20230402 Qld Wallangarra to Gunnedah

20230402 After leaving Boonah we travel south along these long open roads and I wonder what lies ahead this trip, for one fuel is more expensive and we are 5 days out and the van has had it’s first wash of many more to come. The landscape is quite green after all the rain and there’s acres of sorghum as we pass through some areas not to mention the continuous roadworks as we pass from town to town. We Don’t normally travel long distances in one day but as we’ve passed this way before we are anxious to explore different destination while skipping most towns and only stopping when needed.

After travelling around 250ks we finally stopped for the night at the historic train station on the Queensland NSW border. I would also like to say a big Hello to Chris Reece who lives in this town but unfortunately wasn’t here when we went through.

The last time here there were political signs all over the Window and nothing seems to have changed, someone here certainly has a gripe  with the government.
But I must admit some of this makes sense.

20230403 Up we get and head towards Tenterfield then onto Glenn Innes where I spotted a sign for eggs and at $5.80 a dozen for 800g eggs it a bargain. Stopping at Guyra for lunch then off to Uralla to look for a camp chair after leaving mine at Ian and Sandy’s, but after driving around this bloody town we left because there’s only angle parking.

I managed a fly bu shoot of the old bridge slowly Crumbling away, from memory it wasn’t this damaged on previous trips, so I'm thinking maybe flood damage.

Ok Bruce help me out here, I'm buggered if I can finds it's name.

The winding road ahead is leading to a very steep climb, this should be interesting.

I sware those guy were in that same spot the last time we were here, yep nothing's changed.

Our camp for the night Thunderbolt Rock, just off the New England Highway.

Thunderbolt's Rock is a heritage-listed rock and now picnic site and tourist attraction located off the New England Highway, it’s also known as Split Rock and Big Rock.

20230404 After a windy night we woke to a lovely sunny morning with not a person in site so Des decides to utilise the picnic table and cook me breakfast, isn’t he a good lad.

Now who wouldn’t want to cook their misses breakfast with a view like this, and I did my good deed for the day and collect all the rubbish that some filthy lazy pig left laying around the ground.

Onto Moonbi and through Tamworth then stopped at Carroll for lunch before going in search for a camp for the night.

Carroll, a Kamilaroi name meaning "forked tree" is a small village on the Oxley Highway, 20 kilometres east of Gunnedah, on the banks of The Namoi River. The district produces cotton, wheat, sorghum, sunflowers, chickpeas, faba beans, fat lambs and beef cattle and at the 2016 census, Carroll had a population of 337 people.

Redbank Rest Area where Des takes over the shelter, as he does and sets up the gas stove ready for him to cook dinner and breakfast the next morning.

20230405 We had a pleasant night sitting under the shelter while enjoying a few drinks and chatting to the travellers who stop for a smoke or to use the amenities. Des is up and make our tea as I sit in bed waiting patiently then he prepares breakfast before heading to Gunnedah where hopefully we can get a camp chair.

This mural includes soldiers paying their respects beside the Long Tan Cross. Jenny McCracken
started work on the tower on 5 April 2019, after just 19 days this detailed mural was complete.

This mural features a group of soldiers from 7RAR waiting to be picked up by the iconic Huey helicopters.

Dorothea Mackellar famous poem "My Country" are immortalised on this 29 metre high maize mill in Gunnedah. Silo artist Heesco completed the artwork via cherry picker. Dorothea is famous for having penned one of Australia's most iconic poems, "My Country"

The Famous Second Verse.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

Ya got to love the silo murals and the tale they tell of our history.

The Gunnedah Flour Mill was the first flour mill to operate in Gunnedah, opening on 27th January, 1904 The company collapsed during WWI due to overseas sales commitments that could not be fulfilled. WH Short committed suicide in 1912 at which time it appears that the mill closed.

So far it's been a pleasant trip, the weather has been fine a quite hot, a few bumpy roads which we expected but we will be much happy once we start hitting the inland so we can find some nice spots to camp in and not in rest spots just off the road, a river would be nice.

The End
Location: New South Wales, Australia

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