Wednesday 14 August 2013 – Dubbo to Coonabarabran

Today started slowly after a bit of a sleep-in – Grant must have needed it after his manual labour fixing yesterday’s wiring problem.  So by the time we had showered (me), breakfasted (both of us), packed up (both of us), and had a chat to the neighbours (mostly me), we got away at about 20 to 10.  Filled the tank at the first service station, then made our way north on the Newell Highway.  It’s hard to decide which is the greatest user of the Newell – big trucks or happy travellers in their caravans, campers, winnebagos, etc.  I reckon it’s a close call.

Highlight of the first part of the drive was the sighting (right on the side of the road) of an echidna.  I think it was alive – at least it wasn’t squashed and its legs weren’t up in the air, and it seemed to be quite comfortable where it was.

The first town we came to was Gilgandra – a town my Poppa Davies used to talk about in stories from his shearing days.  Gilgandra now advertises itself as the town of windmills and the home of the coo-ee.  Well we did see some interesting examples of windmills as we drove through, but we didn’t hear a coo-ee, except for the one Grant let fly with and scared the bejesus out of me!  But it was interesting reading about the reasons for these two titles being given to Gilgandra.  Apparently until 1966, there was no water supply to the town and so pretty well every house had a windmill.  It is estimated that the skyline of the town was dominated by about 360 windmills at that time.  And as for the home of the coo-ee – it refers to the march of 35 men from Gilgandra to Sydney in 1915 to volunteer for the war. (A distance Google maps tells me is 452 km – WALKING!!)  By the time they reached Sydney their numbers had swelled to 263 making the 1915 Coo-ee March from Gilgandra to Sydney the first and most successful recruitment march of World War 1. So that is the education for today.

From there we made our way on to Coonabarabran – today’s destination.  We aimed for a short driving day, as we wanted to take in a couple of the things that Coonabarabran is famous for, and arrived here at around midday.  The distant view of the interesting formations of the Warrumbungle Ranges held our attention for the majority of that stretch of the drive.  Once here we had a chat with Lisa, who with her husband owns the caravan park we are staying in - the Getaway Tourist Park.  She was telling us about the terrible fires they had here in January, during which the Warrumbungles were pretty well burnt out, and worse for she and her family, they lost everything on their farm property – everything from the house right down to the fencing!

But she was a bright bubbly lady, and told us to pick any site we wanted, gave us the code to open the amenities doors, and advised us that at the mens, the door handle had to be turned to the left, and at the ladies, to the right – because a woman is always right.  Very wise lady! (Grant doesn’t agree with that statement.)

After we set up and had a bit of lunch (by the way – a very sunny day, and I had to get out of the jumper and put on a tshirt and sleeveless vest.  Still kept the long pants on though), we drove out about 26kms to the Siding Spring Observatory which perches on a very high point in the Warrumbungles.  A very pretty drive, though the devastation of the fires was very obvious – burnt house sites, and all the trees getting their new growth right up the trunks.  A very entertaining aspect of the drive, and we’ve actually noticed this yesterday as well, is the range of amazing letter boxes a lot of these outback properties have.  Some are really big and very clever – an 8-10ft long model of an aeroplane, Ned Kelly, clever animals made out of tin drums of various sizes – horses, cows, dogs, etc., people, penny farthing bikes – great fun to keep your eyes out for.

Once we got to the observatory – in fact there are several on this mountain – this one is Australia’s largest optical astronomy research facility, we went through the displays  which include lots of different galaxies, stars, planets and of course our own solar system.  Then we went up to the telescope observatory building and got the lift to the fourth floor to see the exhibits there.  We had a bit of a look, and were looking at how to get out to the mesh walkway which goes around the base of the dome, when a door opened and a fellow came out and introduced himself as Glenn – a technician who was just about to start his shift.

He told us that we really weren’t allowed out onto the deck, but as he had five minutes before he had to test the equipment in readiness for tonight’s astronomers, he would take us out.  So, decked out in hard hats, we were given the works – a tour of the actual telescope room (the telescope has a 4 metre diameter), a walk right around the deck outside the building (accompanied by a very strong, brisk wind), a tour through the area where the astronomers work and where the technical stuff is done.  While we were there he did the testing he had to do, explaining it as he went, then took us into the telescope area again to a good vantage point, told what he was going to do, then went back to his computers and did it.  And what was IT?  He set the telescope in motion and the whole dome started moving around us in a clockwise direction until the telescope was in the position it needed to be for tonight’s work!  It was pretty amazing!  I reckon the five spare minutes he had, stretched to about half an hour, so we had a very special treat, as this is a world recognised telescope, and astronomers from around the world come here to do their work.

The Warrumbungles

By the time we’d finished there it was close to 4pm so we headed back to camp and had the always welcome cuppa or two, had a read, and so the day goes. 

P.S.  We’d forgotten that in many places in NSW they angle park with the back of the car to the kerb – weird!