Aussie Towns in Kiama, New South Wales | Travel company
Aussie Towns
Locality: Kiama, New South Wales
Phone: +61 2 4232 3891
Address: 21 Pacific Street, 2533 Kiama, NSW, Australia
Website: http://www.aussietowns.com.au
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25.01.2022 Adopting A Sensible Approach to Climate Change At Bourke There are so many tales of Afghan camel drivers, bushrangers, poets and bullock drivers that hang around the history of Bourke that it is hard to know where to start or who to focus on. I was going to write about the graves of the Afghan camel drivers in the cemetery at Bourke with their headstones pointing to Mecca but then I stumbled upon the extraordinary Sir Samuel McCaughey who, by the 1880s, could claim to own the... largest sheep property in the world. McCaughey was an Irish Presbyterian from County Antrim who arrived in Australia in 1856. He was an optimist and a committed entrepreneur. By 1860, only four years after his arrival, he had purchased 42,000 acres in the NSW Riverina and by 1871 he had expanded his property holdings to 137,000 acres. In the early 1880s he had purchased 2,500,000 acres north of Bourke on the Warrego River. By the mid-1880s he had expanded into southern Queensland and owned a staggering 3,250,000 acres. When he died in 1919 he left an estate worth 1.6 million and, because he had never married, he spread it around to schools, the Salvation Army, Burnside Homes and the Universities of Sydney and Queensland. But this is only half the story. The home he built outside Bourke on Toorale Station still stands and, although it is rundown (and in desperate need of repair) it has a ballroom and is a strange reminder of what life was like for the wealthy in the outback in the 1890s. It is not possible to go inside ... unless you are on a National Parks tour. In 1894 a staggering 265,000 sheep were shorn in the Old Shearing Shed. Around this time Henry Lawson worked on the property and wrote poems A Stranger on the Darling, Bosses Boots and others about the experience. In 2008, after seven years of drought, it was sold at auction and purchased by the Commonwealth Government. It is now a National Park with the huge dams that McCaughey built being demolished. A small, and sensible, contribution to trying to save the Darling. Amusingly the locals call it Penny’s Place because it was Senator Penny Wong who made the purchase. There is a very useful guide at and lots of information about the fascinating town of Bourke at http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/bourke-nsw - which has some more of my photos of Toorale now known by its local Aboriginal name - Yarramarra.
24.01.2022 Mount Morgan and Persia It might seem like a long bow (well, actually, it is) but there is a rather frightening connection between the discovery of gold in Mount Morgan in Queensland and the current tensions and problems in Iran. A long bow, yes! But a very real connection.... Gold was discovered at Mount Morgan on 22 July, 1882 when three brothers - Frederick, Edwin (Ned) and Thomas Morgan -pegged out a gold mining lease on Ironstone Mountain. They didn’t have enough money to exploit the gold and so they went to the local bank manager in Rockhampton, a man named Thomas Skarrat Hall and offered half shares in the mine to anyone who would invest 1200 in the venture. Hall, along with William Knox D'Arcy (a solicitor) and William Pattison (a grazier) raised 2000 and became partners with the Morgans. To give you an idea of how much money was to be made by investing in the gold mine. By 1889 (ie seven years later) William Knox D'Arcy had made 6 million from his share in the mine. D’Arcy then left Australia and travelled to London where he made another fortune when he financed oil drilling in what was then Persia (now Iran). The venture became known as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later known as British Petroleum or BP) and it was when it was nationised by the democratically elected Mohammad Mosaddegh that, in 1953, the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service created a coup d’etat (they went around the markets and bazaars handing out dollar bills to anyone prepared to riot against the government) which overthrew Mossadegh. That was when the problems with so much of the region started and certainly the rise to power of the Grand Atatollah Khomeini can be directly attributed to the west’s tampering in Persian/Iranian affairs. The long bow: well D’Arcy with his massive wealth helped to create the company which led to the overthrow of the legitimately elected Prime Minister of Persia. Draw your own conclusions. And it is very safe to say that when Donald Trump decided that Iran was everything evil in the world (he is still imposing ever-harsher sanctions), and backed out of the nuclear deal and threatened all kinds of ugliness in the Middle East, he really didn’t know this story learn more about Mount Morgan at http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/mount-morgan-qld
19.01.2022 A Powerful Reason to Hate Developers The Road Through the Daintree to Cooktown It is a cruel irony that the first settlement on Australia’s east coast occurred when Captain Cook, who had so brilliantly steered through the shoals and terrors of the Great Barrier Reef, managed to run onto a reef near the headland he named, with jaundiced precision, Cape Tribulation. The HM Barque Endeavour settled in for repairs at what is now known as Cooktown. Cook eventually sailed on and,...Continue reading
19.01.2022 Our beautiful Art Deco towns Moree, NSW How does a town end up with a wealth of Art Deco buildings? There’s a very simple principle: was the town or city effectively wiped out during the late 1920s-early 1930s? The finest examples of Art Deco all seem to have been hit by disaster. Napier, New Zealand’s most famous Art Deco city, was hit by an earthquake on 3 February, 1931 which killed 256 people and levelled the city.... Kyogle in New South Wales was a timber town which was ravaged by a series of fires during the 1920s and 1930s. It was rebuilt in brick and Art Deco dominated. Then there is Innisfail which, because it is on the North Queensland coast, was devastated by a cyclone in 1918. Cyclones, earthquakes, fires. The unintended consequence was that when the towns were rebuilt they became a celebration of that most distinctive of all architectural styles, Art Deco. The one notable exception is Moree in northern New South Wales. The town really prides itself on its Art Deco buildings to the point where the local Visitor Information Centre has an exceptional high quality glossy book 'Art Deco Moree: A Guide to Moree's Exquisite Period Architecture' and each unique Art Deco feature is lovingly photographed and described. Thus the Shire Chambers "It features symmetrical design, a terracotta tile hip roof with boxed eaves, a projecting double-storey gabled parapeted porch with balcony at first-floor level, and projecting bands of brickwork below the first floor window sills." It reminds me of why I created Aussie Towns. We look at buildings but we do not see or understand their beauty and their uniqueness. This remarkable little book on Art Deco at Moree teaches everyone to understand what Art Deco was all about and it encourages visitors to wander around town looking at the unique features like the "glazed blue ceramic tiles within outlined rhythmic squares" or the way buildings in the main street echo the appearance of luxury liners from the 1930s. Check out the descriptions of Art Deco Moree at http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/moree-nsw and you will find that you want to go and visit this remarkable town and then go for a swim in the health baths. It is not called Australia’s Artesian Spa Capital for nothing.
19.01.2022 Eucla and the Naked Nymph One thing that Donald John Trump will be remembered for is the way that he gave credence to the term fake news but we should always remember that, while he popularised the term (and turned it into anything that doesn’t suit me) that fake news has a long history and much of it is hilarious. Do you know the story of the Naked Nymph of Eucla? And, yes, you are way ahead of me. It was a classic example of Trump-like fake news. ...Continue reading
19.01.2022 Lake Eyre and Marree Marree is a magical desert, and largely deserted, outback town at the point where the Birdsville Track and the Oodnadatta Track meet. It is, apart from flying over it, the easiest access point to Lake Eyre that wonder of nature which, when the rains come in northern Queensland, fills up and is so vast it stretches to the horizon. Oh, yes, and slowly the name will change to Kati Thanda, the local Aboriginal name for this vast stretch of inland water....Continue reading
19.01.2022 A Deadly Comedy of Errors the Robber’s Tree in Cunnamulla At the southern end of Stockyard Street in Cunnamulla is a solitary tree on a sand dune where the bank robber Joseph Wells hid after making an armed withdrawal from the local bank. It must be one of the very few trees to be listed on the Queensland Heritage Register but the story of the very, very unlucky bank robber has a dark twist and is, in fairness, a vital part of Queensland history.... Here is the story the Register recounts: On 16 January 1880 Joseph Wells, a station hand, robbed the Queensland National Bank at Cunnamulla at gunpoint. The alarm was raised and as Wells was about to leave the bank, storekeeper William Murphy from next door attempted to restrain him and in the scuffle, was shot accidentally in the shoulder. This allowed Wells to escape from the bank, only to find that a crowd of onlookers was gathering outside. [The folklore has it that they were outraged because the robber had taken their money. An unusual twist. They weren’t so concerned about stopping a robbery as they were about making sure their money was not stolen.] "As Wells tried to leave the scene on horseback, the horse's bridle broke and, in desperation, the robber ran toward the outskirts of the town. Amongst the crowd of onlookers were two men with unloaded guns, who gave chase. Turning on them and threatening to shoot if they didn't retreat, Wells ran into the bush. The police were alerted and organised an intensive search for the robber, who may have escaped detection but for the persistence of a sheep dog which had followed Wells' scent and sat barking under a tree. On investigating, the local police sergeant discovered that Wells had taken refuge in the branches of the tree, where he was well camouflaged. "Wells was arrested and stood trial in Toowoomba, charged with armed robbery with wounding. He was found guilty and received the maximum penalty, death. Because of the accidental nature of Murphy's wounding and the fact that Wells had not had legal representation during his trial, opponents of capital punishment, including several members of Parliament, appealed to the Full Court on Wells' behalf. Despite these appeals and much debate about capital punishment in the Queensland press, Wells was executed on 22 March 1880. However, the saga had its legacy, with Wells becoming the last man to be executed for armed robbery with wounding in Queensland. "One of his supporters, Arthur Rutledge MLA, on becoming Attorney General (November 1883 to June 1888), legislated to have armed robbery removed from the list of capital offences in Queensland." Looked at through the prism of justice in 2020 it does seem that death was a frighteningly severe punishment for bank robbery and an accidental, and non-fatal, shooting. But then, as we all know, they did things very differently in outback Queensland in the 1880s.
18.01.2022 The Penal Colonies on Van Diemen’s Land Saltwater River! The best convict experience in Australia is in Tasmania. Macquarie Harbour is still a unique insight into the loneliness and hardship; Port Arthur is the convict system on an industrial scale; and Saltwater River, a Cinderella when compared to nearby Port Arthur, is a reminder of the complex world of the convict. The star turn is obviously Port Arthur where the inspired museum curators have used the microcosm tech...Continue reading
17.01.2022 A Hall Dedicated to an Insect Chinchilla and Boonarga People always laugh at the absurdity of the old woman who ends up swallowing a horse in order to get rid of a fly that she accidentally swallowed. But wait a minute! That is exactly what happens, with monotonous regularity, in Australia. ...Continue reading
17.01.2022 Morgan A Houseboat on the Murray Some holidays belong more to fantasy than reality. And some holidays are just not particularly popular. Houseboats on the Murray are not high on anyone’s to do list. No one seems to dream of floating down the river on a houseboat. In fact I know no one, apart from myself and photographer Quentin Jones, who has actually spent time mooching up and down the Murray River....Continue reading
17.01.2022 A Big Galah, Paintings on the Wheat Silos, and statues of historic figures Kimba has everything When local councils and/or state governments decide to spend money on tourist attractions they have one of two thoughts on their minds: (a) how can we attract people to this region and (b) how can we stop those people who are roaring through and not stopping. The best example of the first thought would have to be the remarkable Animals on Bikes in the Cabonne Shire which was ...Continue reading
17.01.2022 The Bora Ring at Tweed Heads I had never seen a bora ring" until I went to Tweed Heads. I had seen signs to bora rings around the country but they all pointed up dirt roads to places that were hard to access and, as I say, I didn’t know what I was looking for.... It was therefore surprising to find myself in the heart of the Gold Coast (well, at the southern edge, at Tweed Heads) and visiting the Minjungbal Aboriginal Cultural Centre when signs pointed me towards a Bora Ring. Not only did I see the Bora Ring but the wonderfully clear signage explained precisely what I was looking at. So, in future, when that sign up a dirt road says Bora Ring I’ll be there and dreaming of a time of initiation and Aboriginal culture so old and beautiful that ancient rituals have a timelessness and place in the scheme of the universe. This is what the signs said: Sacred Ground Long before Captain Cook spotted Mount Warning, Aboriginal tribes from all over the Northern Rivers regularly gathered in the clearing you are about to see. Though the grass circle may not look anything special, it was once a sacred initiation ground. Month long ceremonies leading up to the initiation of adolescent boys were held by firelight in this arena. These were called The Bora. The atmosphere must have been electric as each tribe took its turn to present their own special dances. No one today knows for sure when the clapping of boomerangs, the dull thud of possum skin drums or the women's chanting last echoed through this peaceful woodland. Some say 1875 while others suspect as late as 1908. Getting Ready Making and maintaining a Bora Ground was a major undertaking. When starting from scratch, a suitable place had to be found, one that guaranteed plenty of food, water and camping sites. The hardest job was clearing the trees which grew inside the ring. Felling a full grown tree with a stone axe required skill, strength and perseverance. After the trees and shrubs had been cleared and burnt, the remaining grass cover had to be removed and the ground leveled to make a suitable stage for dancing. The left-over dirt was piled up to form a raised ring around the outside of the Bora Ground. Here’s the old painting of the Bora Ground on the signage and a photo of what it looks like today.
17.01.2022 Arltunga About as harsh as any place can get I know that we are all still restricted when it comes to travelling around the country BUT it will all eventually change and, when it does, you should put Arltunga (it is 110 km east of Alice Springs) on your must-see list. It is the harshest gold mining town in the country and a reminder of what lengths gold crazy prospectors would go to get the precious metal. Arltunga is a fascinating rarity: a gold rush town in the middle of ...some of the harshest desert country in Australia. It is worth visiting because the climate has held so much of the old town in aspic and the visitor can easily imagine what life was like during the first gold rush and the subsequent period when the government works were operating. The curious visitor can still see pieces of meat safes, rusted wire, rusted cans, and shards of broken glass littering the ground. There are photographs and information boards in the excellent Visitor Centre which explains what life was like for the miners who briefly settled in the town. 'Life on the Arltunga goldfields was very hard. Arltunga was extremely isolated, it lacked water, had limited supplies of basic foods, suffered extremes of temperature, and the cost of living was exorbitant. To reach Arltunga in the 1880s you would need to walk or ride alongside the Overland Telegraph Line from Oodnadatta to Alice Springs, then follow the MacDonnell Ranges east for around 120 km. This would take at least a week and often longer in temperatures which often exceeded 40C. 'The shortage of water meant that fresh vegetables could not be grown and limited water supplies were drawn from wells and water soaks in creeks. Because of the lack of feed and water for stock the transportation costs for food were very high. These high costs were passed onto the Arltunga residents. 'Aborigines, miners, stockkeepers, publicans, battery managers, engine drivers, fitters, carpenters, labourers, clerks, cooks, blacksmiths, assayers, foremen, battery hands, housekeepers, stockmen and pastoralists, are some of the residents of early Arltunga.' The drive to Arltunga from Alice Springs is a mixture of 77 km sealed road and 33 km dirt road that is accessible by 2WD in dry weather. See more at: http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/arltunga
16.01.2022 The Bat Hospital in Atherton Are you interested in bats? the bemused woman behind the reception counter at the motel, asked when I questioned her about the location of the Bat Hospital. I was staying in Atherton on the highlands above Cairns (book it in for a must see when this plague is over) in Far North Queensland. Yes, I replied, lying. I wasn’t going to try and explain that a curiosity about the world doesn’t automatically involve high levels of interest in everyth...ing you are planning to see. Are you interested in coral? No. But I still want to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. In fact, after an hour at The Bat Hospital just outside Atherton I really became interested in these creatures which, wait for it, constitute about one quarter of all mammal species living in the planet. There are literally hundreds of varieties from micro-bats (which are smaller than the average mouse) through to big flying foxes which, as I noted with some amusement, just love eating and shitting and making a terrible mess. The Bat Hospital is a frightening reality. Every year literally thousands of bats (particularly young mothers) die in North Queensland because they have been bitten by a paralysis tick. Between September and December each year, when the ticks are most abundant, the hospital saves over 500 pups (yes, a baby bat is called a pup) particularly Spectacled Flying Foxes which live in abundance in the area. What a life! The babies brought in are fed cow’s milk, housed in boxes, and given a warm stuffed sock as a mother substitute. These orphans have a much better life than any of those depicted in Dickens’ novels. The hour-long talk is genuinely fascinating. No, you don’t get to cuddle a bat and yes you do watch as they gorge themselves of bananas, apples and mangoes and then defecate with all the bowel control of a caterpillar. I duly returned to the motel and told the woman at reception: Yes, I am interested in bats ... everyone should be. Check out https://tolgabathospital.org and, when next in Cairns, make sure you pay a visit. It is fascinating.
15.01.2022 The Napier Club in Hamilton We all have a clear, if somewhat cliched, image of a 19th century Gentleman’s Club. Lots of old duffers, all smoking either cigars or pipes, drinking whisky decanted into cut crystal glasses, pontificating about all things rural, dressed in tweeds, possibly with handlebar moustaches, and talking about things Conservative and decent in the wood panelled library. But, in the flurry of cliches that is the image of the Gentleman’s Club, no one ev...er spares a thought for the female equivalent. In fact, I did not know they even existed until I was writing up the Napier Club in Hamilton. The Heritage Register explains: Eildon, now known as the Napier Club, was built as a two storey, red brick residence and surgery for Dr David Laidlaw in 1904 to a design by architects Ussher and Kemp in the Federation Queen Anne style. In 1939 the building was purchased by the Napier Club, a women's club established in 1921. How is it significant? The Napier Club has social, architectural and historic importance to the State of Victoria. Why is it significant? The building is important for its associations with the Napier Club, an exclusive women's club whose membership largely comprised the wives of graziers and leading townsmen and is associated with many of the prominent Western District families, especially the founding members Mrs AJ Simpson, Mrs. AG Stewart, Mrs T Robertson, Mrs AC Mercer, Mrs LEW Carty and Mrs MN Mackinnon. The club has been one of the main social organisations of its kind outside Melbourne. The building represents an example of a way of life which encouraged the formation of exclusive clubs. These clubs were the preserves of the wealthy and membership was often restricted on ethnic, gender, social and economic grounds. Eildon is an extraordinary example of the work of architects Ussher and Kemp who, both individually and in partnership, designed, perhaps, the finest range of Federation Queen Anne houses in Victoria. It is an asymmetrical two storey house with the diverse array of gables kept to the first floor eaves line. A total gable composition of this sort is rare in the practice of Ussher and Kemp as the asymmetrical house is usually treated with a dominant hip from which subsidiary gables protrude. So, I guess, the women didn’t sit around drinking whisky, smoking cigars, admiring each others tweed jackets, and talking about the vast wealth they had achieved on the sheep’s back. But what did they wear and talk about? I suspect that hat and gloves were essential but, beyond that? Oh, yes, and I just finished Hamilton in Victoria ... and 7,300 words of it ... and that image is Napier House.
15.01.2022 The Aboriginal Cricket Tour of England in 1868 - Harrow, Victoria I received a rather sad email yesterday informing me that the Harrow Motor Museum has closed. It is now a Terrain Tamer (4WD) Distributor. (Love the name of the 4WD dealer). It reminded me that Harrow, a tiny town in Victoria, has an excellent museum where the remarkable history of the first Australian cricket tour is recorded in superb detail. It was a very special tour because the team was exclusively Firs...Continue reading
15.01.2022 A Truly Unique Experience A Wine Sensory Garden near Busselton in Western Australia There are plenty of sensory gardens around Australia. They are great fun. The idea is that the garden enthusiast wanders through the garden and, rather than just admiring the blooms or some other aspect of the plants, they are treated to an experience of flora which engages, and enhances, all five senses: sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste. Rather than trying to explain the experience, l...Continue reading
15.01.2022 Strahan and Macquarie Harbour A few years ago, when I had finally finished writing up all of Tasmania, the Launceston Examiner contacted me. They wanted to do a story about Aussie Towns and, being typically local, about Aussie Towns in Tasmania and what I had written about the state.... One of the questions I was asked was What are your five favourite places in Tasmania? which, apart from being predictable, is difficult because there are many more than five places. I cheated by looking at what I had written on Facebook Cradle Mountain, Ross, Flinders Island and then started agonizing about what to include and omit. For me the best convict experience in Australia, and the best experience of the romantic loneliness of the place, is Strahan and Macquarie Harbour. If you really want to understand the sheer awfulness of convict life, go to Sarah Island on a miserable day and then cruise (yes, there are great day cruises) up the Gordon River. Every day the convicts would row the eight miles from Sarah Island across to the Gordon River where, all day and regardless of the weather, they would cut down the hugely valuable Huon Pine trees which were ideal for making masts for sailing ships then they would row back and I bet they didn’t have hot buttered scones and a cup of tea waiting for them. You can enter the rainforest on the banks of the Gordon River. It is dense and lichen-encrusted and always dripping from the moisture in this cool climate wonderland which is, all too often and quite inaccurately, described as Tolkein-like. It’s not. It’s a cool climate rainforest. After Sarah Island everyone should visit Ocean Beach and Hells Gate. Hells Gate is the narrow entrance to Macquarie Harbour. After weeks at sea, the convict ships had to traverse this dangerous, eddying waterway to get to the quietness of the harbour. And beyond well, as I have written There is no better way to experience the unique loneliness and isolation of Strahan than to drive out to Ocean Beach and contemplate the reality that this beach is so far south that a direct line west will pass below the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and not reach solid land until it hits the coast of Patagonia in Argentina. On a wild and windy day you can almost feel that the waves have travelled 12,000 km uninterrupted. They break relentlessly on the hard, flat beach and the winds push the dunes behind the beach higher and higher. Ocean Beach is 40 km long. It is the end of the world and it is unforgettable to experience the wildness and loneliness. Pause and think of the poor convicts who arrived here with sentences of seven years, fourteen years or life. Check out http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/strahan-tas it has images of Hells Gate, Ocean Beach and the rainforest that clings to the shores of Macquarie Harbour.
14.01.2022 Mullumbimby Is This The Best Festival in the Country? I have no argument with hippies. The core philosophy that the modern western world is pretty much disgusting rubbish gets no disagreement from me. And the positive argument let’s see what ancient cultures and the Orient can offer by way of spiritual sustenance and peaceful values is not only appealing but makes perfectly good sense. It is this philosophy that underpins the alternative lifestyle espoused in Mullumbimb...y. This is not some home of psychedelia where refugees from the modern world wander around feeling hip, superior and looking very stoned. It is just a lot of people wanting to try something different in the optimistic belief that it might be better than what we have got. And it is a comment on the tenacity of the movement that both Mullumbimby and Nimbin first came to the attention of the general population back in the 1960s when they became synonymous with a happily stoned alternative lifestyle. Not bad. They have kept the alternative flag flying for fifty years. The finest flowering of this trying something different is the sublime Mullum Music Festival, which is one of Australia's great, if largely unsung, music festivals. And, with a little bit of luck, it will be on for three days in November, 2021. You can prepare now. It was, not surprisingly, cancelled this year. The Mullum Festival breaks all the rules. There are no high profile headline acts. There is a blissful, happy ambience which permeates the whole town and, even though it is located on the far North Coast on the edge of a rainforest, there is no rain or mud. How? All the performances are inside at either the local Civic Hall, the high school assembly hall, the Ex-Services Club, the Bowling Club, the Drill Hall or the Courthouse. And there’s a Magic Bus which shuttles festivalgoers between venues. There is no hierarchy of performers, no sense of building to a crescendo. The result is an intimate, friendly unpretentious festival for those who love to dance to funky bands and enjoy gasping in wonder at little-known musicians most of whom have slipped below the sonic glare of popularity. Feeling the warmth and friendliness it is disconcerting to realise that, in an age of crass commercialism, this is festival driven not by profit but by impeccable musical taste. The festival director, Glenn Wright, is a man prepared to gamble his own money on what he believes is good music. It is a festival where happy, uninhibited audiences listen to the very best of the alternative and roots music scenes. In other words, it is the essence of Mullumbimby. http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/mullumbimby-nsw
13.01.2022 Old Onslow Consider the coast of Western Australia. The distances are mind numbing. It is 2,346 km from Perth to Broome. And, beyond Carnarvon, there is really only two decent-sized towns - Karratha and Port Hedland (and Exmouth if you want to leave Highway 1) and then there are tiny, almost non-towns, like Onslow, Whim Creek (nothing more than a pub) and Roebourne. Onslow, a charming and sleepy village on the Indian Ocean between Exmouth and Karratha, is known as Cyclone Ci...ty because, as is revealed on an excellent wall display in the Goods Shed Museum, there have been over twelve cyclones which have hit and damaged the tiny port since 1909. According to the chart they occurred in 1909, 1918, 1926, 1934, 1953, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1975, 1995 and 1999. The 1963 cyclone had winds which were measured at 232 km/h. The cyclones have occurred with such regularity that they have had profound effects on the town - it was forced to relocate after the 1926 cyclone and the frequency of cyclones in the 1960s forced the reconstruction of the local jetty to be abandoned. It is the relocation of the town which is so fascinating. Firstly it was, because it was 1926 and in the middle of nowhere, a place where most of the town was carried out by teams of camels. I can only imagine how whole buildings were moved by camel. Secondly, anything that could be moved, was moved. So that today all that is left of Old Onslow is lots of broken bottles, a couple of stone buildings (notably the Police Station see the Onslow entry) which were too difficult to move, and lots of very neat signs in the middle of the desert telling visitors exactly where certain buildings were. There are ghost towns and there are GHOST TOWNS. And this is a real ghost town. No one lives there and the roads have been reduced to sandy tracks through the scrub and spinifex. Oh, yes, and if you are wondering why the area took so long to settle well, the early explorers were incredibly dismissive. In 1628 Gerrit Fredrickszoon De Witt, a captain with the Dutch East India Company, sailed down the coast and described the area between Port Hedland and Onslow as foul and barren And, of course, William Dampier, who travelled down the coast in 1688, infamously declared the local Aborigines, as the miserablest people on Earth and his description of the land was that it was useless and certainly not worth settling. Check out https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/onslow-wa. A true ghost town.
12.01.2022 Exploring for Bushrangers - Ben Hall and his gang The late Edgar Penzig, an expert on bushrangers who wrote the definitive account of Ben Hall's life, pointed out that from 1861 to 5 May 1865 John Gilbert and Ben Hall were both credited with more than 600 armed robberies. It is likely that John Gilbert, probably the most successful highwayman of all time, committed around 630 hold-ups and robberies and Ben Hall was responsible for around 610 robberies. To get this into persp...Continue reading
12.01.2022 Of Convicts and Forgery The Story of James Blackburn There was a time when forgers seemed to specialize in bank notes. In the 1960s and 1970s there were stories of fake $50 and $100 bills being passed off and wily forgers being caught with their own printing presses. That seems to have disappeared since plastic notes and, of course, lucrative internet scams. Who wants to rob a bank when you can access individual bank accounts and drain them of funds? Forgery was a very comm...Continue reading
12.01.2022 A Huge Sculpture in a Tiny Town the strange story of Henry Moore in Yeovil Every town needs a dynamic mover and shaker and Yeoval, a tiny village in the Central West of New South Wales, has Alf Cantrell. Being a passionate Banjo Paterson enthusiast, Alf established the town’s Banjo Paterson More Than A Poet museum and he tells the truly remarkable story of how the town acquired a $1 million (that’s what he claims it is worth) bronze sculpture of Henry Moore.... For those who don’t know and I am increasingly distressed by the lack of general knowledge about the arts Henry Moore was an English artist who many regarded as the greatest sculptor of the twentieth century. He was the mentor to a Croatian artist, Drago Marin Cherina, who worked as Moore’s assistant before travelling to Australia in 1975 to sculpt a bust of Gough Whitlam. The story goes that Drago was a typical bohemian artist who loved wine, women, song and was not very good with finances. By 1995 he was offering the New South Wales government an elaborate Millenia Nexus monument to celebrate the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It was to be built on a 16-hectare abandoned brick-pit next to the Games site. In total the monument would consist of a rainforest, walkways and a dozen sculptures, all dominated by a 1,000-metre tower of solar-generated laser beams. Drago did not have enough money to complete the project and so he borrowed $47,500 to build a model and, as is the way with artists and money, somehow signed over all his artistic works to his creditor, bookmaker Robbie Waterhouse. Attempting to claim on his debt, Robbie Waterhouse took possession of Drago’s art works and stored them in a warehouse on Sydney’s northern beaches. Waterhouse was planning to sell them to recoup his loan. At this point, when Drago’s world was collapsing around him, the endlessly entrepreneurial Alf Cantrell saw an opportunity. He pointed out to Waterhouse that the sculpture (in bronze) was probably worth around $1 million and that if Waterhouse was to gift it to Yeoval he could legitimately claim a $1 million tax break from the Australian Taxation Office. Waterhouse liked the idea and so today, over the road from the Banjo Paterson Museum in the Banjo Paterson Bush Park in Yeoval, stands the head of Henry Moore. How much is the sculpture really worth? Well, Waterhouse thought of selling it for scrap and reckoned its value was around $10,000. That was the value of the bronze. Drago valued it at $500,000 and did the Australian Taxation Office really value it as a gift of $1 million to the good citizenry of Yeoval and Cabonne Shire?
11.01.2022 The Best Historic Town in the Country Stroud, NSW? What is the best historic town in the country? Each state has legitimate claimants. Is it Ross or Richmond in Tasmania? Maldon or Beechworth in Victoria? Berrima or Hill End in New South Wales? Hahndorf in South Australia? Ipswich in Queensland? Or York and Toodyay in Western Australia? Sadly, they all have succumbed to the vulgarity of modernity chintzy gift shoppes; cafes with lots of drizzling of balsamic vinegar and a... ‘cup’ or ‘mug’ of bespoke coffee; museums to lure the unwary; National Trust status; and proud connections with early European settlement which includes, hopefully, a dash of convict building thrown in. Hardly anyone ever mentions Stroud. It is the Cinderella of historic towns. It can claim to be the first company town in the country having been built in the 1830s by convicts working for the Australian Agricultural Company. It has a number of very handsome buildings (there are only eight listed on the map in the centre of town so it is incredibly manageable) and the whole town has been classified by the National Trust. It has an appealing unity with most buildings in the main street having been constructed by convicts with handmade bricks and some small 19th century cottages constructed out of local timber. So why is it never mentioned when discussing best historic town? I suspect it is no more complex than they don’t have an aggressive tourism body and the main street has not been overrun by boutique shopping banalities. It has an untouched charm and that, surely, deserves attention although not at the expense of turning the town into just another tourist mall. Check out http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/stroud-nsw for more details.
11.01.2022 Father Tom Dixon, Ceduna and Real Heroes Whenever I think of Ceduna I think of one of my heroes, a truly remarkable defrocked priest, Father Tom Dixon. When I first started teaching back in 1970 I sat next to Tom Dixon. I got to know him over the next three years and as his personal story emerged I realized that this quiet, humble man had led the most amazing and remarkable life. ...Continue reading
11.01.2022 The Naming of Canberra In recent times much international amusement has resulted from the British public wanting to call a research vessel Boaty McBoatface. It ended up being called the RRS Sir David Attenborough. Apparently we have very similar impulses. During my research on Canberra I came across lots of amusing stories about the naming of the national capital. The people of Australia responded with imagination and good humour to a Government invitation to find a suit...able name for their future capital. ‘Cookaburra’, ‘Wheatwoolgold’ and ‘Kangaremu’ headed a list of Australiana which also included ‘Sydmelperadbrisho’ and ‘Meladneyperbane’. Politics prompted other names such as ‘Swindleville’, ‘Gonebroke’ and ‘Caucus City’. Numerous other crazy names were suggested - Gladstone, Cromwell, Eucalypta, Thirstyville - and a parliamentary committee headed off around the country to find a suitable location. They inspected Orange, Bathurst, Lyndhurst, Tumut, Armidale, Bombala, Nowra, Eden, Dalgety, Goulburn and Yass amongst others and eventually decided on Canberra. The result was "Canberra" which the National Capital Authority explains as: In 1913, when the Canberra area was no more than an outback sheep station divided by the Molonglo River, a ceremony was held to name the city. ‘Canberra’, as a new name for the capital, was a sentimental favourite and logical choice. As I write on the Aussie Towns entry: There are a myriad of unproven theories about the name although it does seem to have originated as a result of Robert Campbell calling his property "Canberry". This name was taken up and used to describe Canberry Plain and Canberry Cottage. There are a number of theories why he called his property Canberry. It is also known that by 1865 it was known as Canberra. Another unproven theory is that "canberra" was an Aboriginal word meaning either "meeting place", "neutral place", "corroboree ground", "head of the river", "space between a woman's breasts", or "laughing jackass". So, at noon on 12 March, 1913, Lady Denman, the wife of the Governor-General, mounted a crimson-draped platform and declared in a clear English voice: ‘I name the capital of Australia, Canberra the accent is on the Can’. Now that is rather funny because, if there is any debate in 2020, it is on whether it is pronounced Can bra or Can berra.
10.01.2022 More Fake News Port Campbell, Victoria The one delightful thing about politicians is that they are soon forgotten. They strut the stage and try to convince us that they are people of substance and genius and, in a few short years, they are simply a dimly remembered, and rather unpleasant, memory. So this will be my last story, at least for a while, about Fake News a term we have all had to live with for the past four years....Continue reading
10.01.2022 Storm Boy and The Coorong Great children’s literature is genuinely timeless. Think of Alice in Wonderland, The Little Prince, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, The Secret Garden et al. In Australia we have a small number of children’s classics (The Magic Pudding, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Seven Little Australians) which never go out of fashion. It is interesting because the way timeless literature is passed on from one generation to another means that it speaks to eve...ry new group of child readers. Parent reads to child. Child loves the story. Child grows up and reads it to their children. The cycle repeats. Although it is relatively recent it was written in 1964 Colin Thiele’s Storm Boy is one such novel. Not only does it continue to enchant children but it is endlessly reinterpreted. There are now two films (1976 and 2019), three stage versions (1996, 2013, 2015), an audio version (1994), various illustrated versions and, most enterprisingly, a three day journey through The Coorong. The story, written by South Australian educationalist Colin Thiele, is a clever interweaving of Aboriginal culture, friendship, growing up surrounded by the beaches, lagoons and huge sand dunes of The Coorong, and the complex issue of education the old life experience versus formal schooling argument. It is a simple tale of a boy who rescues three pelican chicks who he names Mr Proud, Mr Ponder and Mr Percival and how, when he sets them free, Mr Percival decides to return. It is a celebration of the wild, isolated beauty of the Coorong and for many visitors it gives a context, and a strong childhood memory, to this area which is nothing more than huge sand dunes, a beach that runs for over 80 kilometres, a narrow lagoon with vast colonies of pelicans and an authentic timelessness. Drive along The Coorong and you will feel as though you are passing through a countryside that has not changed for thousands of years. As Thiele, in his book Coorong, so poetically wrote: 'The Coorong is wilderness. For that reason it is of inestimable value to South Australia and the whole of humanity ... It is an elemental region, a place of wind and water and vast skies, of sandhill and tussock, lagoon and waterweed, stone and scrub. It is a place of softened contours, muted colours and sea haze - and of glaring saltpans so intense that our brows pucker and our eyes wince. A place of winter storms and summer sunglades, of shorelines soft with sand and sibilant reeds, and of limestone outcrops sharper than teeth. A place to sense the universal in the particular, the infinite in the infinitesimal, the verities of life in blowing seeds and grains of sand.' Check out http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/coorong-the-sa for more information.
09.01.2022 Wollongong The Brave Where Idyllic Beauty Meets Iron and Steel Although I grew up in Tumut (still my favourite Australian rural town and it always will be) I have now spent most of my adult life (nearly 40 years) in the Illawarra. When I first arrived in Kiama my kingdom by the sea - back in 1981 Wollongong was a steel town. ... Lysaghts building, which was over one mile long (it was a rolling mill), was one of the biggest buildings in the world; 23,000 people worked at the steelworks; it really did look like those wonderful Bruce Springsteen lines 'neath the refinery's glow, out where the great black rivers flow; and it was an aggressively, and justifiably proud, union town where being honest and working class was about the highest honour anyone could aspire to. When friends asked me about Wollongong, particularly British friends, I would say Can you imagine Sheffield by the sea? and, when they came to the Illawarra I would always take them to Sublime Point where the daisy chain of perfect northern beaches dissolved into the gas burning factory chimneys and the dark satanic mills of Port Kembla. Today most of the industry has gone and Wollongong is struggling to find its identity. But for all its confusion there are so many places of wonder that the visitor could easily spend a week and still feel that they had not fully experienced this unique, industrial city. The image of the 'dark satanic mills' is belied by the city’s beautiful northern beaches which entranced D. H. Lawrence; the charms of the rugged woodland on the edge of the escarpment homes with glorious views over the Pacific Ocean; the city’s elegant Botanic Gardens which are larger than Sydney’s and offer excellent picnic areas and the elegance of the Hoskins' family home, Gleniffer Brae; the excellent local art gallery with its unique collection of great Australian artists all of whom painted the South Coast; the Science Centre with its interactive play area for children and its world-class planetarium; and the grounds of the University of Wollongong which must surely boast the finest gardens of any Australian university. Yes. It is rich in attractions but it is also an industrial city saved by its sublime location. Drive past the steelworks at Port Kembla and head for the perfect beach opposite Five Islands Nature Reserve and you will understand the strange, wonderful complexity of a steel town edged by the beauty of the Australian coastline. Check out http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/wollongong-nsw and be amazed.
08.01.2022 Planning for next Winter - Ningaloo Reef and Coral Bay Now here is optimism in all its gaudy regalia. Next winter, when the plague has gone and we have all returned to a sort of normality, head to Western Australia and then drive, for days, to Ningaloo Reef and Coral Bay. There is something gloriously relaxed and informal and uninhibited about Coral Bay. ... Coral Bay, once known as Bills Bay (you can see why some wily entrepreneur wanted to change it), is remarkable in so many ways. It is a section of water which is protected by a reef which runs parallel to the shore (this is part of Ningaloo Reef) and so the whole experience is bizarre. You walk, at low tide, across hard white sand and suddenly the water drops into a channel which is filled with corals and fish of extraordinary tropical beauty. There is one hotel which, rather grandly, calls itself the Ningaloo Reef Resort. It is more a suburban pub with a huge beer garden, large TV sets, pub meals and lots of people lolling around and feeling very, very relaxed. The main industry is tourism and so all you have to do is wander down to the bay and there are signs everywhere offering kayaks, canoes, glass bottom canoes, glass bottom boogie boards, snorkels and wetsuits for hire. It is pure timewarp. This is what the coast of Far North Queensland was like fifty years ago. Coral Bay is in no hurry to change because it is still one of the most isolated places on the continent and even though the grey nomads are wandering through in increasing numbers it is unlikely that it will ever become like Cairns or the Whitsundsays. Coral Bay is one of those wacky rustic towns where they pride themselves in a swimming kangaroo (it was saved by a local and encouraged to swim); a huge groper named Merv; and the highlight of a Saturday night is sitting at the Ningaloo Reef Resort and watching the football. It is just a pity that it is a staggering 1,125 km north of Perth. But Western Australia is like that. http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/coral-bay-wa
08.01.2022 Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson and the Australian Connections I have told this story before and, when I talk to groups about Aussie Towns, which I now do on a regular basis, it is one of my favourite stories and it always elicits surprise and amusement. The story involves the unusual connection between Mel Gibson and the NSW South Coast town of Tuross Head.... It is a strange tale about Mel’s paternal great-grandfather, Patrick Mylott, who at one time owned all the land where the town now exists 875 acres of gorgeous unspoilt coastline. Mel’s great-grandfather, in an act of extraordinary familial devotion, leased the property at Tuross Head and headed to Sydney with his daughter, Eva Mylott, who was a musical prodigy. Patrick believed she would grow into an internationally admired opera singer. Eva did become a famous contralto. She became a protégé of Dame Nellie Melba, travelled to both England and the US, and in 1917 she married an American businessman, John Hutton Gibson, in New York. One of her sons, Hutton Gibson, was Mel’s father. So it is hardly surprising that the Gibsons saw Australia as a possible home and that young Mel not only trained at NIDA (the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney) and that he got his first big movie break rolling around the desert out at Silverton as the crazed Mad Max. But that is not the only unusual connection with Mel Gibson. Edenhope, in the Wimmera-Mallee area of western Victoria, is a sleepy rural service centre on the shores of Lake Wallace can you see where I’m heading. The first European settlers in the area were the Hope family. They came from Scotland near the River Eden (hence Edenhope it might be an unimaginative name but it is amusing) and claimed to be related to William Wallace, the Scottish hero who fought, albeit unsuccessfully, for Scottish independence and, yes, most modern audiences know the story of William Wallace because they have seen Braveheart with Mel Gibson playing Wallace. How strange that in the middle of the Victorian Mallee there is a lake named after a Scottish hero who was once played by an American with an Australian mother who hailed from Tuross Head?
07.01.2022 The Strange Story of the Teamsters and their Bullock Teams Burra to Port Wakefield If you go behind the pub, the amusingly named Magpie & Stump, at Mintaro in the Clare Valley region of South Australia, there are some sheds. On the wall near the sheds you can still see huge metal rings where once bullockies, making their slow way from Burra to Port Wakefield with loads of copper ore, tied up their bullocks before heading into the pub where, as one traveler, William Cawthorn...Continue reading
07.01.2022 Blood on the Wattle: A Brief History I don’t usually write about my other activities but, as it is Naidoc Week, and as my book Blood on the Wattle has just been reprinted for the 17th time, bear with me and I will tell you the story of its genesis. It was really a combination of serendipity and good luck. In 1987 the Australian publishing industry was awash with plans for Bicentennial Books extolling the wonders of 200 years of European settlement. Australia the Magnifice...Continue reading
07.01.2022 The Best of Everything Busselton in Western Australia There is an argument that, if a local visitor information organisation was really smart, they would scour the country, find the best of everything, and borrow the ideas for their local area. If this occurred then there would be dozens of brilliant local museums around the country because they would all be emulating the genius that is the museum in Kojonup in Western Australia. It really is a masterpiece of museum desig...Continue reading
06.01.2022 Talbingo A True Wild West Town I grew up in Tumut and, as a child, seem to have spent most weekends driving around the valley to such romantic places as Brandy Marys, Goobragandra, Adelong Falls, Kilamacat, Yarrangobilly and dozens of others and all those places are fondly etched into my memory. Like the great Miles Franklin, who was born up the valley from Tumut at Talbingo, I will freely admit: No other spot has ever replaced the hold on my affections or imagination ...Continue reading
06.01.2022 Finding beauty in Port Hedland There is an old joke about Port Hedland which goes like this: If Port Hedland is not the arsehole of the earth then the true arsehole is located about one kilometre above Port Hedland. A defecation joke? The reason: well, historically, Port Hedland had an iron crushing and pelletising factory which spewed out a fine red dust (pure iron ore) which settled over the entire town. Although many homes had green roofs, they had all turned a brownish re...d with the fine iron dust. Today Port Hedland, like most of the mining operations in the Pilbara, is huge and industrial. When I last visited, there were two massive iron ore carriers loading at the port and another four or five waiting offshore to be loaded. While I was at the port I noticed a group of about twelve men waiting to board one of the ships. They had spent a couple of days in the town and were, I guess, quite happy to get back on ship. You see Port Hedland genuinely tries to be attractive and interesting. They have a Port Walk so visitors can admire the harbour and the industrial activity. There is a tour of the port available from the Visitor Centre. But ... and this is the reality ... because the entire town is geared to iron ore (trains with four engines pulling two kilometres of carriages laden down with iron ore shunt backwards and forwards from the port and every second male is wearing a vizi jacket and driving a Toyota with vizi stripes on the sides.) the entire town is still covered by red dust. The dust is everywhere. The streets and gutters are iron red. The trees and bushes are brushed with red. Even the cockatoos are muddy red it is hard to imagine they were ever white. And those roofs are still iron red. So, where in all this industrial ugliness, is there beauty. Well gasp as this beautiful evening sky with just a fingernail of moon and the horizon a dazzling array of changing colours ... and then quietly consider that it was taken while I was filling up the car with petrol. Yes, beauty from a service station forecourt. Now there’s a thought to conjure with.
06.01.2022 Strangler Figs at Yungaburra, QLD It is remarkable that, for the past century, the biggest tourist attractions on the Atherton Tablelands have been two ancient strangler figs the Curtain Fig and the Cathedral Fig. When tourism really took off in the 1920s everyone who travelled to the Tablelands wanted to inspect these remarkable trees.... They are unique and very special a rarity a tree definitely worth inspecting. In the case of the Curtain Fig Tree its measurements are impressive. It is a 50 metre high with roots which drop up to 15 metres to the ground and a circumference of 39 metres. It is estimated to be over 500 years old. The Queensland Heritage Register (my Bible on such matters) explains "Strangler figs are a parasitic species of tree that develop when the seed of a fig germinates on the top of another tree and then tries to plant its roots in the ground. Once the root system is established, the fig grows vigorously, finally killing the host tree and then growing independently. The unusual formation of the Curtain Fig Tree was created when its vertical roots strangled the host causing it to fall into a neighbouring tree on a 45 degree angle. The extensive aerial roots of the strangler fig then dropped from the oblique angle of the fallen tree 15m to the forest floor, forming a "curtain"." Early travellers saw these giant strangler figs as wonders (or even freaks) of nature. These North Queensland strangler figs were so unusual and impressive they were portrayed photographically in The Queenslander magazine from as early as 1896 and on postcards soon after 1900. Descriptions of unusual tropical vegetation such as the giant strangler figs began to appear in tourist guides from the 1920s. These photos give a good idea of why the trees (there are two of them near Yungaburra) are worth visiting and admiring. And Yungaburra is a wonderland of exotic delights. Check it out at http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/yungaburra-qld
06.01.2022 School Holiday Time at Mogo Zoo The summer months, those seemingly endless days when the skies were thick with smoke and every day brought more horrific news of bushfire disasters, were notable for a small number of remarkable stories. One of the most touching was the way the keepers at Mogo Zoo put their lives on the line to save their animals. There was no question about their bravery. The fire really did lick the edges of the zoo and the dangers of animals being destroyed...Continue reading
05.01.2022 The Best Public Sculpture? Tibooburra, New South Wales Over the past 30 years public sculpture has proliferated around the country. Most of it is rather forgettable. Just populist kitsch, usually created by local craftspeople, with no real redeeming merits. But some is truly inspired. Personally, I am a fan of the Sculpture Walk known as Sculptures on the Cliffs at Ellison in South Australia. It is a delightful combination of dry, Australian wit (there is a sculpture of ...Continue reading
05.01.2022 Solving the Mystery of the Pacific and Princes Highway Kiama It is as though the plague does not exist? Today, and yesterday, as part of a long weekend of beautiful early summer weather, people are pouring out of Sydney and gathering (in crowds) at every available beach. Too crazy and far too irresponsible. Now as you laugh at the plague (you may regret it) and drive to your favourite beach, think of this: there is only one place on the entire New South Wales coast where Hi...ghway 1 (ie the Pacific Highway north of Sydney and the Princes Highway south of Sydney) actually passes beside a beach and the ocean. That place is Bombo Beach just north of Kiama and, as luck has it, the beach I overlook every day. If you think I am wrong I have been saying this, on radio and in print, for the past 30 years and I have never had anyone convince me that there are other places where the road runs beside the ocean. Coffs Harbour? No. Eden? No. Ulladulla? Well it is beside the harbour but not beside an ocean beach. There are a number of simple explanations. (1) Until the 1940s, and in some places it was as late as the 1960s, the main mode of transport up and down the coast was by sea there were wharves and ferries for transporting dairy products and ships plied the coast moving timber. (2) Most roads were local and designed to take produce from the hinterland to the coastal ports. Thus, on the south coast, much of the road is still slow and winding and dangerous. It is a series of linked local roads once used by horse and sulky to carry people and dairy produce to the wharves and jetties. (3) The cost of putting in a coastal road would have been horrendous. All you have to do is look at a map of the coast between Newcastle and Port Macquarie to realise that the inland route was the cheapest option. A road that traversed the Myall Lakes and then the waters of the Camden Haven River and its lakes would have been frighteningly expensive. The result (and we all should rejoice) is that large areas of the New South Wales coastline are largely the same as they were when Captain James Cook came up the coast in 1770. They are unspoilt bushland, patches of rainforest, dramatic cliffs and beaches where only a few human steps are taken each year. This is pristine country because the geography conspired to ensure that no road could be easily built along the spectacularly beautiful coastline. I rather like the idea that Bombo Beach is the one exception. It gives me a great view and, most importantly, when I return from Sydney I love coming over the hill at Kiama Downs and seeing the warm golden beach stretched out in front of me. The photo is of Bombo - see the road running down the hill.
04.01.2022 My Favourite Gold Mining Towns Gwalia, Western Australia I never cease to be amazed by mining towns. There are so many of them particularly in Victoria but also in Queensland and Western Australia and each of them has both a fascinating story and a collection of impressive buildings. Those buildings recall a time when the towns were rich with gold. One of my favourites is Walhalla in Victoria. It is a genuinely beautiful mining ghost town certainly the prettiest in th...e country and it got me thinking about the essential ghost towns. There are lots of mining ghost towns around Australia. They are monuments to the transient nature of mining and the obsessive nature of the gold prospector. At Hill End, one of the most beautifully preserved, I made the observation that it was fascinating how the towns started with about three people, grew to twenty thousand in a few weeks, became wild and rambunctious when the miners started finding gold, and then died as the miners moved on to the next goldfield. Malcolm Drinkwater, who has lived at Hill End most of his life, replied rather dryly: I think it was probably the same twenty thousand. They just moved from one gold strike to the next. Of all the mining ghost towns I have visited (and I think I have visited them all) the one that appeals to me most is Gwalia in Western Australia. Part of its appeal is that it was very late in the history of Australia’s goldrushes; part is to do with the unusual management of the mine; and part is to do with the strange power and mystery that seems to hang around gold mining towns in the middle of deserts. It wasn’t until 1895-1896 that gold was discovered in the area. By 1898 the mine manager was Herbert Hoover who would go on to become the President of the United States (you can actually book and stay in his house); and within three years this god forsaken piece of desert had attracted over 500 miners. Today the appeal partly lies in the preservation of the shacks and guest houses which were built to house the miners. Patroni’s Guest House is a corrugated iron building (how hot must it have become in summer?) which was a popular, if primitive, eating and living quarters for miners particularly those who had emigrated from Italy and Yugoslavia. And the Little Pink Camp in Kane Street is an interesting example of the urgency and temporary nature of houses in mining towns. It was literally made out of any materials available. It has newspapers on the walls, a simple plank floor, and three small rooms. Who needs comfort when there is gold to be found? Today it is possible to wander through the town and feel the harshness of the lifestyle. It is, for me, the best of all the mining ghost towns. An unforgettable reminder of the pain and suffering that went with discovering and prospecting for gold. http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/gwalia-wa
04.01.2022 The True History of Ned Kelly at Glenrowan How many Australians know the details of Ned Kelly’s life? Just about everyone knows well, knows what? That he wore a hand-made suit of armour, wrote an impassioned letter declaring his hatred for authority, and that he was executed reputedly saying, on his way to the gallows, Such is life. But what more does the average Australian known. Ned’s life is now so obscured by mythology that it is quite difficult to establish whether h...Continue reading
03.01.2022 A Healthy Dose of God and Mammon at Ebenezer, NSW The tiny settlement of Ebenezer is an amusing mixture of God and Mammon. Established shortly after the European settlement of the Sydney basin, Ebenezer's primary claim to fame is that the Ebenezer Church, a wonderfully simple and ascetic sandstone structure which dates from 1809, is the oldest standing church in the country. It started as a Presbyterian Church and is now run by the Uniting Church. If you are in a religious mo...od there is a service every Sunday at 8.30 am. It is still remarkable how recent the church is in comparison to virtually any church in Europe. A constant reminder that European Australia is a very modern society. Our first church was buiit only thirty years before the completion of the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol. The church was built three years after the area was settled. In 1803 a number of free settler families who had sailed to Australia on the Coromandel in 1802 arrived in the area. They weren't all Presbyterians but one, James Mein, was an elder of Galashiels kirk (and a lay pastor) and he started holding informal services in his house at Portland. Out of these meetings grew the desire to build the church at Ebenezer. The church was originally divided with half of it being a place of worship and the other half being a schoolhouse, reputedly the oldest in Australia. The schoolmaster's residence, which stands nearby, now serves Devonshire Tea. That’s God out of the way. After visiting the church continue along Tizzana Road until you reach Tizzana Winery. The winery promotes itself as 'a touch of Tuscany on the banks of the Hawkesbury River'. It was built in 1887 by Dr Thomas Henry Fiaschi (he was a distinguished doctor who is remembered by the huge and much loved bronze boar outside Sydney Hospital) who had emigrated to Australia from Florence in 1875. Fiaschi was a strong advocate of the judicious use of wine although he never defined judicious. The Tizzana winery cellar door is open from noon to 5.00pm on weekends. Pure Mediterranean Mammon. God and Mammon in one day. How good is that! http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/ebenezer-nsw
03.01.2022 Saying Hello to a Platypus (With a Bonus) Jenolan Caves I once had a travel editor who said: If you can guarantee the sighting of a platypus (and he meant - everyone will see it) then I will put the story of the front page. It was a reasonable gambit. Platypii, or is it platypuses, are notoriously difficult to see. You can go to places where they promise platypus sightings and see nothing.... I know one place where the visitor is guaranteed a platypus sighting. Everyone I have sent there has seen the strange animal. There are four simple rules: The first rule is to be absolutely silent. The next rule is to arrive very early in the morning or late in the evening. The third rule is patience. The fourth rule is start looking for lines of bubbles - they are the sign that a platypus is swimming just below the surface. In the dammed pool below the Grand Arch cave (known as the Blue Lake) there are a number of platypuses (platypii) and while they are extremely shy (hence the name of the famous children's book Shy the Platypus) they will appear if you keep very quiet. The experience is magical. You will become one of a very few people to have seen a platypus in the wild. Unforgettable. Oh, and for those who are interested, At first dismissed as a prank, and later cited as proof that God has a sense of humour, the duck-billed platypus has finally given up its evolutionary secrets. The creature, considered one of the strangest mammals in the world, has become the latest to have its genetic code sequenced, revealing it to be a bizarre mix of mammal, bird and reptile, with very complex sexuality. While humans have two sex chromosomes, the X and Y, the platypus has 10, with five of each kind. Don’t say you don’t learn anything on the internet. The location (and here is the bonus) is Jenolan Caves, the impressive collection of caves at the western end of the Blue Mountains. There are 22 major caves in the Jenolan system. Of these there are ten - the Imperial, Chifley, Lucas, River, Orient, Temple of Baal, Diamond, Pool of Cerberus, Jubilee and Ribbon - which are 'dark caves' opened for guided inspection. And, mercifully, they have been modernised so the experience is more 21st century than 19th. Check it out at http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/jenolan-caves-nsw
03.01.2022 Mount Augustus and Dongas "We're pretty busy in the winter months," said the woman at the Mount Augustus Tourist Resort when I rang her a few years ago to book some very out-of-the-way accommodation. "We'll try and fit you in. I think there'll be a spare donga. We'll find somewhere. Don't worry." We agree that I will ring her when I get to Carnarvon. It is necessary to check on the road and ensure that I will have somewhere to sleep before I make the journey. She's relaxed ab...Continue reading
02.01.2022 Burleigh Heads The Evolution of a Name There are times when trying to drill down and find a simple truth about Australian towns becomes about as easy as drilling through cast iron with a screwdriver. Burleigh Heads should be ridiculously easy. Burleigh is a common enough name for a place. There’s a Burleigh in North Dakota; another one in Texas; one in New Jersey; one in New Zealand I could go on but you get the picture.... They are probably all descended, by dint of easy imitation, from Burleigh, near Stroud, in Gloucestershire in England. So it shouldn’t be hugely difficult to find out who named Burleigh Head (or is it Heads we’ll get to that in a minute) in Queensland. Ah! Ha! The problem. It seems that in 1840 a surveyor named J.R. Warner, impressed by the dark headland jutting out from the 32 km long stretch of beach that is the Gold Coast, decided to name the headland, Burly Head. Rather masculine. Did he think it had testosterone in its black, volcanic rocks? Anyway, for reasons no one knows, it evolved into Burleigh. No one knows why. And as for Burleigh Head or Burleigh Heads? Well, logically, it should be Burleigh Head because it is a single volcanic outcrop (23 million years old if you are interested) and therefore the plural makes no sense. And it is never as easy or sensible as it should be. The Queensland National Parks insist that the parkland on the headland be called Burleigh Head National Park while the Queensland Department of Tourism insist that it should be Burleigh Heads. Go figure. Maybe the smart answer is to call it Jellurgal which is what it was called by the locals before J.R. Warner came along and caused such unnecessary confusion. Check out Burleigh Head/s at https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/burleigh-heads-qld.
02.01.2022 Mirana The True Sugar Capital of Australia Mackay, because it is a city and is the service centre of the Pioneer Valley, likes to think of itself as the Sugar Capital of Australia. It is not accurate in the sense that if you take the road from Mackay to Mirani and then up the escarpment to Eungella National Park you really will feel as though you are in a sugar wonderland.... As soon as you leave Mackay you are surrounded by sugar cane fields which, just prior to cutting, are nearly three metres high. Every spare millimetre of land is used so houses often Queenslanders perched on pylons to allow for a cool breeze underneath are edged by sugar cane fields. Narrow railway lines criss-cross the valley bringing the cane to the two huge sugar cane mills. It is a formidable sight and a reminder that sugar cane, now that ethanol is being used as an additive in petrol, is vital to the modern economy. There are two attractions in the area which are well worth visiting. Eungella National Park, up the escarpment and about 10 cooler than the tropical floodplains of the Pioneer River, claims to have so many platypuses (platypii) that the visitor is likely to catch a glimpse of the creatures in the wild. I have been to Eungella at least three times and never seen a platypus although, in fairness, I have spoken to some wide-eyed backpackers who insisted they had seen the elusive, shy creatures in the local creeks. And for those interested in the historic world of opera, there is a house in Mirani named Melba House where Helen Porter Mitchell once lived with her husband Charles Armstrong. Mitchell’s father built the first mill in the valley and her husband managed one of the mills. Amazingly, for such an intensely rural and isolated area, young Mitchell left and, as Nellie Melba, later Dame Nellie Melba, became the most famous operatic soprano of her generation. Today she is primarily remembered for her inability to retire. She announced her retirement over and over again only to return to the stage. It is now known, with droll humour, as doing a Melba. http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/mirani-qld
02.01.2022 A Story about a simpler time Gayndah, QLD When I was a child, back in the 1950s, the world was a simpler place. Wages were low and consequently most people had jobs. There were no computers, no bar codes, no cash registers and, because they could employ so many people, department stores (and in Tumut the local Co-op) used wonderful, human-intensive devices known as Flying Foxes to deal with all transactions. Two people for every sale!... Say, hypothetically, I went into the menswear section to buy a shirt. I would purchase the shirt. The salesperson would write out a docket in duplicate (there was a funny thing called carbon paper which, if you pressed hard enough, would copy your handwriting from the original docket to one below it). He or she would then place the docket with my money into a canister which would then be placed on a metal line which ran up to an office in the middle of the store. The canister would be sent hurtling up the metal line until it reached a person in an office above the sales floor. That person would remove the canister, check the docket and the money, place the change and a receipt in the canister and send it whizzing back to the salesperson. With the arrival of cash registers and decent wages which meant that staff had to be rationalized these wonderfully arcane devices started to disappear. I think they had gone from the Tumut Co-op by around 1960. They have always fascinated me. In 1988 I found one still operating in a department store in Charters Towers and there was one being used in Winton in western Queensland and somewhere north of Adelaide in South Australia. Recently I found one in Gayndah in central Queensland. It is a novelty. The people who run the store Bob and Marion Hodgson have maintained it and, because it has been filmed a number of times they attract tourists from all over the world. Bob and Marion are proud of the fact that a couple from the Netherlands actually travelled all the way to Gayndah to see this strange antiquated cash register. It is a device that really belongs to another era. I become very sentimental and very old when I see it working. It takes me back to a time of short pants and very curly hair.
01.01.2022 Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world It is the largest sand island in the world an island that is 123 km long, up to 22 km wide, covers 184,000 square kilometres, is over 800,000 years old and, when it comes to a huge deposit of sand, is probably over 600 metres below the sea and has dunes that rise to 240 metres. That is one very, very big sand castle! It can only be experienced by 4WD which means you either take the ferry across in your 4WD or you join one... of the many tours which basically cross the dunes and rainforest and then drive up and down the hard, flat beach on the eastern side of the island. Why is it so special? Because it is a wonderland of natural sites which you will see nowhere else on the planet. The coloured sand cliffs at the north; the perched lakes (formed by rainwater and enclosed by the dunes) which are impossibly clean and perfect; the huge sand dunes which are slowly moving across the island; the pure dingoes that are running free and can be seen on the beach and up the creeks; the 120km beach on the east of the island which is so firm and white and hard. And then, for lovers of the arcane and the crazy, there is the story of Eliza Fraser (who gave her name to the island). We will never know the truth because when she finally returned to civilization firstly in Sydney and later in London she became a one-woman freak show who told fairy stories of her mishandling by the local Aborigines. What Eliza did do was leave us with one of the longest book titles ever. Learn it off by heart and say it at parties. Eliza Fraser wrote (and this is the title: "The Shipwreck of Mrs Fraser, and the loss of the Stirling Castle, on a Coral Reef in the South Pacific Ocean. Containing an account of the hitherto unheard-of sufferings and hardships of the crew, who existed for seven days without food or water. The dreadful sufferings of Mrs. Fraser. who, with her husband, and the survivors of the ill-fated crew, are captured by the savages of New Holland, and by them stripped entirely naked, and driven into the bush. Their dreadful slavery, cruel toil, and excruciating tortures inflicted on them. The horrid death of Mr. Brown, who was roasted alive over a slow fire kindled beneath his feet. Meeting of Mr. and Mrs. Fraser, and inhuman murder of Captain Fraser in the presence of his wife. Barbarous treatment of Mrs Fraser, who is tortured, speared, and wounded by the savages. The fortunate escape of one of the crew, to Moreton Bay, a neighbouring British settlement, by whose instrumentality, through the ingenuity of a convict, named Graham, the survivors obtain their deliverance from the savages. Their subsequent arrival in England, and appearance before the Lord Mayor of London." She told the entire story in the book's title. Very funny. http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/fraser-island-qld
01.01.2022 Being Rude about Canberra I spent a little time (I was going to say ‘agonised’ but that was much too strong) thinking about whether to include Canberra in Aussie Towns. I am not going to include the state capitals, with the exception of Hobart and Darwin (they are small enough), and Canberra seemed to be on the edge of being too big and too small. Eventually I decided to do it but when I was about halfway through, and was assiduously researching the changes since I wrote ab...Continue reading
01.01.2022 A Few Thoughts About RV (Recreational Vehicle) Friendly Towns Some years ago I was the MC at a Local Councils conference about Tourism. It was a day of, mostly, good luck stories about people who had created successful tourism businesses. They talked about their marketing, the kinds of people they wanted to attract, and how they had promoted their products. At the very end of the day there were two speakers one, a woman, who was a passionate advocate for the new idea of RV ...Friendly Towns. The other was the head of the Caravan Park Association. What is an RV Friendly Town? They are towns which create an area, usually on the outskirts of town, where self-sufficient caravans (ie ones that don’t need a shower block or a power point they have built in electricity and bathing facilities) can park for a night or two. These towns always supply a fairly sophisticated waste disposal device and they proudly announce themselves, by prominent signage, as RV Friendly so travellers know they can pull up for the night and not pay for the privilege. The woman argued that RV Friendly areas were good for the local town. The caravanners who used them would go to the local supermarket to buy supplies, fill up at the local service station, and probably have their evening meal at the local pub or club. They generated income for the town and the cost was nothing more than regular waste disposal. She was friendly, logical and I, having just heard of the idea, thought it was a brilliant strategy for getting caravanners (ie grey nomads) to stop and spend. Then the man from the Caravan Park Association spoke and well, what do you expect it was the end of the world. These people were just bludgers. They wanted something for free. They would not be tidy. They would not buy anything in the local shops. They would drive good, hard working caravan park owners out of business, they weren’t prepared to pay for quality. Today the argument seems to be over: caravan parks still exist although some of them are truly expensive - $50 a night for a power connection and a communal shower and toilet block seems a bit steep to me. And the arrival of the RV Friendly areas, particularly in central and western Queensland, has meant that the towns have turned their attention to trying to persuade the grey nomad set to stop and spend money and they have succeeded. The superb Dinosaur display Kronosaurus Korner at Richmond on the road from Townsville to the Northern Territory, is a direct result of all those grey nomads and it is wonderful. Thirty years ago, when I first drove through Richmond, there was nothing. So RV Friendly Towns have enriched the tourist experience. Good on them. http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/richmond-qld
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