The day the ice formed

Bird of the Day:  Azure Kingfisher.  Not common and spiffy.  Gotta be a winner!  A dozen Australian King-Parrots get a gong for big flock.  (30 Rainbow Lorikeets competed for the latter award.)

Plant of the Day:  No nominations received.

Scene of the Day:  Standing Stones at Glen Innes with ranges behind them.

Art of the day:  Mosaic in front of Art Gallery in Inverell

Typically Australian thing of the day:  Helpful folk in campsites!  This is far to be preferred as a winner than the bums digging up the main street of Glen Innes (although that is also typical!)

Maximum Temperature  14 Minimum temperature -2 (being optimistic)

Distance travelled  with camper  160  without camper 0

I assume the ice referred to at the conclusion of the previous installment actually formed on this day  - but I needed a snappy title.

The campsite backed on to a walking trail along the Macintyre River so we set off to do our morning walk along that.  It was extremely pleasant and thoroughly livened up when we saw an Azure Kingfisher posing in some reeds.  (There was enough flow in the river that it hadn't frozen.)

As usual the piers for the bridge had been augmented with paint.  And very tastefully too!

We then fond the Visitors Centre and got their walking tour, most of which we could cover on the way back to the campsite.  The main street was full of well maintained historic buildings: Inverell seemed to be the most prosperous and enlightened place we have been on the tip (I think, looking over the trip as a whole, I'd still agree with that statement.)

This mosaic stretched for about 100m in the sidewalk in front of ....

... the Regional Art Gallery.

The area is very proud of its Scottishness and the early settlers.  The bicentennial memorial covers the history of the area.

This is the Courthouse.  I would hazard a guess that the biggest, most expensive building in most large country towns is the Courthouse.  (The other contender is the Post Office, but in many cases they are being sold off and adapted to other uses.)

I went to the wrong part of the main park looking for the Memorial in Inverell and was cursing this as we drove out of town.  Then I noticed this, which turns out to be a Memorial to the local Regiment, known as the Kurrajongs.

There are 178 Kurrajong trees (Brachychiton sp.) planted in this reserve, each commemorating a soldier who didn't return from WW1.  Given the size of Inverell at the time that would have been a huge loss.  The Kurrajong contingent won 2 VCs, and the reserve is named after one of the winners - George Cartwright VC, who did return (and lived until 1978).

Our next stop was Glen Innes.  We very quickly found the Boer War Memorial in the middle of the main intersection.

Notice the fencing beside the memorial.  The attractive main street was being dug up for some reason known only to the Council and its accountants.

This is the old Shire Hall.  I don't recall the current one.

This is the Kwong Sing building, a tribute to one of the early traders whose family still operate one of the establishments.

While searching for the principal memorial we came across this decorated picnic shelter.  The tree design was inlaid ceramic tiles.

This is a new project (completed in 2013) by the Glen Innes RSL and comprises a walkway through 36 Blue Cypresses.

This is the former memorial.

The Town Hall.  Well decorated with flags and ornate architecture and the [expletive deleted] temporary fencing of the street improvers.  (I mustn't call them street walkers: they aren't that active and don't provide such useful services.)

The biggie, tourist wise, in Glen Innes is the Standing Stones.  This is a totally modern creation but operates on the druidic principal of having the stones line up with sunrise on auspicious dates (solstice, equinox etc).  It was possible to go and look for free or a busload could get a guide for $60.  For another $60 you could hire a bagpiper as well!

Along the way towards Tenterfield we scored the village of Deepwater for a Memorial and had given up when my eye was taken with tablets beside the door of the School of Arts.  Bingo!  It is surprising how often these functions are co-located.

On arrival in Tenterfield we called in to the Visitors Centre to find out about caravan parks.  I had wondered whether they would have any form of Peter Allen tribute, relating to his "Tenterfield Saddler".  Oh my goodness yes: the song was playing and they had a life size cut out!  Of the parks, one was right on the Highway and looked very sterile but the other was about 2km off the hghway and looked rather good.  So we went there and dogs were permitted so checked in.

A King Parrot came to look at us.

At this point O'Riley's Law kicked in.  That states that "Murphy was an optimist."

• While leveling up the camper the racket holding the jockey wheel slipped so the draw bar hit the ground..  That was remedied by jacking up the front of the camper.
• Then I found that, as was so often the case in Tanzania, "hakuna umeme ".  I.e: no electricity. After testing all sorts of things another guest said "could a fuse have blown?".  Sure enough in setting up the camper I had flicked off the main circuit breaker.  

Back to index page