Back in the day, the Bathurst endurance car race was 800km
because it covered 500 miles. This set
of posts will cover our trip to a base in Bathurst and total about 800km. Perhaps a few extra – call it a victory
lap? Whatever, this is the first leg from Carwoola to Crookwell and Bathurst.
We went up though Gundaroo (where Bird-of-the-day – a
Black-shouldered Kite - was spotted) and Gunning, as that appeared the shortest
route. I suspect it was only about 10km
shorter than going through Goulburn, but it got us to Grabben Gullen which we
had never visited before. As far as we
could tell it didn't have a War Memorial so isn't a town!
Through Crookwell and follow the signs to Bathurst. These did an evil trick on us by having a
left turn up a hill which I nearly missed (shades of the years back when I went
about 100km extra, through Gunnedah, going from Coonabarabran toNarrabri due to such an
event). However I got the turn and it was
on to Binda. Here we saw a sign to the
Memorial Hall ....
... which was a Memorial and thus Binda is an addition to the Register of NSW War Memorials.
Returning to the car it appeared that our van's Anderson plug
had fallen out of the car connection and been dragged along the road.
Bugger: we'll have to fix that in Bathurst. We also spotted another memorial but this was
to the pioneers not the service personnel.
On to Tuena, noting that a little dirt road was appearing,
although all the uphill bits (in either direction) were bitumenised.
Although not in the Register, Tuena also had a Memorial and will be added.
The words on Memorials can be very evocative. This poor blighter nearly made it home.
A tad North of Tuena there were signs about road works and while we were waiting for a bulldozer to clear off the road, the lollipop man advised that "they've blown the side out of the hill'. Arriving at the area of work I reckon he'd got that right.
Round about here we started seeing signs about the B2B bike
race closing a road. This is the Blayney
to Bathurst race and just fails to visit Trunkey Creek.
This also had a Memorial (addition) ....
... and the Black Stump pub (with the Nosebag Restaurant).
It has also been visited by St Mary McKillop.
The residents were also setting up a wall to commemorate local identities who have contributed to the area. As it seems to be growing rapidly - we had been through here a couple of times in the past and it felt a lot bigger and more prosperous - the wall should soon fill up.
On, on to Bathurst. We found an auto electrician's shop but he (Lachlan) was at
lunch so we wandered the town checking the main Memorial.
The domed structure in front is a memorial to hose who served in the Boer War, and the memorial was unveiled by Lord Kitchener in 1910. (He might not have been so welcome in the town in 1920.)
Some of the elegant Council buildings. As would be expected the most ornate is the courthouse.
This is the memorial to George William Evans. Neither I nor, more surprisingly, Frances had ever heard of this explorer. but he was apparently the first European to cross the Great Dividing Range - going further than Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. He 'opened' the Bathurst Plains.
The quite new Anglican cathedral was nearby and very attractively decorated. I thought these were textile hangings,but didn't check.
Getting back to Lachlan, he fixed the wires in about 5
minutes, charging $20 including parts, so we were off to Barcoo Farm Stay after exploring a few bits of
Bathurst we hadn't expected. We got a
view of Mount Panorama at which we will do better tomorrow. It is interesting that the red sign over track, visible from everywhere is for Holden: I wonder if that will be declared an historic relic when General Motors - boo, hiss - pull the company out of Australia in a couple of years?
Camper was erected. Tammy found a friend..
Also many wrecked cars. Our neighbours
are a family with 2 kids who have moved here – from Ballina - for the husbands
work. He drives fuel tankers and apologised for driving out at midnight to
start work. They've been living here for
5 weeks and have now bought a house, into which they'll be moving on Friday.
We walked into the nearby village of Perthville to see if it had a Memorial. It did – but this was to a murdered policeman, not a war memorial
Also many wrecked cars. This was one of several abodes of this appearance!
Very good views of a horde on a hillside – turned out to be
sheep - and lotsa clouds.
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