The inner workings of a cotton gin in Moree, NSW Australia

Greetings from New South Wales Australia. Lately, time has been scarce as work at the cotton gin continues. Whenever I tell anyone that I'm working at a cotton gin, they always ask what a cotton gin does. A simple explanation is that a cotton gin gins cotton. A more complex explanation is that is take cotton, which has dirt, seeds, sticks, and other contaminates in it, and cleans all those out leaving only the cotton. Invented by Eli Whitney, the cotton gin changed the course of American history and played a crucial rule in the industrial revolution. Ironically, I'm in Australia.  And that is where I have been working for the past couple months. I work night shift, 7pm to 7am, and after work I usually just got straight to sleep.

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Putting out a fire in one of the Gin Stands

Using the Moon Buggy to put cotton into the feeder bay

The good thing is that I have been able to save up a considerable amount of travel money. The bad is that I don't have time to participate is the extremely exciting events that the city of Moree has to offer. Due to the fact that most of you have no idea about Moree, I will tell you now... That last statement was a joke. There is nothing to do in Moree except drink, which is likely why the locals and aboriginals get along so well here.

A simple illustration of how a cotton gin works. 

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For all rights and purposes, Moree is located in the North-East region of New South Wales, however the locals consider Moree Western New South Wales. The reason for this is likely the fact that if you travel any further west of here, there is hundreds of miles of uninhabited desert known as the Australia Outback.  Moree consists mostly of Aboriginals (which are very much similar to modern-day Native Americans), A small amount of locals (who usually have a different variety of Australian accent. It sounds more like a mix of hillbilly mixed with Australian and it is very difficult to understand at first), and seasonal workers mostly consisting of Irish backpackers, one of which I am currently sharing an apartment with. My roommate Aisling works at the gin with me and we have the same shift. She talks in her sleep and isn't very clean, which I am not unfamiliar with after growing up sharing a room with my older brother who at the time had the same tendencies (even now I'm sure he still talks in his sleep, though I dont know for sure), and it doesn't help that I'm not the tidiest person either, which makes for a nice place..

Ginning season will likely be over around the beginning of August, at which point I will likely head to brisbane and then North to see some of Australia before heading down to Sydney and Melbourne for the summer. Though it seems that plans always tend to change themselves and I am simply forced to adapt to them, all of this is of course tentative.

Hopefully I'll have more time to update the blog in the future, but for now this is all you get. Enjoy