20240821 NSW Goodooga

20240821 So here we are once again on a trip to who knows where but as usual we stopped at the Maryvale Hotel and sat around the fire chatting to the locals. From there onto Warwick then Karara to camp for a couple of days while soaking up the sun. Yalarbon next for another couple of days and dinner at the pub then onto Goondiwindi for fuel before heading to Talwood to check out the yabbie situation but they all left town and so did we the next day. Stopping at the Nindigully but decided to head to St George for supplies then left heading towards Dirranbandi to camp at Noondoo Rest Stop for the night and sat outside and did what we do best, cheering on the truckies with a beer as they pass. The next day we stopped in Dirranbandi for breakfast, a shower and wait for Des to wash the bugs from the van before our next stop to see if he has better luck at a creek about 20ks from Hebel where last time he filled the freezer. 

20240829 Well it look like the yabbies have moved on from here also so we left for Hebel, had a shower and decided to check out the town of Goodooga, a remote town at the top of NSW, of the Bokhara River with a population of 247 people, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people make up 74% of the population.

The Main Street as we entered the town of Goodooga in NSW.

Our camp for the next couple of days.

Tonight the town folk are putting on a sausage sizzle for $7 with a drink as a fund raiser with many meat a vegetable trays as raffles at the Artisan Bath were many locals and camper joined in on the fun.

I was told to take a bike ride through the reserve, in fact, the Enders encouraged it so off I go when I ran into the history of Goodooga, established in the 1930s east of Murriwurri lands as unmanaged reserve where the residents built their own homes called 'Tin camps.
The 'Goodooga builders' were self-taught and ingenious, adapting old bush and fencing techniques, they recycled old waste items and corrugated iron to create up to 52 new homes. The homes which were a source of pride for the designers and builders, representing independence and achievement through which others in the community learnt how to build. The early homes were small with a whole family sharing one room but the celebrations were big with the Aboriginal Community performing corrobborees for the Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal resident of Goodooga until the late 1940s. The kurmpu (corrobboree ground) would be prepared weeks in advance, swept clean and sprinkled with buckets of water.

It’s the old petrol bowsers that gave it away, this was once a garage as you drive through the town, now a town without fuel.

The old Post Office still operates but it could do with a paint job.

School Mural: When surrounded by colourful and stimulating artwork, students are more likely to be in a positive mood and receptive to learning.

The new reserve housing has been built in collaboration with the Aboriginal community so all the houses face each other so the Goodooga Reserve community can keep in touch and look after each other.

On my ride I found many of the old tin shacks still standing and in relatively good condition.

I found the Meeting site where the reunions happen.

I continue my ride when I saw a park with a massive BBQ, it has two huge gas cookers and a sink.

He came and joined the colours, when the war Gods anvil rang, he took up modern weapons to replace his boomerang, he waited for no-call up he didn’t need a push he came in from the stations and the townships of the bush.

Also in the park is a memorial to these two aborigines, Private George Leonard, KIA, OCT 23 1942 Eora Creek Kakoda, no remains or George were ever found, he disappeared due to mortar shell. Private Harold West, enlisted Aug 23, 1941, passed away from scrub typhus a few weeks alter breaking his leg.

The Goodooga Great Artesian Bore Baths, a heated water pool. The springs pull their water from the Great Artesian Basin - the world's largest and deepest artesian basin, it covers more than 1.7 million square kilometres of Australia.

Artesian water is known to boost blood circulation, reduce stress, promote sleep, relieve pain, heal skin problems and has been used for thousands of years as treatment throughout Japan and Europe. As I walked into the bath I looked at the others and asked, how the hell are you sitting in there I can’t even walk in its so hot, 40 degrees but apparently it was a bit cooler at the other end, ya, maybe but once in it was refreshing.

Not a bad set up for in the middle of nowhere and it even has a BBQ.

This is the first time we have ever stayed in a aboriginal reservation and it was most enjoyable and the aboriginal people were lovely, thanks Goodooga for a great stay.

The End