A husband and wife couple who come from the Land Down Under were left quite impressed with the regional area and the province in general after recently spending time in Outlook with friends on their vacation trip to Canada.
Australian natives Geoff and Belinda Dawson, who come from the town of Gunnedah in New South Wales, stayed with Outlook-area producers Dwight Overlid and Deb Lesyk, with the four of them having forged a friendship two years ago through their mutual farm operations of owning and breeding longhorn cattle.
“I’m actually a bank manager down there, and we breed longhorn cattle on the side,” explained Geoff, who popped into the offices of The Outlook to say hello and chat about their visit. “That’s how we met Deb and Dwight. They came to visit us when they came over for a sale and a national show that we have in Australia. We also met them at Red Deer, where they did really well with their cattle. We lined our trip up so that we’d get to Red Deer at around that time, and then we came straight back here.”
Geoff and Belinda’s itinerary of events included seeing the local sights around here, as well as motoring around the southern part of Saskatchewan to see what else the province offers tourists from as far away as the Dawsons had traveled.
“Coming out here, there are a lot of things to see,” said Geoff. “We just went and looked at the sand castles this morning, and yesterday we went down to Regina and went to the RCMP Depot and saw a parade, which was really good. Then we went to Moose Jaw and saw the tunnels where Al Capone operated, which was really something!”
The friendly atmosphere of a small town like Outlook caught Geoff’s attention right away, but one thing that really stuck out to him about visiting the prairies was the sheer vastness of the land and the agricultural components that come with it.
“I like it around here,” said Geoff. “People are friendly; we went and had coffee at Annie’s (Modern Café) this morning. The area intrigues me from a farming perspective. Deb often says, ‘Where we are, it’s pretty flat, but we’ve got an occasional hill.’ I’m really enjoying just driving around and watching the undulating countryside you’ve got around here. Farming-wise, I can’t get over the amount of area and crops that must be farmed!”
From that farming perspective, Dawson says some areas of Australia are likely similar to Saskatchewan as far as agriculture and crops go.
“I’d say we’re probably drier where we are, but in saying that too, we’ve also got some very good cropping country,” he said. “Our little farm is quite red-soil, but there is also some very good black soil country where we come from. In the area we live in, it’s basically cropping and cattle, so in one respect, it’s probably fairly similar to here.”
While they were in Outlook, Geoff says he enjoyed speaking with residents and getting to know what life in small town Saskatchewan is like, and his passion for pottery also led him to spending some time with a local artist to continue honing his craft.
“I think it’s just the friendliness,” he said. “They’re down to earth, and it’s quite interesting to them when they find out you’re from Australia. I actually do pottery at home, and I ended up having a good chat with Sue Robertson about it. Deb said when I got back to the house I had a grin from ear to ear, which was great because I learned a lot of things from those couple of hours with Sue.”
For now, Geoff and Belinda are content with their lives down under, but they two of them hope to return one day and perhaps see the other side of Canada.
“If I moved to Canada, I’d be more than happy to live here!” said Geoff. “I can see us coming back in a few years and catch up with Deb and Dwight, and then maybe see the other side of Canada!”
