15/5/2018. Tuesday. There was condensation on the canvas ceiling again but fortunately it had not started to drip and R & R had slept well and warm. At 7:30am, they got out to a very cool 4*C, breakfasted and washed up. At 9:00am, RA helped her husband download two more Louis L’Amour books using their Plantagenet Library card so RL read while RA finished the diary from the day before. By 9:30am the canvas was still damp so R & R went for a walk both ways along Edi Cutting Reserve which is one kilometre in length and took some photos of King River bubbling as it meandered its way over the smoothly washed stones. R & R ate Christmas pudding, that RA had save from December as a treat for camping (didn’t make it to July) with coffee. Finally at 11:00am, they could wait no longer, put the camper down, hitched up and headed off for Beechworth 65kms to the north east. They avoided going all the way to Wangaratta and the highways by doing a little zigzagging. The area was lovely and flat with the road running in the valley. It is called the Gourmet Region which requires little clarification: goat’s cheese, wineries, honey, art galleries, breweries, dairy (cream), berries, pumpkins, orchids. Shortly before Beechworth the country side became a little steeper and RL crossed a bridge over Deadman Creek. They both wondered if it was the same, referred to in Banjo’s “Mulga Bill’s Bicycle”. There R & R could smell the pines as they warmed from the damp night. Beechworth is another town with history steeped in gold: as it was discovered there in 1852, Chinese came to work in mines, bushrangers and old buildings, some of which have stood the test of time. R & R: popped into the tourist centre for a town map and information, walked along High St, were impressed by the tapestry and the floral decoration on the ceiling in the old town hall, popped into the two op shops, were amazed by the gold horse shoes and world globes (gemstones outlined in gold) both of which had a price tag of ~$1500 and were incredulous about the sheer variety of sweets in the lolly shop. Advised that the gorge was not suitable for driving with the camper, they continued walking over Newtown Bridge which was built without mortar in 1874 (with a proposed life span of 200 years). Here Spring Creek runs through a gorge, barely 2m wide, under the bridge, and falls far below into the wider gorge beyond. Quite impressive! It was 2:30pm when R & R got back to the car and definitely time for a late lunch and coffee before heading to Yankandandah via the Chinese Gardens and Lake Sambell, both of which are worth a stop. Yakandandah was only 21kms away with a little road works but a lovely little drive. Gold was also discovered there in 1852. RL drove into town and not being able to find a suitable parking bay headed for the caravan park. They had hoped to enquire from the information centre about old time dancing on Tuesday nights so RA rang to ask instead. There was no answer when she tried about 3:30pm and none when she tried again before 4:00pm. The guy at the park was not aware of regular Tuesday night dancing though he said there was one last Saturday night. R & R took ages to try and get a level spot as they had specifically asked for a place that would get the sunlight to dry everything out in the morning. Finally about 4:30pm R & R set off downtown to check out all the notices in the shop windows. By 5:00pm they were back to read and write before dinner having decided that going to a dance was off the agenda. After dinner RL read and RA prepared a text for the next post. Just before bed R & R went to the toilet block and popped into the camp kitchen where a welcoming open fire warmed their hands and feet a little. The sky was clear … so it promised to be another cold night.
16/5/2018.
Wednesday. And so it was. R & R woke earlier but only got out at
7:30am to a very cool 1*C. The park manager had agreed that they could check
out, even as late as 11:30am, but they were hoping it would not be that
late. They had breakfast, washed up in the
warm camp kitchen, did a book swap and RL got one of the gas bottles refilled.
A very friendly fellow from the information centre picked up on their missed
calls from the afternoon before and gaily told them all about the dancing group
they had missed. At 10:00am, everything was still damp so R & R went for a
walk down town for about an hour. It was
little drier when they got back. There
were other spots in the park that had been fully bathed in sunlight for a
couple of hours, while RA was taking a photo of an ice block off the fly that had
not yet melted at 11:30am. RA was so
disappointed with their overall experience of Yackandandah though she did not
suppose it was anyone’s fault. Maybe she
had been expecting too much. They just
packed it all down and finally were away at noon. Wodonga was only about 30kms away, just
enough time for a coffee. R & R
parked downtown in the City of Wodonga at 12:30pm and sat in the car chatting
with H, their daughter, who was overwhelmed with all the mail regarding R &
R’s managed shares. They assured her not
to worry and just to send them a pdf copy when she had time. R & R walked for an information centre
which was no longer downtown, popped into a couple of op shops and went
shopping at Coles, where they received a $50 cash back which was a boost for
the day. Having put the dairy items in
the Ute fridge, they ate lunch late and had a coffee before heading for
Bonegilla (10kms east) at 2:30pm. On the
way, they passed Wentworth Barracks and a huge recycling plant and crossed a
bridge over the Kiewa River. Desperate
to set up the camper and air it out a while, they picked Ludlow’s Reserve on
the edge of Lake Hume about 5kms south of Bonegilla. At this time of the year, Lake Hume is about
30% capacity but it did fall to 3% in the drought of 1962. For the third afternoon in a row, at three
different camping sites, R & R noticed planes flying overhead, only to
realise, that in fact, they had meandered back and forth directly in line
between Melbourne and Sydney, and therefore under the flight path. They were keen to investigate the Bonegilla
Migrant Experience even though it was late in the day so RL drove back to the
Centre about 3:30pm. RA was not prepared
for the reaction she was to experience on being there. The eyes tickled and dampened. She was overwhelmed, to say the least! RA had been a migrant child, of five years
old, there in the year of 1960, though she actually had no memory of being
there at all. The lady there was warm
and understanding. RA guessed she had
seen this type of reaction many, many times before. R & R agreed to be back bright and early
in the morning. Being so close and with
enough light still in the day, RL drove about 5kms further over the Murray
River at Heywood Bridge (into NSW) to the Hume Weir where they stopped for a
walk and some photos. Overall, R & R
had travelled less than 100kms in the day.
They were back at the camper just before 5:00pm to sort out the shopping
before reading and writing a while and preparing dinner. S, their daughter rang. She had had a really busy and productive day
tagging with her mentor teacher for her up-coming prac. It certainly had been an emotional day … and
RA wondered what the next day would bring.
17/5/2018. Thursday.
R & R were out of bed at 6:45am to a cool 2*C morning and a little
damp on the ceiling. RA had slept a
little bit restlessly and RL had a very sore wrist. By 8:30am, having tidied up after breakfast
and with no intention of shifting the camper, R & R sat to proof read a
post. They rang their financial advisor
but he was out so they left for the Bonegilla Migrant Experience as the lady
there had arranged to meet them at 9:30am to do a search on the computer for a
copy of RA’s Bonegilla card. The search
required their email so that information can be sent when it is found. RA searched for immigration records which was
a little more difficult but the other girl there found something for them. RA’s family’s arrival on the Dominion Monarch
was actually listed as Fremantle rather than Melbourne and the spelling on the
names had some errors. R & R spent
the next couple of hours on a self-guided tour (map in hand) of the grounds and
buildings and were impressed by the displays and some of the visual
presentations. There was an overload of
information, as the period of the migration centre lasted from the end of WWII
to 1971. The experiences recorded there go way before RA’s arrival in 1960 and
being only five years old when she arrived there, RA remembered nothing. Having said that, the centre was well worth
visiting as it preserves an important part of Australian history! By 1:00pm R & R were back at the camper
having lunch and trying to ring their advisor again. He asked them to forward the information and
he would let them know what to do about it.
Shortly after 2:00pm, RL drove to Albury to the information centre which
is at the railway station. They checked
out the prices of fuel, popped into two op shops and looked through the museum
at the library which contains more memorabilia on the Bonegilla immigration
experience. They returned to the camper
about 5:00pm having driven just under 50kms in the day. Before satay beef for dinner R & R read
and wrote a while. RL rang his brother,
S, and S, their daughter rang them after dinner. It had been a lovely sunny day despite a cool
breeze and the tent had dried. RA hoped
it would dry early in the morning … so they could get away in good time.
18/5/2018. Friday.
R & R were out of bed shortly after 7:00am to a warmer 9*C and no
dampness in or on the canvas despite the grey clouds sitting on the hills to
the north beyond Lake Hume. What
surprised RA here was that the soil was red!
About 8:30am, they were heading for Corryong 110kms to the east. They drove on the Murray Valley Highway with
the hills to the south and round the bottom and eastern end of Lake Hume to
Tallangata and noticed quite a lot of beef cattle along the way. Tallangatta is quite a big town with an abattoir
and logging industry. They passed over
the Mita Mita River which feeds into the Murray before looking at the footings
that remain of the Old Tallangatta township. There were sheep grazing high up
on the side of the hills shortly before they drove through the Mt Lawson State
Park where they saw some hills completely denuded of their pines as part of the
logging program by Upper Murray Plantations.
Near Shelley, about 10:00am, RL drove up to Lawrence Lookout about
2kms. It was grey and cool and there
were no gullies of ravines, just the tops of trees, in many shades of greys and
greens. R & R saw brilliant rosellas and the black currawongs which show
white on their open wings as the fly.
For a while the highway follows Cudgewa Creek in lovely flat country
where there are sheep and dairies with silage and irrigation. At 10:30am about 6kms short of Corryong, RL
turned south at Colac Colac for 3kms to the Nariel Creek free camping area to
check it out before dropping the camper. It was a lovely spot near a flowing creek
surrounded by poplars. It boasts holding an annual folk music festival (the
first in Australia) since 1962. As the days pass the poplars were looking more,
and more, bare and the ground was a carpet of gold. By 11:15am, R & R were
at the Corryong information centre asking the usual questions. We walked up and down the main street taking
in the statues and public art, popping into an op shop and driving to the
cemetery to look at Jack Riley’s (A B Patterson’s “Man From Snowy River”)
grave. RL put only $30 fuel in as it was
so expensive at158.9c/lt before heading for Khancoban 27kms away. About 6kms east of Corryong, the road veers east
before crossing the Murray River which is the VIC/NSW border. Shortly after
Khancoban the road enters the Kosciusko National Park and becomes increasing
hilly and winding, up and down and back and forth but not too steep or tight. For the most part it is uphill with netting
to prevent rock fall. The trees are tall
and there are ferns (not tree ferns) in this area and the valleys are deep if
you dare to look out of the window.
About 12:50am, R & R arrived at Scamwell’s Lookout. As a day tripper, to this point in the NP it
is free; after that the fee is $27. They
had agreed that it would be far enough into the ranges particularly for RA. At
this point The Pinnacle is about 1580m above sea level. The lookout points directly southward and
indicates that Mt Kosciusko is directly behind Abbott Peak. The tops of the mountains were shrouded in
grey cloud despite the sunny afternoon but RL did glimpse snow on Mt Townsend
after coffee and a banana snack before they left. It had taken about 25 minutes to drive the
18kms or so the Scamwell’s so RL felt it was achievable to be at Murray 2 Power
Station for a 2:00pm tour. It was all
downhill on the way back and they noticed that every slope is identifiable by
its number. R & R thoroughly enjoyed
the tour at the power station and though most of it went over RA’s head she was
impressed by the sheer size of the project from its infancy to the present day.
It truly is one of the great engineering feats of the modern world. Even the current project, Snowy 2, was part
of the original plan! Because R & R
had substituted lunch for a banana, they sat in the car park and had lunch and
coffee. As they were driving away from
the power station RL spotted a sign for a farm sale! He couldn’t resist the opportunity to have a
look. It was the life collections of an
incorrigible hoarder so it was hard to finding something to buy. They settled on a horse bag which would be
great as a washing bag or to store the outlet hose from the camper. So it was
nearly 4:00pm as they left Khancoban and headed back for Corryong and their
camper at Nariel Creek. About 5:00pm,
having agreed on no flies, they set up the camper and read the maps to think
about the next day. RA had spotted a
wombat hole with fresh dropping and markings near the toilet so she went for a
walk after dark but did not see anything. R & R read and wrote after dinner
and rang S, their son. The next day they
planned to leave all that high country behind … and begin their journey
westward along the Murray back to the VIC/SA border.
19/5/2018. Saturday.
R & R woke at 7:00am to a cloudy but not too cold morning of
7*C. They decided to stay a second night
and look around Corryong a little more before heading away. After breakfast they tidied up, checked out
Mass times nearby for Sunday and sorted some photos. At 9:15am, they were away through Corryong
and noticed the impressive vintage grandstand at the Towong Racecourse on their
way over the Murray (border) to Greg-Greg a further 8kms. RL drove east, then north around the base of
Lighthorse Mountain which is 950m beyond the Greg-Greg property before turning
round. Jack Riley worked for the Pierce
family there before going down to Tom Groggin where he lived about thirty years
sometimes escorting visitors through the mountains, on one occasion Banjo as a
guest of the Mitchells. RL returned via
a loop that ran around the base of Mt Whitehead (695m) to Bringinbrong and back
into Victoria before heading south down the western side of the Murray River. It was about 20kms to Biggara and beyond that
about 10 more to Coleman’s Bend where the road became gravel, was steep with a
couple of switch backs and ended at a bridge at the entrance to the last farm
before the parks and forest began. R & R stopped for photos there about
11:00am and a couple more times on the way back to take more of the river. Along the morning’s drive they had seen
sheep, cattle (including Illawarra Shorthorn), dairies, irrigation and
silage. They also saw guinea fowl,
alpaca, kookaburra, rosella, white ibis and grey heron. As they drove back RL commented, ‘Isn’t that
nice … the hills …looks like a haircut!” about the neat lines the trees made on
the hills. RL drove 5kms back toward
Towong so that they could photograph its grandstand and read the signs about
its history which indicate that there are still two races run annually at Towong. Shortly before 1:00pm R & R were back in
Corryong, taking pictures of Harry the Wog Dog and having lunch in the main
street before visiting the museum. The
museum was really well set out with thousands of pieces of historical interest
other than the Jack Riley content. Did
you know that part of the security content on the $10 note that features Banjo
and the Man from Snowy River is that behind Banjo, in microscopic print, are
the words of the poem interspersed with the words ten dollars? There is content about the Southern Cloud an
aeroplane that disappeared over the Snowy Mountain in 1931 and was not found
until 1958, more than 20 years later, after work on the hydro scheme
began. The Mitchell family were pioneers
in the district and feature in the display as a family if historical interest
but also as they have supplied a lot of the memorabilia including a collection
of skis and a baby’s pram on skis. It
was Walter & Peter Mitchell who took Banjo to camp at Tom Groggin with Jack
Riley. Another interesting character was
JO Simpson (Jim) who died about 10 years ago.
As a child his mother taught him to knit, a skill he was quite
accomplished at by his teens. He was
captured during WWII and taken to Stalag IVB.
He had been warned that the Germans would take his woollen jumper from
him to send to the troops on the Western Front, something he would not tolerate
despite the fact that he was a prisoner.
He excused himself, to go to the toilet, and set about unravelling his
jumper and winding it into balls! If
they wanted his jumper, they would have to knit it themselves! He made his own needles and taught his fellow
prisoners to knit socks for themselves using whatever wool they could
find. The Museum stores a bed sized rug
he knitted while there. It is an amazing
piece of work with the map of Australia, textured for mountainous area, with
words and the coat of arms for each state and all knitted from tiny scraps of
wool. RA really liked seeing the yolks
and collars worn by bullocks which reminded her of Lawson’s “The Teams”,
another favourite poem. At 3:00pm R & R were having a coffee, photographing
the Apex Resolution which is a huge galleon play structure in a park downtown
and chatting with G, RL’s brother. By 3:00pm they were back at the camper which
was bathed in sunshine as it sat on its carpet of gold. They set off for a walk along the creek and
took heaps of photos before downloading RL’s on to the laptop. While preparing dinner they chatted with first
with one daughter and then with the other.
RA’s laptop had a meltdown. That
was just about enough to give her one! R
& R looked again for the ever elusive wombat … to add insult to injury … RL
actually stepped into a nice fresh wombat dropping!
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