Once we started heading south from St George we were really just on the home straight. We knew that we wanted to drive through to Moree, but where to after that? We didn’t really want to just drive down the Newell again. Time to pull out the paper map. Google Maps is wonderful, but there is nothing better than to spread out a paper map on the table to look for interesting roads to travel.
Mick suggested we could head east from Moree to Warialda and then on to Bingara, Gunnedah and home. I liked that idea, as we had passed through Warialda a couple of times on the bike, but never stopped to have a look. This seemed the perfect chance, as we had no deadline to return home.
Mick then suggested that I phone the caravan park, which read well, and book a site. My response was “Really? It’s a tiny town, there will be plenty of room”. However, just to humour him, I called them up ……. and when they informed me that they were full that night with 60 vans from a tag along tour, Mick was duly smug. They suggested we try Cranky Rocks, just out of town. We called them and they were full too on the first night we wanted to be there. There were other options, so off we went.
Once we left St George, our first stop was at Thallon. This is a tiny town that we first heard of on the television show “Backroads”. Their pub had closed and the community had banded together to get it back up and running. They then had the silos painted and set up a big camping area. It was too early to visit the pub, but we did support the small general store by having some morning tea.
The next little town was Mungindi. This had the dubious honour of being dissected by the Barwon River running through the centre of town. The river also serves as the state border. On the north side it is Queensland and on the south side is New South Wales. They have two police stations and during the summer months two time zones as NSW has daylight saving and Queensland doesn’t.
We had a walk up and down the street, seeing a couple of murals and this interesting painted structure.
The next town was Moree, where we just fueled up and kept on our way. From here on would be a new to us road. We have found quite a few of those on this trip.
At this stage, we were thinking that if we found a suitable camp site, we could stop somewhere between Moree and Warialda. As the recent rain meant that a lot of ground was a bit slippery and boggy, we had to take into consideration that Frank Truck is not 4WD. The little town of Pallamallawa had a nice area beside the river, but it looked too wet for us to risk, so on we went.
Before long, we started to see some groves of large trees. I then realised what they were and that I had in fact travelled this road before. They are pecan nut trees and I had been here as a teenager when our family were visiting my aunt and we went on a day trip across here. They were very new at the time and you could buy nuts at a roadside stall. It was the first time I had tried pecans.
It was a rather scenic drive. Excuse the bugs on the windscreen.
It wasn’t long before we arrived at Warialda.
The camping option we took was the free camp behind one of the pubs in the middle of town. This turned out to be good, as we could walk everywhere and get our tea at the pub.
Warialda turned out to be a larger town than I remembered and has some beautiful old buildings. I went for a walk in the late afternoon, while Mick checked out the pub. Let’s see what I found.
The name Warialda means Place of Wild Honey in the local aboriginal language, so there are references to bees dotted around the place.
This sign is at the front of a new park in the centre of town. A couple of old derelict buildings were demolished to make room for it.
As I was wandering, I noticed that the Catholic Church was open, so went in to have a look. The round leadlight window over the entrance is a beautiful feature.
By the time I returned to the pub the sun was setting. The street looked stunning in the evening light.
A bit later, this was the view from our caravan.
The following morning we did some more wandering around town, visiting their community op shop that had only recently been established.
We popped in to one of the shops in the row with the lead light above the door. The building had originally been a tea rooms annd still had several of the original features, including the gorgeous moulded ceiling. and the owner of the business told us lots about the town. The reason that the Soldier’s. Memorial Hall is cordoned off, is that it has been found to be structurally unsound. I do hope they can find a resolution, as it is an impressive building in the streetscape.
There was a rather interesting item in front of the other pub in town. It is a transformer bee.
I had noticed a lovely old timber house in the Main Street the previous afternoon. It turns out that it is the local community run craft shop. They had a nice selection of items, but the best bit was upstairs.
Watch your head…not that I had to worry.
Upstairs the rooms are set up as a cottage museum.
It was a real pleasure to have a look around.
Meanwhile, the lady in the first shop that we had been chatting to, recommended that we drive a bit out of town to Warialda Rail to the former hotel. The owner has a coffee cart in his back yard and it is a rather lovely place to have morning tea. The weather was nice, so off we went. The old pub is in need of quite a bit of work.
However, the back yard where you sit and enjoy your scones with jam and cream was great fun and well set out.
I did love these Mexican gnomes.
Once back in town, we visited the Museum. Of course I gravitated to the sewing section.
As you can see, this is another of those small country towns that have so much to see and do when you take the time and stop. Mick’s suggestion of going to Warialda was a great one.
By then it was time to head out of town to our camp site for that night at Cranky Rock. We had no idea what we would find, but it read well on WikiCamps.
On our way out of town we came across another interesting little sculpture. This is R2B2, created by high school students. I love how there are so many things around town playing on the bee theme.
More soon.
