We refer to this trip as "Not the Darling River Run" because it started out as a group trip along the Darling River. Unfortunately rain interrupted play and we were forced to change our plans.  We left the group and substituted a trip through three states - New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.  We were disappointed at not being able to do the Darling River Run and intend to try again soon.

Friday 10 November   It could be said that the holiday started today because we didn’t do any work in the practice, just prepared for the trip. It takes much of the day to pack and it is best to start at least the night before so as not to get bored with the exercise.

Michael went to the Australian War Memorial this afternoon to research memorials in the areas we will be visiting. This way he has some idea of what to look for and it minimises the risk of missing something.

The weather forecast for the west is rain and storms tomorrow and it is reported that the area had rain today. Barry, who is the organiser, rang this evening to find out if we were all set and said he understood the roads were all okay, but he didn’t seem to know about the forecast rain.

Saturday 11 November  Canberra - Griffith  371 km  We left wondering where we would strike bad weather. There had been  some overnight rain in Canberra but the morning was dry, if overcast. It was raining by the time we reached Yass and it rained for much of the day.

We stopped in Yass for tea and an early lunch. From there to Griffith we visited every little town looking for war memorials. In those towns closer to home we just looked and noted, with the intention of returning on a weekend trip. It never fails to surprise me how many of these towns have memorials. It is an indication of how old these places are and how many people were there earlier this century. However, it seemed to rain every time Michael got out with his camera and note book.

M wrote-up and photographed the memorials at Springdale, Temora, Ariah Park, Beckom and Barellan. Springdale was a polished granite obelisk at the run-down toilet stop in the tiny town. This must have been a cared-for park at one time. The names on this stone we were to see again at Temora, where the memorial was much more grand and sited in a well maintained park in the centre of town.  Today is Remembrance Day and there were wreaths at the Temora memorial.

Temora is a pretty place with lovely gardens. These days we drive around the towns more often and with more purpose and surprise ourselves with how interesting they are.

Ariah Park is the birthplace of  bulk haulage of grain. In September 1916 wheat was loaded directly into rail wagons at the town's siding. This was the first time in Australia as previously wheat was carted in bags. It also bills itself as the place of "wowsers, bowsers and peppercorn trees".  The bowsers are old-fashioned  petrol pumps placed along the main street.  The peppercorn trees are also in the main drag.  Who the wowsers, or killjoys, of Ariah Park were, we have no idea. The word is supposed to be an acronym for We Only Want Social Evils Remedied. 

There is a very impressive marble statue of a soldier in the main street. The figure is in excellent condition and has retained its marble appearance much better than most of these statues. It has the sculptor's name, A Casagrande, inscribed on it. This is probably the best example of such a statue that I have seen.

Sign, Ariah Park, N.S.W.

Beckom is the town where, on a previous visit, the locals in the pub told us about the annual competition to kick a football over the silo. We found a hall with memorial gates and, while M documented it, I walked along the road opposite looking at the pieces of old farming machinery placed along the road. While I was doing that a car stopped and the lady driver engaged me in conversation. It turned out that the machinery had been put there by her husband and that it had come from his family’s farm. It was all placed on the road verge outside their home and paddocks. The machinery was certainly interesting.

We didn’t arrive in Griffith until 6.20 pm and because of the rain we booked into the Yambil Inn, in central Griffith.

We took off on foot to the La Scala restaurant.  When we got there we recognised it as the place we ate at years ago and had a memorable pasta and chilli meal. Unfortunately it was closed for two weeks. From there we trekked the long main street looking for somewhere to eat but Griffith seemed a bit light on for restaurants. We finally found a Chinese place where the owner talked to all of her customers and tried to sell me religion. The food was excellent and the owner was an interesting side effect!

Sunday 12 November  Griffith - Cobar  377 km  We were out of the motel by 8.30 am and while Michael documented the war memorials in the centre of town I went looking for a supermarket. My search took me to the outskirts of town but because the town is small I was able to get back to the centre with little effort and I didn’t even get lost! And I found a supermarket as well. We left Griffith around 10 am and headed north to Cobar. There was a lot of cloud but no rain and the rain held off all day.

There is not much between Griffith and Cobar, just Hillston and a few small towns. We stopped at each town looking for war memorials and we soon became aware of all the trucks standing around at the towns, near the silos. We guessed they were waiting to truck the wheat once it was harvested. Some crops we passed had been harvested but some hadn’t. Apparently the weather is much milder than is normal so perhaps the harvest has been delayed.

The country is looking great. For much of the day we passed through lightly timbered plains. In some areas it looks as if the callitris will become the dominant tree. In a few years it is possible the mallee will be dwarfed by the callitris.

We arrived in Cobar about 3.00 pm and at the camping area we were directed to an area especially designated for our group. We introduced ourselves to some of those already there then had a cup of tea and headed off to the town for a walk and to document the memorials.

We found a lovely court house, built in 1887. We also talked to an Irish lady who insisted she is Australian. We were admiring the plants on her front verandah and she came out and spoke to us. She showed us her back verandah where she had more plants and her cactus corner. She was a treat. Later we talked to the swimming pool concession holder who told us the mild weather was sending him broke because no-one was using the pool. 

Tonight at the camping area we had a BBQ to meet all the people in the group. Already personalities are becoming apparent. There are constant talkers, some attention seekers and some who will I think appeal to us because they are more quiet and well mannered. Time will tell.

Monday 13 November  Cobar  Troopie had been sluggish to start when the engine was warmed up and was causing us some concern. We took it to the Toyota dealer first thing and he suggested we take it for a warm-up run first, which we did. When we returned I left M to go on the morning’s organised tour and M went to Toyota. It turned out to simply be the battery. The battery indicator had been showing fully charged except when the starter motor was turned over. So we got a new battery.

The morning’s excursion was a tour of the town and local area. Our guide was John Collins who works at the Great Cobar Outback Heritage Centre. Although booked in for the trip M decided to document some more memorials (there are a lot in Cobar) but I went on the tour. We started by visiting the Heritage Centre. It is a museum in a lovely Edwardian two storey home overlooking the town. We had visited the museum on our first visit to Cobar and had bought the tea towel! It was still interesting to visit again. From there we were taken by a small bus around the town, then to a new suburb which could have been anywhere and then to a reservoir which had been dug by hand and with horse and cart. It had been the town's original water supply - the water now comes from Burrendong Dam. We then visited the Peak Mine (Gold). Our visit was limited to a viewing platform and unfortunately the mine was not working. John thought they might be doing maintenance. We went to the hill where water is stored before being reticulated to the town. We stood there and watched the storms brewing in the distance. It was a magnificent sight, even if a threatening one. The last stop was to the slag heaps at the entrance to the town. These heaps date back to the first large mine in the town (late 1800’s and into the 20^th Century). The slag is being crushed and used for road building and other uses.

The plan for the afternoon was for us to drive to Mount Drysdale but the road was closed so the decision was made to go to Mt Grenfell where there are aboriginal paintings. However first we were to have a planning meeting to discuss the trip plans. The skies opened as we all gathered for this meeting so we moved under Barry’s awning. Soon we moved inside the caravan as the rain got heavier and heavier. We stayed there for some time before dispersing to our individual "homes". The afternoon’s excursion was no longer an option as it was along dirt roads and it was now pouring down.

The meeting was to plan the future of the trip. The roads we were planning to take are all closed because of the heavy rainstorms over the last few days. The weather is forecast to continue so it is uncertain when the roads will be opening. The most popular option was to go to Bourke (bitumen road) for two/three days and hope the roads dry out. If they don’t then the option of going to some National Parks closer to the coast could be considered. Going to Lightning Ridge was also a possibility. We were not interested in going to Bourke or Lightning Ridge so soon after our last visit and had indicated this before coming on the trip. We decided to leave the group and go to Broken Hill and then on to S.A. staying on sealed roads that would still be open. Also we believed that if we went west we would pass through the front and find finer weather. (Fortunately, we were right.)

Eventually M and I decided to ignore the rain and go to visit two churches where there were honour boards. We found one church open and we knocked on the door of the manse for the other one. The nice young minister opened the Uniting Church up for us and stayed to chat. He was very interested in what M was doing.

The options continued to be discussed over dinner at the Empire Hotel in town. We are getting to know the people better and find them to be good companions so we are a little disappointed to be leaving them. However the biggest disappointment is to not be going down the Darling!

Going west

Tuesday 14 November  Cobar – Broken Hill  464 km  The plan for the group was to leave Cobar between 8.30 and 9.00 am. They had decided to go to Bourke for a few days and then work out what to do. We left at about 8.45 am and headed west to Broken Hill. It was a bit sad to be leaving them but…

There is not much between Cobar and Broken Hill. Wilcannia is a very sad sight. It has been a prosperous town and there are some lovely old buildings but the shops are all boarded up or covered with wire to keep out intruders. There is no incentive to stop there which is a pity for it would be a very good lunch stop for travellers. We did stop to document the memorial which is in a park next to the Darling River. The river has high banks and was fenced off so you hardly noticed it was there.

It appeared to be raining ahead of us but apart from a short shower and some locusts things were fine – humid and hot enough to run the air-conditioner but not unpleasant. At some places there were huge sheets of water covering miles of country as if the Darling had already overflowed.

We were stopped outside Broken Hill for a fruit inspection. The fellow asked us some what-do-you-know-about-the-fruit-fly-zone type questions and because we knew all the answers he let us pass without actually inspecting our vehicle. We never carry fresh fruit or vegetables when we know we are going into the fruit-fly zone.

We reached Broken Hill about 3.00 pm local time and booked in to a cabin in the Broken Hill City Caravan Park for two nights. If it is going to rain we want to be out of it.

M documented two memorials before we went to the Democratic Club for drinks and dinner. We are both quite tired tonight as it has been a long day.

Wednesday 15 November  Broken Hill  30 km  We did lots of walking today. We started out at the Living Desert where we walked to the sculpture site. The Living Desert is a walk through the Barrier Range, just 6 km out of town. It is possible to see the town from the sculpture park which is on top of a hill. In 1993 there was a sculpture symposium to which sculptors from several countries – Syria, Mexico, Georgia among others were invited as well as some from the Tiwi Islands. They created sculptures from large pieces of very hard stone using tungsten tipped hand tools (no power tools) and those sculptures were installed at the top of the hill. Some sculptures showed real effort, others were non-descript. Two of real interest were of the head of a horse (by a Georgian sculptor) and an Aztec style sculpture by a Mexican man.

There were lots of flowers blooming along the walk making it a slow and lovely trip. They have done some direct seeding of local plants and one wondered if some had been planted out but it didn’t really matter as they were all local species.

We did that walk in the-morning and it was a wonderful start to the day.

The Living Desert Sculpture Park, Broken Hill, N.S.W.

From there we had lunch at the Visitors Centre in town where we gathered some information and a brochure on the heritage walk. After lunch we visited the Silverton Tramway museum where M recorded some honour boards, including one which came from the South Mine and will be returned there soon, into the renovated mine office where it originally hung.

We then did the heritage walk. Broken Hill has many old buildings, some of which date back to the 1880s when the action started here. We went into the Trades Hall and found the main meeting hall which has been renovated and painted in the original ornate style. Of special interest was the pressed tin ceiling which had been painstakingly painted in green and white.

When the vehicle's battery was replaced in Cobar, we lost the use of the radio and cassette recorder because we do not know the security number (it is written down but is at home). So we decided to buy ourselves a radio and cassette recorder. We did this, buying a unit which cost about $48 with batteries. Can’t be without music now can we.

The afternoon turned quite hot, especially out of the breeze, but at least it is not raining.

After doing the heritage walk and having a cup of tea we visited the Titanic Memorial. This memorial was erected by the Broken Hill bandsmen in remembrance of the band on the Titanic who played continuously until the ship went down. It indicates the importance of brass bands in this town.

We decided to prepare our own meal tonight so we did some shopping then went back to our cabin at the camping ground.

Into South Australia

Thursday 16 November  Broken Hill – Burra  375 km  We have had a busy day. We started by visiting the hardware section of Big W to buy some longer cable ties to attach the shade cloth to the bull-bar. We need to screen out the locusts we expect to experience today.

Heading out of BH we tried to pass the cemetery but M spotted what looked like war graves up the back so we went in and found an RSL section with memorial walls with plaques to war veterans who had died.

We finally got under way at 9.50 am when we headed south. It was a long time before we saw any trees for this part of the world is treeless, bluebush and saltbush country. For much of the way it was green from recent rains but as we went further south it became much more dry looking.

After entering South Australia the road passed through some tiny towns which must have serviced the railway but are now without purpose and are dying. In one town the only shop and the hotel had closed down just last month.

We stopped at Mannahill, which had a war memorial and a very pretty railway station. The station is closed up and becoming derelict. We spent some time there so we had lunch at a table by the side of the road, in some shade. The sun is hot today though the clouds still indicate stormy weather somewhere nearby. Mannahill also had some fine iron gates which M spotted in the distance and which we found to be the gates to the race track.

Mannahill Railway Station, S.A.

We went off the road into Peterborough for which both Michael and I had negative feelings from a previous time. On this occasion we thought the place was OK and it has changed from the time when it was a big centre for railway workshops. We found a very prominent war memorial and a park nearby in which 9 trees had been dedicated to soldiers who died in WWII. 

The turn off to Peterborough marked the beginning of farming country. Suddenly we were in the rolling gold, dry, farmland with hills in the background, that seems so typical of SA.

From Peterborough we went cross-country to meet the Barrier Highway. Near where we were due to meet the highway we deviated to look at Terowie. Terowie announced itself as an historic town and when we parked just past the war memorial and looked at the view ahead of us we were astounded. We were to find out that almost every building had been built in the late 1800’s and some looked as if they had not even been painted since then. The local citizens had restored three little commercial buildings in a group and one had been made into a small museum. The museum, consisting of two small rooms, was free and featured some old photos and descriptions of the town.

I walked the full length of the main street (called Main Street as in many South Australian towns), much of the time walking in the middle of the road as there was little traffic and few people. It was an amazing sight with all these small old buildings mainly in poor condition and vacant. One of the buildings had flagstones on its front footpath. The locals seem to be trying to keep the town going and we certainly wish them success for this town has survived intact. It was a thriving town of up to 2000 people servicing the railway for it was here that the gauge changed. Since standardisation of the rail lines in the late 1960's the town has died.

At the old station there was a plaque on the platform which announced that it was on that spot that General Douglas McArthur made his famous "I have come from Bataan and I shall return there" speech in his first interview with the Australian Press. Now that station is overgrown with Salvation Jane and the buildings are derelict. We saw no mention of that event elsewhere in the town.

We talked to other people about Terowie over the next few days and were told a major factor in the lack of development of the town is that there is no water supply, that is, each household must be self-supporting for water. We were also told that a man who will not let anyone touch them or buy them owns the buildings along one side of the main street, all of which are unoccupied. While this hands-off approach may be good in some ways it also means no maintenance is being carried out. Some of the buildings have sunk below the street level. We were also told that residents of some of the buildings have left household items as if they have just upped and walked out. One wonders what stories and hardships this indicates.

We must have spent a couple of hours there before leaving near five pm. We stopped at the next town, Whyte Yarcowie, and M documented that memorial but from there to Burra we just looked at each town and planned to return.

We arrived at Burra, booked in to the camping ground, rested up then cooked a meal.

This is the first time we have had tame dusky moorhens hanging around. I fed them bread, which seemed to be the required ingredient. The camping ground is on the high bank of a stream which has a lot of reed in it and trees along the edge. Night-time has brought out all the insects however.

Friday 17 November  Burra Burra  157 km  First stop was the Visitor Centre where we purchased our key to all the locked National Trust sites around town. There are seven sites around Burra which are locked but with the key can be accessed at any time. The key can be held for more than one day which allows a lot of flexibility. We decided to visit places around Burra this morning and to go back up the road to Broken Hill as far as Hallett in the afternoon.

We visited the railway station (which is no longer used), the police lock-up, the Redruth Gaol and Hampton. The key system is great and the restored buildings are excellent. The Redruth Gaol was used as the set for the gaol in the film Breaker Morant and is in really good condition having been restored. During the 1930’s and 40’s families had lived in sections of the gaol and perhaps had contributed to its maintenance.

The station, which originally had a very decorative verandah over the railway line, has not been restored but we hope it is on the list.

Housing in Burra is surprisingly cheap. Michael saw an impressive column-fronted two-story building in the centre of town being offered for $160K. That sounds like a real bargain.

It is hot today and there are storms off in the distance. At times they seemed to come close but apart from a few drops at one stage in the afternoon we experienced no rain.

After lunch sitting on rough ground under large old pine trees in a park, we set off north. We stopped at Hallett where M documented the war memorial and I found myself talking to an Irish lady and her husband who had recently moved to Hallett to set up a store selling furniture imported from Indonesia. They had left jobs in Queensland to find a better life and have about 9 years in the industry of importing furniture so they probably know what they are doing. They have bought the local Institute and have set up home there. Adelaide is not very far away and they are hoping for sales from tourist traffic.

Every town around here seems to have an Institute which corresponds to what are called School of Arts or Mechanics Institute in other states.

We headed off from Hallett on minor roads to Booborowie. The area is a maze of minor roads and we soon took a wrong turning and ended up on rapidly deteriorating road. We turned back and were lucky enough to meet up with a local who pointed us in the right direction. Booborowie was a very neat little village with a Memorial Institute, several churches and lots of roses and geraniums in neat gardens of neat houses.

Getting out of Booborowie was also not as simple as the map made it look so when we found the main road we decided to stay with it rather than continue on the minor roads.

We passed through Burra and went south-east to Burra Creek Gorge. We did not actually walk into the gorge but drove along the creek, past a long area used for camping. We reached a spot where the road crossed the creek then went up a steep hill. M decided to change to 4WD and drive across.  He talked me into doing it as well so I drove across and back again – my first real 4WD experience and it was easy.

Back in town, we went to another National Trust property, using our key.  This was the old brewery, just across the road from the caravan park.  The most interesting part was the maze of cellars that had been dug into the ground below the brewery buildings and where the beer was stored in very cool conditions. 

Tonight we ate at the hotel in town, a few minutes walk from the camping site. The weather is hot and there are lots of insects.

Saturday 18 November  Burra – Mannum  227 km  We had one last site, which we wanted to see in Burra, that being the Burra Mine site. It is through a locked gate but we still had the key. From this site we had a good view of the town and were able to see just how small were each of the five towns that together made up Burra Burra.

After returning the key and filling up with fuel we were off, heading towards Adelaide on the Barrier Highway. We reached Manoora then decided we should go to Mintaro which was off the to north west. Mintaro is where the slate comes from. We had been seeing all these wonderful flagstones and I had been thinking they came from Scotland, but in fact they are slate and come from Mintaro. Slate has been mined at Mintaro since the 1870’s and is still being mined. In Mintaro itself we saw large recently cut perfect slabs used in monuments and other decorative places.

Mintaro was a very small village that had an English appearance. One side of the street was higher than the other and a row of shops was accessed by steps up to a verandah. The slope had trees that gave the streetscape a garden like appearance. We had morning tea at a very pretty old cottage which had been completely renovated. We initially opted to sit inside but it was so hot we moved outside under an umbrella, then again under the verandah when a table became available.

Our route from Mintaro was south to Auburn then south-east to Saddleworth where we rejoined the Barrier Highway and drove to Gawler. We called in to the Information Centre to ask directions to the war memorial.  We have found that in a lot of country towns the people in the tourist centre either know just about everything there is to know about the local war memorial or they have never heard of it.  Gawler is the latter case.  After reflection they directed us to a memorial in a nearby park but Michael was very puzzled about it when we got there.  It had been put up by the local RSL very recently, covered all wars and had no names.  Gawler was a major population centre in South Australia at the time of the Great War and Michael felt sure there must have been an earlier memorial but our informants didn't seem to know about it. It wasn't until he did more research back in Canberra that he found there is indeed a very substantial memorial in Gawler and it is just beside the road to Adelaide. How could the people in the tourist centre not know this?  Perhaps they are so familiar with it they don't notice it.  Also it's probably the first time anyone has ever asked them such a question.

From Gawler we went east to Williamstown, Mount Pleasant, Tungkillo, Palmer and Mannum which is on the Murray River.  M documented 13 memorials today. This meant much standing in the hot sun but at the end of the day I was more affected by the heat than he was.

From about Gawler we started to see polished red granite, like we have in our kitchen at home, so it must come from somewhere in this region.

We decided to stay in a motel tonight in the hope of collecting the e-mail but we are unable to disconnect the phone. It must have been glued in!

Dinner tonight was fish and chips (and a Magnum ice cream) sitting in the park beside the river. Access to the river is very limited and the town is built in such a way as to block out any view of the Murray, despite the town’s reliance on the river for its existence.

The river is wide and full. There is a free 24 hour ferry across the river which we will take tomorrow. It is also a busy area for house boats, some of which were moored near where we ate our meal. They are huge and luxurious.

The motel owner is very interested in the history of the town and offered to take us on a short tour tomorrow morning which we accepted.

Across the Murray

Sunday 19 November  Mannum – Naracoorte  311km  First thing this morning M documented the war memorial at Mannum while I walked the town. It was hot and we went to the privately run Heritage Centre for a coffee till 10.30 when we returned to the motel to meet the proprietor and go on the tour with him. We went in his car first to the town lookout, then around the town with him pointing out particular houses and telling us about them and about the town. The tour lasted about an hour and was an unusual thing for us to do but we enjoyed it immensely.

It was midday before we were under-way, crossing the Murray on the ferry and heading towards Wynarka. We turned south before reaching Wynarka, joined the Old Dukes Highway, passed through Coomandook, Yumali, Coonalpyn, Tintinara and Keith. From there we took the Riddoch Highway south via Padthaway to Naracoorte.

At first the country was dry with wheat crops that were not very tall and Mallee along the road verge. Later on the country became greener and when we reached Padthaway it was very green and lush. It was also vineyard country and continued so until we reached Naracoorte.

We passed through areas of bush where there were a lot of tall red bottlebrush shrubs. While they may be native to the area somehow it did not look convincing. It was as if someone had planted a lot of them all together. We also saw a lot of flowering grass trees.

We wanted to check our e-mail last night but couldn’t as we couldn’t remove the motel phone from the socket. Tonight we stayed in a motel again but they have a PABX which requires an initial 0 then two pauses and we cannot work out how to do that so once again we have failed to make the connection. It is very frustrating!

We ate out tonight at The Naracoorte Hotel. It was an excellent meal and obviously the place to go to on a Sunday night here.

Monday 20 November  Naracoorte – Coleraine  165 km  We woke to overcast and cool conditions which is a nice change. It stayed like that all day and tonight it is cold enough to warrant jumpers. The wind is strong and cold.

M documented the memorial in Naracoorte while I did some shopping and walking around. M had found some impressive honour boards in the town hall so he photographed the one for WWI and for a Light Horse regiment. The board for WWII was gold lettering on pale wood and very difficult to read so would not come out in a photograph.

We deviated to Bool Lagoon south of Naracoorte but as we were not willing to pay $6 just to drive in and out again did not go further than the first lookout. Instead we followed a minor road back to the highway. This road followed a string of small swamps or lakes many of which had a variety of birds on them. The land around here is very green  Either this is normal and it is always like this or it has just been a good year.

We came off the minor road at Coonawarra, in the Terra Rossi lands, much prized for vineyards. This area was subdivided into 10 acre lots in the late 1800s specifically for fruit and vine growing. It languished for the first 50 years of the 20^th century before being revitalised by the Wynn brothers. Now it is booming.

Penola was next. We had lunch in the park where M documented the memorial. We have a painting at home of a cottage in Petticoat Lane, Penola, so we went to investigate and think we found the one. If we are right it was the first cottage in Penola and the birthplace of the first white child in the area. At that time there were aboriginals in the area. We don’t see any today. We took photos of the cottage (Sharam’s cottage) and it will be interesting to see if it is the same one as in the painting. (Yes, it was the same.)

Cottage, Penola, S.A.

Penola is a very pretty little town with some elegant old stone buildings.

Roses and geraniums grow magnificently in SA and it is common to see hedges of roses and public gardens with rose gardens of outstanding colour and quantity of flowers. It makes the roses grown elsewhere look puny by comparison. The practice of growing climbing geraniums in a cone up lamp posts is common in SA and they look wonderful also. With both the roses and geraniums flowering at the moment SA looks really wonderful.

We crossed the border into Victoria on our way to Casterton. The road was though wooded country with some white flowering shrubs and Xanthorrhoeas. We have been seeing the grass trees for a couple of days and today they were much older, some had branched trunks.

At Casterton the scenery changed to grassed hills, volcanic country M tells me. It is all very green and lush looking. M was talking to an elderly gentleman who said towns like Casterton are dying because the locals are all going to Mt Gambier to do their shopping. Mt Gambier is doing very well while the towns around it are fading away.

We looked at the camping area in Casterton but decided to go on to Coleraine, which we have visited before (got the tea towel at the railway station craft shop). We arrived and found the camping area which, while it does not have very good facilities, is small and occupied only by three permanents, at least two of which are old men. We had thought it would be quiet, but as I write this there is loud rock music thumping away nearby.

We reached here about 4.30 pm (or was it 5.00 pm ES time?) and headed to the chocolate factory to buy up for dessert and more. The factory is still going strong and $10.75 bought quite a lot of chocolate.

Tuesday 21 November  Coleraine – St Arnaud  256 km  Our route today was north to Balmoral, Natimuk, east to Horsham, Murtoa, Rupanyup, Marnoo and finally, St Arnaud.

The routine is set whereby we drive around each town, including the smallest, looking for memorials and when found, Michael documents and photographs them while I walk the streets. (Perhaps I should rephrase that!).  M has developed an ability to spot a memorial from a distance despite their varied format.

It is becoming a bit of a chore for Michael especially when he has to write down lists of names. I fare better because I get time to look at buildings, shops and houses and do a fair amount of walking. The towns, especially the small ones are very interesting. First settlement around here seems to have been from about 1850 onwards and there must have been a reasonable amount of wealth because there are many substantial late 19C buildings. Often these towns have very old shops which are still intact though, sadly, empty now. Locals all go off to the next big town to shop so the small town centres are dying. There are still people who want to live in these towns, they just don’t want to shop there, presumably because the prices are higher whereas larger towns have lower prices from economies of scale.

In some towns there is an attempt to fill the empty shop windows with bits of history, from old wares to photographs. At Balmoral some of the shops only opened on say Thursday and Friday and the bank only opened on Friday. Today some of the memorials we saw celebrated royalty – Queen Victoria and Prince Edward. At Balmoral two pencil pines had been planted in 1897, outside a little church (which was open and had a roll of honour) to celebrate the reign of Queen Victoria.

North of Balmoral the country changed dramatically. Around the Toolondo Reservoir the country was flat and only casuarinas grew there (apart from crops). There are lots of swamps in the area so perhaps it is sand over rock or clay. The area was gold, not green.

We had lunch in a park in Horsham and couldn’t find much by way of war memorials. The lady at the Tourist Information place knew about what memorials there were and said that Horsham was not very good at keeping things.

The towns east of Horsham were much more interesting. Murtoa was especially interesting. It had a memorial arch which was the gateway to a park with a lake (possibly the town water supply), swimming pool and a very old (1890s?) fountain which had been restored. The fountain was strange because it was not possible to identify its structure. Most late 19C fountains and monuments had a formal shape but if this one had such it had been lost. The fountain worked, that is it spurted water and was set in a circular pond. The whole fountain and pond were decrepit but in a rustic way, very attractive. The park in which it was set was very neglected but it too had charm. The large trees (pines and eucalypts) were covered in corellas (southern form, with pink chins) and they made a noise like a clucking chook.

Across the road from this park was a two story mansion with the original brass plate of Dr Rubl. In a shopfront in the town there was a 19C photo of a string orchestra referred to as "Dr Rubl’s orchestra". The mansion is now some lucky person’s home, but judging by the large crack in the middle of the upper storey it is in need of repair. That town also had two shopping streets both now substantially empty but we wondered if there were two towns at one stage.

Soon after leaving Coleraine the country became flat with large fields of crops. Wheat we recognise but there are two other crops which we can’t identify. One looks like lupins and the other like canola but I am not at all sure. The wheat between Horsham and St Arnaud is being harvested and we saw lots of trucks carting wheat at Murtoa and later farm silos being towed along the road and a header in the field. The crops do not look very tall.

We arrived at St Arnaud early enough but chose to sit in the camping area and read and relax. Tomorrow we will have a look around the town.

Pleasant surprises

Wednesday 22 November  St Arnaud – Deniliquin  260 km  We spent quite some time in St Arnaud. A former Mayor of the town found Michael at the war memorial and started talking. This led to M being shown the honour rolls in the town hall. It is amazing how many people come up to M and how it leads to his being conducted into various buildings. He doesn’t have to seek these people out as they initiate the meetings. Another council employee who also helped M told him about a war memorial school at Mysia. We may not have found the school if he had not been told about it.

Our route for the day started at St Arnaud, then on to Wedderburn via Gowar East, through Korong Vale, Mysia , Boort, Kerang, Koondrook and Barham to Deniliquin in New South Wales. All of these places have war memorials so M had a busy day. The weather started cool but became hot and it is a warm but pleasant evening – except that it is impossible to sit outside because of the mossies.

Because we take minor roads we strike very little traffic which is what we like. We do however find other tourists in most of the larger towns we visit. Today’s towns were generally prosperous, except for Mysia which is a three house village with no shops. We stopped to document the war memorial school there and the lady living in the old schoolmaster's house came out to talk to us. She arranged for a person with the key to bring it to us so M got to photograph the honour boards inside.

Gay was interesting. She had only been living there for a year and had bought the house for $18,000 and was leasing an adjacent 10 acres for $5 per year. She was a happy person and had a variety of animals - cats, a dog, 4 goats, sheep, a miniature Shetland pony and some lizards and pythons. Her partner keeps poisonous snakes. They met when she was trying to buy rats to feed her pythons. She told us that he had been unable to get work in Geelong but since moving to Mysia he had had a series of jobs and now had full time work at the chaff mill in Boort. The arrival in Mysia of two people who kept snakes was somewhat bemusing to the locals but it didn't take long for them to be accepted and it was obvious that they were now very much part of the community.

Mysia War Memorial School, VIC.

Boort is on some lakes. Again today we travelled through country with lakes and drainage channels. From Kerang there was water lying next to the road and the country showed evidence of recent rain. You wouldn’t say it was green, except where it was irrigated, but there was a lot of water lying around. The Murray was full with water flooding trees on the banks. The Edward River at Deni is also very high and it was the same with other rivers we crossed. It was delightful to see as it must refresh the rivers and the land. Another indicator to me of the good season has been the heavy blossom on the bottlebrush and the Melaleucas some of which are a mass of white flowers.

We ate tonight at the Deni RSL Club and are staying at the Riverside Caravan Park (with the mossies).

Thursday 23 November  Deniliquin NSW – Cobram Vic  117 km  Tonight we are staying in an apartment at the five star RACV Resort. It is a very comfortable 2 bedroom fully equipped (including laundry – can you hear the dryer?) apartment. It is wonderful to be able to stretch out. We are going to be here for two nights.

We started the day by spending about 2 hours in Deni. M documented the memorials while I walked the shops. Deni is a prosperous town and one we like.

We decided to cut across country to Tocumwal via a minor road which runs through lots of properties and no towns. The area is very flat and is used for both wheat and rice which seems contradictory but the rice is irrigated. The wheat is being harvested and we saw several headers and trucks and silos and the UHF radio was busy (as it has been wherever we have been this last week).

Towards Toc (which Tocumwal calls itself) the rivers, all of which are very high, became closer together and merged into one large swamp in places. It was not an open area but had a lot of tall eucalypts - which one assumes need the flooding every now and then. Surprisingly the road was not covered by water despite having quite a few causeways with flood depth indicators. In addition there were a lot of bridges where creeks criss-crossed between the rivers. This would always be a pretty area but the high water makes it special at the moment. We wonder what will happen in a week or so when the flood from northern NSW reaches here.

I found out later that this area is called the Barmah-Millewa Forest Wetlands and that there has been some success in returning some parts of the area to the natural wet winter/spring and dry summer pattern. The regulation of the Murray has resulted in areas being flooded in summer and becoming silted and not suitable for the wildlife which had been using it. The return to dry summer conditions is expected to suit wildlife and to save a lot of water wastage through evaporation.

At Tocumwal M documented the town war memorial then we visited the old WWII airfield where Dad was stationed in 1943 for just over a year. Not very much remains but there is a museum in a hanger which is now used by a gliding club. Most of the photos and writing were about wartime events. There was a plan of the site as it was during the war and descriptions of the houses. The base was built over a very large area on the premise that if it was bombed by the Japanese the dispersed layout would minimise the damage. Housing for the personnel was in buildings which were made to look like houses and which were laid out as if it was a town. These houses were just unlined shells. After the war they were moved to Canberra – to O’Connor - where they were turned into real houses..

We drove to Cobram via Barooga, which took us past the site of the RAAF hospital which had been built well away from the base.

We arrived at the RACV Resort sometime after 3.30 pm and spent the remainder of the day resting.

A little drama

Friday 24 November  Cobram: day trip  222 km  The day started with some drama which had a happy ending. When packing for our day out Michael found the GPS unit was missing. After a search he came to the conclusion that he had left it on the wall at the old gates from the air base, now sited at the golf club in Tocumwal.

Toc is only a short drive up the road – less than 20 km – so that was our first destination. I had a feeling that we would find it still sitting on the wall thinking that it would be high up and out of sight but I was amazed when we found it at shoulder height and very conspicuous. But who cares, it was there! To calm down we had morning tea at the beaut bakery. We sat on the balcony overlooking the street and the Murray. The building used to be the cinema – probably Dad went there often.

It was a long day and hot in the mid-afternoon which made me tired. M perseveres, continuing to document memorials long after he has declared, "this will be the last one for today". The problem is that we keep seeing yet another one. We had no idea how many memorials there were till M started this project. Also they come in many forms besides monuments, from gates and halls to hospitals, schools and avenues of trees. It opens many doors and no day has gone by without some contact with a local who has been more than willing to talk to us. On so many of our touring holidays we have wanted to talk to the locals and have found it hard, often only speaking to shop-keepers.

Our route for the day (after Tocumwal) was to Katamatite, Tungamah, St. James, Devenish, Dookie, north via Pine Lodge to Numurkah, Katunga, Strathmerton and back to Cobram.

Highlights were:

The community pub at Devenish where we had a sandwich lunch. The community had taken over the pub in this tiny town in June and it was being tended by voluntary labour until it is paid for. They are doing well and are putting on special dinners. Tonight they will be having a barramundi dinner and are booked out.

At Tungamah I walked into the C of E and got talking to the lady who was cleaning it. Michael came along as well and documented the roll of honour in the church. The lady was going to prepare a brief note about us for the local newsletter.

At Dookie we found an old park which was very well maintained and a local historical display in the general store.

The memorial at Numurkah was a column with Victory at the top and a soldier at the base.

Having a comfortable unit to come home to as we are both very tired.

Saturday 25 November  Cobram - Canberra  514 km  We set out thinking we would stop somewhere tonight and arrive home tomorrow night but M was worn out with the memorialising so we decided to make it to home tonight and did so.

Our route was Cobram, Barooga, west towards (but not into) Mulwala, Corowa, north to Urana, Lockhart, Wagga Wagga then on to the Hume Highway and home with the usual stop north of Gundagai. (The Train coffee shop was closed, it is always closed.)

We stopped at Corowa, which we thought would be a good base for a future trip, at Urana and Lockhart. As with other days we passed through grain fields which were being harvested. As we neared Canberra we noticed how green it had become and when we called in at the local shops I met up with our rear neighbour who said it had rained on all but about 3 days since we went away. We arrived home about 6.15 pm.

Total distance travelled: 3,883 km. We were away for 15 days.

Postscript

About a week after our return we contacted Barry, the organiser of the Darling Run trip who told us:

The rest of the group had gone to Bourke where they stayed for 3 nights. While it rained a lot it stopped whenever they went on any organised excursions.

All the roads south along the river were closed so from Bourke they went to Lightning Ridge. The day after their arrival at the Ridge the SES told them if they didn’t leave straight away they might be flooded in, so they left.

From Lightning Ridge to Moree they were continually driving through water, which at times was 18" deep for 200-300 yards. In order to assist the conventional cars through the 4WDs would go first, setting up a wave to separate the water with the cars following. The drive was both exciting and dangerous. Barry talked about the important role the radios had played.

They went to Walgett and on to Moree. It was the same story at Moree, leave or become stranded. At this point the trip was called off and people went off in different directions, some to Dubbo, some to the Warrumbungles and some to Armidale.

Not the Darling River Run!!!!!

 

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