Our Latest Travels - Little Topar to Home

From Little Topar, we continued on our way east, with our first stop at Wilcannia, on the Darling River, for fuel and morning tea.  We were delighted to see that the cafe opposite the park has recently reopened.

Wilcannia has for many years been much maligned, but we always like to stop and have a drive around.  While at the cafe I picked up a little brochure on a historic drive around town.  Many of the places we had previously seen, but there was mention of the original hospital building, which we hadn’t come across before, so off we went.

Isn’t it lovely.  It turns out that it was built in 1879 and designed by the colonial architect Edmund Blackett, who also designed Sydney University and St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney.

Not only was there the hospital at this location but a park across the road, complete with historic water tower.

A path wandered through the park with painted panels beside it. 

The surprising feature was two EV charging stations.

Back in the centre of the town, the Post Office restoration that we have been following for the last few years has now been completed.

There was a historic building on the diagonally opposite corner, which housed the town’s only supermarket.  Unfortunately, it burnt down a few years ago.  The supermarket has been relocated to another site and the ruins on this corner has been sitting idle ever since.  It was great to see that building work has commenced to turn the site in to the Baaka Cultural Centre.  “Baaka” being the aboriginal name for the Darling River.  It will be interesting to see the ruins transformed.

In the years that we have been travelling through here, the town has really improved and become much tidier.  It is so good to see.

Our destination for the night was Cobar.  As it was Saturday afternoon, everything was closed.  The main street was decorated in red, white and blue, as the local football club, The Roosters, were playing in the grand final that day, in Gulgong, so the town was extra quiet.  (Sadly, they lost.)

We free camped behind the RSL Club, where they have converted their bowling greens to a camping area.  

After Cobar, we could have just driven through Nyngan, Trangie, Narromine to Dubbo, but of course we had to take a little detour.  

From Nyngan we turned off the highway on a new to us road, to Tottenham, the town closest to the centre of New South Wales.  We have attended motorcycle rallies here a few times, but there is something new in town.  Yes, yet another painted water tower. It makes an impressive entrance to town.

And with the ute.

We had lunch at the park in town.

From there we drove through Albert, home of the Rabbit Trap Hotel.

The road from Albert to Narromine was the worst we encountered on our entire trip.  Much of the bitumen had been ripped up, returning the road to gravel.  This is as a result of the flooding twelve months ago.  Hopefully, their council will be able to access some funding to get it repaired.

We arrived at Narromine in the early afternoon, which gave us time to finally visit the Narromine Aviation Museum.

The Narromine Aerodrome was established in 1928 and many of the early aviators had an association with it, including Charles Kingsford Smith and Nancy Bird Walton.  During WWII it was a training ground for many pilots.

In more recent times, it has reached some fame, as in 1999 a local family built a replica of the Wright Brother’s first plane.  It is now housed in the museum.

We overnighted a Narromine caravan park, our last night on the road.

As we didn’t have far to travel on our last day, we played the tourist for one more day.  Firstly, we visited the Royal Flying Doctor visitors centre.  Planes have changed a bit over the years.

As have the medical kit held on remote properties.  Each item is numbered to make accessing easy.

A chart simply identifying various parts of the body was a clever innovation in the early 1950s.

There is a walk through of what a plane is like inside.

After our exploring we enjoyed morning tea in the adjoining cafe.  It was so beautifully presented.

Next, we visited the Old Dubbo Gaol, which has recently had an upgrade and won some awards.

The gaol opened in 1887 and closed in 1966, reopening as a tourist attraction in 1974.

The woodblock paving of the gatehouse has recently been replaced.

One room has been refitted and showcases punishments and execution.  It is this display that has recently won some awards.

On the walls there are profiles on prisoners that had been given the death sentence and their ultimate outcome, be it hanging, release or commuted to life.

Zoom in and read the captions on the bottom photo.  How society has changed, thank goodness.

Inside the padded cell.

This is rather an unusual loo in the exercise yard.

The gallows are on display in the yard.  Here I am now.

Now for a bit of fun, I was looking a bit different when we first visited in February 1985.

From Dubbo, we just drove straight home, completing our month away.

It was a wonderful trip, seeing varied scenery and visiting such interesting places.  After our previous aborted attempts to travel around South Australia, it was definitely a case of third time lucky.  There is much more to see in the state, so we can envisage further trips across the border.  It won’t be all in one trip, as there is far too much ground to cover.  We’ll have to start scheming.

I hope you have enjoyed tagging along on our travels and that I haven’t bored you too much.  This is also a good record for me.

Next, I will be back to more of what we have been up to lately, closer to home.