Judy & Brian Tour Oz: Cowra, NSW 30 October

A new post in here is well overdue, so here goes!

30 October - 3 November. Canberra - Cowra 190km

Finally lockdown has eased and we can grab a few days away. We chose Cowra because its not the coast, which is heaving. The van park in Cowra is very nice and sits on the banks of the Lachlan river, right next to town.

I even got a haircut in a real barber shop, must be one of the last cash only enterprises in Australia, just heaps of loose notes in a drawer, no register, no receipts, just a healthy cash economy.

One reason I wanted to come here was to go to the Wyangala Dam, and see if I could see where some photos of mum and dad were taken back in the 1940’s. This plan was never going to work, for a start the original dam is buried under a massive rock-wall dam and new gates and spillways. Apparently the old dam wall can be partially seen when the water level drops below 30 percent or so. Looking at the old photos I can now see that those sites are almost certainly under the water as well.

The new Wyangala Dam wall

Me channelling an 80 year old photo taken of my father in 1940

We returned to Cowra via Woodstock, which is a pleasant drive through verdant countryside. Woodstock itself looks like the old, bypassed town that it is but it is showing signs that there is a resurgence just around the corner.

Old homestead outside Woodstock, NSW

Back in the 1900’s Cowra was a very busy and important railway town, boasting spur lines out to several other towns and a full equiped and manned locomotive workshop. Evidence of the old railway lines is everywhere, just the bits that got in the way of ‘progress’ have been removed. They have an active Historical railway group and still have some trains and rails that they can use.

Rail bridge over the Lachlan River

Random chunk of spur line. Goes straight out across the highway!

One of the funny little anomalies in town is the retention of a low level bridge over the Lachlan river, right next to the zillion dollar high rising concrete one serving the Mid-Western Highway. The thing is that on the town side of the main bridge is a set of lights, so all the locals skirt around them and use the old wooden low-level bridge because, ‘its faster’. From our van we can see a continuous stream of cars and small trucks trundling over the single lane piece of history, a surprising number in fact. I asked a few locals and they all confirm that its just faster than having to wait at the lights for 30 seconds, and they also complain that the local council has to spend a small fortune to keep it semi-serviceable. I walked across it and it looks like its disintegrating from rot and the vibration from every vehicle that crashes its way across.

Old timber low-level bridge, right under the modern one.

Many many years ago, probably in the early 1960s, dad came here to build something, I assume a service station, which usually took 10 to 12 weeks. Dad was staying in this very caravan park. Mum brought us all down here for a few days to visit at one time and so I have this memory of this van park, and something to do with a service station. As I have done in the past, I've walked up and down the main street, but nothing is jumping out at me. There is the remains of a very old service station right on the corner out the front of the van park, and I noticed today a 1960s style one on the other side of the main road. I searched trove and the web but can't find any reference to any new building in town during the 60s. He could have been building anything anywhere, and as I was only 10 or so at the, its going to have to remain a mystery.

Instead of ghosts, here is a snap of the fantastic rose garden right next to the highway and just outside the info centre. The gardeners say that the consistent rain and the warmer weather have produced 'the best ever' show