Chicory ain't coffee but there's a Dr. Morse

Today broke free of its July clutch like a larrikin on the loose from wintry authority. Make no mistake, hinted the high cirrus sailing into the indigo of the atmosphere, here is a clue of what is to come - lavish spring. Though the wattle has yet to bloom, its buds are rounding with the sun nurturing in canopy. They are not far away from release, these magnificent golden and yellow flourishes. I am counting the days! Of course, this respite lives but twenty-four hours with a stern cold front spooning clockwise across the Great Australian Bight (see footnote) to impose its grey mush come late Tuesday. But how this day was welcome, notwithstanding the timid Sun still lingering north close to Capricorn's line.

I had a single photograph in mind, a hop-step-and some jumps from the railway station at Bacchus Marsh, located 55 kilometres/34 miles west of Melbourne and reached by a brief train journey. The light through mid to late afternoon would be perfect if the clouds would linger below the horizon. Worth a chance I reckoned and I would be back in time for Dinner. Tonight some homemade piping hot tomato soup, sourdough damper with butter and some slivers of crispy bacon. Maybe a half bottle of Late Harvested Orange & Flora Muscat (the drink of the Gods) to lubricate the meal?

The Old Chicory Kiln is a noted landmark in Bacchus Marsh with its distinctive, though fading, Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills advertisement adorning its south wall. Built in 1885 and operating until the 1920s the Kiln roasted the roots of the white parsnip like Chicory plant before being ground and used either as a substitute or additive for coffee. The Chicory was grown near the Kiln in vast quantities, helped no doubt by the rich alluvial soils brought to the river flats that the farmlands around Bacchus Marsh straddle by the actions of the Werribee and Lerderderg Rivers. Common Chicory (Cichorium intybus), the most endemic, is a bushy perennial herb with distinctive blue, lavender and occasionally white flowers that grows as a wild plant in Europe, mostly along roadsides, though it is extensively cultivated in gardens and nurseries. It can also be found in North America, New Zealand and Australia where it has been introduced and adapted to local conditions. In recent times Chicory has become useful as a pasture plant in agriculture, especially in animal production, notably in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. It is also good, due to its mild toxicity, for the treatment of intestinal worms and parasites notably in Sheep, Chickens and Cattle. Apparently the flower of Chicory is helpful as a general tonic and in the treatment of a variety of human ailments too, namely: gallstones, gastro-enteritis, sinus issues, cuts and bruises. It helps with diabetes and constipation and can assist in curing writer's block. I gather in the US it is extensively used a coffee substitute in Prisons. I've tasted it and it is quite tarty but curiously I liked the taste: but coffee it ain't.

Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills on the otherhand, (invented in the 1850s), conjure up all sorts of connotations and not so witty puns. Apparently, it was one of the most successful pharmaceutical products to have been manufactured (though conjure would again appear the appropriate word) in the United States finding its way throughout the world. It was believed that the Pills, with their so-claimed extensive herbal ingredients, would 'cleanse the blood of impurities' which many believed was the cause of most diseases. The roll call of diseases that could be alleviated is most impressive and includes: headache, poor cooking, jaundice, nervousness, colds & flu, indigestion, stress, listlessness, pain from child-birth, woeful ballroom dancing technique and of course, as you would expect, piles - the links of all seem a tad too obvious, perhaps? The Pills were sold in colossal volumes throughout the mid 19th Century and well into the 20th Century. You could forget about taking any of the current illicit drugs that flood our Society as I reckon a few of Dr. Morse's Pills would send you into a pharmaceutical heaven by their own accord - they look brutal to swallow! Apparently, the said Dr. Morse never existed! Merely an early example of a creative marketing strategy if you like. The Dr. Phil of 19th Century mid-west United States?

A number of these magnificent advertising panels for the Pills, such as the example shown on the Kiln, were created throughout Australia and indeed the rest of the World. Imagine all those Edwardian types in their frippery espousing Indian Roots Pills and swearing that Dr. Morse had the answer to all their ails. Oddly, I don't recall seeing Dr. Morse on Oprah lately but a doppelganger may have appeared campaigning for Teddy Roosevelt in the 1908 presidential election, I am most unreliably advised. But that's what you get for having Oprah showing on a LCD TV instead of a Plasma one - you miss things in the flicker rate.

The Old Kiln, classified by the National Trust of Australia as a significant Historical Building, is located on private land adjunct of a quiet local road and can easily be approached by car (if you must) or better by plod foot. The kindly folks at the Bacchus Marsh Tourist Information Centre rave about the Kiln as a photographic subject and I agree with their enthusiasm. It is best captured late afternoon, under clear skies, with a polariser or a ND filter, to draw the colours of this fabulous old timer. Hopefully, the artistry displayed will be restored and preserved before it falls to the pursuit of the relentless bleach of the Australian Sun and the grand building of its treasury kept in viable condition.

footnote

The Great Australian Bight is a vast open Bay located off the sparsely populated southern coastline of Australia (notably the Nullarbor Plain) ranging from Western Australia to the north-west extreme of the island of Tasmania covering a distance of roughly 1,160 kilometres/720 miles. It is a rather wild stretch of water and a nursery of storms that often sweep across the southern portion of Australia. The State of Victoria where I live derives much of its weather from the latitudes and longitudes of the Bight.