Manangatang to Goolwini: a woolshed and the Murrumbidgee
Friday 28th August
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| Dusk at Goolwini |
Today promises to be another nice day. I have been incredibly lucky with the weather. So far I've only had one rainy day and night and I was in accommodation for that night.
I have chosen my setup orientation well once the sun is above the treetops, it is shining beautifully onto my chair and table and my awning. Once again, I'm hoping it will dry out a little over the next hour. There was a heavy dew last night
The trucks are on the move early and I'm hoping I won't encounter too many of them on my drive today.
During the night I woke up with the illuminating thought that in fact I do have the correct camera for my underwater housing. Bother. I wish I'd realised that before I decided I bought the wrong one. My photos from Kilsby sinkhole would have been much better.
In the vicinity of Tooleybuc, I passed through extensive citrus orchards, some heavy with orange fruit and other orchards with branches bare of leaves but which are in full blossom and look rather lovely.
I cross the mighty Murray on what appears to be a bridge of a certain vintage and continue on my way until I am stopped by a herd of cows thinking about crossing the road. A couple stop and eyeball me in the middle of the road but a few minutes later I am past them.
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| Cattle slowing progress |
I stop in Balranald since Google told me there were historic buildings to be explored, they're certainly nothing of stature shall we say, but I did admire the sculpture of the growling grass frog which is endangered but reasonably common in this area.
I looked at the theatre Royal building and decided I prefer ours.
Google also said that Mungo national Park is nearby. I'm not sure that I consider a 300 km plus round trip to constitute nearby, but I guess we are talking a mainland standards. The visitor information centre identifies that many roads there and some of the more interesting sounding walks are closed anyway!
I investigate the Yanga Woolshed which was in use until 2005. It was designed to handle up to 3,000 sheep a day and is a most extensive structure. The daily tallies of some of the shearers are impressive and there is information about all things associated with shearing.
I walked down to the Murrumbidgee river's edge and pass the sign indicating that there is a blade tree. A tree where shearers may have stuck their old fashioned shears in protest during the shearer's strike or when headed off to World War I.
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| River gum on the banks of the Murrumbidgee |
I walk around but I'm not sure that I can see evidence of the blades so continue on my little walk
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| The Murrumbidgee. |
A few interpretation signs near some magnificent rivergums talk about the geology and the history and the ecology at the river as well as it's being basically a highway for the area, with the steamers that travelled it.
This is the second enormous woolshed I've seen on this mainland trip. I guess there is the saying Australia rode on the sheep's back.
Up the road a bit a passing truck flicked up a rock with considerable force and while it takes me a minute or two to locate the damage that I was sure was there, I find it and it's a bit untidy.
I stop, clean it up and put a windscreen band-aid on it. I'm glad I procured a supply of those before I left Hobart
I stop in Hay and spend a little time walking along the river walking track admiring the gums and the Murrumbidgee.
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| The Murrumbidgee at Hay |
The town of Hay was established around a point on the river which was a crossing for the stock routes.
As I arrive in town and drive around looking for a toilet, I do find some rather nicely painted silos.
It's incredibly pleasant to have a walk and to have some nice scenery because the last hour and a half of driving has been across largely featureless plains apart from the endless procession of b-doubles and road trains.
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| The river side walk in Hay |
If those endless plains, were also plains when the stock routes were being worked, the drovers must have been so glad to get to the river and the shade of the trees to rest the stock and to rest themselves.
Originally named Lang's crossing, the proposed name change in honour of an important person was resisted by locals who would have preferred to name it for the local Aboriginal tribe.
I don't really have time to do the whole walk if I'm going to get to my anticipated destination tonight in time to set up camp before dark.
Continuing on my journey, there's another expanse of endless, featureless plains before we get into some low forested areas.
On the plains I do see a wild emu so that was a bit exciting, and an echidna crossing the road. And later on a small mob of kangaroo grasing in a paddock beside the road.
I arrive in Goolwini and find the ex-servicemen's club in order to pay my camping fee and then proceed to the caravan park and try to find myself a place a little bit (but probably not enough) away from of the caravans.
The place has good toilets and showers, a most affordable laundry and is nicely set out and grassy. But the camp kitchen is a barbecue and sink with cold water under a shelter. A nice shelter but it's still not a camp kitchen.
It's a beautifully still evening. And the fading light is rather lovely. Though the mosquitoes are not.
And a little later, the benefits of camping (as opposed to being shut in a warm caravan) become more apparant as I watch the moon rise
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| Moonrise at Goolwini I haven't figured out what/why and how to avoid the green spot in my night phots |
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