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.
