After we finished having a look around Werris Creek we continued on our way south. The next town that we stopped at was Quirindi.
A feature as you reach the centre of town is the painted silos. This mural was completed in 2022, so we hadn’t seen it before.
A feature that was added in 2023 is their illumination each evening, giving life to the murals.
They even have recliner lounges to sit in.
Over the road is the little Cottage Museum. We happen to have a teapot stand that was an advertising item from a bakery in Quirindi, so we decided to visit the museum to see if they have one, and if not, to arrange to donate ours.
It turned out to be a really well set out and informative museum. Of course I was drawn to the textiles and was surprised to see that they have several samplers.
The above sampler had been purchased at an antique shop and then traced back to the Quirindi area and then recently donated. How special is that. Sadly, I couldn’t get a photo without glare.
This crocheted pram cover doesn’t look all that special, but it turns out that it was made by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.
Now, to see some other displays they had. One of the curators showed me their collection of clothes in storage. They have some lovely items. By the way, they did have the same tea pot stand in their collection, in better condition than ours, so we will continue to enjoy the one we have.
I loved that they had the original paper pattern for the green dress on display.
While we are going, the following are some more random photos from the town.
When we were walking back to the truck we noticed all these short pipes sticking out of the ground.
It turned out that it is a representation of their annual rainfall. It really shows how things go in cycles. Very effective.
After Quirindi, we joined the New England Highway, travelling to Scone on the road we know well. It was nice to see some canola. We had only seen a few paddocks of it. The uncertainty of the season, high cost of fuel and urea meant that a lot of paddocks have remained fallow this season. A pity, when the season turned out to be ideal.
Going down the hill to Murrarundi revealed that we were back in hilly country.
I loved the folds in the hill in this photo.
When we arrived in Scone we had to wait for a train. This is the XPT passenger train to Casino. Considering the high number of trains we saw, this was the only regular passenger service and the only time we had to wait for one.
At Scone, we turned west to Merriwa. We have only travelled this road on one previous occasion. When Mick first got “Olga” the 1950s BMW Sidecar up and running we went for our inaugural trip to Scone via Merriwa. As we drove along this time we marvelled at why we would do such a thing? Surely, the first trip should be closer to home? Oh well, all’s well that ends well, and thankfully it did. There was some nice scenery along the way.
By mid afternoon we had arrived at Merriwa.
We set up camp for the next three nights in the little caravan park at the bottom of the main street. From our van you looked straight up the street, which is the Golden Highway. This is the main thoroughfare from Dubbo and further west to Newcastle. We were warned that there would be constant trucks going past and that it would be very noisy. We said that we didn’t mind. Yes, there were lots of trucks during the day, but we were out and about, and at night there were next to none. A beautiful place to camp.
I’ll end this with a picture on the afternoon sun on the church on the hill, taken from our camp site.
More soon.
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