gohavealook: BROKEN HILL TO TAMWORTH

MONDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER - We left Broken Hill and within half an hour’s drive had crossed the Eastern Standard Time Line and were finally back on NSW time. We drove through Wilcannia and after 385 kilometres we stopped at Meadow Glen Rest Area for the night.

TUESDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER - We left our overnight stop and drove through Cobar and Nyngan and Nevertire and on to Tottenham where Richard particularly wanted to stop to take a photo of himself in his Tottenham Hotspur shirt underneath the Town of Tottenham sign. Tottenham is located by the Bogan River and is known as the exact Geographical Centre of New South Wales and has a small population of 320. We drove for 385 kilometres and stopped at Sandy Creek Rest Area overnight with only one other caravan parked nearby.

WEDNESDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER - We left our overnight stop and drove through Warren and passed some spectacular scenic green undulating deep valleys and peaks along the way, with the purple flower Patterson’s Curse on either side of the road most of the way to Gilgandra where we stopped in a lovely park for lunch.

On the way to Coonabarabran we passed by “Sunshine Road” and “Dog Trap Gully”. We continued past Gunnedah “The Koala Capital of the World” (a very slight exaggeration there I think!!) and passed by Lake Keepit and “Long Hollow Gully”. Finally after another long day driving 400 kilometres, we reached our destination Tamworth. We stayed at the Top Tourist park Austin Tourist Park 4 kilometres out of town on the main highway. We set up on the lower level by the Peel River. It was a big spacious park with grassed sites and was $32 per night (including our 10% membership discount). They were very casual and laid back when we rang to book a site telling us “Just rock up and pick a spot – there’s plenty of em”, which we found out was quite right.

BEAUTIFUL CHERRY BLOSSOM TREES OPPOSITE THE CARAVAN PARK

Tamworth is located on the west side of the Great Dividing Range, 440 kilometres north west from Sydney. It is a major regional centre in The New England region of New South Wales, midway between Sydney and Brisbane with a population of 50,000.

It is known as “The First City of Lights” as it was the first city to use electric street lights in 1888.

Tamworth is best known as “The Country Music Capital of Australia” and hosts the ten day annual event in January each year, with over 600 musicians performing in the new 5,000 seat Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre. This is the main event on the town’s calendar. It started off in 1960 with the local radio station broadcasting “Hoedown” which became so popular with the listeners that in 1973 the first Country Music Awards began. Busking on the main street Peel Street is where Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar-Daley, Beccy Cole and Keith Urban began their careers.

Tamworth is also the National Equine Centre of Australia with many equine events on the calendar. The Australian Equine and Livestock Centre is the biggest in the southern hemisphere. Because the land is so fertile it is an area rich in farming and grazing.

During WWII Tamworth Showground was used as an army training camp.

In 1947 East West Airlines began operating an air service from Tamworth to Sydney.

We had torrential rain for 2 days which the farmers were very happy about. They all received long awaited good rainfall.

SATURDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER - The rain cleared into a beautiful day. We visited The Big Golden Guitar in town. It was unveiled by Slim Dusty in 1988 in recognition and celebration of Australian country music. The actual guitar is 12 metres tall (40 feet) and weighs over 500 kilos. It is made of wood and fibreglass with steel reinforcements. It doesn’t have any strings so as to be an exact replica of the actual Golden Guitar Awards presented to artists.

The Tourist Centre is home to the Gallery of Stars Wax Museum, souvenir and gift shop and café. It now has the biggest private collection of memorabilia of Sir Donald Bradman, some of it available to buy.

From there we drove for 45 (56 kilometres) minutes through some breathtaking countryside with paddocks filled with spring babies of lambs, calves and foals and it was so joyous and uplifting watching them all frolicking around with their herds.

We arrived in the beautiful rural village Nundle set at the foot of The Great Divide. It is a popular place for fossicking with much gold still to be found in the hills, along with zircons, green jasper and sapphires. It is also one of the best areas in the state for crystals. It has a small population of 300.

Nundle is the beginning of The Fossicker’s Way to Glen Innes via Inverell, through some of the best fossicking areas in New South Wales.

Gold was discovered in the nearby hills at Hanging Rock in 1852 and helped create the mining boom for the Tamworth area.

We visited Nundle Woollen Mill which still produces 100% Australian wool products on historic vintage machines dating back from 1914. It was the last of 200 working mills in Australia. We saw the process of transforming raw wool into balls of yarn from the viewing platform overlooking the old looms and carding machines and the myriad of brightly coloured wools in the finished products which were for sale in the retail shop. The Mill is open 7 days a week.

We had lunch in the Mount Misery Gold Mine Café restored from the old coffin maker’s cottage. It had coble stone walls and an open fire place and the original well (safely enclosed) in the back dining area. It is now a cafe, restaurant and retreat and is one of the oldest buildings in Nundle.

We had home-made quiche and salad. We were dumbstruck with the serving size of the quiche – half the pie on our plate with lashings of fresh salad and beetroot. It was very filling and delicious. There was also a replica Gold Mine Museum.

We drove back on The Fossicker’s Way through old quaint settlement villages and stopped at the lookout over Chaffey Dam with camping available on the lower level right beside the water. The Dam holds 62,000 mega litres of water and has a maximum depth of 30 metres.

Further down the road we stopped to watch some horses in one of the equine breeding centres. There was a cheeky foal running alongside one of its parents. We noticed another small foal laying on the grass with the other parent standing over it and licking it. We watched them for a while and I got a bit concerned that the little one on the grass wasn’t moving much and got the impression its parent was standing guard over it, licking it with concern. The little one’s tail flicked up and down but there was no sign of it getting up. I said to Richard I wasn’t going until I checked with the owner that the horse was ok, so we drove up to the house and met the breeder. He told us the foal was only 2 days old and the vet had been to check the newborn out. He said it was quite ok and it was normal for the newborns to sleep lots when they’re first born, but thanked me for my concern. He probably thought I was a nutty tourist, but at least I left happy in the knowledge that the foal was ok.

SUNDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER - We went to Oxley Lookout high up the hills at the top of Tamworth. It had lovely views looking over the town with picnic areas and the Great Dividing Ranges surrounding the town on the horizon.

Next we went to The Botanic Gardens which were established in 1995 and set on 28 hectares, 3 hectares have been developed. There were walking trails through the gardens with beautiful relaxing gazebos and ponds to look at. There was also an on-site nursery and Bush Chapel which can be hired for weddings and functions.

SOME OF THE LOCALS HANGING OUT AT THE POND

THE MINIATURE RAILWAY CLOSE TO THE BOTANICAL GARDENS

We had lunch in The Old Bell Tower in town which was just gorgeous with a country cottage garden outside with tables and chairs to sit and have a relaxing meal. It was set in the old church building. There was a lovely arbour in the middle of the garden with wisteria in full bloom growing all over it. Inside there was a variety of antiques and giftware for sale. The café did lovely home-style meals in a really relaxing atmosphere with very friendly staff. I had a gorgeous vegetarian stack with sourdough bread with basil pesto. It was just delicious and a very big serve.

PART OF THE BEAUTIFUL COTTAGE GARDEN AT THE BACK OF THE RESTAURANT

With full bellies, we headed to Tamworth Marsupial Park, a free family recreational park completely maintained by volunteers with some funding from the council and mostly donations from visitors to the park. It was set on 20 hectares. In 2009, The Friends of Marsupial Park formed a volunteer brigade and helped to upgrade the run down park.

We headed straight to the free flight aviary and saw some beautiful bright green Superb Parrots, Regent Parrots, Little Lorikeets and King Parrots and several varieties of finches, some white ones that I hadn’t seen before. There were lots of doves nestled in the trees and branches and black ducks waddling on the ground and taking a dip in the ponds. It was lovely to see so many free flying birds in a big free flight space.

Each afternoon our neighbour Ken entertained the park for over an hour singing and playing his guitar practicing the routine he uses to entertain in old folks homes and other venues. He was very talented with a wide range repertoire, so we really enjoyed being entertained by him.

We were quite pleasantly surprised by the size of Tamworth and the variety of restaurants, theatre, cinemas and shopping centres available in the town. The surrounding areas were so lush and green and picturesque. Being here in spring was probably the best time of year to visit Tamworth.

TUESDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER - We left Tamworth and drove for an hour north to Glen Riddle Reserve to check it out. It was 9 kilometres off the main road. We were only going to stop there for morning tea, but we decided it was a pretty good spot for a free overnight stay, with full phone and internet reception and cow companions roaming around the van and in the riverbed. It was a very warm day. We parked at the top of the hill with a lovely breeze going right through the van, overlooking the river bed. There were 4 other vans in the area also.