Ancient art was my focus on night 64 at Mount Grenfell Historic Site, and outback travel on night 65 at the Emmdale Roadhouse. I stopped just short of Wilcannia and spent nights 66-85 at Warrawong on the Darling. I spent two weeks camping rough beside a billabong under the shade of several coolabah trees, painting and meditating, then had three nights in the regular van park giving Bertha a clean out after all the dust.
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As the slideshow demonstrates Cobar's historical identity is mining. Whilst the wide Main Street isn't so different from other nineteenth century country towns, with some historic buildings, hotels, two supermarkets, a pharmacy, a Vinnies a few other shops and a marvellous swimming pool. Strangely this mining town doesn't have a hardware shop. Copper mining made Cobar thrive between the 1870s and World War One. It slowed during the 20th Century and just hangs on. Coming into town one first notices the Cobar Town Monument. It is at the front of a huge slag dump and behind the site where ore was once loaded onto train wagons by the Great Cobar Copper Mining Company. The loading shutes remain and the heap bears a huge "COBAR" with life-size Corten figures of men at work loading. (These figures were developed as a metal-working project local high school). Beside it, the old Mines Office now houses The Great Cobar Museum, and behind it is the pit of the open-cut Great Cobar Copper Mine. The Cobar Miners Heritage Park is across the road; it has the Miner's Statue, some old mining equipment, and the newly established Cobar Miners Memorial. I found it shocking to see the numbers of men killed in some years. And Cobar is not done with mining yet. Just outside of town one can climb a platform at Fort Bourke and gaze down on the work at an open cut project commenced in 1992 to find the gold beneath the copper. The intention is to slowly extend a tunnel from there back under the town extracting specific seams of gold. The tunnel is to pass directly underneath the the Museum. I spent three nights in Cobar at three different sites: obviously I wasn't quite oriented to life in the outback! Night 62 was at Cobar Free Camp Truck Stop (on the corner where the B87 meets the A32 beside the Town Monument, this was impossibly noisy, so I move to the Cobar Caravan Park where the prices were extortionately high for night 63, so for night 64 I moved to the Old Reservoir Free Camp with its beatiful views. Cobar is 2:30 hours from Hillston, and they told me there was nothing between the two towns. Nevertheless I was able to spend night 60 at Mount Hope and night 61 in a gravel pit beside the road. Between Hillston and Mount Hope I passed a sign that announced I was entering the outback. Mount Hope, now with a population of less than twenty became a copper mining centre during the 1870s. Ore was taken on a dray to Hay on the Murrumbidgee River, and then by river to Adelaide. The Mount Hope Hotel offers free showers and has the only surviving concrete bar in NSW (see slide). I stopped for lunch at the site of the Gilgunnia Goldfields, where some memorabilia are displayed, after which I headed to the gravel pit, where I enjoyed a quiet and solitary night.. The small towns of the northern Riverina have a special quality, different from those along the Murrumbidgee River. When I left Rankins Springs I detoured east to Weethalle to see my first painted silos. Then I made for Goolgowie, where I spent nights 52-53. I only wanted to use the swimming pool, but it only opened for two hours a day and one day it was Swim Club only: all 9 or 10 members! I stopped at Merriwagga and visited the Black Stump Hotel, which has the highest bar in the Southern Hemisphere. I didn't sleep in the town (a mistake): next time I will have a bush stay at The Old School Caravan Park, which doubles as an outback museum. Kev showed me around, and there are more photos here. Nights 54-59 in the Hillston Caravan Park. It's a well-kept and friendly town; I stayed a while because I wanted to get out the oil paints and find a way of organising them. |
AuthorIn mid 2018 I started recording each night I sleep in Bertha: sometimes just for myself, sometimes to share with friends and other travellers. Archives
February 2024
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