After two days of exploring Moree and quite a bit of time yakking to other nomads as we eased our bones in the Artesian Baths, we left to head to Gunnedah. Moree is a very interesting town but we guess the highlight for most visitors would be the baths and exchanging outrageous stories with other soaking nomads!
The trip to Gunnedah was relaxing with plenty of beautiful countryside to enjoy on the way. With Spring just around the corner, and lots of rain over the past weeks, the countryside was resplendent in golden wattle, trees and bushes bursting with new life of bright green buds, fields of canola, wheat and barley crops, and all manner of grasses gently swaying in the breeze as far as the eye could see. See some photos below.
Our arrival in Gunnedah was thankfully greeted by a very agreeable 18 degree mid-day and we found the very pleasant caravan park to be within walking distance of almost all the places of interest in town. We spent the afternoon on-foot exploring Dorothea Mackellar country (author of My Country - see below) before going back to the car for a drive to the local Porcupine Lookout overlooking the town in the late afternoon sun. The view from there was absolutely gorgeous bringing together a patchwork scene of colours and textures over the whole district. Again, see the photos below.
We couldn't help putting the first two verses of My Country in the Blog because it seems we've experienced it all as described and it brought back some lovely memories of learning the poem at school all those years ago:
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens,
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft dim skies,
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror,
The wide brown land for me!
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens,
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft dim skies,
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror,
The wide brown land for me!
Dorothea Mackellar
On Sunday morning we explored Lake Keepit State Park about 30kms east of Gunnedah. Again, a lovely area and one which would have been a great place to camp had we known about it. That's not to say we didn't thoroughly enjoy our stay in Gunnedah proper because we most certainly did, it's just it's nice to know there are different venues to camp when next we visit.
We stayed 2 nights so spent some of our walking time in the hope of finding the koalas that are supposed to be abundant in the area. The brochures we'd gathered informed us Gunnedah was the Koala Capital of the World and that often there is a koala in the tree outside the Tourist Information Office and the staff there would put a sign outside the office saying 'Koala in the tree today'. Funnily, we also heard the local joke that the 'koala' in the tree was actually a stuffed one which the staff moved and replaced in the tree at differing times. We didn't know whether to be
lieve it or not but there was certainly no koala in the tree that day (and as it was Saturday the Tourist Information Office was closed, which may or may not have had something to do with it!!). However, we woke on Sunday morning to find a koala in the tree near our van but by the time T. got the camera up and running, it had disappeared! We decided that if we were going to see real, live koalas the best place would be the local wildlife park, which we did. (See below for 'Bureaucracy Gone Mad' for an interesting event at the park early in 2010.)Bureaucracy Gone Mad:
The Waterways Wildlife Park (http://www.infogunnedah.com.au/tourism/attractions_display.php?id=8) is privately owned and supported by the generous assistance of volunteers, the local council and donations from businesses around the town, and is definitely one of the most natural environments for wildlife we've ever seen. With that in mind, you may have seen the segment on the Animal Rescue program some months ago where the RSPCA 'rescued' 8 koalas and 2 lizards from the park because of the 'appalling conditions' the animals were supposed to be in. We saw the 'appalling conditions' and wondered what all the fuss was about because conditions appeared to us to be brilliant.
We were told by a volunteer that the whole TV segment was meant to get attention for the RSPCA and as the Channel Seven Television Network supposedly donated $50,000.00 to the RSPCA, we wondered if there was some truth in that. The story is that an RSPCA inspector arrived at the park, unannounced, to carry out an inspection, and afterwards informed the owner that the park and the animals, were both 'in splendid shape'. Ten days later she came back, with 5 RSPCA officers, government officials and others to lead the 'raid' which removed 8 (licensed) koalas from the premises. The owner, who has government permits and licenses to keep all the native animals in the park, was distraught by the heavy-handedness of the inspectors and the fact that these particular koalas, who were born at the park, were frightened and bewildered by the rough treatment.
A NSW Government hearing resulted in the local vet, who had been caring for all of the animals in the park stepping in, as did various government agencies, to prove that the animals were indeed in brilliant health and after the hearing, the koalas were subsequently returned to their home, with the RSPCA told in no uncertain terms to ‘butt out’! A Government official arrived at the park some time later and informed the owner that his department has been grossly lied to and apologised for the stress that had been caused. This is a much shorter version of the events of this case but you if you are interested to find out more you can log into the NSW Government Hansard records - they make interesting reading about bureaucracy gone mad!
Thankfully common sense prevailed! We highly recommend a visit if you're ever out that way.
From Gunnedah we went to Coolah see visit friends D. & D.. D. is a former 'mature-aged' CSU student and is now the Principal at Sacred Heart School, Coolah. On the way we took advantage of a photo opportunity by way of the 150o E Time Meridian Line (see photo).
There's not much in Coolah by way of you must visit but there are 2 pubs, an IGA which sells absolutely everything, a hairdresser, a few 'specialty' shops and a couple of dogs sleeping on the footpath. We had good steak dinner with D. & D. at one of the pubs and a celebratory drink or two having finally got together after not seeing each other for nearly 5 years.It was then home on Tuesday via Mudgee. Mudgee is one of those towns which until a few years ago was a sleepy hollow that no-one took much notice of but has had the good foresight to reinvent itself to cater for the hordes of tourist who arrive all year round to sample to local tipple and the great food on offer. We took a walk around before heading out of town to 'do' lunch on the side of the road somewhere between Mudgee and Sofala, arriving home to a cat ecstatic to see us.
If you haven't already gathered, we are totally hooked by the caravan travel/lifestyle bug and are now planning a 4-month trip incorporating South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, with like-minded friends, commencing mid-March 2011. More on that trip as we finalise the details later this year.
For now, it's back-to-earth before we set off in a month to spend a few weeks on Norfolk Island visiting our daughter, son-in-law and 2 grandchildren. Can't wait for that one! Pity the van is not amphibious!
