The Lavatree
The Dorrigo Sewage Works in NSW has an unusual garden sculpture, a Lavatree. It is a tower of old toilet bowls filled with flowers. The sign describes it as: Lavatree, species Pissina Flushturdum. Continue reading The Lavatree
Category: NSW
Coombah Roadhouse
The Coombah roadhouse is the only roadhouse or in fact commercial building on the 266 kilometres of Silver City Highway between Wentworth and Broken Hill in south western NSW. This used to be known as the ‘Crystal Highway’ because of the amount of broken windscreen glass on the road but windscreens are better constructed these days. To break the monotony on this long straight north south highway, emus dash across the road when you least expect it. Whilst driving one tends to say “oh look there’s an emu running beside us” and before you know it he’s dashing across the … Continue reading Coombah Roadhouse
Beautiful Bellingen
The Bellingen, NSW showgrounds are quite grassy and in need of a good mow when we call in (2013) but there are clean amenities, toilets and showers, power and water. It is a lovely spot and the rainforest is right behind us. The town is only a short walk away across the causeway and there are a couple of other vans around us. The warm afternoon sun is too good to waste so we settle back with a wine and a book. As the evening draws in our neighbour begins to strum his guitar and he is certainly quite proficient, … Continue reading Beautiful Bellingen
Palace Hotel, Broken Hill
The Palace Hotel in Broken Hill, NSW has a unique decor. Every inch of wall space is devoted to murals and the furnishings are from the 1950’s. In the Side Bar there’s a huge collection of aluminium soda syphons lining the window ledges and a great array of mismatched furniture from the same era. The foyer has three storeys of murals running up the walls across the ceilings and under the stairs. Even the hallways have murals. On top of that, it is a really nice pub to have a drink in. Oh and it starred in the making of … Continue reading Palace Hotel, Broken Hill
Coopernook, NSW
We turn off Highway One to visit the Coopernook Pub, it offers free camping in the back yard for the price of a beer. The pub overlooks the Lansdowne River and the remains of a large iron bridge. We have a beer but decide to move on to check out the Coopernook Forest Campground. Brian who has a fear of dirt roads is just about hyperventilating as we drive the 3kms to the park. Suddenly the trees part and there before us is a wide, open mowed grassy area with shade trees and enough space for about thirty camps. There … Continue reading Coopernook, NSW
Why Not Prop Here?
In southern NSW, we prop at the Temora Aviation Caravan Park which is located in the airport grounds. Good amenities, grassy sites with power and water and a view of the airstrip. You see this town has focussed on airplane tourism. They have sold off chunks of airport land as house and hangar packages to owners of airplanes. The Temora Aircraft Museum is only a short walk from the caravan park. It has a large collection of old war birds and all are in working condition. The town has regular air shows when the planes are flown. Temora, was once home … Continue reading Why Not Prop Here?
Cowra’s place in history
A visit to the holographic show at the tourist information centre explains the town’s war history and the Japanese breakout that occurred there. We are surprised to learn that Italians and Indonesians were also housed at the Cowra POW camp during World War Two. The Italians worked the local farms and became popular with the locals. The Indonesian families had been considered a threat by the Dutch and thus were held on their behalf. The people of Cowra have retained their humanitarian values all these years and Australia’s UN World Peace Bell sits proudly outside the civic centre, the only … Continue reading Cowra’s place in history
Sofala
We leave the Castlereagh highway at the tumbledown town of Ilford, NSW and head off through the hills on what is unromantically named Tourist Drive 4. TD4 is a hilly road winding through brown farmland with sheep and the gum trees are adorned with mistletoe. We drop down a steep hill and find ourselves in the village of Sofala, it is Australia’s oldest surviving occupied gold mining town and there is still a little prospecting done here. It was also used in the 1974 movie “The Cars That Ate Paris”. We park the rig and walk as the street is … Continue reading Sofala
The Buster
Its mid winter and we find that the two council caravan parks in Woolgoolga are almost full with southerners. But at least we can squeeze into Woolgoolga Beach Caravan Park. As it’s only an overnight stop we would much prefer to have a drive through site but beggars can’t be choosers. We are put at the very corner of the camp beside the intersection of two shopping streets and there are no fences. In fact we could pretty much crawl across the street to the pub or shout our coffee order to the cafe beside us. A guy walks past … Continue reading The Buster
Tenterfield, NSW
The Tenterfield showgrounds are home for the night so we park beside a rocky little creek that looks as though it may have flooded recently as there is quite a bit of debris about. The caretaker is a rosy cheeked lass who looks to be more at home on a horse, but that is what this area is famous for. In fact whenever we visit the toilet block we must take care to step around the horse poo. The town shops appear at first to be run down but on closer inspection there are upmarket women’s wear shops, quality home … Continue reading Tenterfield, NSW
itchingforhitching 