The home straight
7/13/20265 min read
The scenic tourist route winds through the bush , often very narrow and seems to be a popular weekend drive for the locals, especially motorbikes. I drove very cautiously with headlights on.
At Barringba we called in at an amazing secondhand shop that we’ve visited quite a few times. Old plane propeller? Tilly lamps? Cream cans? Silver cutlery? This is your spot. Most of it’s too big to carry home!
After a pause to catch up with friends we wound our way back up the Great Dividing Range. We realised that over the years we’ve now driven the whole length of this spine of mountains which reaches from north Victoria to Northern Queensland . The range marks the line of geological upheaval , a bit like our southern alps. It also divides the temperate coastal climate from the inland deserts, with more extremes of heat and cold.
The road up the escarpment reaches about 900m after a long climb, then it’s over the top into New England. The NE highway winds through old colonial towns with mainly Scottish heritage - Glen Innes even features a life size stonehenge!
The NE Highway was the original road between Sydney and Brisbane , and also the crossroad for routes leading further inland. The colonial settlers built lots of grand stone and brick buildings, many with ornate cast iron fretwork. Many of these are still in use today.
Something which has intrigued us all over Australia is that you’ll often see a “ School of the Arts “ building. When I finally looked this up it was a fascinating story. The School of Arts movement began in Scotland in 1821, when it was decided that people from all classes should have access to education , training and philosophy ….. These centres became a community hub, training apprentices , educating the everyday folk, often housing a library and hosting lectures.
Early Australia was in dire need of trained people to do what needed doing. So when the Scottish settlers arrived in Australia they decided to establish the schools here and many small towns have a grand looking building at their centre , some of which are still used as community hubs.There were over 750 in NSW around Sydney alone , often called Mechanics Institutes.
“The School proved popular in the 1830s. Two hundred and fifty lectures were given in the first 10 years on subjects ranging from chemistry, electricity and steam, to how to choose a horse, phrenology and vulgarities in conversation. “ Wonderful scheme.
Staying at Tenterfield (one of the small towns along the highway) for the night, we psyched ourselves up for the next adventure. Up early and off to Girraween National Park, situated on the granite belt which marks the spine of the Great Dividing Range. On the drive there we braked for a strange creature which ran across the road - bigger than a cat, with a very long tail and pointed nose , and it galloped , not hopping. It moved too fast to get a photo so we searched for a ranger at the NP headquarters and asked him what it was. He was very excited to tell us that we’d just met a dark spotted quoll - an endangered carnivore , elusive , and lots of visitors had been looking out for one up there. Just our luck! We spent a happy morning walking in this beautiful park, awed by the huge granite boulders teetering everywhere and climbing (Robbie to the top) of the Pyramid, which is a big (1000 + metres ) very steep peak. Lots of families were out and about enjoying the park as it was school holidays. We’ve noticed that Oz families spend a lot of time out and about with the kids, whether it’s bushwalking or a bbq at the beach at the weekend, which is good to see.
From Tenterfiled we popped back west to Inverell , the sapphire centre of Australia , where I was able to buy a local sapphire to replace the one I’d lost a few weeks back.Then back east again to Armidale to stay with friends (who are both artists).
Lucy teaches a workshop every week wtih disabled adults, some very disabled, and I always enjoy going and giving a hand when we’re visiting. After her class had left she taught me to make Lino cut prints which was good fun and way our of my comfort zone!
From Armidale we dropped down again from the escarpment to Coffs Harbour, where we are staying with friends, getting our trusty ute ready to sell before we head home.
We’ve enjoyed time with them , walking on the cliffs above the sea where we spotted a whale yesterday. It’s a lovely spot to end our journey. We’ve now travelled more than 40,000 kms here.
Australia is an amazing country, full of contrasts. Enormous skies, millions of stars at night. Bizarre birds and animals.Ancient landforms. Awful social problems and sadly, still quite a bit of racism, but also friendly welcoming locals (especially in the outback).
It’s been a privilege to explore Country , learning as we go . I’ll always hold memories of the vastness, the red dirt, the endless gum trees. I’m humbled by the oldness and the size of everything. Thanks for having us, it’s time to return home to Aotearoa :)
Jan
Hi everybody,
From St George we drove east again , headed to Toowoomba. The roads here are very long and straight, they don’t waste time with corners, with lots of BIG potholes. We passed a very nasty caravan accident which was sobering.
When we pulled into a rest area for a cup of tea I spotted a strange truck - it was a “curtain sider” with rolled up panels and stacks of metal boxes piled up inside. The driver was busy checking them all so of course I had to go and have a nosey. I never would have guessed that it’d be carrying racing pigeons! They’d all been released so the boxes were empty, and they were on their way (hopefully) the 500 or so kms to Brisbane. I wonder how many become lunch on the way for birds of prey?
This morning’s roadkill (it’s always interesting in Oz) is mainly pigs, which are a big problem and are often dealt with by permanent 1080 bait lines.
As we neared Toowoomba we could see the smoke from a bushfire forming a large T in the sky.
We had a nice catchup with friends for the night then headed down to the Gold Coast to collect a new bumper (don’t ask) and wandered through various back roads to Lismore . Roads in this area are still recovering from huge floods over the past few years.( As are most of the roads in outback QL). These “once in 100 yr floods” seem to be happening more and more often , making things pretty tough for the locals. It seems to rain heavily down here at the base of the escarpment, I guess it’s the equivalent of our west coast weather.
Jan Thomson
New Zealand Artist & Tutor
© All Images Copyright © Jan Thomson, All Rights Reserved.
