And even mountains.
It was to be a day of historic goldmines, bushrangers and an impressive dish.
First stop was Grenfell, another old gold mining town complete with a winding street full of historic buildings from the late 1800s.
A shepherd discovered a quartz rock outcrop and the rush began. the population quickly grew to 10 000. We explored mining relics on O’Briens Hill. Everything outside was wet, wet,wet. It was a grey day and the rain continued to fall, plus it was cold outside. A real winter’s day.
An old 5 stamp battery.
The Mine shaft.
Walking the street we saw lots of signs about the Henry Lawson Festival this coming long weekend. He was born in a tent on these goldfields and there is a marker at his birthplace beneath a beautiful sugar gum planted by his daughter.
They plan to unveil a new bronze statue which is already in the main street. We are considering staying on till the festival. Maybe??
From there we went to Cowra and learnt a little about the P.O.W. camp holding 4000 people. In 1944 about 380 Japanese soldiers tried to break out, and many were killed in the attempt.
We dropped the van off at Canowindra and headed over to Forbes.
A nice park and lake in Forbes
Town Hall in Forbes.
This is bushranger territory and ben Hall is buried in the local cemetery, also Ned Kelly’s sister Kate.
As we were close to Parkes we had to have a look at “the dish”- the famous CSRIO radio telescope. Unfortunately the sun disappeared before we got there so I got to try my night time photography settings..in the rain!! It is very impressive.
Time to go home as the rain started really coming down. Now that was a full day. This being retired is hard work!!
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