'BIG' Things and 'Little' Towns..

Crikey! I can't quite believe we have been back on the road for only 7 days.
The 1st June marked the first day that the State Government of New South Wales declared we could travel within the State (well, all people, not just us, that would be weird). The announcement was made in the last week of May and this meant that a number of places, which had been shut for almost 12 weeks, had very little time to get themselves ready for tourists albeit domestic ones. So we've had to be fairly flexible as to what is open or not. This hasn't, in any way, prevented us from finding an abundance of interesting things to see and do; in fact quite the opposite, so I've had to edit considerably and bring you all the highlights!
I am happy to report that Australia is still providing many BIG Things and statues of people and horses, and people 'on' horses.
It was a bitter sweet moment leaving Kangaroo Valley, having been cocooned there for 12 weeks but we are back in August for Irene's birthday - barring any other natural phenomenon or pandemics.

The aim for the next two months was to visit some of the small rural towns within NSW and get a little more 'OUTBACK'. 
New South Wales is approximately 801,150 square kilometres (497,811.531 miles !!). There are over 7.5 million people spread over that area although over 5 million of them live in Sydney. We have plenty of scope whilst the state borders remain closed. 
Our first stop, and one which we had previously visited in 2009, had to be the BIG Merino Sheep in Goulburn. Not only does it house the information centre, but it is enormous, and was amusing to compare our photos 10 years apart with small furry addition instead of a pork pie.

We opted for our first overnight stay at a free camp we had visited pre-Covid19 in Yass. Unsurprisingly we were the only ones there and had to phone the council to confirm they were open as the 'closed signs' hadn't been removed. This was the first day of restrictions changing so it was clearly going to be a very fluid process and one in which we had to be very flexible. Flexibility, on this adventure, has become our middle name. A highlight was a visitation from the Yamasaki's who had driven an hour from Canberra to deliver home made Malt Loaf to sustain us on our travels....and it has!

If you've read our previous blogs it will come as no surprise that we found an interesting sculpture of 'persons on a horse' in a village called Harden. This was no ordinary sculpture as it depicted a horse named 'Bill the Bastard'. Bill was one of 200,00 Australian horses sent to fight in the Great War and was said to be a giant of a horse that, in the heat of battle, was able to rescue 5 men and carry them to safety. He was declared a hero by his rider Major Michael Shanahan who was from this town. They've gone all out to recognise this event in Harden, so as well as the smaller statue in the high street, they are refurbishing a life size monument in a studio there.

From Harden we diverted to a tiny village called Wombat which has, surprisingly enough, a statue of a wombat. We are discovering as we travel that there is most definitely a propensity to lure tourists into small towns by building or painting or sculpting something that puts them on the map. We absolutely love it !

Next stop, for a late lunch, was Cootamundra which boasts the actual birthplace of Sir Don Bradman, a legend in the Australian, and, indeed, world, cricket community. We had always thought he was from Bowral in the Southern Highlands where they have the National Cricket Museum and the Oval where he played his early cricket. We were happy to be put straight by the volunteer running the Bradman Museum in Cootamundra. We were lucky to find this museum open and had to follow Covid19 protocols regarding social distancing and hand sanitiser and also provide our details for any contact tracing should it be necessary. Many of these small museums are run by volunteers and with an average age of 70 years plus many are having to stay closed to protect the volunteers health. Our volunteer shaded just under the 70yrs so was very happy to just be talking to us as we were 2 of only 4 people he had seen all day. He knew a lot about Don Bradman.....

He directed us to more Cricket memorabilia in the form of a BIG Cricket stump and bat.

And the Captains Walk, which was a short walk through a park, which had all the heads (not real heads - we wish, hehe) of all the Australian Cricket Captains; 45 in all, cast in bronze on stone plinths. Cootamundra really likes its cricket and boasts 9 cricket ovals and 3 turf wickets. 

     

We opted for a two night stop in a town named Junee; amusing given it is June (??). There seemed to be a whole heap of stuff to keep us happy here and we were correct. Unfortunately some had been Covid19'd ,and hadn't yet opened, but thankfully the Chocolate and Liqourice Factory was open for visitors. 
LIQUORICE and CHOCOLATE and ORGANIC..what a find. Thankfully Von doesn't like Liquorice so I agreed she could have cheese from the Cheese factory at our next port of call so I made a small purchase to sustain me along the way! This factory boasts a Guinness World Record, as of 2008, in which it produced the longest continuous string of Liquorice at 244 metres long.

Junee is in the heart of the wheatbelt of NSW and is one of the largest producers of Canola Oil in NSW. It has been hit particularly hard by the drought so tourism should've been helping until Covid19. In the late 1800's it also saw the creation of some small vineyards and was where McWilliams Wines started until they relocated to Griffith. There is an interesting Railway history too (yes really) and have the only working 'Roundhouse' in the Southern Hemisphere. The roundhouse is the mechanism by which they used to turn the trains round at the end of the line. Sadly the Museum was shut but we did manage a peep through the letterbox !

Following a pit-stop in Coolamon for some local cheese, we arrived in Narrandera for, as it turned out, a very frosty free-camp night by the Murrumbidgee River. Yet again this little town had some great tourist opportunities; some closed and some not. The opening photo of the blog was one highlight here and is one of many examples of silo and water tank art around NSW and Victoria. This particular art work took 11 days, 5 artists and 120 litres of paint. The Koala is the main feature on it due in part to this area being lucky enough to host Koalas in their natural habitat. I did not need much persuasion to go searching for them...well just one if I could. They are not a 'bear'; I mistakenly slipped up on my Facebook movie. We walked along Lake Talbot which was walkable from our free camp and Dennis was the first to actually sense the presence of a furry marsupial. He clearly smelt it and so with further neck straining Von eventually spotted a Koala nestling in the V of a large Red Gum, sunning itself after the cold night. As can be seen in the photo their colouring really does camouflage them in the Gum trees very effectively. And like our good friend Susan Brown in the UK I was beyond excitement as I'm sure she would've been too!

It was difficult to follow that moment, but we did with the 'Royal Doulton' Fountain in the town. There are believed to be only two of these fountains in existence and the other is in Pakistan. It was presented as a tribute to a Mr Hankinson who stands in local history as the 'areas most civic minded citizen' and honoured those from Narrandera who served in WW1. Some 'ne'er do wells' in the 70's trashed the fountain and the community actually glued it all back together (you can see the joins) and it is back fully functioning.

After that excitement we headed off the next day, via the BIG SPIDER in Urana and the correctly PPE'd corrugate sheep, to Jerilderie.

Jerilderie is 'famous' for being the only town in NSW to be robbed and pillaged by Ned Kelly and his gang. These outlaws tended to hang about in Victoria but sensed an opportunity in Jerilderie. After shoeing their horses at the blacksmiths, shouting everyone a drink at the local pub, kidnapping the two Police officers and using their uniforms, they held up the Bank! Escaping back to Victoria. This has resulted in a walking trail around the town highlighting all the relevant details of their blaggardry (not a real word). Also providing the town with an opportunity to make some dollars with T-Shirts various, and put up some signs.

Our final destination of this blog finds us in Finley right next to a lovely constructed Lake with a 2km walking track around it which we have utilised each of our three mornings here.

(That's our van on the left of the picture.) Finley won the State Tidy Town in 1996, and is also at the heart of the largest Irrigation district in this area. Until recently it had 1126 farms in the area with a total of 247,000 hectares. I'm not sure these figures are now accurate due to drought and the controversial Murray Darling Basin irrigation policies. The farms all produce cereal crops and rely on the Mulwala Canal system to irrigate them. This particular irrigation canal is one of the longest in Australia and is fed from Lake Mulwala which is, in turn, supplied from Hume Dam near Albury. The canal has the capacity of 5,000 Olympic Swimming Pools. Looking at it currently though I'm pretty certain the capacity is down to a couple of Olympic pools and a paddling pool. The small lake by the camp site is fed by a natural bore and it has been lovely to watch the Black Swans, Pelicans and other bird life swimming by. This small campground is so typical of a number in small towns. A little rustic and tired but spotlessly clean. We were even presented with fresh eggs on our first morning here. A first for us has been engaging in the nightly Happy Hour 5-6pm where the fire pit is lit (very welcome) and campers various clutching their glasses/casks of wine or stubbies of beer convene to tell stories. It has been awesome listening to some of the characters from 'fossickers' (searchers/diggers of precious gems) to 'grey nomads' (ageing folk in caravans) and then us, the 'Briwis'.

Staying the extra night has meant we headed to the Victorian border, only 20km from here, in order to 'collect' two more BIG Things. The BIG Murray Cod which is 7metres in length. Whilst the actual fish is the largest freshwater fish in these parts, it's not quite that big. And then just over the Victorian Border can be found the BIG Strawberry. 

It has become apparent that the Victorian border is also open and provides a channel of opportunity for our roving adventures..........So watch this Space - socially distanced of course !

G'Day for now xx