That stretch of glorious farmland in southern NSW encompassing the Murray and the Murrumbidgee Rivers. We’ve wandered about here a few times but still haven’t discovered all it’s secrets.

Lockhart has a council-maintained caravan park beside a small lagoon (Brookong Creek) right in the heart of town. There are excellent bathrooms each containing a toilet and shower. This park is a good deal for grey nomads as it has everything that we need at a reasonable price (power, water, toilets, showers, dump point and a BBQ area).

Lockhart is a medium sized town with a population of around 3000. There are wide verandas running down both sides of the main Green Street. There is a large museum at the information centre which is conveniently next door to the caravan park and a good butcher (try his cabana) and supermarket. This is a town that is out to attract caravanners and there is plenty to look at. They hold an annual sculpture competition, and the results can be seen dotted about. Under those ample verandas, the wide footpaths have been bricked and the bricks embossed with stories of the families who have made the town what it is today. There are family trees and advertisements for bygone businesses. It is easy to pass the time reading about these folk and their exploits.

Now back to that information centre and museum. I’m convinced that every little town has a few surprises, and this one is the Doris Golder Gallery. When we wandered into the info centre we wondered why the lady on duty was shepherding us into a room of what we assumed were just sepia portraits of famous Australians. When she explained that each picture has been produced using single strands of wool, we were suitably amazed. You see Doris Golder and her husband were sheep graziers and she painstakingly created beautiful works from their wool without ever using dyes, just the natural colours in the wool. Her works are captivating as you can see facial blemishes, whiskers, wrinkles even sparkling eyes. As photos weren’t allowed, here’s a link to the gallery website https://lockhartmuseum.org/doris-golder.

Coolamon. If Lockhart has Doris Golder then Coolamon has Mavis Furner.

There’s an historic general store on the main street of Coolamon called the ‘Up to Date Store’. This old shop is large and once stocked most of the needs of a busy sheep and wheat community. It is now a museum holding family collections and connected to the RSL museum next door. Of all the displays there are two unique standouts: the Lamson Cash Railway System and the Mavis Furner collection. The Lamson Cash Railway System is the only one of its type in the world and before you say “Yeah, yeah…” this one is quite different from other old cash systems. The cash payment would be put in a ball and hoisted (like flag raising) by the salesperson to a tiny railway suspended near the ceiling. The ball would then travel by gravity to the office in the rear where the clerk would then put the change in the ball, hoist it up to a second railway ‘track’ for it to roll back across the shop to the salesperson. And it still works.

Now getting back to Mavis. Mavis Furner was a local woman who was inspired by an Italian hand crocheted dress she saw in the city. Mavis who had been crocheting doilies, thought “Why not?” And set to work. There are over 200 exquisite high fashion pieces in the Mavis Furner Collection and I couldn’t get a photo off to my sister in law quick enough. Sadly, I doubt that I inspired her as she asked me if I realised how much that amount of wool would cost these days!

Coolamon is a delightful little town with a lawn council-managed caravan park just behind the main street. Like Lockhart everything is within walking distance.

Junee is the place for the railway buffs. Being the halfway point between Melbourne and Sydney it was the place where crews swapped over in the old days. The station is large with a grand dining room and a few blocks away is the Roundhouse Museum. In 1942 the Roundhouse railway workshops with its 100 ft turntable was constructed. These days part of it is still operating, reconditioning locomotives and the other half of it is a railway museum. We wander about these huge old locos marvelling at their sheer size and the effort it must have taken to drive them. There are carriages too and old rail motors that operated more like a bus service out in the bush. And a goods van that was once a travelling post office. Postal workers were transported about the countryside as they sorted and dropped off the mail on the go. Intriguing too, a crane train. Five of these monsters were ordered and built in the US but three were lost overboard just off Sydney. Which sounds like somewhat of an insurance nightmare.

Mirrool. I can’t not mention Mirrool. On the northern edge of the Riverina, the town is a few metres off the Newell Highway and easily identified by its grain silos. The silos are legendary because as the story goes, retired Aussie Rules footballer Billy Brownless called into the Mirrool pub for a few sherberts on the way to a wedding back in 1992. The silos beckoned and someone bet that he couldn’t kick a footy over them and the rest is history. Mirrool now has an annual Silo Kick. Aside from all that, the pub is a ripper. And better still, the locals have created a large RV campground out front with power, water, toilets, showers and a bbq. This is a great overnighter when travelling the Newell. And the population of Mirrool, 25.