Leeton and Yanco

For some reason the night seemed very warm.  Obviously the economy is going well somewhere judging by the number of trucks going past through the night.   A reasonable night’s sleep was had.

In view of my intention to run a marathon in about 5 weeks time  felt I had to keep some running going.  The problem is that I normally waddle at mid-day which is not convenient when travelling.  So 6:45 saw me pounding along beside the canal on the Southern edge of town.  The great advantage of this is that the road is rather flat!  It was quite cool which also made it pleasant.  Several birds were added to the trip list including Rufous Songlarks which I haven’t seen in Canberra yet this season.

Meanwhile back at the Ranch breakfast was prepared.  Peter had kindly provided some bacon and eggs for us – now that is hospitality.  The problem was the eggs were from local chooks who go in for hard shells.  They required some force to crack, such that we thought they might have already been boiled!

We then went for the heritage walk around Yanco.   Frances commented that many of the buildings listed therein were described as “The former …” suggesting that the place was declining.  To our eyes that didn’t seem to be the case many of the houses seemed quite recently built and all seemed pretty well maintained.  It was basically an enjoyable walk.   The line of Palm Trees in the main street were very impressive.  

There were also lots of ibis (3 species) and Cattle Egrets in a paddock at the top of the town.

Next step was to investigate a few birding places to the South of Yanco.  The first of these was described as Yanco Reserve.   It had a nice collection of Acacia trees and sme eucalypts but an awful lot of weeds and rubbish.  We couldn’t scarf up any babblers, but did see a brilliant male Mistletoebird and a Yellow-throated Miner.

Next stop was Euroley bridge which delivered Superb Parrots, inspecting hollows.  Flushed with that success we headed off to Yanco Weir, to which I have noted road signs every time we drove to Adelaide (on average once a year for the last 30 years!).  To my great surprise we hit the Sturt Highway!  It turned out a crucial road sign was missing.  When we got back to the weir it turned out to be on Yanco Creek rather than the Murrumbidgee and the area was devoid of birds and flowering plants.  Damn: but at least we have now been there.

By this stage the wind had really picked up and cloud had come in.  After a great start to the day it had got rather unpleasant.

Then in to Leeton and out to Tuckerbill Swamp.  On previous efforts I have never quite found Tuckerbill and it is rather hidden but this time we got there.  It is behind an Historic Area (some indigenous folk are buried there) which meant from the weird ‘thinking’ which pervades the NSWPWS that dogs were banned.  So I left Tammy with Frances and whizzed off to look over the Swamp.  It is a huge area and I could only see a bit of it, where no Brolgas were evident.  I did see a brilliant male Red-capped Robin.

After a bit of touring around in the car (seeing our first Pied Butcherbird of the trip and getting a nice photo of a Nankeen Kestrel) 

we headed back into Leeton to do the Historic walking tour.  The town’s 2 claims to fame area lot of art deco buildings (from the 1930s) and the involvement of Walte Burley Griffin in laying the place out.  We discovered at least one additional War memorial  - which I couldn’t  photograph because the sunlight reflected off the gilt lettering too severely.  Basically a very pleasant stroll.  Surprisingly both the Catholic

 and Anglican

churches were open so we got a look into both.

Very different as would be expected from their being built some 40 years apart, but both were architecturally interesting.  Again the Anglican Church had a Roll of Honour for the War Dead and the Catholic one didn’t.  Why is this so?

An intriguing sight on this walk was the pile of pigeon droppings around the guttering of the Convent supporting the Catholic School.  

I had noticed other evidence of pigeon poop in Narrandera and Feral pigeons seem to be in large numbers in Yanco.  Perhaps the local rice farms encourage them in some way?

The highlights of the walk for me were the Roxy Theatre 

 and the (Walter) Burley Griffin water towers.

We then circled Fivebough Swamp which has had problems in the past due to limited water.  After the last two years it is brimming (the Cattle sign is usually some distance from the water's edge, let alone half inundated)

and many of the areas of the Swamp are still flooded, including the main entrance.

We added a few species to the trip list, but failed to locate any Brolgas.  There was some doubt about whether we could take Tammy into the area but a local birder assured us we could so we did, and then had a very interesting chat with said birder about what is going on with management of the area (of which I can’t remember the details, but it seemed to me the forces of good - and particularly cattle - were winning).  Our friend commented that some people in the area are concerned about what will happen when the snow melts in the Alps: as most of the hydro dams are already full this could lead to another surge of water down rivers already running a banker!

Back to the shops to get a large serve of prawns for our evening meal and thus earn a 8c/l fuel voucher!  On the way back to the house an attempt was made to acquire some local oranges.  

There seems to be no concept of the roadside stall selling bags for $2 (as in the SA Riverland) and the two places with signs up advertising fruit sales were closed.

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To Narrandera and Yanco

The day started on time, with us leaving at 8am. If Napoleon had been this organized for the battle of Borodino we must follow the example of Gruen whatever and ask “What would Putin do?”.  The answer is at the foot of this post.

As we left Carwoola the weather was a brilliant Spring day.  Passing Yass it was still excellent with glorious wattles of unidentified species lining the road and the paddocks green.  

Somewhere round about Gundagai I noticed that the wattles, while still brilliant were whipping about a bit: the promised front was on its way. 

The one blot on the trip to this stage was the health of the small dog.  She seemed to be a tad bilious so the start of the trip could be titled the Return of Chunderpooch.  Fortunately she settled down.  What didn’t settle down were the lambs in the paddocks we passed: they were gamboling all over the place.  “What would Mary Stuart do?”  Answer at the foot of the post.  There was still a lot of water around and the canola crops were lurid.

So we rolled on down the road sitting on a very relaxed speed.  Became frustrated with 2 minute delays for roadworks here and there.  One place we measured had the lights 400n fom the start of the works, which were about 50m in length, but we had to wait 5 minutes.  At another set the only workers in site were slouching back against their machines – apparently stacking a few zs.   There was also the usual crawl through Wagga 15km of drudgery – I hesitate to think how much a bypass would cost: it will clearly only happen after the Pacific Highway is upgraded.  Whatever.  We got to Narrandera in a tad over 4 hours with 30.7mpg.

Our first activity was a comfort stop, where I discovered that the local youth had been part of an art project.  Possibly led by Kilroy.

We next did a walk around the town, giving attention to War Memorials (I have done a special post for these).  The first was the Tiger Moth Memorial in Narrandera Park commemorating the guys who trained to fly here during WWII.

We had some doubt if this was really a War Memorial then I found a plaque commemorating all those who died.  Later I found the War Graves in the Cemetery of which a high proportion seemed to be the airmen who had died in training accidents!

The walk around town was very pleasant, although we only did part.  Lots of the dwellings were old and attractive,

The Churches had interesting architecture (but if they are locked I am not going to publicise them) and some of the businesses were still historic.  The banks were in old buildings and still seemed to be banks which is unusual: in most country towns they have become lawyers offices or such like.

Most of the recognised War Memorials are in a linear park in the centre of town.  One of the best – a ceramic fountain - had been vandalized but subsequently rebuilt.

We then went to Narrandera Wetland just off the Newell Highway beside the Murrumbidgee.  This is a most excellent spot with lots of birds, several hides (blinds for Norte Americanos) and a good lot of information.  This sign was well executed using the metal silhouette style which seems very popular.

Avian highlights were Yellow-billed Spoonbills.  Reading a brochure since, the Wetlands have a primary purpose of cleaning up, by natural processes, the storm water before it hits the Murrumbidgee.

We then went to Narrandera Common to see what was in flower.  The answer seems to be weeds: we only photographed two species, neither of which we could identify from our knowledge or our book!  This one was pretty.

Looking at the piles of flood debris from earlier in 2012, and the 'watermark' on the gums, most of the area appears to have been under 1m+ of water, so there was no understorey left.

 The highlight here was a Little Friarbird calling loudly (and attracting another of the same species).  My first for several years.

We then found our way to the Cemetery.  The first point to note is that by this time, the weather was struggling to achieve ‘social disease’ rating.  10/10 cloud, howling gale and odd raindrops.   A second point is that the Mower Morons (who aspire to the IQ of bush-fire brigade members) had been around and skun the ground so that only Capeweed had survived.  No orchids here thank you!  That being said the cemetery has an interesting collection of memorials.  The Chinese section, while small is interesting 

and the ‘Old Catholic’ section had some interesting memorials.

There was a small brass plate describing a lady as the mother of person A , the housekeeper for Father Y (surely not an accidental juxtaposition) and John O’Brien’s ‘Sweet Josephine’.

We headed off towards Yanco with a quick foray in to part of the MIA State Forest.  It was obvious, from the debris in the barbed wire, that this area had also been under 1m+ of water.  Again it seemed that the floods had obliterated most of the understorey.  Frances commented that she hadn't seen a single flowering shrub.

We bailed out and went to our place in Yanco 

which seems excellent.  The owners have had the place for less than a year (they a poster showing it as a ‘renovate or detonate’ proposition and have restored it to match modern needs with the history.

Possibly it was the first house in Yanco.  The owner – Peter – showed us how things worked and it really does seems to be a very satisfactory place to stay.

Answers

1)  Putin would be speaking French!

2) Mary Stuart would send out for mint sauce.

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