Jerilderie to Lightning Ridge

Jerilderie (9-10 Dec)

We had booked to stay at Jerilderie for the night as they were one of the towns which were held up by Ned Kelly and his gang.  I had wanted to go to Glenrowan where he came from but it is half way between Melbourne and Canberra and good 2 hour drive from either.  So when Christine mentioned about Jerilderie it seemed an excellent choice for us.  However, we had forgotten we would be going on the weekend and everything was shut, except the bakery - so lunch was good and the air conditioning most welcome.  Haven't managed to work out why some towns are shut on Saturday but they are.

We knew the town had a walk around map which told the story of the Ned Kelly gang coming into town so we walked around and found as many of the posts as possible.  The walk was really well done and a lot of the original buildings still standing.  By 12.00 we were really hot and tired and so decided to see if we could access our room early as I still needed to do our Adelaide blog post.  Yes we could.  The owner had family in Biggleswade so knew exactly where we were from (he also wounder if David knew them.  David had to explain our towns have a much larger population so you don't know everyone in your own town; let allow the next town over). 

Christine had also warned us about a heat front coming in for the central area of NSW with temperatures expected to be in the high 30s early 40s.  As we were used to these heats from when we toured north QLD we decided to still head North as we wanted to go to Lightning Ridge after chatting with Ian about it.  So we planned a route which took in as many water towers and silos as we could sensibly manage.

Cootamundra (10-11 Dec)

Our next nights stop was Cootanumdra some 320 km away as we were stopping at a few towns in between and not going the most direct route. 

Urana 

Urana was a quiet little farming town.  I thought I was looking for a mural but a lovely famer said to me - "do you mean the metal spider climbing down?  Sure its just round the corner".  It so helps if you know what you are looking for hehe.

Lockhart

What a lovely little town, we really enjoyed walking around.  The area around the water tower had been very tastefully set out and the metalwork was just as impressive as the artwork on the water tower.  I have a fair few photos to trawl through to pick just two slides worth for here.  

Milbrulong

The water tower is right beside the local voluntary fire station in the middle of nowhere.

Tootool

We were driving along the road in 37 degree heat when we saw a lady working in a beautiful garden.  David hadn't stretched his legs since Lockhart so we stopped to have a look.  We had a lovely chat to the lady whose family were originally from Ireland.  It was such a tranquil place and a lovely tribute to the lads who learnt to fly here in the 2nd World War and the two young lads who died whilst learning to dog-fight.

The Rock

It was here we saw the huge grain train being loaded up.

Uranquinty

Some of the water towers are quite hard to find and get all the way around, however this one you saw as soon as you came into town.  The problem here were the trees.

Wagga Wagga

There were according to the silo and water tank website, 2 tanks here to see.  The first was up a huge hill - Lord Baden Powell Drive but it was closed.  We drove around the other side and I said this is just like Cook Town and came to Captain Cook drive - it led to Turvey Park and the Botanical Gardens but there again it said road closed.  We sat and had lunch before trying the visitors information centre to ask them.  They were really helpful and we were able to buy a little book which gave the location of all the water towers and silos in the country so far - the money went to funding more.  This was helpful as it gave the street name where they were.  They told us to ignore the signs as work hadn't been going on for months but when we were a little reluctant to do that another lady told us how to by pass the closed lane.  Job done.  The views from the top were really good but don't photograph well due to the trees and the water tower was impeded by the fence sadly.  The other water tower was actually in Forest Hill just outside Wagga Wagga.  On our way there we saw "Noah's Ark" which is Ian and Christine's daughter's business.  A play centre for young children which looked great fun.

Forest Hill

This water tower was actually inside the RAAF Base and it took us a while before we realised we were allowed to go in as it was also the RAAF Wagga Aviation Heritage Centre.  The museum was housed in the Old Guard House and there were two lovely senior retired airmen running it.  We had a lovely hour chatting to them and visiting the museum.  Although we had seen the morse code alphabet chart before - the little challenge we set last month!  This chart also explained about the spaces in words etc which we didn't know.

The water tank is a tribute to all the men and women of the RAAF.  In front they had plaques to the airmen who lost their lives from the base in the 2nd world war.  I loved the side picture of women on the aircraft as I remember a photo of seeing my mum having a similar photo of her when she was in the WRAF in the 50s.

Gundagai - Coolac - Muttama

Although not a direct route to Cootamundra we wanted to go through Gundagai as there was a statue "the dog on the tuckerbox" David had heard about.  It has been there since 1932 to help raise funds for the local hospital and still does.  As we stopped David spotted the farm next door was selling cherries and so we bought our first lot - oh they were huge and totally scrummy!  Again farms everywhere and the scenery of the whole area was just lovely to drive through.  

Cootamundra 

One of our main reasons for stopping here was Jubilee Park's - Captain's Walk - dedicated to the Australian cricket captains with bronze busts of them all.  Nat and Rob are mega huge cricket fans (as are most Aussies tbh) so we thought we would definitely go there.  I was quite surprised I did know 3 of them (probably because Grandpop was such a huge cricket fan too) - Stephen Waugh, Greg Chappell and Donald Bradman so I took individual photos of them.

We have seen a lot of fun things on our travels and David loved this one hung in the cafe where we had breakfast that morning.

Parkes (11-12 December)

A light driving day to Parkes, as only 2 1/2 hours - 215km or thereabouts, but lots to see.

Murrumburrah

On the way into town there was a field full of llamas, we had seen a few before but this was the first herd.  

The Harden Silo in Murrumburrah is so hard to photograph.  Obviously it is on Harden land and the trees and shed impeded our view, so sadly our photos don't really do it justice so I have also put pictures of what it really looks like.

As we drove down to the back of the silo we passed a memorial which looked amazing so we stopped.  It was for the First Australian (Volunteer) Light Horse Regiment.  In particular a horse known as "Bill the Bastard" who was legendary stoic war hero.  The bronze statue commemorating him was awesome, showing him carrying 5 soldiers from the battlefield.  The pictures don't do this sculpture justices as it is life size, standing next to it you get the power of  this increasable animal.  

In fact there were lots of statues all through the town; this is what we love finding gems we knew nothing about.

Grenfell

Forbes

 It was very hot when we arrived in Forbes - our second experience of 40 degree heat but we found a shady bench in Victoria Park to eat lunch.

Parkes

This is where David first saw a mural by John Murray - his emu Elvis - and meant it was definitely going to be a stop when we stayed in Lightning Ridge.  It was still very hot but we needed to kill a little time before we went to book into the hotel so we sat in the park.  We had decided we would book into the hotel and then go and see "the Dish".

The dish as you would expect was a little ways out of town.  I had never heard of it but apparently there was a film made about it explaining it's involvement in the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

Gilgandra (12-13 Dec)

As we stayed in Lighting Ridge for two days we will do that as a separate post so under Gilgandra we will put all the towns we visited on the way there and after towards Lightning Ridge.

Manildra

We have seen and photographed lots of grain stacks under blue tarps.  Manildra is home to a huge flour mill where its silos have some beautiful art work.  When we have the huge road trains pass us I never think they could be full of something so simple as flour.  When we were taking our silo photos we saw a couple pull out of the mill and watched another being loaded.

Molong

The water tower was quite hard to photograph as it was on the junction of two major roads.

Dubbo

Loads to see and do in Dubbo.  We decided that we didn't want to go to a zoo, we had done some caves and so we decided to stick with our mural art. We went into the information centre and it is the first time we have been disappointed but we didn't realise that until we reached Gilgandra.

Gilgandra

We drove into Gilgandra and stopped as usual at the tourist office.  We find they have the best gifts and also we like to check there isn't something we have missed.  No sooner had we pulled into the car park than we saw a huge board with a planet on.  On inspection we saw it was Neptune.  When we went inside we asked about it and were told that it is part of the "World's Largest Virtual Solar System Drive".  She then produced a leaflet all about it and there is one of the Pluto - Dubbo!!  We couldn't believe we weren't told about it; the Sun is represented by The Siding Spring Observatory just outside Coonabarabran.  Had we heard about this in Dubbo we would have travelled further east.  So something to do another time. Just like the dinosaur trails up in Longreach.   

Gilgandra is another town where we learnt something we have never heard of before.  The Coo-ee March.  There was an exhibition all about in the march in the information centre and it was fascinating.  Coo-ee is a word my grandmother used to use and I never knew where it came from.  It was a march  from Gilgandra to Sydney from 10th October to 12th November 1915 to recruit more soldiers for the war.  It sparked off other marches around the country.  Only 7 who volunteered from that march didn't return home.

After visiting the exhibition we went into town to see the statue and also there was a lovely mural too.  As we drove along we passed their "Windmill Walk" where they had lots of multi-colour and brightly painted windmills - they were lovely.

So glad we came here.  At the museum they had this amazing cushion which I am posting for my friend Trudy who will love it.

The next morning we had the final leg towards Lightning Ridge.  Again it was brilliant sunshine and already in the high 20s as we left at 9am.

Gulargambone

Gulargambone likes it's birds, especially cockatoos.  Even the countdown to the town was done in 1 bird, then 2 birds and finally 3 birds before the town sign.  Lots of metal birds everywhere as well as murals.  You also had the painted silo which was of course of a kingfisher - beautiful.

Coonamble

As we walked into the tourist office, right in front of us was an incredible sculpture entitled "School Bus" which made us both laugh.  The sculptor had also done the bullocks and cart sculpture we had already seen in Gulargambone.  They are both made entirely of chicken wire - incredible.  

This is another quiet but lovely little town full of beautiful things to look at and fun posters which make up the Nickname Hall of Fame.  The water tower tower is another John Murray creation.

Walgett

By the time we got to Walgett it was nearly 40 degrees and so we only took photos as we drove through on our last leg to Lightning Ridge. 

I nearly missed the John Murray emu mural as it was on the side of a fish and chip shop towards the end of town.  For once my phone behaved itself when I was in a hurry and I didn't get a selfie!  The full mural is a little squashed but I have added it as its sister piece is in Lightning Ridge.