Merriwa - Willowtree to Muswellbrook Day Trip

Our first morning in Merriwa had a bit of excitement when we saw flashing lights up the main street from our caravan window.  It wasn’t long before we saw the reason.

Wow!  We had heard about the blades for the wind turbines that are being built out west being transported on this route, but had forgotten all about them. What a sight to see.  Each blade is 80 metres long.  One is transported each day.  They leave Newcastle at about 1:00am to avoid the traffic.  They are not allowed to travel through a school zone during their reduced speed times, so try to get past Merriwa before 8:00am.  From there, there are few settlements for some time and the roads are fairly straight. Once the load is delivered the trucks return to Newcastle to be reloaded and a change of driver for the next trip. The mid section of the long truck concertinas to a normal truck length for the return journey.

Shortly after, another section came through.  This happened each morning that we were there, at about 7:30am.

The main reason that we were staying at Merriwa was that I wanted us to go for a drive from there to Willow Tree, located on the New England Highway and then back around to Scone.

Before we headed off, we had a short walk up and down the street at Merriwa.

We had to check out the silo art on our way out of town.  The artwork is a representation of the Running of the Sheep that is held in town each June Long Weekend.

Back to our day trip.  The reason for this is that I drove that road back in 2013, when I had to return from our gathering at Nundle for a family emergency and I was told it was the quickest way.  Well, it was shorter, I don’t know about quicker, pretty, but some was a really steep, narrow, rough goat track with lots of causeways.  I wanted to show Mick and to see it again under better circumstances.  It is the route that Google Maps sends people, and in the past many have been caught out by the condition of the road.  It has been on our wish list for years.

You drive through a really pretty valley.

Then you get to the steep bit.  We had heard that the road has had some improvements since that time I drove along it.  All I can say is “Wow”!  It is now a beautifully sealed, wide road up over the steep hill.  We would have no hesitation in taking the van this way in the future.  Also, the causeways are now in good condition. It was definitely worth going for the test run. 

The view from the top of the hill was stunning,

We stopped at one spot and there were some sweet wildflowers.

More of that wonderful view.

Another paddock of canola.

We called in to a very nice, and popular, cafe at Willow Tree for morning tea before heading along the road we travelled the previous day to Scone.  No trains holding us up this time.

This time we stopped and had a walk up and down the main street, taking in all the lovely old buildings.

It was nearly lunch time, but we weren’t really hungry after our morning tea.

So, we continued on to Muswellbook, where we went for another walk up and down the street.

We did stop for lunch this time.  Just a couple of shops down from where we ate there was a small alley, with a public loo.  It turned out that this was the site of the Niagara Cafe.  When it was being demolished they discovered that behind the wall panelling there were murals that had been painted in the 1950s, depicting Wild West scenes, as that was a very popular theme in that era.  They have now been preserved.

We noticed, high up under the ceiling that a pigeon has made its nest on top of the spikes added to deter birds roosting.  You have to give it top points for ingenuity.

From here we just drove back to Merriwa.

In the early evening, I went for a walk in that gorgeous light.

And that is the end of that day.

More soon.

Currabubula to Merriwa (Quirindi)

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.