Update on the "NSW Towns" project
Following our recent visit through the SW of the State I have updated my database of the towns we have visited in a bit over the first year of the project to visit every town in NSW (outside the Sydney Metropolitan area). As we visit towns I mark them off on an NRMA map of NSW.
This shows that we are making fair inroads into the SE area of the State and some of the SW.
However we have a long way to go! This analysis of my database shows a more statistical approach to the matter.
It is probable that I have undercounted the locales within Metropolitan Sydney. For example the name "Alstonville" rings no bells with me so could well be in the Metropolitan area (when I checked for the purposes of this post I found it is part of the hinterland to Ballina so well in scope). I shall have to do some investigation of this aspect of the project.
There are pockets within the SE that we haven't yet visited (for example the towns in the ski-fields and South of Kosciousko; the stretch between Moruya and Merimbula on the South Coast; the Murray Valley West of Corowa). Some sort of plan to visit the areas will be developed as we need to organise ourselves more.
Usually we visit about 3 towns per day. The visits can become quite engrossing if there is a well organised local walking tour (eg Bathurst) or a local art project (such as Lockhart). The mention of 'art' leads back to the genesis of the project when Frances realised that Hill End was a key focus of aspects of Australian Art History which she had never visited. This has led to her looking for landscape paintings in areas we are going to visit and attempting to take a photograph from the spot at which the painting was located. Its has been hard, but we have managed this for Kiama (Lloyd Rees), Sofala (Russell Drysdale) and Hillend (Drysdale and Geoffrey Smart).
The other thrust of the project has grown from my use of the Register of NSW War Memorials as providing a population list of 'towns'. As shown above we have added 15 towns to the list
We've also added a few additional memorials in known towns (eg the font in St Clements Anglican church in Yass) and photographs giving a different view of existing memorials. I am starting to get familiar enough with memorials to notice similarities - for example the frequent use of the same helicopter image on Vietnam War memorials.
Compiling this post has made me think that I need to review the whole lot thus far to see what comes out of it. Of the top of my head a theme about gold mining looks worth investigating.
However we have a long way to go! This analysis of my database shows a more statistical approach to the matter.
There are pockets within the SE that we haven't yet visited (for example the towns in the ski-fields and South of Kosciousko; the stretch between Moruya and Merimbula on the South Coast; the Murray Valley West of Corowa). Some sort of plan to visit the areas will be developed as we need to organise ourselves more.
Usually we visit about 3 towns per day. The visits can become quite engrossing if there is a well organised local walking tour (eg Bathurst) or a local art project (such as Lockhart). The mention of 'art' leads back to the genesis of the project when Frances realised that Hill End was a key focus of aspects of Australian Art History which she had never visited. This has led to her looking for landscape paintings in areas we are going to visit and attempting to take a photograph from the spot at which the painting was located. Its has been hard, but we have managed this for Kiama (Lloyd Rees), Sofala (Russell Drysdale) and Hillend (Drysdale and Geoffrey Smart).
The other thrust of the project has grown from my use of the Register of NSW War Memorials as providing a population list of 'towns'. As shown above we have added 15 towns to the list
- many quite small eg Murringo or
- relatively difficult to get at eg the three towns along the formerly evil road from Crookwell to Bathurst.
We've also added a few additional memorials in known towns (eg the font in St Clements Anglican church in Yass) and photographs giving a different view of existing memorials. I am starting to get familiar enough with memorials to notice similarities - for example the frequent use of the same helicopter image on Vietnam War memorials.
Compiling this post has made me think that I need to review the whole lot thus far to see what comes out of it. Of the top of my head a theme about gold mining looks worth investigating.
Comments