Albury trip: Day 4 Heading home
I woke quite early so mucked
around until it got light at about 7am.
Then I went for a run, largely in celebration of being able to see some
stuff, unlike 2 days earlier. A very
enjoyable 5km. Then I took Tammie for a
short walk, noting this curious structure in the River
packed up the car and we headed off towards Henty.
Our final stop was Uranquinty of
which I had never heard. There was a lot
to read about both as it was a major flying school for the RAAF and
subsequently one of the major migrant camps.
The material about the flying school
included this memento of a flight
–
checking out the propeller suggests it didn't end happily (and given the number
of memorials I have found to crashes on training missions that is not
surprising)!
The best known (to me at any rate) occupants of the
camp were Jon and Ilsa Konrads whose astonishing swimming careers were
summarised in one of the boards.
We decided to go and get a pie in the bakery, which
seems to have won various awards.
Getting there meant walking with Tammie past a house with two small
terriers and a larger but younger dog.
Absolute bedlam erupted with all four dogs keen to get down to
issues. Fortunately a sufficient fence
was between! After getting and eating our baked goods we watched a trucky walk his Jack Rusell past the other dogs and a similar ruckus
erupted. Tammie then joined in from the far side of the road. Not a peaceful
lunchtime in Uranquinty!
Links to rest of trip
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
No problems getting out of Albury
or through Culcairn (indeed only one group of unemployable social misfits (aka
road workers) were encountered until we got through Yass, many hours
later). Our first stop was Henty and we
took a look at Henty Man a few Kms South of the town.
Since part of the dedication of the
refurbished statue is a reference to the swaggies' war time experiences this
may be another Memorial: I shall have to consult.
In the town itself we parked by
the Doodle Cooma Arms (the original name of the area based on an indigenous
name meaning “Sweet Water”- a fair name for a pub.
There were some interesting old buildings in
the main street
and we eventually got to the Memorial Park which was well
provided with Memorial.
The Park was replete with
Blue-faced Honeyeaters, which posed nicely.
It has a green face because it is an immature!
We had a good conversation with a
local who was most taken with Tammie. He
had had a couple of small dogs himself but they had both died – one in his arms
after he'd nursed it all night - and he seemed to still be mourning them. Hopefully our encounter cheered him a little.
Moving on the next town we found
was Yerong Creek which I hadn't listed as a town. However it had a memorial garden
and merely
indicated that my search strategies need some refinement. The CWA memorial commemorated the dead while this one had been installed by Bruce
Ruxton (then President of the RSL) included all who served.
Given Big Bruce's role, I would have been surprised if it was not in
the Register.
Our next target was Town called
The Rock which nestles at the foot of a very large hill with much rock visible
on the summit ridge. The first photo
shows how modern infrastructure, such as power lines, spoil the appearance of a
natural scene. The second was taken
from the showgrounds with no wires in the way.
The town seemed rather modern so
it was a bit of a surprise to find an archetypal WW1 War Memorial.
Then we found the school had been established
in 1884 which explained a few things!
The material on the migrant camp
was fronted by this wonderful statue.
We decided not to stop in Wagga but to press on home. The stretch from Murrumbateman was annoying
due to 2 lots of roadworks (see opening paragraph of this post) accompanied as
usual by temporary traffic lights which seem to be set in such a way as to
maximise the inconvenience to road users.
Links to rest of trip
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Comments
Cheers Mimfilip
Martin