Exploring Gulgong

Just over a week ago we snuck away for the weekend to the small historic town of Gulgong.

Our first stop on the Friday was to have a cuppa in the park at Mudgee.  The war memorial garden was looking a picture in readiness for the centenary of the Armistice that was to take place a couple of days later.

The fragrance of this rose was just beautiful.  I've no idea what variety it is.

Once we arrived in Gulgong we set up camp in the showground under the shade of lovely flowering trees.  

Once again the fragrance was lovely, however it did give Mick a bit of grief with his hay fever.  Upon closer inspection we determined that the trees are white cedars.

After we had set up it was time to wander up the street to have a bit of an explore.  Our first stop was the Henry Lawson Centre housed in the old Salvation Army building.  No photos allowed inside, but it housed a very interesting collection of artifacts depicting his life and works.  Gulgong is known as "The Town on the Ten Dollar Note" due the depiction of Henry Lawson and some of the local buildings on the old paper $10.00 note.  Henry spent most of his childhood in the area and quite a few of his writings were influenced by that time.

After we enjoyed lunch in a local cafe we explored some of the gorgeous little shops.  We never get the opportunity to have a proper look around as a rule, but there does seem to be quite a few new ones.  I was particularly taken with this sideboard, as we have one very similar that was Mick's grandmother's.  Methinks that it could possibly get a bit of a makeover to take away from it just being brown.....we'll see......

Gulgong's Pioneer Museum is known to be one of the best around and we reckon it would be about 30 years since we last visited.  It really is incredible, taking up the best part of a town block.  There is so much to see and it is so well set out.  It makes you feel old when you see cassette recorders and early computers in a museum, but that is part and parcel of the past, not just the colonial relics.

I took some photos of sewing related items.....as you do....

I was surprised to see this old stroller.  When we were kids there was an old one in the shed that we used as a toy.  Ours was blue and grey and had a fabric seat back.  There is even a photo of us playing with it somewhere.  I've never seen another one before.

This cute little cottage and the adjoining blacksmiths shop were moved to the site. 

The interior of the cottage is rather cute and I suspect the bedroom is rather similar to what my mum grew up in as a girl, complete with corner wardrobe with fabric curtain for a door.  Mum and her brother had a cradle that looked just about identical to the one in the middle of the room - yes, their cradle was a wooden box, and they had hand hooked rugs on the floor.  How times have changed.

The christening robes were exquisite.

Our next stop after the museum was the shop "Stacks Down Under".  I had visited here in May when we travelled through, but Mick didn't come in.  This time I told him he had to come and have a look.

The front of the store is actually the local supermarket.  You enter Stacks down the side street, under the little awning.

It is an Aladdin's cave in the basement of the building.  You can just make out the stone wall at the very end of the shop.

Mind your head if you are tall, not that it bothered me. The photo above is now looking across the shop.  It is huge.  You can get just about anything here, and it wasn't expensive.  It is like a $2 shop on steroids.  There are some good quality items as well.  Our big purchases......a silicone stirring spoon for the van and some lollies for Mick.

Back on our walk we enjoyed seeing the historic streetscape.  Holtermann took lots of photos during the gold rush days, known as the Holtermann Collection, which have provided an wonderful record of those times and it is fun to see some of the buildings restored to that look.

That completed our walk for the afternoon, but we did stroll back later in the day to have a delicious pub dinner.

We had a second purpose for visiting Gulgong, being to have a stall at the annual Swap Meet.  It was to be held on the Sunday, but we were quite surprised to see many stalls already set up by Friday lunch when we arrived.  We weren't in any rush and gradually got ourselves set up on Saturday.  The Swap Meet was really large, rivalling Bathurst with the number of stalls.  

The Swap was nice and social too, as we caught up with people who regularly attend the Bathurst Swap, without being in an organising capacity.  To top it off, the weather was nice and warm, without being too hot.

On the Sunday there was also an impressive display of all manner of cars, tractors and bikes, which brought a lot of people to the event.

Mick had to have a good look at the above bike as it was a Rickman Honda.  Mick has one and they are rather rare.  Unfortunately he didn't get to meet the owner.

We were pleased with how our little stall went, helping reduce our clutter and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the town.