Setting Off For The Outback

Monday 30 October

It didn’t seem we had been in bed any time at all when the alarm went off at 05.30, but we quickly showered and dressed, before the hotel man called us for breakfast. This house is very similar to lots of Victorian houses in England in that it has a kitchen in an ‘extension’ off the back room. The open courtyard space beside the ‘extension’ had been turned into a conservatory, with green iron furniture and flowery plastic tablecloths and lots of parlour palms to give it atmosphere. Fruit, cereals and bread, together with toaster were presented on a large dresser with a marble shelf along one wall. We helped ourselves to peach halves, prunes and cornflakes, before assaulting the toasting machine. Having eaten my slice of toast, the main man came round with piping hot croissants, straight from the oven, crisp and buttery and irresistible. All this in less than twenty minutes. We had had a warm welcome at this guest house and spent a comfortable night (on a soft bed, compared to what we have slept on recently), so will have no nightmares about returning in a month or so.

As we struggled to get our suitcases to the pavement, the hotel man waved a lone passing taxi and persuaded him to take us to “Star City” the meeting place for our tour. Sydney was just waking up to a Monday morning return to work after the weekend, and the traffic was beginning to build as we passed through the city centre to the other side of Darling Harbour. When the taxi driver dropped us off, we could see no sign of where we were supposed to meet, except for two coaches parked up the road. Behind us, through a narrow gap between waterfalls, I spied another coach and on closer inspection, we found a bus station, with a desk and attendant for AAT Kings, who pointed us in the right direction for our pick up point.

There were already half a dozen other people (with small cases) waiting at the bus stop. We had been told to be there by 07.20 at the very latest as the coach would go without us if we were not there by 07.30. About 07.50 a coach, already half full, pulled up beside us – the rest of our tour group having been picked up at a different collection point. Suitcases were loaded into the hold on the side of the coach, with no comment about the weight – another couple – Bob and Gwen from Newcastle, New South Wales – had told us they only had 11 kgs each – what bliss.

Ruben our tour leader and Paul our driver introduced themselves, and informed us there were people from Australia – that was Bob and Gwen – and Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, the US, Canada and of course England on this tour. It turned out that there is couple from Colchester – Christine and Rod, as well as ourselves from Blighty, but we havenn’t spoken to them very much so far. Most peple seemed to be well in their 60’s and even 70’s, but all quite sprightly – even though the American ladies are “huge”. Ruben outlined the day, told us the do’s and don’t about traveling on the coach, and some information about the country we would be passing through. And then we settled back into our comfy seats – near the back of the coach, as all those on before us were seated in the front half, so Bob and Gwen (also Harris’es) and ourselves sat near the back - for the start of a long journey – 7,500 kms from Sydney to Darwin – almost 5000 miles. The coach is about a year old, and really comfortable with a loo (preferably for emergencies only).

Once we had traveled out of the city, the landscape became very dry and dusty and we were told that from Sydney to Goldburn – where we would stop for a tea break – and beyond, they were suffering severe drought conditions, up to Level 5 (1 being low and 5 being the most serious). While in Koh Samui we had seen pictures of huge forest fires in the Sydney area, because it was so dry, and the situation has not eased at all. The landscape was reminiscent of Wiltshire’s rolling hills and Salisbury Plain, with large open areas of grassland sprinkled with trees (if you have seen a painting of a 19th century country house with its surrounding parkland, you know just what this scenery looked like – very Jane Austen). Sadly there were many grey stumps and large bare tree trunks fallen on the ground that had obviously died already through lack of water. Most of the agriculture in this area was cows, with a few sheep and horses.

We followed the very straight road known as Hume Highway all the way to Goldbourn, arriving about 11.00 for a coffee break. This town was founded in 1825 as men wanted to move away from the city to farm. As the area became more developed – Mr Hume built the road to connect the settlement to Sydney, and even more people came and settled in the area. A Court House was built here to deal with escaped convicts who fled to the wilderness areas around this town, and a plaque in the gardens commemorates the jail, morgue and hanging site of the 1860’s (the morgue’s still there, but with a new Italianate design court house). In 1869 Goldbourn received “city status” and is still the largest city away from the coast in New South Wales. It has a long main high street, with many cafes. The residential area is all single storey “bungalows” (with a small covered in area outside the front door) or “federation dwellings”, still single storey, but with verandah all the way round – looking very 19th century colonial. The sun was out and the whole town seemed a sleepy, sunny hollow, almost forgotten in time. Parents were playing with children in the small park, a few people were shopping and others chatting over coffees at the pavement cafes. The whole pace of life was gentle and laid back – you couldn’t ever imagine anyone rushing. The trees here appear similar to ours, although I am sure they are not – it is springtime here any deciduous trees should just be getting new leaves now but they still have their old ones – although the leaves look tired and ready to fall – probably due to the drought. There are lots of eucalyptus, what look like silver birch with white bark on their trunks and red gum trees – which come in all shapes and sizes from small petite trees, to ones with trunks about 3 metres round. The only bright green trees are the willows, which line every creek, even if there is no longer any water. There are some flowering plants like hebes with red flowers and beautiful jacaranda trees, full of mauve flowers, but no leaves.

Following the short break, we continued on the Hume Highway, through an area dedicated to farming - mainly sheep – of which three-quarters are Merino, bred for their wool. We passed a sign saying “Dog on Tuckerbox”, pointing towards a service station area. Apparently there was a song made about a tale handed down through generations which led to a small statue being erected in recognition. A farmer in the 1850’s was having a bad time, the weather had washed away his crops, the yoke had broke on his oxen and then to add to his misery, his dog had defecated on his tuckerbox, which he was supposed to be guarding. This story was passed down, and eventually a rhyme was set to music, which Australians still recognize today. We passed through towns like Gundergai, which had been washed away twice in the 1880’s by serious floods and was eventually rebuilt on the hills around the valley. It is another example of a very sleepy country town.

We stopped for lunch (between 15.00 and 16.00 – a bit late) at Wagga Wagga – meaning “too many crows!”. Today, it is a pastoral community supporting about 130 -140,000 beef and dairy cows and 1.5 million sheep. I did see a farmer on his tractor with two sheep dogs, rounding up a huge flock of sheep, presumably to move them to new pasture. The total population is around 50,000 – its hard to believe that most Chinese towns we visited had several million inhabitants. Today there is an army base and RAAF base here, and thriving university. The city was founded by Charles Sturt (and the university and roads and estates are all named after him), in 1846 when he encouraged people to come here to farm. Wagga Wagga is probably most famous for the longest civil court case in England – a man – Richard Thornbird – died on his way from here to South America, and another man turned up and claimed to be the same Richard. Although the mother agreed he was her son, the courts would not hear of it, and the imposter took his case to London, to be heard. They heard it for ten years from 1864 - 1874! And finally decided he was an imposter – a butcher by trade - and he received 14 years in jail for perjury. Lots of flies kept attacking us as we walked up and down the high street and around the local park – but Ruben assures us there is worse to come.

Onward on our journey towards our resting place tonight at Griffith. Just outside the town we saw a road nameplate saying “Thirteen Mile Road” pointing to a made up track leading over the nearby hill – not very inventive, but obviously informative. The landscape was now changing from dry dusty pasture to ‘fields’ of gold and green. The Murrumbidgee Irrigation Authority was set up after an engineer Samuel McCarty saw the potential for farming if he could irrigate this area using water from the Murrumbidgee river. He developed a system using pipes (today they are made from polythene), laid underground around the fields, taking water from the river to the crops – the gradient just had to be higher at the river and lower in the fields. The area prospered under his supervision and soon the Government looked at what Samuel McCarty had achieved and went on to develop and expand his ideas even further. Today, the area is green and gold, growing wheat and barley, rice, lucerne for animal feed, together with vines, citrus fruits and 90% of the Valencia oranges produced in New South Wales. There were acres and acres of small vine trees, producing grapes for wine, but this area has never achieved the popularity of other areas in the region like Hunter Valley, Clare Valley, Barrossa Estate, etc, and most of this wine is sold fairly cheaply – even though it is acceptable plonk. The area relies stongly on cheap backpacker labour to pick the fruit (there just aren’t enough locals to do the job), which in turn puts the money they spend back in the local economy. William Burleigh Griffin designed both the towns of Leeton and Griffith, as well as Canberra – all planned on the wheel system with a central hub and spokes emanating from it. Griffiths, like Leeton, was set up for the workers building the canals for the irrigation system. In 1912 there was a large influx of Italians to this region who also knew something about growing grapes, and so the farming community grew and prospered over the next four or five generations, till today. But the Italians were also famous for the Mafia – and when in the 1970s a business man, Donald McCain, led a campaign against the Italian families growing marijuana in the area, and he suddenly disappeared, everyone knew the mafia was responsible, but no body has ever been found and no evidence retrieved against any person. When we were almost at Griffiths we passed some stands of trees along the road, and here we spied two sets of emus, some very big, running around in their almost comic style. Hopefully we shall see some kangaroos later in the tour, but sadly it is unlikely we shall meet koala bears, as they are very difficult to find in the wild these days in the areas we will be visiting.

Arriving at our accommodation for the night, we found we are staying in a “motor inn”. We have passed loads of these on the way here, and they are obviously very popular. Our room is spacious (about the size of our bungalow in Koh Samui) – we have a double and a single bed, and a shower room. The dinner tonight was a set meal, and we had had to choose our dishes earlier in the day. Both Colin and myself were surprised at the standard of food - it was very tasty and appetizingly presented. I had a chicken Caesar salad, followed by a veal stack with aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes and cheese, and a cheesecake with passion fruit sauce, while Colin also had the Caesar salad, but followed by fillet of perch (a meaty white fish) with vegetables and an apple and strawberry honey crumble with cream (doesn’t that sound just like him – bless him!). We had been invited to a “getting to know you” get together before the meal with a free drink, where we chatted to several members of our new group. Many have traveled extensively – particularly the Americans and the Canadians, and most are over here for 6 – 8 weeks, several going on to New Zealand before returning home. We are picking up more people in Adelaide tomorrow and at Ayers Rock (?!) later in the week, while some will be leaving at Alice Springs and Katherine. But there are some who are traveling all the way to Darwin as we are.

Tomorrow is another long drive, this time to Adelaide – about 800 kms (500 miles!), so we have to be up for the third morning running soon after 05.00. The Australians on this tour tell us Adelaide is the best city in Australia, really beautiful, so we are looking forward to seeing it for ourselves.