Posts From New South Wales

The plan was for today to be a driving day and to end the day in a position to arrive in Sydney tomorrow. Thus there was not much sight-seeing today.

We did a little exploring around Manilla this morning, the town pub, an old school building which is now a museum and a local parrot. Mid morning we stopped in the town of Wallabadah where to our surprise we found a memorial to the First Fleet which included a list of all the members of that expedition.

Today we started a planned 1 month trip to explore parts of Western NSW and what is called "corner country", the area where NSW, SA and QLD meet. In the process we hope to visit the iconic outback town of Birdsville.

A somewhat late start this morning. The morning was comfortable and sunny, I had morning coffee to consume and Nina had her daily walk to complete.

North of last nights camp we stopped in the very small town of Peak Hill and paid a visit to its now defunct open cut gold mine and the unusual sculptures of two miners panning for gold.

When we woke this morning it was raining heavily so we were certainly glad to be housed in our nice cabin. Eventually the rain eased and we started the day of travel. First stop was a little tour around Nyngan, a look at the Coach House a display of wagons and other stuff from the pioneer days. At the same place is a very large statue of The Bogan a guy with a fishing pole. We guessed this name comes from the Bogan River on which the town is situated.

After a short run into Bourke this morning we spent a few hours reacqainting ourselves with this town and its pivoltal role in the wool and shipping industry of the 1880s. Shipping!, thats right even though the town is nearly 1000km from the coast it was a major shipping port for the trade along the Darling and Murray River systems. In the town there is still a revived remnant of the dock used in this trade. In fact there are a number of towns we will mention and visit over the next few days that were founded mainly because of that trade.

During her morning walk around Louth this morning Nina came upon the sign in the first photo and the ex-school teacher in her was horrified that the words on the second line were not spaced.

This morning we spent some time exploring Wilcannia, another major port town from the days of Darling river shipping. The past importance of the town is depicted in the number of elaborate sand stone buildings. Today however, it is a shadow of its former self, with many closed shops and buildings for sale testifying to its decline. Even the supermarket is supported by the Federal government.

This morning the sky was grey and there was a light drizzle of rain, but unfortunately that rain was enough to put paid to our plans of visiting a nearby National Park. In this part of the country rain often has the effect of closing gravel roads and stranding travelers. So we returned to Wilcannia for a few more photographs and then on to Broken Hill.

This entry will make a little more sense with the following map of the Menindee Lakes complex.

Today was simply a travel day. We needed to get to Tibooburra and that would be the longest days drive of the trip so far. Before starting I got a coffee at the Silverton pub and then we were on our way.

Our plan for this trip was to get to Birdsville via Tibooburra, Cameron Corner and Innamincka. However yesterday afternoon we discovered from the local roadhouse owner that we could get as far as Cameron Corder but thereafter all roads were closed. So today, hoping for a bit of luck, we setout on the 140km drive to Cameron Corner with the hope we could go farther but with the expectation that we would have to return to Tibooburra.