Forbes, NSW July 4th 2024

 Forbes, NSW July 4th 2024

Easy trouble free run, except for fairly long stretches of 80Kph roadworks from Cowra to Forbes. Drove straight into what used to be a Big4, now privately owned. Young fellow, Joel, and his wife having a ‘go’. The park is a picture and I hope for them that they do well. Apparently Joel’s parents own the van park just outside Atherton where he grew up, so he’s very familiar with how a van park works.

Judy relaxing into holiday mode. Forbes NSW

One of the reasons I was keen to come to Forbes was to visit the Lachlan Historic Village, which I had heard was finally reopened. How disappointing to find that even though the brand new information place has reopened there using the name Lachlan Historic Village, the village itself is still very much closed and fenced off. The reason cited is that it’s build on top of the 1860’s gold diggings and is particularly unstable and hence dangerous. The lady on the desk seemed to understand my situation after I explained that my great grandmother was born in the Nebungalo Homestead and I was pretty excited at the prospect of being able to see it up close. As a compensation she sat me down and left me watch most of the videos they have which show the old Village, eve through it was past closing time. Thanks!

One of the videos shows the Garrett steam locomotive 6402, which has been marooned at the village since 1979. It was purchased some years back by the Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum for $50,000. It’s still there, apparently Dorrigo needs lots of funding to get it moved, can't image why, it only weighs 260 tons and is 33 metres long. The nice red paintwork is rust!

Garret Steam locomotive 6402. Forbes NSW

On our second day in Forbes, we visited the Gum Swamp Wetlands, which we always go to. Not that we are birdies, just that it's something to do, and you might get a nice snap of a bird, but then you might not!

Heron, Gum Swamp Wetlands, Forbes, NSW

They have also invented a Sculpture Trail, that starts in the town and goes out along the Lachlan River towards Condobolin. In one place it's called the Lachlan Sculpture Trail, but the signage is a rather awkward "SDL" which stands for Sculpture Down the Lachlan. Anyhow we saw a couple of the sculptures at the Swamp, here's one, a Goanna, which seems like a great piece of work, but is totally lost to the random snapper against the gum trees. Anyhow, it's pretty huge!

Goanna. Sculptures Down the Lachlan, Forbes NSW