Canberra to Beechworth

The Snowy Hydro Authority that operates the dams and power stations of the Snowy Mountains Scheme has a very good display at Cooma with many pictures, stories and objects from the construction. It was an amazing engineering feat taking 100,000 workers from 30 countries 27 years to build 16 dams, 7 power stations, 143km of tunnels and 75km of viaducts (open channels).  The workforce was made up of 60,000 Aussies and 40,000 foreign workers.  That’s a lot of 457 visa paperwork!!  

Wild T4 Theodolite used on the Snowy Scheme

Canberra is without doubt the most picturesque city in Australia.  It has a unique layout and always looks pretty, especially in full autumn colours.  We spent several hours at the War Memorial engrossed in the video, planes, vehicles and stories on display.  I found yet another version of the raid on Japanese shipping by the crew of the “Krait” who sailed from Exmouth to Singapore Harbour.  The displays are fantastic and it is clearly the best museum display of modern Australian history during wars.  We were particularly interested in the Boer and Vietnam War displays and the ‘Tomb of the Unknown Soldier’ is in a very special citadel.  A quick evening visit to the new Parliament House resulted in a good photo or two and I had a chat with Lane Calcutt (Ch9) who was standing in the cold filming a news story.  We both wanted Queensland to win the State of Origin contrary to the crew from Ch7 and Ch10; glad we didn’t run into them on Thursday. The National Portrait Gallery was new to us and was worth the visit.  There are some great paintings of many well known Aussies on show.  Over the road is the (actual) National Gallery of Australia which also houses a huge amount of art from around the world and included is a very large indigenous art section.  Many great artists are represented including Monet, Albert Namitjira and also a reasonable amount of absolute crap that we taxpayers have had purchased for us.  Next day we spent the morning at the Museum which is also a new(ish) facility and includes some great displays.  A feature was a large area dedicated to life in Australia during the last 100 years since 1913.  Some of the clothing, transport and building options available in 1913 were great to see.  It was interesting that the feeling in Australia in 1913 was one of great hope and opportunity and yet a year later we were in a war in Europe that nearly bankrupted the Country.  The Museum is a great place for the kids to visit with heaps to see and a large enclosed garden area inside when they are sick of the old stuff.  As the sun was out we slipped up Telstra Tower on Black Mountain for a view of the city from on high.  We were looking forward to a display on telecommunications marking Canberra’s Centenary this year but were quite disappointed with the 10 minute video and the 2 display cabinets of old phones.  One observation we made was that the business of Government; i.e. spending our taxes, is obviously booming as there is more high rise construction going on in Canberra than in any other city in Australia. 

 Canberra also treated us to our first heavy frost with a minus 3 and ice covering the car at night. 

WW2 Bomber

WW1 Fighter - first plane with guns

Canon used in Boer War in Africa 1899-1902

Citadel housing the 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier'

War Memorial to that House full of clowns at the moment

Skeleton and depiction os a Diprotodon

Enjoying some old sewing

Genuine Convict items from the 1700's in Sydney

Canberra from Black Mountain Tower

Next we took a loop heading north out of Canberra to Yass, around to the West through Gundagai, and along some back roads through Tumut to Talbingo, a small town on the shores of Lake Blowering in the foothills of the Snowy’s.  It is a very friendly and quiet little town.  We had read about the Yarrongabilly Caves between Talbingo and the Mt Selwyn ski fields and visited them.  The caves are in limestone mountains and are amazing.  We chose to pay for a guided tour through one set of caves and Garry then went on a self guided tour through another cave system.  The caves are beautiful, large, very well lit and contains heaps of stalagtites & -mites, water pools, sparkling rocks like they are covered in diamonds and some of the most pure white limestone flows we have seen.  We were lucky enough to be the only ones on the tour and the guide was very patient allowing us to take plenty of time looking over every feature and taking all the photos we needed.  The second set of caves is accessed through a huge opening on the cliff face above the Yarrongabilly River and all of the caves are in mountainous eucalypt forest that was great to see.  There are some beautiful heritage buildings near the office that can be rented and would make a great comfortable camping holiday.  Surprisingly there is also a thermal pool down beside the river which remains year round at 27 degrees despite the freezing cold water running a few metres away off the mountains.  It was a really special place and comes highly recommended from us.  

waiting on top of a cold mountain for the tour to start 

Limestone flows - one of the coloured ones

huge deep caves

impressive -tites

a sparkly flow

a couple of large -mites

white as snow

cool reflections

at the deepest point of the cave system 100's of metres into the hill

1800's heritage accommodation building for hire

the arty photo - cute tiny plants a few mm's high

Huge opening in the cliff face of the South Glory Cave system

impressive entry

whiter than snow!!!

Further on from the caves we checked out the Mt Selwyn ski fields which are busily preparing for the upcoming snow season but at the moment only have some patches of icy snow in front of their snow making machines.  It looks like it was going to be fun but cripes it must be cold when it snows because it was bitterly cold up there with a wind blowing.  

battery and hillside of the Kiandra Goldfields of some time ago

high country scerery

Mt Selwyn ski fields awaiting more white stuff

dead trees covering the hills with lush green underneath??

great colours when the sun peeps out

Got some great shots of the clouds and fog on the mountain forests and plains though.  We also saw some beautiful colours on the waters of the dam above Talbingo which feeds the Tumut No 3 Power Station.  It seems like there are power lines running over every mountain you see.

soft evening colours over Talbingo Reservoir

Tumut 3 Power station below the dam

Saying goodbye to Talbingo and not really wanting to talk to anyone about rugby league we spent all day today on one of the prettiest drives we have been on in Australia or anywhere else.  We drove along the edge of several lakes (Lake Hume is very pretty), up through pine and snow gum forests, through the apples growing region around Batlow, and into very quaint old towns like Tumbarumba, Yackandandah and Beechworth where we have decided to spend the long weekend.  It wasn’t an easy drive being through mountains most of the way but with patchy blue skies, green hills, lakes and forests we were never short of great scenery. 

back towards Talbingo along Lake Blowering