July 2013 - Barham to Lightning Ridge

Unfortunately, June didn't end as we had expected it to.  We got as far as Bourke when our daughter Leann phoned us to let us know that our friend, Clayton's cousin Darin Jolly passed away on 18th June from cancer.  He was only 42 years old.  We hooked up the van and headed back to Lara and went to his funeral at Port Sorell in Tasmania. He left behind his brave and wonderful wife and two young children.  It was such a sad funeral.

We left Geelong again a after a hectic few weeks for a week in Barham with Leann, Clayton, Clayton's mum, sister and nephew.  While in Barham we did a day trip to Swan Hill where we visited the Pioneer Museum.   It's good to see them spending some money on this place again as last time we visited it looked very tired and run down.

  

Clayton and I did a bit of fishing and between the 2 of us we caught 3 beautiful Murray crays on the lines.

Unfortunately Murray crays are permanently out of season as the last lot of "black water" that went down the river killed a lot of these off and the stocks are supposedly very low.  Lucky we only got them to the surface and not into the boat as it would have been very tempting to keep them.  The fine is $20,000 plus $1,000 per cray so it would definitely not be worth the risk.

The caravan park owners let us use the Oz Pig solid fuel stove so we cooked a roast one night, a lamb stew another night and lamb shanks the last night.

We moved on to Deniliquin and stayed in the caravan park right on the Edward river.  I finally caught an edible fish. It measured just under 450 mm long and we had 2 beautiful fillets off it for lunch.
This fish is a Golden Perch or more commonly known as a Yellow Belly,  a very nice eating fish.  Hope to catch more soon.

Deniliquin is a town on the Cobb Highway (named after the famous coach company) which is also known as the "Long Paddock Touring Route" that starts in Echuca and goes all the way through to Wilcannia.  The Long Paddock trail was blazed by Hume and Hovell in 1824 from central NSW to the eventual site of Melbourne.  As travelling stock cannot go more than 2 days without water, the stock routes followed streams which were the only reliable source of water. 

The Long Paddock stock route crosses 5 rivers, the Darling, Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, Edward and Murray.

Deniliquin was originally a station owned by Benjamin Boyd's Royal Bank and became a natural congregation point for south bound stock.  From 1847 it had a punt which was vital for crossing sheep over the Edward River.

We found the story of the Long Paddock very interesting and there are various sculptures depicting parts of the history all along the way.

We left Deniliquin and followed the Long Paddock along to Hay.  There are still drovers with herds of cattle along the way which tend to wander over the road so it pays to be cautious while driving.  The drovers are only allowed herds of 1,000 head  so they don't loose track of any. We haven't found out how the drovers manage to keep all the cattle together at night and how many cattle wander off from the herd.  They have horses, motor bikes and dogs but the cattle seem to spread out for miles.

One of the biggest "sculptures" along the Long Paddock Cobb Highway Touring route is at the rest area called Black Swamp between Wanganella and Booroorban, about 30 kilometres south of Hay.  The sculpture of the Headless Horseman  is named after a legend associated with the area. Drovers around the Black Swamp in the middle of the 19th century told of a horseman who appeared suddenly at a campsite, mounted on a trotting cob, a cloak about his shoulders but with no head, spooking the animals and causing stampedes. It was said to be the ghost of a drover who died at the swamp.

Inspired by local folklore, the figures represent two drovers and dogs chasing a mob of cattle rushed by the headless horseman.

A drover named Doyle died at Black Swamp in the 1850's and his ghost allegedly appeared as a headless horseman.

Overlanders dreaded camping at the swamp, believing the sight of the apparition spelt their doom.

The legend was perpetuated by a Moulamein butcher who, dressed as the headless ghost, would spook drover's mobs and siphon off cattle to trade through his shop.

More stories about the Long Paddock can be found at http://www.thelongpaddock.com.au/

We had stayed in Hay on a previous trip so we continued on to Griffith.  A quick stop at the tourist information centre and we found lots of places of interest. 

Griffith has a very interesting migrant settlement history which we learnt about when we visited the Pioneer Park which displays houses and shops etc. from the pioneering days.  Back in 1912 the pioneers only had little money, a lot of them built houses using whatever materials they could find.  Most house were simply frames built from felled trees and then covered with cement bags which were gathered from the canals that were being built to supply water for irrigation.   The early town was therefore known as Bagtown.  Some of these original buildings have been moved to Pioneer Park to show how the early pioneers lived.  Very basic with lots of drafts.

There are literally dozens of old tractors and steam engines so I was in my element.  Poor Judy, she just sits and listens to me rabbit on about it being such a pity that these old engines are just rusting away.  There are a big percentage of working engines at Pioneer Park, but they only have them running on Good Friday. 

After working 43 years with trucks and tankers, I couldn't resist this old tanker which was built in 1947.  
This is said to be the first stainless steel wine tanker on the road in Australia.  It is interesting to see the design of the outriggers and barrel stiffeners and how many repairs have been done in these areas.  
Thankfully we have learnt a lot about road tanker fatigue over the years.

It's interesting to hear how different crops are grown and harvested.

We visited the Fruit Salad Farm where they take you around their irrigation crops and you get to see how and why they grow the various fruits and nuts. One of the fruits they grow is prunes and dry them for market.  Apparently this fruit is known in Queensland as Sugar Plum and are sold before they are dried.  In Japan these fruit cost the equivalent of $7 each.  We bought some dried from the farm for $5 per kilo.

They also grow Valencia oranges.  They told us that Valencia oranges have a secret, that is that they are at their best when the skins still have a green tinge.  This is why they are not as popular as Navel oranges because they don't look as good with their green tinged skins.  When the Valencia orange has a nice orange skin and looks good, they are very dry so they get a bad name.  Blood oranges which have an orange skin and a bright crimson flesh inside are also grown here which have very strong orange taste.  We sampled a permison which is a bit like a small mango which tasted a bit like a cross between a ripe apricot and a peach.  They don't grow these in commercial quantities, just for visitors to sample and jam making.  One of the more unusual nuts that they grow is a pecan.  These are shaped a bit like an almond but are very similar to walnut inside.  They have a thinner/softer shell than a walnut but I still make a mess in the caravan every night cracking them open.  They are a good snack.

About 35 kilometres south of Griffith is a little place called Darlington Point which is on the Murrumbidgee River. There is an open range zoo there called Altina Wildlife Park.  This is in a 207 hectare bushland setting and they take visitors around their park in a horse drawn cart.  They feed the animals as you are going around so you get a good look at all their animals right close up.  We were on the front carriage that towed the feed trailer so we got close up to everything. 

One thing we found interesting was that the feed trailer had a bucket full of freshly picked scotch thistles.  I didn't know which animal thinks scotch thistles are a treat, did you?    It was good to see that many endangered species were being successfully bred in high security enclosures.  It was a pleasant afternoon and well worth a visit.

Their website is www.altinawildlife.com/Home.aspx  
If you have a look at their web site, you will see the camel eating scotch thistles. Apparently camels have a type of anesthetic in their saliva which allows them to eat any prickly type of plant.
The keepers certainly get up close to the animals 

Forbes was the next place where we stayed in a caravan park right beside the Lachlan River.  Beautiful green lawns mowed all the way down to the edge of the river.  We arrived there and the sun was shining and about 20 degrees, which was pleasant after the cooler temperatures we left behind in Griffith.

Of course fishing was immediately on the agenda.  I had a couple of very good bites just fishing off the bank right behind the caravan  but couldn't hook it up.

I was told that this was the sight where the famous poem "Clancy of the overflow" was written.  Apparently there is a rock just upstream from where we camped where the poet sat to write the poem.  I didn't go up to check it out as the weather was poor.

Forbes is home to McFeeters Car Museum.  This is a 2 million dollar shed that houses a magnificent collection of cars of all description which have been impeccably restored to original condition.  There are also some highly modified cars that are on loan from other collectors.  

The A and T Model Fords impressed me the most along with the modified early Falcons. 

The owner told us that the shed alone cost him 2 million dollars, so I hate to think what the cars are worth.

Mr McFeeter told us about the new Central West Livestock Exchange which was just to the north of the town.  He also said that there was a cattle sale on the next day so we went out to have a look it.  What a place.  The cattle sale pens are fully covered with a oval shaped roof and the pens inside, together with the races and cattle weighing system are a work of art.  Cattle move in and out of selling pens through air operated gates.  When they are sold, they move out of the pens and through a race into the weighbridge, again through air operated gates.  

We were only watching the sale for about an hour and I estimated that about 500 cattle went under the hammer.  We had no idea of how the cattle were being sold as the auctioneer had his own lingo and we had little idea of what he was saying.  Buyers would just nod their head and all of a sudden they were declared sold and they would get sprayed with a can of spray paint.

As the weather wasn't contusive to fishing or other outdoor activities that we enjoy, we took a drive to the city of Orange, about 120 kilometres to the east.  We always say that half the fun of getting to a destination is the journey.  This was no exception.  We traveled through a little town called Eugowra where we found some magnificent murals painted on to walls of some of their older buildings.  

The one painted on the side of the post office/general store depicts the largest gold robbery in Australia's history which took place just 5 kilometres from this spot.  
On June 15 1862, a Ford & Co coach which was carrying gold and money between Forbes and Orange was held up by Frank Gardiners gang of 8 bushrangers.  They blocked the road with 2 bullock wagons and when the stage coach arrived, they fired at it from behind the granite rocks.  The horses bolted and the coach overturned.  The bushrangers made off with 2,719 ounces of gold and 3,700 pounds.  (A multimillion dollar haul by today's terms). 

A considerable amount of the gold was recovered after an aboriginal tracker led police to their hide out where Gardiner released a pack horse to avoid  being captured.

More gold and notes were recovered some time later when police apprehended another of the gang members some time later. 
The remainder of the haul has never been accounted for.
Artists gather in Eugowra for a weekend each year and touch up old paintings as well as do new ones. 

We drove out to the hold up site.  It is easy to see why the bushrangers used this site as is a big granite outcrop with lots of places to hide.

We saw an advertisement for an attraction called Utes In A Paddock which is about 120 kilometres to the west of Forbes out near Ootha.  The add intrigued us so we took a trip out there to have a look.  There are a collection of iconic Holden utes from the oldest 1953 FX up to about the early 90's models which have been painted up by various artists and depicting various outback related scenes.  

The utes have been mounted in the paddock with a story plate near the fence that tells what the artist is trying to express.  The work that has gone into some of them is incredible.  Well worth a visit.

The full story can be found at http://www.utesinthepaddock.com.au/utes-in-the-paddock-story/index.php

The top picture depicts a hold up by Ned Kelly.  The horses are white and have holes cut in them as they are not Australian native animals and don't belong in the landscape.

The detail on the brown ute above is fantastic.  It depicts the drover moving through the country and the old aborigine keeping an eye on him.
The FX Holden to the left is the coat of arms.  The 2 native animals being the kangaroo and the emu are on Australia's coat of arms.  The artist here is saying that these are the only 2 animals in Australia that can't go backwards, so Australia should never go backwards.  Dame Edna even gets a mention, I am not sure if this is her best pose or not.

This one depicts to local hero "Clancy of The Overflow"  This ute is called Clancy stops the overflow because he has hooked his horse up to the bottle of Bundy to haul it back upright to stop it spilling.







The ute on the right is called "Utezilla".  This one depicts the kangaroo as a mighty mother.  She is almost always pregnant and can have one joey in her pouch and another at foot.  She produces 2 types of milk simultaneously to feed each baby separately.  She can determin the sex of her young, leaving giving birth to a male later in her life.  If she is under pressure during drought periods, she can stop breeding all together.

We followed the Newell Highway from Forbes through Parks and onto Dubbo, our next destination.  Dubbo is famous for the Taronga Open Plains Zoo. We visited this zoo about 26 years when it was still being developed.  It has now grown into a magnificent area with 6 kilometres of sealed roads to drive around and another 9 kilometres of well formed gravel tracks.  Breeding programs are also working well at this zoo as most of the enclosures have signs on them saying when the young had been born this year. 
The viewing areas and the talks by the keepers make it a very informative day.

The giraffe and the rhino both had young at foot, both born this year.  The baby rhino was only 3 weeks old 









The second day in Dubbo was wet so we took the opportunity to visit the RFDS base and a fascinating place called Traintasia.  
 

Traintasia is a model train setup with all sorts of other things going on as well.  There are various model villages with carnivals, buildings on fire, an alpine village with ski lift and railway stations where the various trains stopped and started.

Unfortunately not all the trains were running as the owner was having trouble with the layout.
There was also a model cafe in one of the model towns.  The little waiter about 1.5" high would come out of the cafe as if taking orders from all the model people sitting around outside. It was all very intricate and would have taken years to build.





Being well and truly sick of the cold wet weather, we hightailed it for Lightning Ridge. 

As we approached the turn off, we saw this 18 metre high steel sculpture of an emu made basically from old Volkswagen bodies.  The statue is called Stanley and was inspired by local artist John Murray.  Stanley was originally to be erected on the Birdsville Track to symbolise the big birds he saw while driving out that way but the tyranny of distance and remoteness made that too difficult.  

Stanley now stands proudly on "The Ridge" that gave Lightning Ridge it's name and faces in the direction of Birdsville - his spiritual home.

Legend has it that Lightning Ridge was named after a shepherd, his dog and 600 sheep were struck dead by lightning back in 1870 on this very spot.  The area was unofficially known as Lightning Ridge up until the village was proclaimed in 1908 and the name was officially gazetted 5th July 1963

The sun was shining at last. We heard from people all the way up here that the only place to stay is the Opal Caravan park so we booked in for a week.  There are 4 other caravan parks in Lightning ridge which I am sure are OK but this one is fantastic.  Not a grassed area in sight which we didn't expect, but the site is leveled and a good gravel surface.  The amenities are the best we have ever seen anywhere, all the showers have glass doors and excellent shelving.  You don't have to stand in a puddle of water to get dressed like all other caravan park showers that we have used.

We soon discovered that the thermal pool that has a constant temperature of 39 degrees Celsius was  just 200 metres down the road.  Free entry and open 24/7.  What a way to way to relax in the evening.

The water comes from deeper than 1 kilometre underground and it is almost boiling when it reaches the surface

Opal miners are unique people.About 60 kilometres west of Lightning Ridge is the Glengarry Opal Field.  The miners mostly live in make shift accommodation but unlike White Cliffs and Coober Pedy, the housing is above ground.  The mullock taken from their mines must be taken off their claim and dumped in one of the  common mullock heaps.  There are mountains of mullock that would be easily 2 kilometres long, 1 kilometre wide and 50 metres high.  There are 2 pubs and 1 club all within a 10 kilometre area.  They have earned the nick name of "3 pubs in the scrub" 

One is the Grawin golf club where you have to drive through the golf course to get to the club house.  I noticed that the golf course is advertised as an 18 hole course but there are only 9 holes.  You play 9 holes on the way out and then turn around and play the same 9 holes in reverse order on the way back.

About 5 kilometres further on is the Sheepyard Inn and a further 5 kilometres after that is the  Glengarry Hilton.  They all have their own charm, serve cold drinks and do great meals.  They all welcome visitors and it is a good opportunity to have a chat to the locals.

I was chatting to one of the locals and he told me that the one pictured on the left was advertised for sale in one of the Sydney newspapers last year.  Apparently it sold for $850,000.00 which I am told was an absolute bargin.  The kitchen is a 40 foot shipping container and the bar is just a tin shack which adjoins a "lounge " area with a bit of corrugated iron.  They have a gravel beer garden out the front complete with a fire pit for wintry evenings. There only looks to be about 20 shacks around Glengarry, but I am told that they come out of the woodwork on weekends.  You can't move in the place on Sunday afternoons.

The cropping around here is done in huge paddocks.  One we passed one paddock which we were told is 4,500 acres.  It was sewn last year after the flood came through and apparently it yeilded a bumper crop.  It has just been sewn again this year, even though it hasn't rained as there is still enough moisture in the sub soil from the last flood

We find that when we visit a town that we haven't been too before that it pays to take a town tour to find out what happens around the place.  

There are places here that we would not have found on our own.  We visited a place called the Astronomers Monument which was built by a guy who thought he was an alien.  He died in an explosion when the gas cylinder he was using to make moonshine blew up but the monument still stands.  It is a strange arrangement of concrete columns which were poured using empty 20 or 60 litre drums as a mold.  There are inscriptions written in the concrete and it is easy to see that the man wasn't totally with it.

A second place we visited is Amigo's Castle.  This is an absolute work of art which has taken the owner 40 years to build.  It is all built from sand stone rocks collected from around the area.  There is a spiral stair case in the lounge room that goes down into his opal mine.  Rumour has it that he has tunnels leading off from the staircase that go into his shed and other outside areas.  Most of it has never been roofed and it hasn't been lived in.  It seems to be just a labour of love.  As most other things at Lightning Ridge the scaffold is "make shift".  He used 44 gallon drums with planks and we were told that he wore a backpack to carry the rock up to the next level.  No wonder it has taken 40 years to build.

Possibly one of the very best attractions we have ever visited anywhere is Chambers Of The Black Hand.  A miner has built a stairway down into his mine so that visitors can access the underground easily.  Opal mines are in basically 2 layers at Lightning Ridge.  The first 40 to 60 feet is sandstone which doesn't have any opal at all.  Under the sandstone is a layer of Kaolin clay and the top 3 to 4 foot of that is where the opal is found.  It is interesting to see the real distinct change in the layers.  

This mine has had good opal taken from it but the interesting part about it is that the miner has hand carved about 600 beautiful carvings into the sandstone.  This obsession with carving has taken his life and he does more carving than mining.  He keeps digging out more rooms and fills it with carvings of different themes.  There are rooms with animals, underwater creatures, dinosaurs, super heroes, religious themes, Australiana, politicians and the list goes on.  It is impossible to show all the photos that we took of his work  but they were all very impressive.  Fortunately they have a good web site which shows a lot of the underground work.  Go to http://www.chambersoftheblackhand.com.au/

We were fortunate enough to be in Lightning Ridge while the 4 day International Opal Exhibition was on.  I think the population of the town more than doubled as opal traders from all the major opal fields converged on the town to sell their findings.  I was amazed at some of the prices being asked.  There are literally dozens of buckets and ice cream containers full of bits of rocks containing seams of opal.  I asked one guy what 1 piece of rock was worth and he told me I could buy the collection of 12 rocks for $16,000.00  If he didn't have 20 of the same size buckets sitting on his table, I will go he.  You would imagine that security would be huge as there would have been at least 60 sellers with the same sort of rocks for sale, but it was just like being at any farmers market.  Inside the building where the international finished opal are, security was at a premium.  There were some beautiful stones in there.  We looked at one black opal with real fiery red colour, about the size of a 5 cent piece which was priced at $12,500.00.  NO, we didn't buy it.  I can't even imagine what some of the bigger stones are worth.

Well that's it from us for this part of our travels.  We are moving on from Lightning Ridge and heading further north into Queensland where we will travel through Hebel and then on to St George for a spot of fishing.  We should make Mt Isa by the end of August.