Appendix 5 Campground Summary

Let me start with the good news:  my overall reaction to the owners/managers of caravan parks we encountered on this trip was strongly positive.  They were as helpful as possible and the problems we had in a couple of places were due to other visitors who seemed to need some help in understanding the concept of sociability

Given the negative views I have encountered in some (admittedly special interest) situations that is a tad surprising, but I call 'em as I find 'em.

Location of camp: Dubbo
Number of nights: 2
Comment on Location: Adjacent to Highway and thus not quiet, but convenient for access.
Comment on Operator: very helpful and pleasant
Comment on facilities: All that we needed.
View on other guests: Friendly traveler types.

Location of camp: Cobar
Number of nights: 1
Comment on Location: Adjacent to Highway but not heavy traffic and convenient for access.
Comment on Operator: very helpful and pleasant
Comment on facilities: All that we needed.
View on other guests: Friendly traveler types.

Location of camp: Trilby Station
Number of nights: 3
Comment on Location: Excellent noting that it is a remote area so weather can be an issue.  Only noise at our site was the grunting of pelicans in the River.
Comment on Operator: Excellent.  She has put in a lot of effort to make this a great place.
Comment on facilities: We had an unpowered site, but the way the site had been set up was great and the amenities block at the homestead was excellent.
View on other guests:  We had little contact with them, but basically friendly traveler types.

Location of camp: Bourke
Number of nights: 1
Comment on Location: Adjacent to Highway but not unduly heavy traffic.  The major problem was the incredible noise of the town dogs.  It was convenient for town facilities.
Comment on Operator: very helpful and pleasant
Comment on facilities: All that we needed.
View on other guests: Friendly traveler types albeit with noisy heaters
Overall comment. The place was basically a good operation in a very crappy town.  But they did allow dogs unlike the place about 5km out of town.

Location of camp: Lorne Station, Lightning Ridge
Number of nights: 2
Comment on Location: A reasonable distance out of town and a lot of area to explore
Comment on Operator: very helpful and pleasant
Comment on facilities: All that we needed.
View on other guests: Mainly friendly traveler types with one lot not aware of the noise from their TV and one family of gooses on the second night.

Location of camp: Inverell
Number of nights: 1
Comment on Location: Adjacent to Highway but no traffic and convenient for access.  Also abutted the walking track along the river.  Very good
Comment on Operator: very helpful and pleasant
Comment on facilities: All that we needed.
View on other guests: No real contact: certainly no problems.

Location of camp: Tenterfield
Number of nights: 1
Comment on Location: 2km off the Highway and quiet
Comment on Operator: very helpful and pleasant
Comment on facilities: All that we needed.
View on other guests: Very friendly traveler types.

Location of camp: Hosanna Farmstay Stokers Siding
Number of nights: 5
Comment on Location: Beside a country road and - in terms of ambient noise - very peaceful.
Comment on Operator: They have done a lot of work building entertainment stuff for their core clientele - family funsters - but I suspect don't really know (and probably don't care) what people in other demographics need
Comment on facilities: Poor.  Female showers didn't work - and would take 10 days to repair - and the area was noisy when others showered or used the dunnies.
View on other guests: Some of them were arrogant bogans with no consideration for anyone else.  It only takes a few like that to totally wreck the place.
Overall Comment: Avoid this place like the plague.

Location of camp: Corindi Beach
Number of nights: 1
Comment on Location: On the highway but traffic noise not a problem.  Beside Peel River and well treed made it pleasant.
Comment on Operator: Brief dealings but very cooperative.
Comment on facilities: Entirely adequate for our needs.
View on other guests: Friendly traveler types.

Location of camp: Nulkaba (Cessnock)
Number of nights: 2
Comment on Location: On man road so a bit of traffic noise but not a great problem
Comment on Operator: very helpful and pleasant.  Spotted a potential issue with a slope on our site and provided some wood to level it out.
Comment on facilities: Entirely adequate.  A unique feature was that a small off-leash dog run had been created - possibly to meet the needs of a few long-term residents' dogs but the important bit is the owners were aware of their clients needs.
View on other guests: Quite a few long term residents, but very friendly.  One couple, unfortunately close to us,seemed to feel that we needed to hear their TV, which they played from mid-day onwards.
Overall comment:   The only negative was the noisy neighbours.  The attitude of the owners was great and it was very close to the wineries.

Appendix 6 Field Guides for Plants.

I was asked by one A. Nonny Mouse through a comment on the first tangible post what field guides we used.  here is their comment.

Thank you for sharing the details of your trips. As someone new to Australia and who intends to be able to take trips like these at some point this is very informative.
Could you let me know what fieldguide(s?) you use to identify the plants?

I was going to put up a substantive comment in response but it was getting long so I am creating this instead.

That is a very good question to which there is no simple answer, primarily because of the number of species one can encounter.  For birds there are about 800 species in all of Australia.  For plants, my local group based around Canberra has identified 1100 species within a 150km radius.  My guess would be that in a trip such as we took there could easily be 5,000 species (especially including some of the rainforests.

• For the North Coast of NSW we have used with some success "From Mangroves to Mountains" by Leiper et al.  It's about SE Queensland but the plants don't bother about State borders.It includes 2200 species!
• For the inland there is somewhat lower diversity and we try to sort things out with "Plants of Inland Australia" By Moore P.This covers all the 'big sandy dry bit' in the middle of Australia so there are quite a few species not found in NSW.  It lists about 1100 species.
• For the SE of the State "Native Plants of the Sydney region" by Fairley and Moore is very useful.  It lists something like 700sp (estimating from the common names in the Index).

I'd hope that between those three, with a bit of luck and a lot of prayer you should be able to get most anything you see to at least family, and perhaps genus.

If you have time you might get lucky at a Visitor Information Centre if there is a plant group active in the local area.  By was of example there is a very good guide put out by a group in Narranderra which would help with many of the species in the upper Murrumbidgee and the Catchment Management Authorities used to put out good stuff.  (Of course the NSW Government has completely gutted the CMAs - apparently they were concerned about the environment and were getting in the way of stuff that benefited the big end of town.  Perhaps Local land Services will continue the work, but don't hold your breath.

For a reference the "Flora of New South Wales" Harden G editor is the best around in hard copy.  Apart from being 4 huge volumes (and the one dealing with monocots including lilies and orchids is very hard to find - we haven't managed it yet) it is quite expensive and getting a bit long in the tooth.

As an online resource PlantNet is more or less the electronic equivalent of the foregoing.  It isn't really a field as you need to have a fair idea of what you're dealing with before hooking in.  It is also driven by the ideology - or possibly politics - of the Botanic Gardens in Sydney who reject (inter alia) the nomenclature of orchids proposed by Jones D.  However its about the best around.

Appendix 4 Weather summary

Basically the weather on the trip was quite acceptable!  The third day at Trilby, and the day we arrived at Corindi were a tad windy.  We had a couple of showers but nothing at all dramatic (sorry guys on the North Coast who need rain).

One of the reasons for going away in July is to get away from the cold of Canberra.  The next two charts consider that:\

 While some of the early minima were a little cool they were generally better than recorded at home.  Once we got to the North Coast the situation was a lot better!

The maxima tell the story.  Mission accomplished.

Appendix 3 Motoring summary

I will cover two points in this post: distance covered per day and fuel consumption by fill up.

Distance per day.

The chart below is based on distances I recorded each evening, and comes up with a somewhat different total to the difference in odometer readings from starting out to returning home.  I can't explain this, but as no-one is going to die as a result of the confusion I have decided to ignore it.

The average distance covered per day works out to 179km.  One of my objectives was to avoid mega distances in a day so it was pleasing that the most we did in a day was 450km. On 5 days we did less than 50km.

Fuel consumption 

Overall we achieved 11.56 l/100km - or in old money 24.2mpg.  This varied quite a bit between fill-ups!

Causes of the variation can include:

• whether towing the camper or not;
• road surfaces (the major highways have much lower rolling-resistance bitumen than 'ordinary' country roads);
• terrain (the flat country out West uses far less fuel per distance than the hilly and twisty country in the ranges of New England);
• the click-off settings at a bowser (ie one bowser doesn't completely fill the tank whereas the next one does, giving an exceptionally high fuel consumption at the second fill up); and
• headwinds.

Appendix 2: Towns Summary

Name of Suburb Town: on Register of War Memorials

Ballina

Bangalow

Bourke

Brunswick Heads

Burringbar

Byron Bay

Cobar

Coffs Harbour

Cudal

Cumnock

Dubbo

Eumungerie

Galston

Glen Innes

Grafton

Inverell

Lismore

Louth

Molong

Moree

Murwillumbah

Narromine

Nyngan

Sawtell

Tumbulgum

Tweed Heads

Tweed Heads South Warialda

Woolgoolga

Yeoval

Name of Town - Not on Register of War Memorials

Brewarrina

Collarenabri

Coramba

Deepwater

Delungra

Gravesend

Lightning Ridge

Nana Glen

nevertire

Nimbin

Stokers Siding

Swan Creek

trangie

Walgett

Warren

Back to Index page

Appendix 1 Bird stuff

Birds of the day: on the road and on reflection

Date	on reflection	on road
4-Jul	Musk Lorikeet	Spotted Harrier
5-Jul	Grey-crowned Babbler	Grey Crowned Babbler
6-Jul	Plum-headed Finch	Plum-headed Finch
7-Jul	Mulga Parrot	Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
8-Jul	rare bird	rare bird
9-Jul	Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo	Little Eagle
10-Jul	Variegated Fairy-wren	Variegated Fairy-wren
11-Jul	Pale-headed Rosella	Pale-headed Rosella
12-Jul	Blue Bonnet	Crested Bellbird
13-Jul	Magpie Goose	Magpie Goose
14-Jul	Azure Kingfisher	Azure Kingfisher
15-Jul	White-headed Pigeon	White-headed Pigeon
16-Jul	Pacific Baza	Bar-shouldered Dove
17-Jul	Australian Logrunner	Australian Logrunner
18-Jul	Spotless Crake	Brahminy Kite
19-Jul	Topknot Pigeon	Topkniot pigeon
20-Jul	Australasian Figbird	Australasian Figbird
21-Jul	Beach Stone-curlew	Beach Stone Curlew
22-Jul	Brahminy Kite	Brahminy Kite
23-Jul	Red-backed Fairy-wren	Red-backed Fairy-wren
24-Jul	Osprey	Buff-banded Rail
25-Jul	Little Egret	Drongo
26-Jul	Australasian Gannet	Australasian Gannet
27-Jul	Australian Brush-Turkey	Brush Turkey
28-Jul	Cattle Egret	Straw-necked Ibis
29-Jul	Rainbow Lorikeet	Blue-faced Honeyeater
30-Jul	Blue-faced Honeyeater	Straw-necked Ibis
31-Jul	Australian Shelduck	Australian Shelduck

Some photos (in RAOU Atlas order)

Australian Brush Turkey

 Brown Cuckoo-dove

 Little Pied Cormorant

 Crested tern

 Silver Gull

 Sooty Oystercatcher

 Double-banded Plover

 White-necked Heron

 Royal Spoonbill

 Little Egrets

 White-faced Heron

 Pacific Black Duck

Whistling Kite

 Black Kite

 Nankeen Kestrel

Red-rumped Parrot

 Crested Bellbird

 Grey-crowned Babbler

 Apostlebird

 Spotted Bowerbird

 Pied Butcherbird

Full List - eBird order

Emu	Eastern Curlew	Brown Honeyeater
Magpie Goose	Silver Gull	New Holland Honeyeater
Black Swan	Crested Tern	White-cheeked Honeyeater
Australian Shelduck	Rock Dove	Blue-faced Honeyeater
Australian Wood Duck	White-headed Pigeon	Noisy Friarbird
Mallard (Domestic type)	Spotted Dove	Striped Honeyeater
Pacific Black Duck	Brown Cuckoo-Dove	Spotted Pardalote
Australasian Shoveler	Crested Pigeon	Striated Pardalote
Grey Teal	Wonga Pigeon	Brown Thornbill
Chestnut Teal	Peaceful Dove	Inland Thornbill
Hardhead	Bar-shouldered Dove	Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Australian Brush-Turkey	Topknot Pigeon	Yellow Thornbill
Brown Quail	Fan-tailed Cuckoo	Weebill
Australasian Grebe	Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo	Southern Whiteface
Australasian Gannet	Shining Bronze-Cuckoo	Grey-crowned Babbler
Little Black Cormorant	Southern Boobook	Australian Logrunner
Great Cormorant	Tawny Frogmouth	Eastern Whipbird
Pied Cormorant	Azure Kingfisher	Black-faced Woodswallow
Little Pied Cormorant	Laughing Kookaburra	Grey Butcherbird
Australasian Darter	Sacred Kingfisher	Pied Butcherbird
Australian Pelican	Nankeen Kestrel	Australian Magpie
White-necked Heron	Brown Falcon	Pied Currawong
Great Egret	Grey Falcon	Black-faced Cuckooshrike
White-faced Heron	Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo	Grey Shrike-thrush
Little Egret	Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo	Golden Whistler
Eastern Reef Egret	Major Mitchell's Cockatoo	Rufous Whistler
Cattle Egret	Galah	Crested Bellbird
Australian White Ibis	Little Corella	Olive-backed Oriole
Straw-necked Ibis	Sulphur-crested Cockatoo	Australasian Figbird
Royal Spoonbill	Rainbow Lorikeet	Spangled Drongo
Yellow-billed Spoonbill	Musk Lorikeet	Willie Wagtail
Osprey	Little Lorikeet	Grey Fantail
Black-shouldered Kite	Australian Ringneck	Magpie-lark
Pacific Baza	Crimson Rosella	Restless Flycatcher
Little Eagle	Eastern Rosella	Torresian Crow
Wedge-tailed Eagle	Pale-headed Rosella	Australian Raven
Swamp Harrier	Red-rumped Parrot	Little Raven
Spotted Harrier	Mulga Parrot	White-winged Chough
Brown Goshawk	Blue Bonnet	Apostlebird
Collared Sparrowhawk	Australian King-Parrot	Jacky Winter
Black Kite	Red-winged Parrot	Red-capped Robin
Whistling Kite	Satin Bowerbird	Rose Robin
Brahminy Kite	Spotted Bowerbird	Hooded Robin
White-bellied Sea-Eagle	Brown Treecreeper	Eastern Yellow Robin
Buff-banded Rail	Variegated Fairy-wren	Welcome Swallow
Spotless Crake	Superb Fairy-wren	Fairy Martin
Purple Swamphen	Red-backed Fairy-wren	Tree Martin
Dusky Moorhen	Eastern Spinebill	Rufous Songlark
Black-tailed Native-hen	Lewin's Honeyeater	Silvereye
Eurasian Coot	Yellow-faced Honeyeater	Common Blackbird
Beach Stone-curlew	Singing Honeyeater	Common Myna
Black-winged Stilt	Fuscous Honeyeater	Common Starling
Red-necked Avocet	White-plumed Honeyeater	Mistletoebird
Australian Pied Oystercatcher	Bell Miner	Australasian Pipit
Sooty Oystercatcher	Noisy Miner	House Sparrow
Masked Lapwing	Yellow-throated Miner	Red-browed Finch
Double-banded Plover	Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater	Plum-headed Finch
Red-capped Plover	Red Wattlebird	Zebra Finch
Red-kneed Dotterel	Little Wattlebird	Double-barred Finch
Black-fronted Dotterel	Scarlet Honeyeater

Back to the Index page

The last lap

Bird of the Day;  Australlian Shelduck at Bungendore

Plant of the Day: Gymea Lily at Homebush

Scene of the Day: I'm tempted to say the turning off the Hume HWy to Goulburn

Art of the day; The ring over the Brickpit at Homebush.

Typically Australian thing of the day: The total zoo of a car park at Parramatta!

Maximum Temperature  25 on coast  Minimum temperature 15

Distance traveled  with camper  300  without camper 50

Having breakfasted we headed off to Bintel so that Frances could get her bins cleaned.  This was done with their customary excellent service and were repaid by her buying a few bits of this and that for cleaning them ourselves.

I then thought it might be interesting to go and look at the Olympic site (Sydney 2000) to fill in a few hours.  Perhaps we might see a hero (eg Richie McCaw) getting ready for the Super Rugby final two nights later.  No luck with that, and the primary schools Athletics Championships didn't make much weight as an alternative.

Here are a few images of the area.

I took this as a site guide - we couldn't find a visitor centre anywhere!

Gymea Lily.

The ring.

Then to buy some fuel and lunch.  The former was simple and the latter reduced Frances to abject terror as I wheeled around in a dark, poorly signed and crowded multi-story carpark in Parramata.  Eventually I got some panini; we ate and off to Cub to pick up the camper.

It was ready; we hooked up and we were homeward bound.  Apart from a foul sidewind blowing us around the drive back was easy.  We got home before dark and lit the fire.

Back to the Index page

Rolling through the rock

Bird of the Day: Blue-faced Honeyeater

Plant of the Day: Jacaranda in Hargraves Street

Scene of the Day: Cuttings on descent to the Hawkesbury

Art of the day; River Ghost graffiti at Windsor

 

Typically Australian thing of the day: Reaction of security guard at Garden Island Dockyard when we rolled up!  Also his helpfulness once the issue was explained!

Maximum Temperature  25 on coast  Minimum temperature 15

Distance traveled  with camper  150  without camper 35

So we fired up El Camion attached the camper and headed off towards Sydney.  Apart from the antics of a few pelicans who shouldn't be allowed to walk without supervision let alone drive something dangerous like a car this was a very pleasant rumble down the road.  It was particularly pleasant when we descended through the sandstone to the Hawkesbury.

This is the bridge over that River.

More cuttings

We found our way with no problems to Loyalty Rd and booked the camper in at the Cub Camper factory for its service.  There were a few others in there for that!

Frances suggested going to Windsor and Richmond as something interesting to do for the afternoon and we made it so.  We drove out along 'normal' roads which seemed to go on for ever, but found somewhere to park in Windsor while we explored.

We walked along the main street where there were quite a lot of old buildings, most of which now seemed to be used a professional rooms (OK) coffee shops (probably OK) or $2 shops selling junk.  Somehow it all seemed a bit of a mishmash.  Perhaps our views have been coloured by the nice country towns we have visited?

At the end of the Street was a nice park with a War Memorial.

I think this image is a Boer war trooper.

We walked back along the Hawkesbury River, which is astonishingly narrow here considering its size where the freeway crosses.  At the road bridge there was a fair bit of graffiti and I thought this spectral offering was rather good.

Here is the main, pedestrian enabled, drag.

So on for a bit to Richmond.  We went looking for a Memorial but ended up going right through the street to a very comfortable Reserve with Lakes full of fowl.  A male Chestnut Teal in breeding finery is really rather spiffy.

One of our biggest air force bases is beside the road  between the two towns and this Hercules was doing circuit and bumps for its own good reasons.

Then we found the memorial back in town.

Back through roadworks to the Motorways of Sydney.  There was initial weirdness when Frances held up the toll transponder and it didn't beep.  So she just put it on the dashboard (where it isn't supposed to work) and it squeaked like a mouse in a cheese box: so we left it there and it worked very well for the next two days.

Approaching North Sydney.

Can I sell you a Bridge?

Nice pylons, lotsa value in scrap metal these days squire!

Some industrial stuff is really aesthetically pleasing.

And then there is the CBD!

Two icons in one snap.  Unfortunately the railings of the Cahill expressway are there as well!

A streetscape of Kings Cross.  Given that we were aiming for Paddington you might well ask what the hell were we doing in the Cross.  Getting lost is the answer: I had conflated William and Oxford Sts in my mental map and taken the wrong one.

Eventually we ended up at the gates to the Garden Island Dockyard in Wooloomooloo (and you reckon spelling Mississippi is hard).  A lad on duty here asked if we had Defence ID.  On getting the answer "No: we're lost." he asked where we were trying to go and seemed rather surprised at the answer "Oxford Street".  Once he had gulped a few times he said to do a uie and go back the way we had come.  Absolutely perfect: Victoria St leads more or less to the Victoria barracks if you follow it in the right direction!

Following his directions gave the fearless passenger a second chance at the El Alamein Fountain in the Cross: astonishingly not a hooker in sight.

This is St Vincent;'s Hospital.

And here is Oxford St in Paddington.

Once we had parked the car - as usual  found a spot within 20m of our friends house - and unpacked what was needed we went for a walk with Tammy.  Shortly after this image was taken there were 5 dogs sniffing at one another.  Lead macrame rules!

Emerging from the park this thingy was interesting - I think it is advertising some form of new-age hippy bullshit alternative medicine.

Some more Paddington housing - I thnk Moncur St,

We then had a very pleasant evening with Jill and Sam (to whom great praise and thanks are due) and slept in a house for the first time in 4 weeks.  Yahoo!

Back to the Index page