Armidale - Hunter Valley

Armidale is a great country town with very good schools and lots of heritage buildings all built in the mid 1800’s.  There are several large private boarding schools and a large Uni complex (UNE).  One of the girls boarding schools NEGS allows students to bring their horse to board as they have a large equestrian complex.   The tourist information centre runs a free heritage bus tour which was a great look at all the significant heritage buildings.  We drove around the next day for photos and heard the cathedral bells practicing.  Next day we joined two of the recommended tourist drives and visited Uralla, Dangar Falls, and Saumarez Homestead.  Uralla is another town full of old buildings and the grave of the bushranger Thunderbolt.  The museum holds a series of paintings depicting Thunderbolts holdups and arrest.  They are excellent paintings and are worth the visit to the museum alone.  The rest of the display is also good and contains some great artefacts from the gold rush days.  Dangar Falls drops 170m from the sheep country into deep fractured gorges.  While not pretty the faulted mountains are impressive. In between these two well known sites is an old sheep station and church well worth a visit.  The sheep station is Deeargee (DRG) and has a huge octagonal sheep shed that stands out of the plains.  The nearby church is located in the middle of a 3 way road junction.  Each of the 3 roads are lined by huge elm trees and the 1800’s church has its ends covered in ivy.  It is very picturesque. 

Saumarez Homestead is a station homestead that has been handed over to the National Trust and is now opened to the public by volunteers.  The homestead was built for a family and the servants, extended to two floors when the original was no longer deemed impressive enough and ended up the home of two unmarried sisters.  When the last sister died the decendants invited the Nat Trust to take it over.  The house has been left untouched with clothes in the wardrobes, jams in the kitchen and all furniture and effects in place.  It was a great tour and the gardens are also very impressive as is the attached farm buildings and old horse drawn machinery.  Once again a long tree lined driveway makes a great entrance avenue.  The Pembroke Tourist Village is an excellent park with big grassed sites, new amenities, and a choose your own site policy.  We were sharing the park with heaps of over 60’s cricketers in town for the Australian over 60 Championships.

Early in the week we headed further south and stopped at Tamworth to get info on the Country Music Festival program and booked the shows we wanted.  We overnighted at Scone and I would recommend not to.  The mining industry is booming at accommodation is filled by workers.  We intended to stay at Lake Glenbaun but it was booked out.

We moved straight on to Paterson which is a small town a few km’s north of Maitland and where Peter, Carols brother, lives on a 7 acre block.  It started raining during the night at Scone and has rained non-stop for the last 4 days accompanied by cold temperatures.  Intended giving Peter a hand with some building work but the rain has limited us except for today when we went into Newcastle to help Jackie move some furniture out of her current house.  Jackie is moving to Sydney after a US holiday at the end of the year – lucky girl. 

Carol has received her Xmas present a bit early and has flown up to CQ to see Kirsty and Ben’s girls first dancing concert.  She hopes to catch up with Fabs and Brendan and Michelle and their boys. 

Whites house at UNE

One of many old Armidale pubs

C of E with excellent bells

Catholic Church

Another Church

Little church out among the once rich sheep stations

Octagonal shearing shed - 3 levels of glass windows

Dangar Falls

Saumarez House

Entry drive after a mile avenue of huge pine and elm trees.

Glenn Innes – Armidale

The Glen Innes Beardies Festival was a new experience.  The weekend was organized by the local Ullyssies club and provided Markets, entertainment, and a street parade.  We watched the start of the parade led by more than a hundred bikes ridden by old blokes and noticed one of them was Noel Fletcher, Carols cousin from Blackwater.  I walked into the middle of the street to get a photo beside another man with a camera and turns out he is from Bluff also taking photos of a relly – you’re never far from home!!  There was a show and shine following the parade; lots of bikes and several dozen cars including a 2 door XR Falcon and a couple of great one tonners – I am looking forward to seeing how Nicholas’s compares when (if) he finishes his.

 A drive around the district took in an old tin mining town of Emmaville.  There are no tin mines still operating but the drillers are back in town looking for silver again.  The Mining Museum in this little town is excellent.  There is the best display of rocks and minerals I have yet seen in one place.  There are 3 main contributors who have donated their families complete collections.  A great display of crystals, fossils, ores, etc from locally and around the world.  Outside town we visited an old arsenic and tin mine.  Tin was mined on two occasions and arsenic once when the tin price fell.  The arsenic ore sat below the tin and was mined in different levels of the underground so it was easy to recommence back on the tin levels when the price rose again.  Of interest was the arsenic treatment plant which consisted of a large chimney mounted on top of a hill which when fired drew air up the slope through draft corridors passing arched openings on the side.  The crushed ore was placed at the bottom as and the draft from the chimney carried the dust up the corridors the arsenic attached to the arched brick side compartments.  Every few days the draft was re-directed to the other side and workers went in to scrape the arsenic from the brick walls at the side – not the most sought after job.   It was interesting to visit the site but the area is overgrown and not very well looked after.

Ottery Mine arsenic plant

Glen Innes Town Hall

Glen Innes has a very strong Celtic connection and a monument has been erected in a park on the edge of town that is very impressive.  The Stones are a series of large granite stones placed in a circle (plus others) to show the time, date, the direction of sunrise and sunset at the winter and summer solstice, and true north & south.  Each stone is at least 5.4 metres long, 3.6 metres out of the ground, and they averaged 17 tonnes each.  It is apparently the only monument of its type built in 3,500 years; after Stonehenge I’m guessing?? A very interesting and well presented monument.

The little short rock is the centre of the circle

Looking almost north

After Glen Innes we headed east to the Gibraltor Range Nat Park for a couple of nights.  We were advised to stay at the Boundary Creek campsite as it was best for caravans.  There had been recent rain and the falls only 200 metres from the campsite were the prettiest I have seen. They were wide and fell into a large pool which ran out into a thick rainforest gorge – small but beautiful.  The water was clear and cool.  It was quite warm during the day and we ended up sitting in the stream at the top of the falls to cool off; a great spot.  A walk further along the creek (2 km’s) and we saw another set of falls where Boundary Creek falls 200m off the tableland into a deep valley between ranges.  These were the Lyrebird Falls - nice but not worth the walk as you only get to see them from the opposite side of the valley.  Our camp was peaceful with lots of small birds and a couple of very friendly wallabies that came straight up to Garry in his deck chair looking for food.  The camp was right at an 1800’s saw mill site with foundations and an old steam engine still in the bush.  Another walk to the Anvil (balancing granite outcrops) also took us passed a number of Waratah flowers that are in full bloom. They are an impressive flower.  We also encountered our first red bellied black snake in the wild; a little fella only about a metre long and in a hurry to get off our track.  On the way home we drove into the Raspberry Lookout which is on the pointy end of a very high ridge where your 270 degree views go forever (into the haze), impressive views of high ranges and deep valleys.

Boundary Creek Falls

from the rainforest

Cooling off at the top

Garry's new best friend

Large Grasstree on the walk to the Anvil

NSW floral emblem, the Waratah

Raspberry Lookout

Tree cut down in 1800's. Note notches cut for springboards.

We left Boundary Falls headed for Grafton but planned to do a walk in Washpool Nat Park, a bit further east., early Thursday on our way.  The Washpool walk ended up being 10km long before lunch.  It is thick rainforest with huge timber, crows nests, staghorns, ferns, waterfalls on Cedar Creek, and great views from the hill tops.  It was a great rainforest walk and highly recommended.  There are 3 very large cedar trees that escaped the loggers and the evidence of their work is still visible in the huge stumps visible everywhere.  I am glad logging has stopped here. The main creek is quite large and has some great spots where the water runs through and pools around the large granite boulders.  I must mention the leeches and ticks; they were numerous and hungry but no problem to see and remove on regular stops.  Pre-warned and we would have not been wearing shorts and would have applied insect repellant (Bushmans I’m told is the best, worn with nylon stockings.  After 10 km’s we were in no mood for travelling so set up camp in Bellbird Camp Ground which was probably the prettiest camp we have had yet.  We were nestled into the huge timbers and also enjoyed good grassed areas, a camp kitchen, water (once boiled) and toilets.  We also encountered a real red bellied black snake at the end of our walk. Sunning himself on the grass right beside the path as it entered the thick bush was a biggy – at least 2 metres long and not keen on moving too much, he had more than a foot of him off the ground looking at us.  We left him be and yet still decided to camp the night. 

Washpool Creek

Big crowsnests in big trees

In front of 1 of 11 mature Cedar trees not logged in Washpool Nat Park. 

At least one strangler fig covering a big tree

Undergrowth covered in moss & tiny ferns

Our camp site at Bellbird Camp Ground. Very tall timber around us with our own BBQ (firewood supplied by NPWS) and picnic table.  Sunshine between 11am and 1pm only.

We highly recommend Bellbird Camp Ground and the Washpool Nat Park even though even though the Nat Parks and Wildlife office recommend we not take the van in there, the road is gravel but good however, there is a long steep slope in and it felt an even longer steeper 3km climb back out of the camp site – very worth it.

We gave up on Grafton this time and headed back through Glen Innes and down to Armidale for the weekend – telephones and TV again!

Girraween – Glen Innes

We checked out of Stanthorpe at the end of last week and took up residence in the Girraween National Park.  Girraween was a completely different national park to one we had seen before.  The camp area for vans, and tents was roomy with good facilities and complete silence and darkness at night; water (boil before drinking) but no electricity.  The park is in the middle of hills of exposed granite.  There are several running streams but the exposed bald rock faces and balancing boulders are worth seeing.  Both Carol and I managed to “walk” (climb) the Pyramids, 1277m above Sea Level, and the views from the top are impressive.  We also walked to the junction of two streams and the rock pools and exposed granite colors were impressive as was Dr Roberts (swimming) waterhole located on another stream in the hills.

Leaving the peace (and dwindling water and battery power) we moved on to Tenterfield.  Our Camps Aust. Book suggested a cheap site at the showgrounds so we gave it a go.  As our drive from Girraween was not a huge one (55km’s) we arrived early and got the best spot.  It is cheap, convenient to town but the amenities are rather basic yet clean.  Most trips to town and around the sites were done on foot.  We took on the Heritage walk around the old buildings and were impressed how well they are being kept.  The Tenterfield Saddler was interesting; it still sells leather goods but has no resident saddler any more.  The smell of leather hits you before you even make the verandah.  We also saw a huge cork tree which was transported from England in a jam tin and planted in 1860.  Garry spent an hour going through the Railway Museum while Carol went on a tour of Stannum House, a multi-storey residence which was built in 1888 by a rich tin miner with 12 children.  It has been lovingly restored and has been filled with beautiful old furniture and fittings. I must also mention the Tenterfield Golf Course. It is a great course. The fairways are lined with many different large trees, there is water, hills, gardens, and a few exposed granite boulders in strategic places.  The best bit was the excellent grass on the fairways and the greens that took borrow on any slight slope and ran quickly while being lush green.  There is a huge clubhouse and 14 motel units on the fairways (6 more under construction) – not bad for a town of 3,500 people (plus a few rich graziers I suspect).  Oh, and I did hit the ball Ok too - 45/44.

Wednesday night we enjoyed an excellent meal at Henry’s on Rouse restaurant to celebrate 37 years and left the town for the bush again in Boonoo Boonoo Nat Park.  The Cypress camp area was very peaceful beside the river but the access is difficult for larger vans and I would recommend the camp ground at Bald Rock instead (about 20km’s apart). We managed to find a nice shady spot and even had a dip in the cool running water during afternoon nibblies.  The falls were impressive were the river falls 200+ metres over the edge of the tablelands but the lookout is a little disappointing as there is no access to see the main drop – you can see the rapids and the edge which were good but could not see the main falls, only the riverbed in the valley 200m below.  Being so fit (!) we decided to tackle the Bald Rock climb on the same day.  This was very impressive large bald rock hills similar to Girraween but higher. The views from the top were great and would be fantastic after rain on a clear day.  We took the gradual walk up but came straight down the rock face which reminded us how old our knee caps were.  Just north of Tenterfield were 2 interesting sights – the first was “Thunderbolt’s Hideout” and the second was the WW2 tank traps.  The road to Beaudesert was rhe only road from Sydney to Brisbane in WW2 and the second line of defence was set up at the top of the Great Dividing Range 10km north of Tenterfield.  Between hills of granite a trap of 3 lines of fixed 5’ high posts was installed and large boulders were placed into the hills from them. During the war about 10,000 soldiers were stationed just south of the tank traps at London Bridge.  The bushranger Thunderbolt also many years earlier recognized the benefit of blocking the Syd – Bris road and found a great hideout between huge boulders just off the road.  The gaps in the rocks were big enough to hide his horses, there was running water in a creek 20m away, and from the top of the boulders he could see a long way.  One boulder has weathered and is balancing on the back edge only providing a domed roof cave about 10m in diameter and 2m high in the centre. The opening is only about 0.6m high but is clear of the ground for more than half of the bottom of the rock – a great little hidey hole.

Today, Remembrance Day we have moved into Glen Innes where they are having a Celtic Festival over the weekend.

Balancing rock on top of Pyramids in Giraween Nat Park

We made it; then had a rest

Carol on the path back down

Girraween neighbours

What are you looking at?

Another camp friend

Open Garden on a sheep station outside Tenterfield - 10 acres along a creek.

Out of order Pyramid, path up the left edge - zoom in to see 2 people on top

Tenterfield Golf Course

Tenterfield Heritage walk

Tenterfield Saddler where Peter Allens' grandfather, George Woolnough, was a saddler.

Carol on tour of Stannum House

Grand for 1888

Entrance to Tenterfield

Bren Carrier at Railway Museum.

Model Railway

1861 Cork Tree

Block of land for sale just can't move the tree!!

Thunderbolts' Hideout

Boonoo Boonoo Falls

Looking over the edge of New England Tableland

Carol on Bald Rock

Garry on top

Path down is over far edge

Carol on the way down

Playing with digital photos while waiting for the spuds to cook in Nat Park. Note great fireplaces & BBQ's.