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.   

SALLY STRESSING OUT FREE CAMPING!!!!!

NEXT WEEK:  We will be heading north to Barraba and Bingara two very scenic rural towns.      

WE’RE IN PETERBOROUGH AND BROKEN HILL

 THURSDAY 19TH SEPEMBER   -  We left Wallaroo and drove for 179    kilometres through some beautiful countryside with really deep green velvet fields that were so smooth they looked as if they’d been painted.   We passed by “Lovers Lane”, “Wild Dog Hill”, Bull Ant Road”, “Rocky Bend Road” and “Wild Horse Plains”. Our destination was Peterborough, the historic rail town.    We stayed at the Peterborough Caravan Park, which was a 5 minute drive into town.  It was a small older style park with views looking over beautiful fields and hills on the horizon.  It was very peaceful and relaxing sitting outside looking at the view.  There was a park with duck ponds next to the caravan park and lots of ducks and birds waddling and roaming around the grass and splashing in the ponds.

MURAL ON THE LADIES TOILET

MURAL ON THE MEN'S TOILET

We set up and drove into the Tourist Information Centre in town which was inside a restored first class sleeping carriage of the East West Express from 1917.  It had pressed tin ceilings, leadlight glass windows, leather seats and polished timbers and was a real feature of the town.

Outside the Town Hall was a statue of Bob The Railway Dog.   He was an iconic scruffy German Collie dog that the town adopted.  He loved riding on trains in the late 1800’s and took every opportunity to hitchhike on trains, trams and Murray paddle steamers.  He often took himself off on interstate trips and was always welcomed by everyone wherever he went.  His favourite seat was on top of the coal box.  He was 13 when he died.  His body was stuffed wearing his collar.  His collar is now on display in the National Railway Museum in Port Adelaide.  

We went into the newsagency to see The Burg  a 22 metre long mural with 20 panels painted by local artist Des Parker, depicting the history of Peterborough.  It took him over 12 months to complete the paintings and there were also lots of historical photos and memorabilia with the display.  It was beautifully done and displayed and was a real work of art and love by the artist.

We visited the Town Hall, one of the largest heritage listed town halls in South Australia.  We saw The Federation Quilt a 2 x 3 metre handmade quilt donated by the Peterborough Patch Workers to commemorate 100 years of progress of the town and surroundings.   It was in a custom built glass display case inside the Town Hall foyer and was beautifully sewn and displayed (photos didn't come out as they were shot through the glass).

FRIDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER   -   We went to Steamtown a sound and light show shown nightly which is a multi award winning show.  We sat in a 1916 rail carriage that had been converted into a theatre car for the one and a half hour spectacle with the illuminated 23 bay round house as a back drop.  The show told the story of the creation of Peterborough as the crossroads of rail history, linking the East Coast to the West Coast and the link from Adelaide to Alice Springs which all crossed through Peterborough. It relived the famous visit of General McArthur in 1942.  There were personal stories recounted by some of the people involved and their families in creating rail history.  It was a fascinating and interesting show.  We were so glad we didn’t miss it.  It was $30 each.  Outside in the yards there were some of the original carriages from The Transcontinental and Ghan trains.

SHEEP TRANSPORT CARRIAGE

JUST IN CASE OF ACCIDENTS!!! INSIDE ONE OF THE REPAIR CARRIAGES

THE BACK OF THE THEATRE CAR ON THE ROUNDHOUSE

SOME OF THE 23 BAYS AT THE ROUNDHOUSE

1ST CLASS CARRIAGE ON TRANSCONTINENTAL TRAIN WITH PIANO AND AIR CON FITTED IN 1936

SATURDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER   -   We left Peterborough and drove for 281 kilometres through Yunta where we stopped for morning tea, Crystal Brooks, Jamestown, Cockburn and then crossed over the border into New South Wales once again and arrived in Broken Hill at 1pm.  Funnily enough Broken Hill is still on South Australian time (half an hour behind NSW time) and they still have South Australian newspapers, dating back to the copper boom times and the steam train era.  We stayed at Broken Hill Tourist Park part of the Top Tourist group.  It was a very big, dry and dusty park with wood chips on the ground by the caravan sites.  There was a small grassed area for pitching tents.  The facilities were older style and there really weren’t enough toilets and showers for the size of the park.  It was also completely booked out as it was the start of school holidays.  It was very expensive too - $44 a night (including our usual 10% Top Tourist discount).  We had to go on the “big sites” as all the other sites were taken.  

Broken Hill is Australia’s longest-lived mining city.  The seam has produced more than 300 million metric tonnes of ore – the equivalent of filling over 1,500 concert halls in the opera House.

It is an isolated mining town in the far west of outback NSW.  The closest major city is Adelaide.  Broken Hill is known as “The Silver City”, “Oasis of the West” and “Capital of the Outback”.  It has a population of over 20,000.

It all began in 1885 with BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited) mining the World’s richest sources of silver, lead and zinc, which to date have generated over $100 billion, with BHP now one of the World’s largest mining companies, turning over $400 million each year.  These precious metals and minerals gave Broken Hill the strength to sustain Australia through 2 World Wars and 2 Global Depressions.

Broken Hill is 1,150 kilometres from Sydney.  It has more galleries than pubs in town.  

We visited Pro Hart’s Gallery in town.  Outside the Gallery he had 4 Rolls Royce cars on display.

PRO'S CUSTOM DESIGNED ROLLS ROYCE

He was born Kevin Charles Hart in Broken Hill on 30^th May 1928.   His nick name “Pro” came from “Professor” as he was considered to be a bit of a know it all.  He worked as a train driver in the mines for 19 years and said his paintings kept him sane in the darkness and isolation of the mines.

He’d come home every day from work and go straight into his studio to paint.  He was discovered by a gallery owner from Adelaide in 1962 and as his fame grew, he travelled the World and met Kings and Queens .  Prince Phillip has some of Pro’s paintings in his private collection. 

Pro dropped paint from a hot air balloon and fired it from a cannon.  He was always experimenting with different colours and techiques.

He died peacefully at home in Broken Hill on 28^th March 2006. 

It was a fascinating display and some of the paintings were for sale.  His studio is still set up the way he left it with all his paints and easels on display behind glass windows.

SUNDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER   -   We drove 23 kilometres to Silverton as the Silverton Hotel had a country festival on for 4 hours.  It was crowded by the time we got there and the singers and music were in full swing.  Silverton has a tiny population of 60.  It has many historical stone buildings.   The actual hotel has featured in over 100 movies and commercials.

Opposite the Hotel, we visited Silverton Gallery.  It had some lovely local and unique paintings, many of which we wanted to buy.  They were pretty pricey, so like most other people we only looked and didn’t buy.

The town is enjoying a new lease of life as a popular location for films and television.  Some of the movies filmed there were Mad Max 2, A Town Like Alice, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Mission Impossible II, along with many commercials.   We visited the Mad Max Museum and saw original and replica cars, bikes and life size characters in full costume plus other memorabilia.

From there we headed out to see the sculptures in the Sculptures and The Living Desert Sanctuary set in a 180 hectare reserve.   It was the brain child and creative idea of Lawrence Beck a Gosford-based sculptor.  There were 12 magnificent gigantic sculptures on top of a hill overlooking the valleys of the Reserve.  Each sculpture was painstakingly created using tungsten carbide hand tools by a team of sculptors from Syria, Damascus, Mexico and Bathurst Island.  The massive project started in April 1993 with 52 tonnes of sandstone being transported from 240 kilometres away.  The largest sculpture weighed 8 tonnes. The project had ssupport and funding from the entire town.  A “Sculptors Symposium” base was set up 8 kilometres from the work site.  Tents, showers, toilets and a kitchen were erected with beds donated by the local hospital and catering supplied by the State Emergency Services.  It took over 2 months to complete the sculptures with the team permanently on site.  There were walking trails around the sculptures and on to the living desert but we wanted to visit another gallery in town and we were running out of time.

VIEW OVERLOOKING THE VALLEY WHERE THE SCULPTURES ARE LAID

We went back into town and visited Silver City Art Centre – home of “The Big Picture” – the World’s largest acrylic painting on canvas (12m x 100m).   It was painted by Peter Anderson, the talented brother of the Gallery owner Chris Anderson and his wife.   It took over 2 years to complete and Chris told us his brother was in there pretty much night and day during that time.  It took over 9 tonnes of paint to complete the painting and includes most of the landmarks around Broken Hill  including the Sculptures, The Pinnacles, Flinders Ranges, Mundi Mundi Plains, Barrier Ranges, White Cliffs and Menindee Lakes.

We entered the display through an old mining tunnel at the back of the gallery and came out on to a timber viewing platform all along the painting.  

ONE SECTION OF THE MAGNIFICENT "BIG PICTURE"

It was totally mind blowing and not at all what we’d been expecting to see.  We thought it would be a big flat picture but it was a semi-circular diorama and was so realistic we felt that we’d actually stepped into the desert with bird sounds, didgeridoo sounds, animal sculptures on the ground and climbing bushes and trees in the 300 tonnes of red earth on the floor and 10 tonnes of native rock, trees and scrub.   The ceiling was painted in sky blue and clouds.  It took us a while to take it all in.  Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos – they couldn’t possibly have done this masterpiece justice in any case.  We felt so calm and serene and were mesmerised looking at each part of the whole painting.  It was certainly worth the $7 fee to see it.

The rest of the gallery was full of ceramics and tin animals, glazed tile paintings and really bright paintings by local artists.  Chris had a great range of opal and silver jewellery for sale that he makes.  I bought 2 beautiful tin macaw parrots that I just couldn’t resist, one bright orange and the other a gorgeous turquoise.    He does mail order on line, but he’s so busy that the list isn’t usually up -to -date.   The Gallery is also home to The Broken Hill Chocolate Factory with delicious fudges and chocolates and sweets for sale.

We wanted to stay another day or two in Broken Hill, but the site we were on wasn’t available and we didn’t want to move again to a much smaller site for just overnight. 

Most of the tours and places of interest in Broken Hill were looking at mine sites, underground hotels and houses.  We had already done those at Coober Pedy.  

NEXT WEEK:  We will be free camping for two nights on our way to Tamworth.