballarat from 1864 – 1878 where they had eight kids and then were living in Strathalbyn in 1882 when number nine arrived. Unfortunately, in July 1885 they lost two daughters, three-year-old James Jemima (yes it is an odd name) and eighteen-year-old Madeline.
So these two ladies were my Great Grandmother’s sisters and I knew that they were buried in the Strathalbyn cemetery. From earlier research I knew that they were buried in ‘common ground’ in a Salvation Army ceremony. I assumed the burial location was due to lack of funds.
We headed out to the cemetery and had a wander around. I was reading signs and Sandy took a much more effective approach, she chatted to Trevor the grave digger. Pretty high tech with a backhoe. He was also very knowledgeable and suggested the area he thought was the ‘common area’. He had plenty of stories to tell about getting stuck in an empty grave, having to fish his car keys out of a grave with a piece of wire – but leaving the deceased’s gold watch…and plenty more. Very entertaining.
A visit to the local library and they confirmed Trev was right.
Before we left Melbourne, I knew that we were going to be visiting various grave sites and expected that many would be unmarked. I purchased a handful of metal stakes, intending to have them engraved with my details. After I discovered that the engraving cost was likely to be around $20 per stake, I simply attached a paper message covered in clear tape. Means if any other family ever visit (well before the message fades) they can contact me. See photo below – I was very pleased that Sandy suggested we bring a hammer!!
Flushed with that success we headed to Mount Barker Library – I had been in contact with their research person and I knew that they had a relevant book. This was paternal German family called Ey. I quickly found this poor quality photo of Dad’s Grandfather’s sister (my Great Grand Aunt). Her name was Christiane Mathilde Lisette Ey, called Mathilde. She lived from 1869-1928 and was born and died in Hahndorf.
She married Chistoph Gustav Liebelt in 1887 and they had 10 kids… 25 grand kids… 68 great grand kids… 28 GG grandkids. Those were the figures in 1975, I suspect more after that!!
Since then it has quickly become apparent that there are a LOT of Liebelts in this area.
About six months ago, I was contacted by someone in Moonta, South Australia about a Cornish Copper festival they were having. At that festival, one small part of it is a ceremony called “Dressing the Graves”, where they bless five graves at various cemeteries in the area. This year they are blessing fives graves of unrelated Mine Captains ….and one is for Johann Ferdinand Ey, my 3 * Great Grandfather’s brother.
This person had tracked me down and worked out I was a relation. It started sounding like a scam when she said, you need a bio to be read out at the grave but I’ve written one for you – you simply need to pay $50 to cover admin costs and the cost of a wreath.
It all seems legit and we decided to go and see my German relative celebrated at a Cornish Festival in country South Australia. From that we have built the best part of a month in South Oz, details will be revealed along the way.
We hit the road in Billy (our Kia EV6 electric car) on Anzac Day. Our trip planning was based on a few things – we are not in a rush, Sandy finds long trips tough on her back and the availability of EV charging spots.
A few lessons on EVs
Around town I charge about once a week from our home charger and comfortably get over 500km from a full charge.
On long drives, the range drops to more like 420-430km. Depends a bit on how many road trains I feel compelled to pass 😉
There are plenty of apps to help with trip planning, the best one is called ABRP. It integrates with the actual car consumption.
We tend to stop more than absolute necessary and aim for chargers that have more than one bay, have been successfully used recently and have been used at some time by a non-Tesla. (Some are Tesla only, plug fits but blocked by software). Sounds complicated but you quickly get the hang of it.
Skip ahead here if you don’t want to do some simple maths.
Things to keep in the back of your head – the battery in our car is around 77 kW. Our home charger is 7kWh, so that means from completely empty to completely full would take 11 hour. We have never been below about 10% and we have 11 hours available for charging pretty much every night. Cost is 18c per kW. So we could do a full charge in 11 hours and cost would be 77*0.18 = $14
On the road this all changes – chargers can be as fast as 350kWh and the cost is commonly 60c per kW. Our car can comfortably charge at 250kWh rate and so from empty to full would take about 20 minutes. The maths breaks down a bit at these rates because at these speeds the battery gets hot, like your phone, and so the car slows the charging a little bit. But regardless, if you stop at these v fast chargers and want to go from say 20% to full – you may just have time to grab a coffee and have a toilet stop.
I should also say that the charging etiquette is to not charge past 80% if there is a queue – never happened to us so far.
Stop 1 was after 2 hours 40 mins driving and 200km. We got max of 136kW rate – the stop was 19 minutes and cost $15. Just enough time to toilet stop and chat to the other EV guy.
Stop 2 was after only 1 hour 40 min. Time for lunch and a charger we’d used before. Had some trouble with the charger and had to try 3 times before it worked. Annoying but we knew it had been used a hour earlier, so I persisted and called the 1800 number. Max rate of 133kW, 23 minutes and $17.
That was the charging for the day – I’ll skip ahead and my rough maths was that the trip to Strathalyn cost about $80 and would have cost $160 in the Pug. Savings are good but nowhere near as good as around town, but still about half price.
Night 1 was at Nhill at the Zero Inn. A good clean motel and short walk to Mr Le, a very good cheap feed for dinner.
Before heading to bed we mapped out the plan for Day 2 – a short drive of 40km to the next town (Kaniva) for brekky and charging. That’s not how it turned out. I thought things were odd when I got into the car and the navigation system said “Previous route no longer valid”. I decided I knew best and pulled back onto the main highway. After about 90 seconds, I worked it all – a sign said “Highway closed due to traffic accident”. Ahh makes sense now.
The detour signs were less than ideal but between Sandy, Google and a local farmer we muddled our way around the accident. It did add 80km to our route to brekky.
We quickly plugged in and headed for brekky. We’d need about 45 minutes of charging as it was a slowish charger (50kW) and we entered this into the system for others to see.
Fifteen minutes later, someone came into the cafe and asked if we were the ones using the charger. They had left home at 4am for a semi-urgent meeting in Adelaide, gone the wrong way around the detour and needed some urgent juice. I made the call that I’d finish my coffee and then let them jump the queue (yes they were in a Tesla). They were a nice couple, very appreciative and gone in fifteen minutes. We had time to look at the Kaniva Silo Art.
Next stop was at Tailem Bend after about 2 and a half hours. Was a 30 minute stop for lunch and we got 229kW rate, paying $35. Charger was a bit fiddly and lunch was very ordinary (warm pie and sauce).
Made it to our overnight stop (2 nights) at Strathalbyn – lots of family history here – and they have a 7kW charger, just like we have at home. That means we plug in at night and in the morning the car is full – easy 🙂
Gary and Sandy's Travel Blog 