On the banks of the mighty Goobarrangandra

This is the first of two posts about our trip to the South-western slopes of NSW in pursuit of more towns and war memorials.  It is written up here because of the importance of the small dog in the rationale for the trip.  We had three objectives:

1. Visit a few towns in the area around Tumut;
2. Assess how feasible it was to take the small dog on a tent camping trip (which if successful will really open up options for us on subsequent trips); and
3. Assess how well our 65 year old bodies could handle a tent camping trip.

The first objective is described later in this report and a second post.  Suffice it to say it was successfully undertaken.  The second objective was also successful, in that the small dog behaved well around the camp site and - from our perspective, very importantly - in the tent overnight.  Although we both ended up feeling rather tired (but not emotional) I think the third objective was rather well met also.

The total trip (except for the return from Tumblong along the Hume highway etc)  is summarised in this extract from Google maps.

Before getting to the trip a trip down memory lane is in order.  We have a nice newish camping stove which when pulled out of the bag looks like this. 

It didn't seem to light too well and when I checked the manual didn't look much like the illustration.  This suddenly began to ring bells and on turning the brass nozzle if revolved to look like this! 

At least this time, unlike the previous occurrence, I didn't cart it off to a camping store to buy new parts!

Through Canberra and out to Urriarra Crossing where the Murrumbidgee was still flowing, but not strongly.  The dunny here was considered and tested getting a rating of 8/10.  (The missing 2 points reflect the use of a bit of fence wire as the(unexplained) flushing mechanism.)

We traversed Mountain Creek Rd to the Yass Wee Jasper Rd and prepared to drop into the latter hamlet.  At the top of the final hill this attractive sign was noted.  Yass Valley Council deserve much praise for these notices which appear in a number of spots around the Shire

At the foot of the hill was the Goodradigbee River.  I am sure the river names encountered on this trip prove that the local indigenous people either:

• had a great sense of humour and, despite not having a written language, entertained themselves by inventing names that the white explorers would never be able to spell properly; or
• were a lost race of Germans (who are not happy with any word with less than 10 letter - as suggested by Gotterdammerung)!

The road from Wee Jasper to Tumut was not exactly motorway standard ....

but was quite all right until we encountered a simian towing an off road trailer at 40kphand refusing to pull over so that I could toddle onwards at 60 kph.  The dust in the air didn't go well with chunderpooch but after the brief (to quote taxi companies) defoulment pause we didn't have to follow the van.

As we approached Tumut a huge flock of Straw-necked Ibis were soaring over the paddocks beside the Tumut River (surprisingly being based upon an indigenous word for "a quiet resting place beside a river').  We found the visitors centre and acquired a guide to the historic walking tour.  The town was first settled in about 1830 as settlers moved up the 'lush' River Valley.

There are still quite a lot of 19th Century buildings around and they have been, by and large maintained well.

The pediment above a jewellers shop.

The Westpac building (still a bank!).

The Oriental Hotel: note the banners for a Jimmy Barnes concert coming up at the Showgrounds.  (Old joke:What has 80 legs and an IQ of 400?  The front row at a Barnesie concert!)

This very attractive convent was opposite the Catholic Church.

The Church looked good but was occupied when we were there by a family inducting a new Australian into the faith, so we didn't intrude.  In the matter of new Australians, as we walked around the main street a number of groups of seniors were discussing matters in languages other than English.  We identified Italian and German and I suspected Russian at one point.  Possibly an impact of the Snowy Scheme.

The All Saints Anglican Church was open and well set out.  This honour roll was very attractive (albeit slightly mucked up by flash reflection).

This specific plaque honours yet another victim of a plane training crash.  It is getting to the point that it seems any area in Australia without a WWII plane wreck has been discriminated against!

This is the stained glass in the church.

Here is the main war memorial: the upper words refer to the Boer War while the photograph honours a local lad who was awarded the VC.  The pine tree behind is a descendant of the famous Lone Pine.

These two signs (on a white wall) identify the local Aboriginal Land Council.  Quite an interesting bit of design.  The house to which it was attached was part of the historical walk.

After completing our tour of this rather prosperous town we headed out along the rather rustic road to the Thomas Boyd trackhead.  This is part of the Hume and Hovell walking track from Yass to Albury.  On arrival our first task was to ensure Tammie was comfortable: note the retractable lead goes through the shackle so she has plenty of freedom.

Then we erected the tent.  Fortunately

• we had had a test run on the lawn at home; and 
• the site was well grassed,sandy soil and grass (as opposed to the usual campground mixture of shale and eucalypt roots).

Here is the bridge which takes the H&H track across the Goobarragandra.  This bridge was built by a bunch of Army Reservists as a training exercise.

We were visited by a pair of Gang-gangs, which while fidgetty did pose for photos,  First the male, demolishing what I think was a bit of Patterson's curse (there was plenty more left for him) ..

and then the female with the coy, over-the-shoulder look.

There were other dogs in the area.  This is 11 week-old Cashew, who was very keen to play with Tammie and ...

.. Baxter, here checking out what was going on before strolling over.

The river had a good flow, but also revealed a nice collection of stones for anyone fancying a bit of land art.

What sort of macropod?

It is the "Kanga-bloody-roo from Tumba-bloody-rumba" (Macropeus cruentus) made famous, in my experience, by John O'Grady in his poem Integrated Adjective.  That attribution seems to be open to a bit of doubt but that is where I first heard the expression in about 1972!

For those unfortunate enough to have ended up here directly this is the second post about our trip to a number of towns on the Southwestern Slopes of NSW.

Afer leaving the banks of the mighty Goobragandra we took ourselves to the extremity of the trip at Tumbarumba.  On the outskirts of that town we screeched to a halt on spotting the Union Jack School War memorial.  If I interpret it correctly this lists 18 old-boys of the school who were killed in WWi.

The main street of Tumbarumba was a pleasant country town, well endowed with log trucks.

For some reason the cafe in the street was called the 4 bears and advertised itself by putting two bears on the owners Chrysler!.  At first I thought they were permanent fixtures on the car but now believe they are only evident when the vehicle is parked!

Here is the Tumbarumba war memorial.  There are a lot on names listed on this memorial, for what I believe to be a fairly modest sized town.

This, and another memorial appeared to have been recently added.  Both made by engraving on polished granite. Given the unpleasant events being recorded these are very good memorial art works.

This is the Catholic Church which is very well maintained and open for inspection.  No memorials inside.

Ou overall rating of Tumbarumba was that it was 'doing OK' but not as prosperous as Tumut.  Given that it is developing as a wine region - apparently quite a nice drop at that - I was a bit surprised.

We then headed back up the road towards Batlow.  There were many signs about snow and ice on the road but all assured us the road was clear an open this day.  We thought the weather was warm but not unduly so - on several occasions we heard people say "It's  lot hotter in Wagga."

After a pause at Laurel Hill for Frances to acquire a few more fuschias we got closer to Batlow where large parts of the countryside were white due to bird netting over the orchards.  One f our information sheets noted that Batlow developed as the climate was correct for growing the fressh produce sought after by the gold miners working the diggings around the area.

The memorial in Batlow was reasonably standard apart from: the initials RSL spelt out in front of it and ....

.. the very evocative ode on the face of the memorial.

The orchard covered hills were celebrated by this mural ...

... decorated power poles (of which this was the most opulent example) and ...

a large carving under a bus shelter.

This Institute was one of the few remarkable building in the town. 

Overall, our feeling was that Batlow was doing it a bit tough. For some reason it didn't have any feeling of life about it, despite the high level of investment evident in the surrounding orchards.  Perhaps all the economic activity looks towards Tumut just leaving the few few workers needed in the town?

We headed off towards a cherry stall (good value at $6 per kg) and what we thought would be our last town in Adelong.  This looked to be a tad more 'historic' than Batlow, having a formal historic walk around the town.

The first site we found was the Grahamstown and Shephardstown War memorial.

This was a nice example of the type, but somewhat of a surprise as I thought it might have been located at Grahamstown (5km North of Adelong) or Shephardstown, wherever that was!  I shall attempt to discover the story behind the name.

his pub was rather appealing, but having a couple of hundred plus km to get back home decidied against joiging the blokes under the veranda.  (They were however very obliging in directing in how to gt to the Hume Highway!)

The windows of the Museum were decorated with this iron cut out works, reflecting the gold mining history of the area. 

It is a surprise to me how many of the towns we are visiting have a historic theatre somewhere around the premises.  Studying their rise and fall could be an interesting project for a PhD.

This is the main Adelong War Memorial.  It was intriguing that there appeared to be two sets of names on the memorial: one lot on the white column and a second set - which seemed more recent but appeared to refer to the same conflict - on the black stone base.

By this stage we were getting rather over things so followed the instructions of the drinkers at the pub and headed for the Highway.  Seeing a sign to gold mine ruins and the Adelong Falls we diverted briefly.  The ruins of the mine looked interesting and had it not been so hot (nearly as hot as Wagga, I reckon) and us not so knackered we may have explored more.

The site appeared, from a fairly distant view to be well preserved and rather interesting.  The falls wouldn't trouble Niagara in volume of water but the work in the buildings looked pretty.  However it was hot and we were tired so on home,

As we passed through Grahamstown - which didn't take long - I kept an eye open for any trace of a remaining memorial but there was none.  However, just before the highway we hit a 60kph limit for Tumblong, which caused Frances to comment about this being a town, in which case it should have a memorial.  Sure enough there was a very memorial looking column, honouring the Boys from Tumblong who'd gone off to war.

This memorial is not listed in the Register (neither was the memorial Hall a few metres down the road)  The column was just in front of St James Church which, while small) appeared to be well maintained.

One issue we had trouble resolving was that of the climate in the towns we visited.  Tumut seemed to be a good bit milder than home (orange trees and Cannas growing) whereas at the Batlow fuschia nursery Frances heard of very vicious frosts.  I have just checked Google Earth and find that elevation answers all: Tumut is 290m AMSL while Batlow is around 800m.  This leaves a residual surprise that there was enough uphill to gain 500m in 30km!  Perhaps I'd have noticed it more on my push bike?

(Interestingly, while Adelong is also about 233m AMSL Wagga is 147m AMSL so might well have been even hotter.)been even hotter

After a gentle rumble down the highway from Tumblong to Yass we took the back-road to home.  An enjoyable and successful trip.trip.