28 Aug 11 Left home around 9.30 am, checked the van
tyres and headed for Manangatang via Tailem Bend, Pinnaroo and Ouyen. Easy trip, but a bit long, endless mallee
scrub and green farm land. Increased the
car’s tyre pressures; much better fuel economy and it didn’t feel as though the
car had to be “pushed” to keep up the momentum. They may be a bit too high so
some further tweaking may be on the
cards.
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| Moulimein Mural |
29 Aug 11 Travelled to Deniliquin via Tooleybuc
and Moulimein which had a unique mural on the local garage. Pretty easy going most of
the way, some of the road was a bit ordinary but not a lot of traffic. Scenery varied from mallee, cereal crops, vines
and saltbush. A lot of nothing in some
parts.
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| Ute on Pole |
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| Another Ute |
30 Aug 11 Toured around Deniliquin, only a few
things of note to see, mainly about utes. Took the rest of the day off.
31 Aug 11 Easy run from Deniliquin to Narranderra ,
dead flat most of the way, again stretches of a lot of nothing. Stopped in Jerilderie to view Ned Kelly points
of interest. The bakery has nice pies!!
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| Ned's The Gangster |
01 Sep 11 Spent the morning in
Leeton visiting the Sunrice Mill. It was
a presentation on all things rice; very interesting, but it did not include a
tour of the plant. The new chairs work a treat. Took the afternoon off again.
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| Paleface Adios |
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| Canola Crops |
02 Sep 11 Tweaked the tyre pressures and set off
for Temora, the home of Paleface Adios; easy run with only light traffic. The scenery was much better, ranging from canola
crops, forests, grazing land and mountains.
Spent the afternoon cruising the sights of Temora; decent sized town
with all the facilities required. Looked
through the Temora Rural Museum; lots of good stuff and all well displayed. The
Chamberlain 9G was of particular interest.
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| Chamberlain 9G |
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| Wirraway |
03 Sep 11 Visited the Temora Aviation Museum’s
Showcase Day, good weather and not too big a crowd, well presented and well
organised, all in all a good day. Apart
from the usual static displays, all well done and very informative, they had
several of their planes flying throughout the day, including the Wirraway,
Boomerang, Sabre and Dragonfly. See www.aviationmuseum.com.au
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| Boomerang |
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| Sabre |
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| Spitfire |
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| Replica Guard Tower |
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| Camp Ruins |
04 Sep 11 Easy trip from Temora to Cowra, decent
roads for most of the way, variety of scenery. No low cost/free camping in Cowra so it was
a $31 per night caravan park; dearest so
far. Toured around the town, stocked up
at Woolies and visited the Cowra POW Camp Breakout site and Japanese War
Cemetery. Not a lot left of the camp
site which is a pity, but what they have there is very interesting.
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| LVR Stock |
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| Rail, Rural & Military Museum |
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| Japanese Gardens |
05 Sep 11 Looked through the Lachlan Valley
Railway, large complex with a lot of rolling stock. They had even more at various other sites
around the state. They are unable to
run their trains out of Cowra at the moment as they don’t have approval to use
the tracks; they hope to have this rectified soon. Also looked through a Rail, Rural and
Military Museum; everything imaginable.
There was probably one of everything ever made. Spent a good hour or so going through the
Cowra Japanese Garden; quite spectacular.
They employ 3 full time gardeners (plus other staff) to keep it looking
good.
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| Miss Triall's House |
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| Sofala |
06 Sep 11 Short stint to Bathurst, but the going
was a bit tougher with more hills and a bit more traffic. Set up in the local showgrounds, not as
cheap as some but a good deal better than the Big 4. Toured around, visited the sight of the
Bathurst Army Camp (1940 - 1947), again not a lot left to see. The camp then
became a Migrant Camp until 1952. Viewed
the National Trust home of a Miss Traill whose grandfather, a George Lee, owned
the property in Bylong where Lesley’s grandfather, a Percival Collins (Jack), was the overseer in the 1920’s. We then ventured out to Sofala, a former gold
mining town; not much left, a real relic of the past. Lesley’s great great grandfather, a Thomas
Gettens, ran one of the pubs for a time in the 1860’s.
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| Museum Display |
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| Mt Panorama |
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| Racing Museum |
07 Sep 11 Did a couple of laps of the Mt Panorama
circuit, in both directions; 60 kph was plenty fast enough in a few of the
corners. Also looked through the
National Motor Racing Museum while we were out there; quite impressive. Completed the day out with a trip out to the
Chifley Dam.
08 Sep 11 Got up late, walked into town to view the
Bathurst 1000 winners plaques embedded in the footpath in front of the Civic
Centre. Were due to do some more walking
but the weather came in; “veged” out
inside instead.
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| Ben Chifley's House |
09 Sep 11 Miserable weather for most of the day,
outside temperature hovered around 6 degrees all day. Viewed Ben Chifley’s house. Went to the trots within the showgrounds,
didn’t have to pay to get in, pretty good trick. Had a good meal in the dining room. Very small crowd so we were able to sit in
the car trackside and watch the whole event; a bit warmer than sitting in the
grandstand.
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| Zig Zag Train |
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| Zig Zag Line |
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| Zig Zag Scenery |
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| SLR, Steyr, F1, M16 |
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| 303 Rising Sun |
10 Sep 11 Refuelled, checked tyres and set off for
Lithgow; very hilly and windy which made
for some heavy going. In parts the
outside temp was 1 degree. Rode the Zig
Zag Railway, still a bit cold but well worth it, brilliant scenery and an ingenious
railway line set up. See www.zigzagrailway.com.au Also visited the
Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum, another brilliant set up with hundreds of
small arms on display, not only ones made there but ones from all over the
world. Continued on to Rylstone and set
up for a 3 night stay. The road from
Lithgow to Rylstone was again very hilly and in parts not real flash at all.
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| Foundation Stone |
 |
| Harley Hill |
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| Bylong Church |
11-12 Sep 11 Toured the Rylstone/Bylong/Mudgee area
extensively visiting all points of interest in Lesley’s “Find My Family”
quest. First port of call was the
Rylstone Shire Hall which has a plaque/foundation stone to the Shire President
1913, a James Gettens, Lesley’s great grandfather. Then a decent trip to Bylong
through the Woollemi National Park to find the church in which her grandparents
were married in 1923. It was a bit
spooky as we could hear music coming from the church, which was locked. The music was Meatloaf’s Bat out of
Hell. Turns out the music is to scare
away bats!!! True story. The nearby cemetery had the graves of various
ancestors on the Gettens side of the family.
We ventured further out and found the home of her great grandparents,
James and Lilian Gettens who built the original house (Harley Hill); but we
were not able to find the house in which her mother lived in at “Lee Creek” in
her early years. Had quick look around
Mudgee; nothing in particular to see.
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| Town "Mascot" |
13 Sep 11 Set sail today via a different road
through Mudgee to Dunedoo; after Mudgee there were less hills and the going was
much easier than it had been. Had a
quick whizz around Gulgong on the way through just for a sticky beek; nothing
out of the ordinary top stop and look at.
Tried to find more of Lesley’s rellies in the Gulgong cemetery; but
without any success. Strolled the length
of Dunedoo’s main street and settled in for the night. The caravan park had what could be the town's mascot.
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| Dalkeith Entrance |
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| Jethro |
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| Plaque - June Collins |
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| Home of Grandma & Grandpa Collins |
14 Sep 11 Moved on to Merriwa via Cassilis, easy
run, pretty good road, reasonably light traffic. Toured Cassilis to visit sights of family significance for Lesley; grandparents
home in the town and “Dalkeith” farm on the outskirts and the school attended
by her mother. Located relatives graves
in the local cemetery and photographed plaques at the base of trees in the
avenue of trees honouring her mother and grandfather. Not much life in Cassilis at the moment. Dalkeith is also famous because the Golden Fleece ram was modelled on the award winning Merino Ram David of Dalkeith. We found a model of his son Jethro at Cowra.
15 Sep 11 Visited the Merriwa cemetery to locate
more graves of “rellies” and caught up with second cousin James Binks who is
also researching his family ties. Lesley
also visited James’ mother who was able to put names to faces in several
photos.
16 Sep 11
Took it easy again, then went to the local show, not a lot to see and
do. Shows don’t seem to be as flash as
they used to be.
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| Coal Mine |
17 Sep 11 Packed up and headed for Scone; easy enough run but a good deal more
traffic. As we left it became obvious
that the Saturday of the Merriwa show might have been more interesting with
bigger crowds and more exhibits arriving
(farm machinery etc) for the second day. Caught glimpses of huge coal mines
along the way. After a bit of effort we
found Lesley’s cousins place and set up for a 3 night stay. Michele works for and lives on the property
of the Arrowfield Horse Stud. Stunning spot.
18 Sep 11 We were taken on a guided tour of the
complex, some 2000 acres, no expense has been spared.
One new shed cost $1m; one stallion is worth about $50m. At various times there can be up to 600
horses on the property. A simply
spectacular property in a very scenic setting. See www.arrowfield.com.au
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| Arrowfield Gateway |
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| Arrowfield Driveway |
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| Arrowfield |
19 Sep 11
Toured the area and visited the Glenbawn Dam, would be a nice spot to
waste a couple of days. Thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Arrowfield; we were looked after very well.
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| Bridge at Bendemeer |
20 Sep 11
Headed off to Bendemeer via Nundle; much heavier going, hilly and a
strong head wind. Worst fuel economy
figures for the trip so far (20 Lt per 100 k, usually 16-18). Most of the roads were secondary sealed so
they weren’t the flashest in the world.
The only consolation was that the countryside was interesting and easy
to look at. Set up in the Showgrounds; in all 12 campers that night. Spent the evening with another of Lesley's cousins, Leo Collins and family on Longford Station. See www.longfordstationwagyu.com.au
21 Sep 11 Took it easy all day, washed the car and spent another evening with Leo and family. They also looked after us very well again.
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| Oxley Lookout |
22 Sep 11 Made our way to Kootingal, which is some 20 k out of Tamworth. We figured that it might be a bit quieter, cheaper and not as busy being in Tamwworth itself. We would set up there and do a day trip into Tamworth without the van. Found a good spot as part of a motel/fuel/caravan park setup. Turned out to be a good choice. Went for drive around the area and finished up at the Tamworth Info Centre, gathered brocures and went through the Walk a County Mile Interpretive Centre tracing the Story of Australian Country Music. Gained a birdseye view of the city from the Oxley Lookout.
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| Big Golden Guitar |
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| Slim Dusty's Handprint |
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| Smoky Dawson |
23 Sep 11 Back into Tamworth, viewed the Gallery of Stars Wax Museum at the Big Golden Guitar, looked at the Hands of Fame display and checked out the shops.
24 Sep 11 Packed up and set out for Manilla, an easy run, compared to previous days. Set up in the Manilla Caravan Park and did a quick trip around the town.
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| Namoi River Weir - Manilla |
25-26 Sep 11 Visited Lesley's Aunt Mona, toured around a bit, tested the local pies and generally took it easy.
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| Sawn Rocks |
27 Sep 11 Today's original plan was to travel to Split Rock Dam and spend a lazy day/night and then head off to Narrabri, however whilst the dam area was OK it didn't set us alight so we continued on with plan B. Stopped and looked at the Sawn Rocks between Bingara and Narrabri, easy to get to and quite spectacular. The unusual phenomenon is the result of slow and even cooling of molten rock, which enabled individual crystals within the rock to align perfectly with each other. Continued on to Narrabri where the plan was to stay at the showgrounds; that failed, closed for a week due to a pony club gathering. Plan C, travelled out to Yarrie Lake, happy with that and set up for the night.
28 Sep 11 Quiet night, top spot, decided to stay for another night. Weather a bit "iffy". Entertained by a visiting group of under 14s roaring around the lake on tube behind a speed boat; They obviously couldn't feel the cold. Rained all afternoon and all night.
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| Australia Telescopes |
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| Hills and Flats |
29 Sep 11 Water everywhere (from the rain). Looked at the Australia Telescope complex on our way back through Narrabri; interesting but not necessarily rivetting. Topped up with fuel and food, went to look through the Cotton Centre only to find that it had closed down sometime ago. The Cotton Centre was the main reason for visiting Narrabri. Moved on to Gunnedah and set up for the night. Countryside was much flatter, going was much easier, helped along with a strong tail wind.
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| Beyond the Black Stump |
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| Rolling Hills |
30 Sep 11 Caught up with the last
of the “rellies”; Lesley’s second cousin Peter Collins, then set off for
Dunedoo via Coonabarabran and Coolah.
Just before Coolah we found the black stump rest area. It wasn’t all that far to go beyond the black
stump!!!! Set up for 2 nights in Dunedoo
(our second time in this park); the plan is to be in position to watch the AFL
Grand Final tomorrow. More rolling
hills, all standards of road and blustery winds; all types of scenery - crops, trees, mountains and grasslands.
02 Oct 11 Rained most of
yesterday, didn’t matter, spent the day watching the AFL Grand Final. Topped up with fuel, should have done it on
the way in on Friday, 3 cents a lt dearer today. Easy enough run to Gilgandra, very little traffic,
road good in parts, some ordinary bits.
Again a mixture of landscapes –
grazing, cropping, national parks, and hills, all
interesting. Quick tour of Gilgandra,
some shopping and checked into the caravan park.
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| Glenn McGrath |
03 Oct 11 Easy run to Narromine
via Warren; flat for a change, the only
hills were in the distance. The
countryside was mainly cereal crops, grazing and cotton. Plenty of trees also. Checked into the caravan park, did a quick
tour of the town, checked out Glenn McGrath's statue and had a look at the
Narromine Aviation Museum.
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| Dubbo Zoo |
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| Elephants |
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| Giraffes |
04 Oct 11 Travelled in to Dubbo
(without the van) to visit the Dubbo Zoo.
Spent about 4 hours there, driving around the 6 km circuit, stopping at
regular intervals to walk to each of the exhibits. Large crowd as it was NSW school holidays,
people are able to drive, walk, ride a bike or ride around in a golf buggy type
cart. The Zoo is well laid out and very
interesting. Tends to be a bit over
commercialised now days, $46 each to get in.
It’s probably something you would do only once in a lifetime.
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| Zebras |
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| The Dish |
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| Trial Line Markings |
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| Elvis Stuff |
05 Oct 11 Packed up and headed
for Parkes; first leg was an easy run, very
little traffic, through largely cropping country. Wasn’t bad for a secondary sealed road. Once we hit the Newell Hwy the trucks started
again; only encountered one cowboy truckie; on the whole they have been good
for our whole trip. Checked out “The
Dish”, again very interesting but not edge of the seat stuff. Encountered a trial line marking system on the Newell
after the dish. The RTA has drawn two
lines in the centre of the road 2 or 3 feet apart; made it feel a lot safer as
the cars are further apart as they pass.
Had to stop at the The Sir Henry Parkes Centre which housed the info
centre, local museum and the Wiggle’s Greg Page’s Elvis Collection. Found another old favourite from the past in
the machinery shed. Collected the mail that Tim had redirected, topped up with
food and checked into the showgrounds; by
the look of the caretaker I bet he doesn’t get too many arguments, or I bet he
doesn’t lose too many. The only drawback
is that there were not too many level spots otherwise OK.
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| Elvis's Cadillac |
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| Nuffield |
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| Henry Parkes Statue |
06 Oct 11 Rained all night and
most of the morning. Sat tight, updated
the blog. Were able to walk into town in
the afternoon just for the exercise and a sticky beak.
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| Crops and Woodland |
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| Orange Fog |
07 Oct 11 Checked the van tyres,
topped up with fuel and headed off for Orange.
Reasonable run, not much traffic as this was a sealed secondary road
through cropping and wooded areas.
Encountered very thick fog as we approached Orange, visibility down to
about 50m in some parts. Wasn’t much
point in trying to see anything in Orange so we decided to press on to
Canowindra (pronounced Can ound ra) for
an overnight stay. Had a nice lunch at
one of the pubs and checked out the caravan park; only uneven sites left so we
did a re-think and decided to head for a free camp (donation) in Gooloogong,
via Cowra. A top spot but all the powered sites were taken so we opted for an
unpowered area where we had water. Found
we had reception on all channels so we decided to stay for the weekend and
watch the Bathurst 1000 from here.
Fairly quiet night with not a lot of through traffic. Looked like the number of people in the
caravan park was greater than the population of the town.
08 Oct 11 Walked the town and
took it easy for the rest of the day.
09 Oct 11 Watched Bathurst 1000.
10 Oct 11 Today’s plan was to
drive to Grenfell, do some shopping, do the washing at the laundry advertised
in the local tourist blurb. Failed, not
open on Mondays. Plan B, try at the next town on the tour, Forbes, failed
again, no Laundromat. Staff at the Visitor
Information Centre rang around and a nearby caravan park was happy for us to
call in and use their laundry. Problem “solvered”. That done, we moved on to Marsden for an
overnight stop in their free rest area.
11 Oct 11 Not a lot of sleep last
night as every truck in Australia drove
past the camp site at full tilt. Short
trip through West Wyalong to Mirool; another cheap camp site with a pub, a few
houses, old church and silos and that’s about all. Good meal at the pub.
12 Oct 11 A better sleep, could
still hear the trucks but there weren’t as many of them and they weren’t as
close as last night. Today’s plan was to head for Griffith and stay in the
showground but after a lengthy chat with a fellow traveller who had been
everywhere (twice) and was a bit of a medium (so she said) we decided to sus out Lake
Wyangan, just out of Griffith. Turns out
it was a pretty good spot so here we are for a couple of free nights. The trip was
particularly easy, light traffic, no hills, through cropping country, pine
forests, rice, vineyards and wineries.
 |
| Fruit Sculptures |
13 Oct 11 Nice and quiet last
night for a change. Spent the morning
choofing around Griffith, found Bunnings and bought a couple of things, feel better now. Of particular interest was the Fruit Sculptures display
in the main street, each piece being held on to the frame by a rubber band.
14 Oct 11 Easy run to Hay, light
traffic, very flat, some crops but a lot of nothing. Checked out the Shear Outback Museum; would
have been very interesting for someone who hadn’t had anything to do with sheep
and shearing. Also had a look and the
Dunera Boys Museum; interesting enough but it was a relatively small
display. Booked into the showground for
the night.
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| A Lot of Nothing |
 |
| Balranald Frogs |
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| View at Lake Benanee |
15 Oct 11 Rather than tackle the
Hay Plain we took a punt and decided to travel to Balranald via an “alternate
scenic route” through Maude and Oxley. Well, more very ordinary scenery, some
crops, some mallee scrub, lot of nothing really and 30 km of gravel road, but we made it. Maude has a population of 60, Oxley is so
small they didn’t even bother putting up the score. Got to Balranald at around 1 pm, Saturday
closing time in the country; just got
our pies!! Balranald has adopted all things frog due to the area being prime area for the endagered Barking Frog. Decided to keep going towards
Mildura; pulled up at a free camp at
Lake Benanee for the night.
16 Oct 11 Fairly quiet night last
given the closeness to the road. Headed
for Mildura; easy run for us heading west, a lot of trucks heading east
though. A mixture of countryside; mallee
scrub, crops and vines. Settled on the
caravan park on the river’s edge in Buronga (Mildura). Plan to stay for 2 nights. Took the tourist drive out to Wentworth and
back; just to say that we had been there. The outward leg was far less scenic
than the 2nd leg back through Merbein; vines and citrus everywhere.
17 Oct 11 Toured Mildura, did some
shopping and visited my nephew, David Stevens.
18 Oct 11 Set off just after 8am
with the plan being to get to Lameroo for the night which would give us a
relatively short leg on Wednesday for the run home. Had to stop in Ouyen to sample their world
famous vanilla slice. The sampler
reckoned the one had in Mildura the previous day was better. Lucky she tried two to get the comparison.
Very easy run, refuelled in Pinnaroo and reached Lameroo just after lunchtime. There was nothing to keep us in Lameroo all
afternoon so we decided to head for home; arriving just before 4.
Trip Map
