WEEK 1: [Including Saturday Preceeding]

BACK TO PERTH 2011

Saturday, 26 February 2011:  Towing our Coromal Princeton 605 caravan behind our Toyota Landcruiser Series 100, Marion and I departed home at 5.24am and headed west!  We passed through the familiar towns of Gympie (Bruce Highway), Kilkivan (Wide Bay Highway), Goomeri (Burnett Highway) and Murgon before reaching Wondai (both on the Bunya Highway) at 7.40am, where we stopped for a short break.  From Wondai we travelled on to Kingaroy, Kumbia and Bell where we stopped for a short break before continuing on to Dalby, arriving at 9.58am.  We fuelled up at the Dalby Woolworths Plus Petrol Station, where fuel was .03c cheaper than any other in town; with our card we also got another .08c discount, which was a small bonus.

Leaving Dalby we continued south-west along the Moonie Highway arriving at Moonie at 11.44am.  We were disappointed to find the roadhouse closed, as were all the little shops in the complex.  This is a sign of the times in country Australia it would seem.  We were to visit many more small communities which appeared to be “dying”.  What is happening to country Australia?  Why are all these once thriving communities slowly becoming tired and abandoned, except for the diehards who struggle on.  I am glad I have reached my “senior years” and can remember the good times out in the “real Australia”; it is very sad to see what is happening out there.  We also noticed the road damage caused by the recent floods and heavy rains, all the way along the highways we travelled.  Many patches of road were being repaired, but there is a long way to go before all damage is fixed.  In places the heavy transport vehicles have created deep depressions on the near side bitumen of the roads and these depressions can be dangerous to the unwary traveller, particularly when passing oncoming traffic with no room to move out and around the hazard.

We stayed at Moonie for almost an hour and had lunch in the caravan.  Even the Information Centre was closed, which may have been because it was Saturday and no volunteers were available to man the premises.

We turned onto the Leichhardt Highway and travelled on to Goondiwindi on the New South Wales border, arriving there at 1.42pm.  We then turned onto the Newell Highway at Goondiwindi and crossed the New South Wales border over the Macintyre River.  The Macintyre and Weir Rivers drain an area of about 44,000 square kilometres, most of which lies in the southern border parts of Queensland, with a small part of the basin extending into New South Wales. The Macintyre River has three main tributaries - the Macintyre River in New South Wales, the Dumaresq River along the border, and the Macintyre Brook.  Major flooding can occur along each of these river systems causing isolation of towns and rural lands, and severe flooding at times in the Goondiwindi area.  Whilst some flooding was experienced during the recent flood disasters, the Goondiwindi flood levee held and saved the town.  The levee is 11m high and the flood waters nearly raised that high!

Goondiwindi Flood Level 14 Jan 2011_ another .4m and the town would have gone under!

 

Leaving Goondiwindi, a short drive brought us to Boggabilla and 30kms further south brought us to the Northstar rest area.  We kept on as we wanted to make the Tookey Creek Rest Area, where we intending camping overnight.  We arrived at Moree at 4.11am Daylight Saving Time (DST), having put our time pieces forward an hour after crossing the border.  At 4.52pm (DST) we arrived at the Tookey Rest Area.   We were joined by two couples, fellow travellers, who were on their way to Tasmania for a fifteen day touring holiday in a motor home and a caravan respectively.  I had the thought that I would spend a lot longer in Tasmania if I spent the money to take my caravan over Bass Strait in the car ferry, which is not a cheap exercise as it is an overnight trip.  Hopefully one day Marion and I will make the trip to this lovely island state.  During the night we were also joined by five road trains with enormous prime movers.

Tookey Rest Area NSW_our first overnight on the road.

The Newell Highway is one of Australia’s life lines for the transport of goods to and from the Southern States to the Northern States; as we travelled along the highway it was noticeable that the trucks and road trains flowed in a constant convoy carting all sorts of goods and machinery.  I wonder what the “bullockies” of old would have thought had they lived to see this wonder of modern day transport; trips that took them months to transport their goods by bullock dray now take a couple of days only.



Transport of yesteryear!



A cloud of dust on the long, white road,
And the teams go creeping on
Inch by inch with the weary load;
And by the power of the green-hide goad

The distant goal is won.

The Teams (1896) – (1^st stanza)
by Henry Lawson



Modern Day Transport 2011



We generally found the “truckies” courteous and obliging, provided we “called them through” on our UHF radio when they wanted to pass us.  The procedure I followed was to call the driver on the radio and advise him to let me know when he wanted to pass and I would slow down for him to get quickly past our caravan “rig”.  I never, repeat never, told a truckie what to do, I always left it up to him; as I learnt several years ago, truckies do not like being told “how to drive”.

During the night the trucks kept rolling all night long and the rumbling noise made by their passage soon became a background noise similar to the sound of waves breaking on the beach.  I slept well; however Marion had a restless night with a sore throat and feeling unwell.  I hope she does not come down with the flu and leave me to do all the work (ha ha ha)!

Sunday, 27 February 2011:  Next morning we were up early and decided to grab some breakfast at McDonalds in Narrabri some 55kms down the highway.  The next town was Coonabarabran which is a large town and seems to be surviving well given the rural crises many communities are experiencing.  Marion still has a sore throat but battles on.

From Narrabri it was on to Gilgandra, home of the famous “Coo-ee” march which took place in 1915 from Gilgandra to Sydney.  At the time the tremendous casualties lists coming from the Gallipoli battlefields in the Dardanelles, where the ANZACS were fighting and dying in horrifying numbers (some 2000 soldiers lost their lives), resulted in a “call to arms” and a recruiting drive was on.  A group of 35 recruits commenced marching towards Sydney picking up more and more recruits as they passed each small town.  It took them from 10 October to 12 November to march on foot to Sydney, upon arrival they marched into history.  The information centre at Gilgandra has an excellent display room where the history of the march and several artefacts such as original flags, items of equipment and copies of newspaper articles from the days of the march, are on display.  Together with other displays of historical aspects of the town and a large display of aboriginal art and weaponry, the information centre is well worth the time spent to have a good look.  We spent nearly an hour there and the time was gone before we knew it.

The original 35 marchers leaving Gilgandra

The numbers increase, near Springwood, NSW.

           

Arriving at Martin Place, Sydney, NSW, 263 men.

1.07pm: The next town we passed through was Dubbo where the famous Taronga Western Plains Zoo is located.  This zoo is noted for its breeding programs and has many African animals exhibited in open space enclosures.  It is a “must see” for travellers and we have visited several times in the past, thus we did not visit this trip.  We travelled on and arrived at Parkes at 2.44pm passing through the small town of Peak Hill on our way.  I was shocked to see how tired looking Peak Hill was with many commercial establishments apparently closed.  What a sorry sight to see this once vibrant little community on the wane; I remember when it was worth a stop to refresh oneself and have a look around.  Coincidently, a talk back radio show we were listening to was broadcasting the calls of persons who were espousing the same sentiments I have mentioned in this travelogue.  Many were calling for Australians to band together to save their heritage and the rural way of life, which they all felt was slowly dying.  The questions were asked, “What will Australians do when all the small farms and diaries have been taken over by the large conglomerates?”  “Will Australia produce enough food to feed its population when all the small producers have left the land?”  I myself wonder what the future holds.  Enough of this doom and gloom!  On with our travels!  Passing through the countryside near Parkes we once again saw the very large communications dish, which featured in the film “The Dish”.  We have previously visited the dish complex and seen the display which features the important roll this dish played in communications with the Apollo Missions to the moon.

3.12pm:  We arrived at Forbes, New South Wales, and turned off the Newell Highway onto the Lachlan Highway to travel the 90km to Cowra our destination for the next couple of days.  We drove along the lovely tree lined highway which runs along beside the Lachlan River, through the rich and fertile Lachlan Valley.  We saw crops, cattle and sheep and even alpacas (originated in South America) as we drove along the highway.

4.24pm:  Cowra at last!  We crossed the Lachlan River, turned right and arrived at the Cowra Van Park, where we booked in for a short stay.  There are some historical sites we wish to see and we will rest up here whilst I carry out some small maintenance tasks to keep our equipment in tip-top condition for our travels.  We will also have to establish if in fact it is feasible to tow our caravan out to Clear Range via Canberra, where my brother Mike lives on his small property in the hills.  Flood damage in this area has resulted in one bridge being washed away and the Angle Crossing over the Murrumbidgee River being closed for repairs to the crossing.  It well may be we have to put off our visit to Mike and Fran until our return from Western Australia.

10.00pm:  I received a telephone call from my brother Mike with a report on the road conditions out to his property at Clear Range.  After discussing the pros and cons and confirming the closure of the Angle Crossing and the Smith’s Road Bridge over the Gudgenby River, we both thought it would be best to postpone our visit until our return from Western Australia.  Decision made.  We will stay here in Cowra an extra day to have a good look around and then head off on the Mid Western Highway towards the Newell Highway and then cross the New South Wales border with Victoria en route to the South Australian border.  It was time to go to bed and sleep on it.  Another day gone!

Monday 28 February 2011:

04.00am BANG!  BANG!  BANG!  Very loud claps of thunder had us leaping out of bed to prepare for the coming storm!  We quickly rolled up the caravan awning just as the rain started coming down.  Anticipating strong winds and heavy rain, we knew that in Queensland where we lived this thunder was normally the precursor of a heavy storm.  Fortunately the anticipated wind did not eventuate and the rain was quite sedate, compared with what we are used to in Queensland it was a fizzer!

Cowra is a large town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia in Cowra Shire. It is located 310 m (1,020 ft) above sea level   and about 310 kilometres west of Sydney on the banks of the Lachlan River. At the 2006 census, Cowra had a population of 12,835 people.

During World War II Cowra was the site of a prisoner of war (POW) camp. Most of the detainees were captured Japanese and Italian military personnel. On August 5, 1944 at least 545 Japanese POWs attempted a mass breakout from the camp. Simultaneously, other Japanese prisoners committed suicide, or were killed by their countrymen, inside the camp.



Japanese War Cemetery, Cowra, NSW.

 The actions of the POWs in storming machine gun posts, armed only with improvised weapons, showed what Prime Minister John Curtin described as a "suicidal disregard of life", and had no chance of success.

During the breakout and subsequent recapture of POWs, four Australian guards and 231 Japanese died, and 108 prisoners were wounded. The dead Japanese were buried in Cowra in the specially created Japanese War Cemetery. This is the only such cemetery in Australia, and also holds some of the dead from the WWII air raids on Darwin.

0830 We are finally learning to take it easy and not worry about early starts each day.  This morning I met a couple who were staying at the caravan park also, and we struck up a conversation.  It turned out Gwen was a member of the pioneer Hodder family.  Her ancestors were among the first settlers to contribute to the birth of the town of Cowra.  She gave me some great information about the early days of Cowra and how she had grown up in the town herself.   Gwen’s husband showed us some original bricks Gwen’s great grandfather had manufactured in Cowra in the early 1800s; they were clearly marked with his unique brand comprising the suits of cards, i.e. hearts, diamond, clubs and spades.  Each brick we were shown had one of these marks embedded into it.  After our talk with Gwen we went and filled up our near-empty diesel tanks (270lts in total) at the local service station; before heading over to the local information centre where we had been told, a very good display relating to the Cowra POW breakout was on offer.  We were not disappointed as we sat and watched a holograph image of a young girl from the times tell the whole story of the breakout, which occurred whilst her fiancé was a POW in Singapore.  The story had a happy ending when her soldier boy returned from the war and married her in Cowra.  Of course the young girl was an actress; however, the whole presentation was very well done.
We then drove out to the site of the POW camp where the break out occurred and visited the Japanese Gardens of Peace constructed by a joint Japanese Cowra effort at reconciliation which has proved successful.  The gardens were nothing short of beautiful and we spent a long time walking around and sitting by running water, peacefully relaxing and watching some lovely little wrens as they hopped about on the grass and in the bushes without a care for our presence.  We really enjoyed our visit to these gardens and I took some good photographs.



Japanese Gardens, Cowra, NSW.

A visit to a replica guard tower and the site of the POW camp itself gave us a bit more of a feeling for the historical aspects of the events that occurred on 5 August 1944.  From there we went to the Japanese War Cemetery and the Australian War Cemetery adjoining each other in a very poignant way.  After our drive to these historical sites we returned to Cowra town and had lunch before returning to the caravan park for a well earned rest.  We were entertained by the ubiquitous gathering of hundreds of Corella parrots in the trees lining the Lachlan River where the caravan park is located.  The screeching and antics of these birds was something to behold!   After sunset the screeching was finally reduced to the odd squawk as the birds settled down to sleep.  We too had a peaceful night’s sleep and looked forward to a nice easy day tomorrow as we retired for the night.

Tuesday 1 March 2011:  Today is a “rest day” I have to do some maintenance on the car and the generator and we will go for a walk up town to have a better look at the shops.  After a light breakfast we walked up town and went “window shopping” before returning back to the caravan in time for lunch.  After lunch I serviced the generator and the car before cleaning the windscreen and filling the window washer reservoir.   The only negative discovery was the probability our deep cycle battery for the caravan is on the way out; not a major revelation as it is several years old and still providing 12volt lighting and water pump power to the van!  I think a new one will be in order once we get to Adelaide.  We decided to prepare for our departure tomorrow morning by hooking up the car and the caravan and rolling up the awning; this will give us a “head start” in the morning and we won’t annoy the neighbours with our noise early in the morning.  For some strange reason, unknown to us, the Corellas did not turn up today and I have missed the photo-opportunity I was looking forward to.  Marion cooked a lovely fillet steak tea for us and we watched television before retiring to bed for the night.  Tomorrow is another day!

 Wednesday 2 March 2011: As planned we left Cowra at 6.50am and drove west along the Mid-Western Highway as the false dawn appeared in the eastern sky with a crescant moon hanging just above the horizon.   We passed through several country towns, including Grenfell where the great Australian author and poet, Henry Lawson was born on the Grenfell goldfields.

Lawson led a discordant live owing to his alcoholism and was at one point jailed for public drunkenness.  However he was a poetic genius and his short stories and poems live on today as part of Australia’s history.  He was and is one of Australia’s favourite sons and ranks right up there with the equally great bush poet, Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson.
 
A short distance on we passed by the Weddin Mountains where Ben Hall the notorious bushranger had his cave “hide-out” for many years.  Hall was as famous as Ned Kelly in his day and led a very rough life in the bush.  He and his gang committed many famous robberies and in 1865 he was betrayed by a local and as he walked into his camp on the morning of 5 May 1865 he was fired upon by eight police and killed.  It is said he never fired a shot and was running away when shot in the back; there were in excess of thirty bullet wounds in his body.  His grave can be seen at Forbes, N.S.W.


Source Wikipedia

 We continued on along the Mid-Western Highway until we reached Hay where we crossed the Murrumbidgee River and briefly joined the Cobb Highway before turning west once more on the Sturt Highway passing through Balranald at 2.15pm.  We reached Lake Benanee shortly at 3.09pm and set up camp for the night.  A beautiful cool breeze was coming off the lake, which was full to capacity.  We had plenty of time to relax before the evening meal, watching some satellite television and reading.  I am currently reading a book entitled “The Voyage of Islita” by Kiki Wheelock.  It is the story of Kiki and her husband Russell’s voyage around the world in the 33ft sloop (sailing yacht) Islita and is enthralling reading.  The Wheelock’s hail from Bulverde, Texas, USA, and we met them on their circumnavigation trip when they called in at Brisbane and stayed for several months.  We have kept in touch ever since.  Lake Benanee is quiet and peaceful and we only have two other campers with us at the moment.  The passing trucks on the highway can only be heard if one listens intently as we are some distance away from the road.  Hurray for a quiet night!

Lake Benabee Campsite, NSW.

 

Henry Lawson 1867-1922



Thursday 3 March 2011:  Today we are hoping to make Adelaide around lunchtime hence and early start was called for and at 5.51am we were on the road again.  As dawn was breaking we were following alongside the Murray River and Malleefowl country.  We kept a sharp look-out for a Malleefowl but did not see one.



Malleefowl:  Source: Cheryl Ridge: http://www.pbase.com/chezzyr

Arriving at Buronga, NSW 6.55am we decided to fuel up at the BP Service Station as there were a large number of trucks doing the same thing; we figured the price must be right.  As it turned out we were correct in our assumption and got a good price for diesel.  From Buronga we crossed the Murray River into Victoria and the town of town of Mildura.  Mildura is an Aboriginal term meaning Red Earth. The countryside is known as the Sunraysia Region and can boast of wineries, orchards, flower gardens including Australia's only inland Botanic Garden and other attractions; not the least of which is the Murray River itself.  We continued on through this well set out and tidy town; and at 8.55am stopped at Yamba just across the border into South Australia. 

Yamba, NSW.  Fruit Fly Inspection Point.

After taking some photographs of the border crossing fruit fly checkpoint, we pulled into the inspection area and handed over some potatoes and onions Marion had peeled and stored in sealed containers.  This was not enough for the female inspector who confiscated them.  We accepted her decision and did not argue, it was not worth it!  Some years ago when we crossed at the same inspection point we were allowed to keep our potatoes and onions which we had prepared in the same manner; I guess it depends upon the person doing the inspecting.  At least I saw them go into the bin.  We moved on.

At Paringa we again crossed the Murray River at one of the Locks and we had time to stop behind traffic half way across the bridge and take a photograph.  

Murray River, Paring, S.A.



Paringa is 216km north-east of Adelaide and only 5km from Renmark. The road south-east from Renmark is on the eastern edge of the Riverland and the gateway to Victoria including the towns of Wentworth, Merbein and Mildura. You can also enter South Australia from Sydney and Canberra and the Riverina via Paringa.  Paringa is from an Aboriginal word meaning "big bend in the river". In 1913 Paringa became the first Murray town to become connected to Adelaide by rail. The Paringa Suspension Bridge was opened in 1927 and is only one of five spanning the Murray River in South Australia.

On the other side of the bridge we came into Renmark where we had a “Maccas” take-away breakfast on the road.  From here we came upon some wide open flat grazing country which spread out all the way to the hills approaching Adelaide.  The colours of the country side were soft brown and creams of grazing grass and made for some good scenery as we approached the hill climbs up and over the ranges and on into the Barossa Valley.  We drove past wineries and fields of grape vines as we cruised along in the moderate traffic.  The double land highway became the Northern Expressway and took us right into Port Adelaide, where a short drive brought us to our destination, Adelaide Shores Caravan Park, West Beach, Adelaide, South Australia.  I had been worrying about being allocated a good site at this park, as we wanted to stay for some time.  I had telephoned ahead and been told it was unlikely we would get the site we wanted as a long week end was coming up (Adelaide Cup) and all the good sites were booked out.  However when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find we had been given the site we wanted – hurray!!  It was time to “set up” the van and annexe and settle in for an enjoyable stay in Adelaide.  The first major stop of our trip had been reached.

Friday 4 March 2011:  We awoke at a reasonable hour and had bacon and eggs for breakfast – joy!  After tidying up and a cup of coffee I telephoned the company who service the Trailer-Mate Caravan Jack I use with the caravan.  I had serviced it myself but could not get it to work.  Not knowing where I had gone wrong I decided to take it to the experts and get a new set of seals and dust covers as well as a service of the unit.  I spoke to husband and wife team Tracey and Sean and arranged to meet them at their warehouse this morning.  Sean serviced the jack and showed me how he did it as he went along; he told me he could not find anything I had done wrong, but maybe one part I had not tightened up enough was the problem.  Suffice to say the jack worked perfectly after he had done his work and I was glad to pay the small fee involved – one less worry for me.  We celebrated by going shopping at the Marion Shopping Centre and arrived back at the caravan in time for lunch.  The afternoon was spent relaxing and talking about our trip.  We have decided to stay in Adelaide until Monday 21 March 2011 and have a good relaxing couple of weeks here.  I made contact with my cousin Jill and we are looking forward to visiting them in the coming days.

END WEEK 1: