Christmas & New Year Message
Carnamah, Western Australia 6517
“Santa paws is coming to town”
Wow, what a year!
From creating a website that highlights gorgeous places to walk your dog the MidWest, to lobbying for an official dog park, AND running a sizable community event, the Blues Walkies concept took off like a robbers dog!
www.blueswalkies.com
Since publishing the Blues Walkies site in April of 2023, we’ve had 2.5 thousand visits! Majority have come from Australia, but we’ve also had many hits from Canada, the UK, America, France, Germany, Singapore, and even a visit from someone in the Republic of Korea! This is incredibly exciting and further demonstrates that people all around the world value their dogs.
Making content for this platform, i.e., finding out who provides pet friendly accommodation, who are the highly regarded pet groomers in the area, where are the vets located, who makes quality dog treats etc.., lead to meeting high calibre people who really love dogs and their community. Spending time with these characters and highlighting their dog-related-passions helped improve my mental health tremendously.
Many thanks you legends!
CA DOGGY PLAY SESSIONS
It all started with this basic flyer pinned to community notice boards and uploaded to facebook.
Meeting up on a regular basis at the local footy oval between 5pm-6pm for our furry friends to run & sniff has been a wonderful social experience for dogs and humans alike. We kicked the idea off in August and it went from 3 dogs & 4 people turning up on the very first session, to some nights where there were 12 people and 8 dogs attending. It’s been fantastic!
Locals and out-of-towners rocked up.
Visitors staying at the caravan park with their dogs rocked up.
Tradies & contractors staying in Carnamah who brought their dogs with them rocked up.
People without dogs rocked up!
Those who attended exchanged phone numbers for extra dog catch-ups and made arrangements for informal Doggy Day Care sessions. Local kids and teenagers came along to enjoy the safe, fun, social environment of happy dogs. We created a Sunday Session doggy play schedule to meet the needs of those who just couldn’t make it on week-day-evenings. And even a romance blossomed between two attendees of the CA doggy play sessions. (Awwwwww.)
The Carnamah Lions Club generously donated dog toys and locals gave up their old, plastic, sand-pit pools to create Doggo Water World for our fur babies on those ruddy hot days when its still 38 degrees at 5pm! (Dogs still want to run around even on scorching days.)
From August to December, we saw 60 different people attend a CA Doggy Play and we met A LOT of dogs, so we’re really looking forward to cranking up these sessions again in 2024!
CA Doggy Play session when we set up Doggo Water World for the beasties to jump and splash around in. THEY HAD A BALL!
Blues Walkies teamed up with local business One L of a Feed to bring the joy of coffee & dogs together.
The Sunday Session schedule piloted in 2023.
Blue enjoying a One L Cafe Pup Cake!
The official Blues Walkies Event flyer designed by Year 6 student Heidi.
BLUES WALKIES COMMUNITY EVENT
Kids are the best ambassadors for drumming up enthusiasm for a concept. Their motives are pure and they have HEAPS more energy than adults do. Students at Coorow Primary School really got on board with the importance of walking your dog to improve your mental health by running the Blues Walkies Event at the Koobabbie Precinct. 68 people and 15 dogs attended. It was a scorcher of a day, so massive THANKS to the locals and visitors who turned up! We were thrilled that local MP Melissa Price promoted the event on her social platforms. Cheers Melissa!
The Blues Walkies Event team - Year 5 & 6 students from Coorow Primary School. Click on the button further below to see more photos and learn more about the event.
SUPPORTING THE COMMUNITY
Following the huge success of the Blues Walkies Event, Coorow Primary students took it a step further by creating Doggo Support Bags full of dog kibble, gourmet treats, pet toys & accessories, human treats + contact information to local mental health organisations. These were lovingly created to give away to local families and residents finding it tough to stretch their holiday budget to cover dog food & treats.
The smiles generated while assembling these bags were as big as the grins on those who received the bags.
Ready to roll out the Blues Walkies Dog Support Bags to the fur babies across the MidWest.
Just some of what the bags contained. What isn’t seen here is a big bag of kibble, teeth cleaning chew sticks, and a pencil case full of dog toys & accessories.
Shanté with the Doggo Support Bag she created for the community.
Lobbying for change
After seeing how successful the CA Doggy Play sessions were in Carnamah, particularly with residents from Coorow and Three Springs travelling all that way to attend, it was apparent that surrounding towns would benefit greatly from having a safe place for dogs to be ‘off-leash’ to stretch, run, sniff, and play. Blues Walkies therefore encouraged adults and kids alike to voice their opinion to the Shire of Coorow about the need for a dog park.
Following the noise that was made in regard to this, it was thrilling to learn that the Shire has plans to establish a fenced-in dog park in the next 18 months. A more recent demonstration of action by the Shire was the installation of more dog poo bag dispensers around the town.
Cheers to the Shire of Coorow for their support!
Here are the Year 5 and 6 students from Coorow Primary School emailing local Councillors to request their support for installing a Dog Park in Coorow. This is not the first time these socially-aware students have expressed their ideas for improving the community. Prior to this they submitted surveys to Melissa Price - Member for Durack - revealing their thoughts and ideas for progressing Coorow. See Ms Price’s speech about their efforts via the button below.
What’s in Store for 2024?
Blues Walkies will continue to add more great places to walk your fur babies on the website.
We’d also like to run some Starry, Starry, Night sessions where we all rock up to the CA footy oval between 8-9pm (on those super hot nights) with our doggies wearing lit-up-dog-collars, and let them run around under the stars in the cooler temperature.
Toward the end of the year we’d love to set up a Santa Paws photo experience where your dog can get a photo with Santa!
But in the meantime, keep taking those blues & beasties for a walk - it helps everyone in the long run.
Merry Woofmas,
Herby & Blue xx
Let us know about other great dog walks you’ve gone in the Mid West at blueswalkies@gmail.com
Blues Walkies at Koobabbie Precinct
Main Street, Coorow, Western Australia 6515
The Koobabbie Precinct is a heritage space choc-a-block with farming & domestic artefacts acquired from around the Shire of Coorow. It gets it’s name from the Waddy Forrest based farm Koobabbie, where majority of the collection derives from.
Event flyer designed by Year 6 student Heidi.
For the Blues Walkies experience, each student set up and ran an activity to engage the community. This included: a dog-stacle course, dog tricks stage, fur baby photo-shoot, pat a nice dog, Blue Paws art experience, Snoopy Heritage Trails, as well as random give-aways. Human participants of these activities received dog themed prizes, while the canines involved received treats from Chew it Over with Canine Candy; a fabulous Geraldton based business. Community health organisations headspace and Desert Blue Connect were present promoting mental support services available in the MidWest. Jurien Bay based Many Paws Grooming provided free nail clipping, and Three Springs veterinarian Banksian Vet offered free dog health advice. Matt from WA Contract Ranger Services came along to do free pet microchipping. The local police officers shouted all attendees lunch with a cracking sausage sizzle, crisps and fruit boxes!. (The kids LOVED these!) The Old Ute Cafe (run by the Coorow Resource Centre) even offered free hot drink vouchers to visitors!
Pat a Nice Dog EXPERIENCE
For the junior students who are afraid of dogs, or just a bit hesitant in their company, Year 5 student Rory set up a spot where visitors could come and practice patting the plush dog Hashbrown, followed by patting a real dog -Blue! Rory revealed that one of his favourite moments of the entire event was when “all the junior primary kids came running over to see Blue and give him a pat. I ran out of dog treats pretty quickly!”
Blue had and ABSOLUTE BALL being the star of the show and received many treats during his ‘time on the clock.’
Blues Walkies Reflection – I really like this photo because it shows the activity set up of teaching kids how to pat a dog, then they can do it on a real dog! When the kids did it, they got a prize from Rory. Albert, Year 6.
Dog Tricks
We wanted the dogs to ‘show off’ the clever things they can do as a wonderful way to entertain and inspire our visitors. We felt it was an indirect way to motivate people to spend more time ‘training’ their own dog, as its truly beneficial for pet mental health and bonding. Our students also beamed with pride when others witnessed their fur baby complete a trick. In addition to this, the dogs LOVED receiving treats for their efforts. That’s a win, win, WIN! Albert, who ran the Tricks Stage commented: It was great to see all the different tricks that the dogs in our community can do. I loved giving out the prizes to both the humans and the dog participants! I just wish my dog could have been here today.”
Blues Walkies Reflection: It was amazing to see so many people and dogs attend the Blues Walkies event. Isn’t this the cutest dog on the planet? (See right.) The preparation for this event was good fun and it was great seeing everyone working together on it. Headspace came along and got a lot of visitors to their stall. Thank you Carnamah Lions and Cooladdi Farms for the funding to run this event. Tom, Year 6.
Shannon, Declan and Shadow on the Blues Walkies Tricks Stage.
As well as demonstrating dog tricks, there was a competition for the ‘happiest dog.’ This beautiful creature ‘Elsa’ was the well deserved winner.
Photo Shoot
If community members were going to the trouble of bringing their dog to town for an event, then we felt they should have the opportunity to have a nice photograph taken. Ava engaged people and pets walking by her studio to stop and take a seat with their fur baby so she could take a snap. Ava had the clever idea of offering to take a photo with the personal SMART device of guests, so they could send the photo on to lots of people in a quick timeframe. However, she also provided the option of taking a photo with her polaroid camera for a more artistic memento of the event.
Majority of participants chose to have their own device used which Ava graciously obliged.
Our stella photographer Ava even got to promote the Blues Walkies event on Jezz’s ABC Wheatbelt and MidWest Brekky Show. (We were sooooo proud of her!) Here she is with Jezz and All, and Blue in the background, at One L Cafe in Carnamah a week before the event.
Year 5 & 6 students seen here on our ‘practice day’ a week before the official event where we set up some of the activities to rehearse how we’d engage with the community. We wanted to check how many people we could fit on the rug and ottoman. Hashbrown (the retriever dog plush) became our mascot after that!
Rory, Emma, and Hannah during their Fur Baby Photo Shoot.
The Blues Walkies team with Abi from Many Paws Dog Grooming looking snazzy in our Blues Walkies hats. Many thanks to the Sewing Shop for their generosity of embroidering our logo on the hats for free!
Blues Walkies Reflection - This photo means a lot to me because it’s where I spent the whole event. This stall is the Fur Baby Photo Shoot space where you bring your dog in and sit down while I take some photos with your camera. We worked so hard to make this day happen. It’s amazing thinking of all the people who came and watched the event go smoothly. I learned a lot about business and being enterprising. Thank you, Miss Herbert and my Year 5/6 colleagues. Ava, Year 6.
Dogstacle Course
Any activity that encourages the mental stimulation and agility of dogs is of great benefit to them. Our Year 6 student Heidi was aware of this and wanted to created an enjoyable yet challenging obstacle course for dogs to complete… even with very limited resources with which to make one. Employing school equipment, gear from our Sports Carnival kits and two ute-loads of tyres, Heidi created a stimulating space for dogs and their owners to enjoy.
Many thanks to Luci and Carnamah Tyres for donating two ute-loads of tyres for the event.
Blues Walkies Reflection – I was in charge of the Dogstacle Course during the Blues Walkies event. I volunteered for this position because I love seeing and helping dogs go through obstacles. I loved watching the dogs and their owners giving it their best shot. They all did so well, and I was proud of every one of them. Heidi, Year 6.
Ruby-Blu all loaded up with tyres from Carnamah Tyres for the Blues Walkies Dogstacle Course. Ruby-Blu was a very important member of the Blues Walkies team; she collected many pieces of equipment for the event from Perth and surrounds. Thanks Ruby!
Blue Paws Art
Back in the 1970s, the Art Gallery of Australia purchased Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock for 1.3 million dollars. Many people thought it was a COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY but in 2023 this work of art was valued at 350 million dollars, so it was a pretty good investment after all!
We thought that it would be fun to create our own Pollock style of art using the blue paw prints of dogs attending the event with the expectation that dogs would LOVE to step into blue paint and then walk all over a canvas creating gorgeous little paw prints. To be honest, only some dogs were brave enough to dip their paws into the blue paint and try the experience, but the younger attendees of the event LOVED doing free-base art. Many thanks to the North Midlands Project for supplying the paint and drop sheets for this activity.
Coorow Primary School Art Teacher Miss Herbert, hanging out with the enormous Blues Poles in Canberra prior to the Blues Walkies event.
Blues Walkies Reflection – This photo is one of my favourites because makes me happy to see that even the little ones wanted to join in on the fun. The young girl in the photo, Emmy, was at my Blue Paws Art Station almost the whole time. I could see that she loved painting! Romy, Year 5.
Its lots of fun to just paint and let your creative side go free… even on a hot day!
DOG TRAILS
To encourage exploration of the vintage artefacts at the Koobabbie Precinct, students placed large plastic snoopy figurines and dog toy plushies within the collection in both easy and hard-to-find places. Dogs that accompanied the ‘searchers’ enjoyed sniffing old tractors, engines and agricultural equipment on display. Creating trails at the Precinct is something that Coorow Primary School students do very well. In 2022, the senior class developed the Koobabbie Trail Guide for visitors to refer to while exploring the collection.
Click on the button below to access a digital version of the Koobabbie Trail which also displays images of its official launch.
Rory presented Kira with her prize on behalf of Cooladdi Farms. Awesome smiles!
BLUES WALKIES ART COMPETITION
Our awesome sponsor Cooladdi Farms provided Blues Walkies with funds to purchase items for our community event AND they supplied us with blue-themed dog toys to give away. One such give away was a large, blue, dog ball given to Year 1 student, Kira who won the Blues Walkies Art Competition. All entries were displayed at the event.
BLUES WALKIES EVENT GALLERY
Blues Walkies Reflection: The event was held on a hot day. Here’s Blue poking his tongue out to get some cool relief. This Blues Walkies venture was a crazy ride from the Carnamah Lions Club funding pitch to pushing the Shire to establish a dog park, but it was all worth it. We couldn’t have done it with anyone else. Big THANKS to ‘Herby’ our teacher. Joel, Year 6.
Blues Walkies Reflection: I personally love this photo because it features the headspace stall. They were a really big part of our event and if we ran Blues Walkies again, I would hope they would be there to enjoy the fun and promote simple but effective strategies to improve mental health. Rory, Year 5.
Here’s Blue dead-to-the-world out the front of the Domestic Store at the very end of the Blues Walkies event. Everyone had gone home and Herby was packing up the event. Blue could hardly keep his eyes open on the trip back home to Carnamah. He was dog-gone-tired! xx
SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS GALLERY
to our high calibre sponsors & supporters We shout:
“YOU ARE PAWESOME. we couldn’t have done this without you. thank you!”
Let us know about other great dog walks you’ve gone in the Mid West at blueswalkies@gmail.com
CARNAMAH AIR STRIP
Via Carnamah-Perenjori Road, Carnamah
Strip your blues away
This place holds a special place in my heart. The ‘Strip’ was the very first place Blue and I went for a walk together.
Before doing so, we played in my grassy, unruly, back yard on Robertson Street to get to know each other better after his owner Ian enjoyed a cuppa and a chat before heading off to Perth to help his family start a new life in the big smoke.
It was obvious that Blue was a little confused about where Ian had gone to but he seemed content to play and come with me for a walk.
Collared and clipped on his lead, we strolled up Lang street, turned off into the Rec Centre side entrance, walked past the livestock ramp, climbed over an old rusty fence, jumped the water-race, and arrived at the end of the air strip. It was here that I let Blue off the lead so he could really stretch his legs and sniff around his new territory.
Initially, Blue hesitantly took in the growing crop in each side of the airstrip while pausing at the Patterson’s Curse bushes to investigate the smells in there, but soon enough, he was galloping up the stretch of flat dirt, getting smaller and smaller in view.
I was thrilled (and relieved) when I called out to him to come back and he actually did! That was a good sign. I even recorded this very moment in time. Forgive the amateur sound quality but I’m sure you’ll recognise the joy in my voice at his return.
Blue and I have since walked this airstrip umpteen many times. He gets to have such a good run-on here. There have been very few times occasions when we’ve heard or seen a crop plane get ready for take off along the dirt here in the hours from 9am to 2pm, but we typically walk the Strip outside of those hours and have always felt safe to walk here.
There is a service road on each side of the strip which are just as interesting and enjoyable to walk along. On these outer tracks, Blue tends to pounce (unsuccessfully) on the field mice and grasshoppers that inhabit the area.
The north track of the air strip features a fenced-in damn; a water source the Shire Council uses to irrigate the hockey field and footy oval. You’ll often see ducks raising their families on the damn, while at night you’ll hear the entertaining Motorbike Frogs that reside here. At other parts of the air strip, you’ll hear the amusing coo of the Western Spotted Frog. In fact, we’ve even submitted some audio of the frogs that inhabit this area to the Australia Museum project FrogID.
We always feel happy and rejuvenated after spending time on the air strip or listening to the frogs. Its a really lovely place to walk your blues away.
Let us know about other great dog walks you’ve gone in the Mid West at blueswalkies@gmail.com