Hysterical, Historical, Hiatus's
It's not all 'beer and skittles' and nice views......well maybe ?
I'm writing this (Shazza) from the sanctuary of New South Wales (NSW) ; a 'groundhog day' moment with a return to Kangaroo Valley as the State Borders once again tighten up due to Victoria's (VIC) second significant wave of Covid19. We've been over the border for just over a week and managed to avoid the 'hotspots' of Melbourne and surrounds, thankfully. It's a strange world when the mere sight of a VIC licence plate strikes fear and suspicion across the populous. Blessed are we with our NSW plate !
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| Avoiding Melbourne like the Plague.....literally ! |
The song played on a number of TV Ads which some would like as the National Anthem '...we are one ; we are Australia...' seems to have somehow been forgotten amongst the social media camping forums. A number of the, shall we say, older greyer nomads have been very curmudgeonly about it all. So pull up the drawbridges it's about to get feral !
This is the first time in 100 years that the border between NSW and VIC has closed and with 55 separate routes to police is quite some task and so hasn't been done on a whim. As is the case with other States you now need a very good reason to cross the border, and having a jolly road trip isn't one of them.
Our next option is looking likely to be a foray in to Queensland who have just re-opened their border with NSW although given the recent outbreak of Covid19 at the 'Crossroads' Pub that may well be under review. Our circular route of Australia is becoming somewhat boomerang shaped but we press on with positivity and are more than happy to have our little safe haven of KV to shelter in. It has coincided with the annual servicing and renewal of registration, insurance, green slip (don't ask) requirements for our van. This is a lot easier if you are still in the State you were originally registered as all the States in Australia have slightly different ideas. This is particularly pertinent to the 'green slip' (someone will ask). It is a NSW requirement irrespective of whether you opt for fully comprehensive insurance. It is compulsory third party insurance (CTP) which every vehicle in NSW has to have. It is a personal choice to take out other insurance which, of course, we have. I can never understand why they can't deduct the CTP from your comprehensive insurance but there you go....Either way we have to pay !
I digress; so a long weekend is planned in Sydney at the end of the month to get a Fiat Service and then a Trakka (our brand) Service. The Trakka one gives us the opportunity to sort out any little snags and also they flush all the tanks and pipes with a thorough clean up. This will be well timed for further travelling hopefully.
Our lovely host Irene then has her Birthday at the beginning of August so we will remain here until then and who knows where else after that ? Left, Right, Up, Down, and/or through the Middle. We'll let Australia roll a BIG Dice or flip a BIG Coin !
Did I mention we've bagged FIVE more BIG Things in the last 10 days ;-
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| BIG Ned Kelly in Glenrowan (more about him later) |
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| The BIG Wine Bottle in Rutherglen |
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| The BIG Tennis Racquet in Barellan |
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| The BIG Footie in Ungarie |
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| The BIG Pick & Pan in Grenfell |
So what have we been up to during the 10 days since Von's party political broadcast ?
Having departed the Great Ocean Road slightly 'chuntery' (not a word), having felt a little hard done by on the price 'v' facilities offered, we meandered North'ish'. It was also becoming apparent that Melbourne and surrounds were not faring well in respect of Covid19 and had some significant outbreaks from community transmissions.
The beauty of Victoria is the relative proximity of all the towns to each other and thus the themes for this blog became apparent:-
1.Random 'Famous in Australia' Peoples.
2.Gold,Gold and more Gold.
3.Silo's Sculptures and Murals
4.Dastardly Bushrangers,Ned Kelly in particular.
5.And some WW2 just for good measure.
I apologise that these subjects may not end up being in a logical geographical order but they are at least in Victoria and New South Wales !
1. Random 'Famous in Australia' Peoples
Major Mitchell : Now here's a bloke that you could argue trampled over ground already occupied by the indigenous population long before anyone migrated to Australia. Essentially he was an explorer and surveyor in the early 1800's, first of SE Australia, and then surveyor general of NSW. He was responsible for many of the routes used now throughout SA,NSW and Victoria. The now named Hume highway, mapping the Darling and Murray rivers and routes through some of the mountain ranges. Blue Mountains, and the Grampians. He has managed to get his name on a number of plaques on rocks as we have discovered along the way even if he just camped there ?!
Headlie Taylor : This chap I reckon deserves a mention as most folk in Australia ,and indeed NZ, have a 'Hills Hoist' in their garden ,or as the Brits might call it a whirly-gig. He is known as being (in the town of Henty anyway) Australias GREATEST agricultural machinery inventor. But in 1953 he invented the wind up mechanism and redesign of the auto header on the Hills Hoist which clearly revolutionised laundry drying ! Well how about that and he has been given a small museum on the outskirts of Henty opposite the fuel station. Awe & Wonder right there even though the touch screen information board had been disabled due to Covid19.
George & Annis Bills : This is a particular favourite story of ours whilst journeying around. We have seen a number of old stone drinking troughs throughout VIC and NSW. These were bequeathed as part of the last will of George Bills (died 1927) who set aside 70,000 pounds which amounted to around 700 troughs some of which were sent overseas. The Annis', who were heavily involved in animal welfare, wished to provide drinking troughs for horses and other animals and initially were designed individually and then slightly more massed produced. Some towns have really preserved them well, either as drinking troughs or planter boxes. There are 4 known to be in existence in the UK. (Tunbridge Wells, Englefield Green in Surrey darlings, Hinckley Road in Leicester and Tilehurst in Reading for those in the UK who might spot them !) Obviously with the advent of the motor vehicle the usage of the troughs depleted but there are a lot still to be found.
'Weary' Dunlop (Colonel/Sir Edward): So this fella was a pretty awesome bloke ! So very worthy of an amazing statue in his home town of Benalla. The company of Retirement villages I worked for in NZ (Rymans) also named one of their Australian villages after him too. He was born in Benalla in 1907 and educated there too. He was a soldier-surgeon/war hero and as well as being Australian of the Year in 1977 had also played for the Australian rugby team in the 1930's. But it was for his service in WW2 he gained recognition; for his command and medical skills whilst part of the POW's working on the Burma-Thailand Railway. Out of 5600 soldiers under his care only 56 perished during the harsh working regime.The statue is stunning and depicts him helping some of the men who suffered. It's 2 metres high and bronze.The inscription is a quote from a soldier who served with him. " When despair and death reached out to us Weary Dunlop stood fast, a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and suffering". He went on to do a lot of good stuff in Australia for organisations such as the Red Cross and Cancer Council together with a foundation to help young Thai surgeons study in Australia. He lived to a ripe old age (85) and died in 1993. The name 'Weary' was a nickname from University relating to Dunlop tyres apparently?
2. GOLD GOLD and more GOLD
On our travels around Victoria and indeed also NSW we have visited a number of small regional towns that were originally formed as part of the Great Gold Rush era in the mid 1800's. Once mining had exhausted supplies many of these small towns died to a certain degree. What have remained, very often, are the buildings and they give an indication of how opulent, or not, those towns were. Some have been very well preserved and the bigger towns/cities of Bendigo and Ballarat have continue to prosper from tourism as a result. We avoided those areas due to Covid19, and the fact that the Museums were all closed! We did, however, visit some of the other smaller towns.
A clear favourite of ours was CLUNES.
It might have been due in part to it's reputation as a Book town and so has a great little second hand bookstore (Von's Birthday ticked), and holds a book festival every year. The campsite was walkable in to town too which is a huge plus for us with plentiful walking in circular routes. It did coincide with a cold frosty snap which meant clear sunny blue skies; always good for morale.
It promotes itself as Victorias FIRST Gold town, discovering gold there in July 1851and who were we to argue ? At it's best it was one of the top 5 producing gold areas in Victoria ; the mine producing 16,000kg of gold. Even then the initial gold prospectors were subject to a take over bid from a bigger company ; namely the Brits (sorry) who signed up a 21 year lease to mine the Gold out of Clunes. It wasn't all doom though as that particular company were quite innovative and produced one of the first fresh air systems to protect the miners. Some of the original mine workings can still be seen and the odd bit of rusting equipment in a historical walking trail.
You could see the prosperity there had been with some of the buildings ; now it is quite an arty town with the books ,and sculptures, and a hand made sock company ! Yes two ladies have set up some antique sock making machines which they rescued from a museum, got them working again, and now hand make socks ! Another one of Von's birthday presents ticked.
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| Marks the spot where Gold was first discovered. |
Another very well preserved Gold town was Maldon. We didn't stay there but it had some great little historical walking trails and an impressive mine chimney still standing ! The Beehive Gold Mine.
The next town we found was initially purely for comedy value.....Majorca ?? Yep not the Balearic Island but an old gold mining area where the old digging mounds could still be seen. Not much else sadly. An example of what happens when the gold runs out. Maybe it needs an English pub and some drunken Brits ??
Grenfell is also in the midst of large swathes of farming land (Weddin Shire). The Silo Artwork was completed in 2019 by Melbourne street artist Heesco. He immersed himself in the town for 5 weeks to get a feel for the area and the painting definitely exudes this. He used 180 litres of bulk paint and 800 spray cans ! He painted it from a series of photographs taken by a local photographer. We continue to be awed by these great pieces of art so will continue to indulge ourselves and the reader.
3. Silo's , Sculptures and Murals
The Silo Art at Grenfell leads quite nicely onto the next category.Essentially any Art that any town around Australia seems to be able to produce with varying degrees of success with regards luring us, the tourist, in. It works ! We have a WikiCamps App on the iPad which relies on input from fellow travellers and is usually fairly accurate. Its main focus is the campgrounds and reviews of the same, but also it highlights any highlights worth seeing. Clearly you are all building a picture of what we like to see....Silo/Water Tank Art, Sculptures,Murals and quirky is preferable. So far so good and some towns have all of those requirements and therefore we are likely to camp there too. A win, win for everyone.
I have included some of the better examples in this category as I realise this blog is starting to resemble the book Von is currently reading....War and Peace (yes, really!).
We found another Silo trail in the NE Victorian area which was far enough away from the Melbourne germs and had only 6 Silo's fairly short distances between each. Some of the artists we had seen previously and these artists clearly have been busy as they also provided some mural work in Benalla.
Benalla is known as Mural Town and each year they paint a new one around the town and have a festival...not this year. It's quite a cool way of discovering the town as a lot of the murals are secreted away down alleys and in what were once probably very unused areas. Benalla is another town that has gone all out to lure us in. It has the murals, statues, lake side circular walk, and even a Gaudi inspired sculpture ! All this and free camping.....rude not to !
The Sculpture Town has to be Lockhart albeit it was known as 'Veranda' town. It boasts both sides of the street having lengthy stretches of old buildings still with their original verandas. Great when it's raining. It's Sculptures are all part of an annual exhibition (not this year) and they are placed all around the town and provide a great way to walk and explore. What they haven't done with corrugated iron isn't worth knowing ! Brilliant fun particularly for Dennis who was thrilled he could join in !
The award for quirky art has to go to Condobolin in NSW for painting and embedding Utes in to the ground at various angles ? It worked for us and made us stay the night so we could walk around them the following morning...tick !
4. Dastardly Bushrangers ; Ned Kelly et al :
This from Thomas Curnow ,the erstwhile 'hero' of the hour, who prevented the train derailment attributed to Ned Kelly at Glenrowan.
"What is it about us Australians eh? Do we not have a Jefferson? A Disraeli? Might not we find someone better to admire than a horse thief and a murderer? Must we always make such an embarrassing spectacle of ourselves?"
I took the quote from a book I have recently read (see above) as a result of immersing in the Ned Kelly experience. We had often pondered on our driving sections (when not discussing politics haha), why some of the 'bad' people are so revered and celebrated in Australia.
Examples; we drove the Thunderbolt Way a few months back named after a bushranger. We went to an amazing, but foggy, lookout named after 'Mad Dog' Morgan a rather nasty piece of work. But a brilliant view without having to mention him?!
I guess it's no different to the Krays in London or the Mafia in Italy. We all like an anti-hero as well as the 'good' people. Sadly 'bad news' tends to make the news in a bizarre trait of human nature. As a result we, as humans, can't help ourselves when it comes to making a few dollars exploiting it.
So yes, we did succumb...
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| Glenrowan residents house number plate |
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| The full regalia...no wonder he got caught? |
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| Dennis demonstrating the armour plating...with help! |
It was really the tail end of his dubious career that cemented him into folklore and tourism; mainly due to the, frankly odd, set of iron armour he and his 'gang' had created at their final stand. The infamous iron helmeted figure can be seen on everything, particularly in Glenrowan. Fridge magnets (yes we did), tea towels, t-shirts, sculptures and road signs. A walking trail pinpointing the movements of those final hours before he was eventually shot, transported to Melbourne and hanged. The armour was to be his downfall due in part to the sheer weight and design....oops. Ned was a typical case of boy actually doing good aged 12-14, heading the family after his father died, and helping his mother look after his 6 siblings (one of which Dan died at Glenrowan). He was literate, and skilled with wood, shearing, and particularly horsemanship. It was only when he came under the wing of a notorious bushranger that it all went pear shaped.
It had been mainly horse thievery until he needed money to get his mother out of jail. Bank Robbery progressed and he was a WANTED man from then on but gained a band of supporters in an anti-establishment Robin Hood type way. So the legend lives on....or as Ned Kelly final words were "Such is Life".
5. Some WW2 just for good measure
I thought I would leave this blog with at least some hope as we succumbed to vagabondary (not a real word) and dastardly deeds.There have been a number of moments in history where some good has come out of initially horrific or dark events. Cowra is one of those towns.
During WW2 it housed a POW camp which contained an increasing amount of Italians, Indonesians, Koreans and Japanese. The event in question which is written into Australian history is known as 'The Cowra Breakout' August 4th 1944. Sadly this involved the death, mainly by suicide, of over 200 Japanese soldiers who ran for the fences knowing they would be mown down by the machine gun guarding them. Those that didn't die by gunfire used weapons on themselves. They believed it was better to die than to be imprisoned and those that were later repatriated struggled to live with the shame they felt was brought to their families.
All in all a scarring part of history for the town who had prided themselves on treating all the prisoners well during their incarceration. Cowra set about trying to change the shame and create a peace path between the two countries which has taken many forms. One of those building blocks has been the most amazing Japanese Garden set on one of the hills looking down onto Cowra.
It is said to be the largest Japanese Garden in the Southern Hemisphere and at $15 entry, and pet friendly, is an absolute bargain. 'Awe and Wonder' most definitely right there. It covers 12.5 acres and is designed to represent the entire landscape of Japan. It was first opened in 1979 with the second phase in 1986. I only wish we had been there for the Spring to witness the Cherry Blossoms which I imagine are truly amazing. Despite it being winter the attention to detail with planting and design still made it resplendent with colour.
Cowra has also retained the site of the POW camp albeit all the buildings are no longer there. They have respectfully recreated the boundaries of the camp by planting a mix of Australian natives and Cherry trees with information boards and memorials to those who perished.
Cowra holds commemorations for this tragic period and also exchange programmes for Japanese students. Cowra is also the proud recipient of a World Peace Bell which is normally held in the capital city of the country receiving it but it was decided the town was worthy recipients due to the ongoing relations they have created with their peace path to Japan.
It gives us hope that with our current situation with Covid19, at some point we will come out of it for the better in some shape or form; I really hope we can learn from it.
Currently though we once again hunker down as numbers creep up in Victoria and now NSW.
Stay safe everyone.......you never know by the time you finish this blog it could all be over!
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