West Wyalong NSW 26 July 2026

West Wyalong NSW July 2026

Journeyed south from Gilgandra, stopping at Peak Hill to have a look through the old shop on the corner that happens to have the town’s collection of historic records. Apart from a hand made collection of notes and names and photos, they have this awesome set of Town Rates Ledgers from 1911. Absolutely fascinating to read down the columns looking at the names. You are struck straight away by the names that appear to own most of the district. You cant help but wonder what happened to those mini-empires. I am reliably informed that my great-grandmother lived in the Peak Hill area, unfortunately we don't have the time to sit and read through the whole collection.

Passed by / through Dubbo, which looks like its finally getting a Newel Highway bypass. Then on and on towards Parkes, which surprisingly, does have a brand new bypass complete with Golden Arches. Just a bit short on signage to tell you its there, or how to get in and park a caravan.

Finally arrived in West Wyalong, which neither of us can remember having been through before. Its claim to fame was gold mining, “largest amount extracted in the colony”, pretty impressive at 400,000 ounces. The odd thing is, that unlike Bendigo, Ballarat and Bathurst, there are no grand pubic building, not even government ones. The town you drive through seems almost like it is in its original state form many days gone by. You half expect a horse and carriage to come clip-clopping along Main St! 

Replica true Blue mine poppet head.
West Wyalong NSW July 2026

Couldn’t help going into the Paragon for some lunch. What old NSW town doesn't have a Paragon café? PS: Café is high-brow speak for milk-bar.

Paragon Café, West Wyalong NSW July 2026

Down in the park they have a DC3 up on stands. You don't realise how small these work-horses of Australian Aviation were. This one was originally flown by the RAF in 1943 and then the RAN before being decommissioned and sold in 1977.

Douglas DC3. West Wyalong NSW July 2026

Parkes, NSW. July 6th 2024

 Parkes, NSW.  July 6th 2024

Just visiting for the day. Started out at 8am when I went to Parkrun out at the North Parkes Sports grounds. At least this year it wasn't a howling gale as well as freezing. Managed a 1 minute PB so it's all good!

We had a good breakfast in town at the "Deja Brew" cafe, which became packed as the locals came into town. Good start to the day. We then went looking for the info place, found it, the one with the Steam Locomotive, but it's not the one anymore.

Old 3075, parked up at Parkes, NSW

They have a new one further up the road, much bigger and includes an Elvis collection, a vintage car museum, a replica of Moat Cottage where Henry Parkes was born, (Birmingham, England) a Henry Parkes Museum and an Antique Machinery collection.

"Elvis" by John Murray. Parkes, NSW

We happily paid the $10 each have a look at the Elvis display and the cars. Most of the Elvis display belongs to Greg Wiggle, who turns out to be an Elvis tragic. Interesting video interview with him and Glen A Baker talking to an Elvis insider, best friend and road manager Joe Esposito. 

Part of the Greg Page, Kings Castle collection. Parkes NSW

Last thing of interest in Parkes was this photo of the Parkes telescope since its conversion to full Super conducting high-intensity LCDs, in the name of power conservation... 

Telescope, Parkes NSW
Image from Parkes Visitors Centre

Those Martians must have thought us so backward not to have done this years ago. fancy using radio waves, how quaint.

Just for fun, and to scratch an itch I've had for a while, we detoured back to Forbes via Bogan Gate. There is evidence to suggest that my great-grandmother came from out this way and was connected with the Nebungalo Homestead, which was out between Parkes and Bogan Gate. 

Now brace yourselves for a run past Bogan Gate.....

Going...

going..

Bogan Gate, NSW

Did you blink? The attraction is that it has a huge grain silo next to the railway line. I apologise to any Bogan Gaterians that may read this, I'm sure it's a delightful place to live and work, just that there's not much of it. Cheers!

Parkes, NSW July 7 2023

 

Parkes, NSW July 7 2023

Finally we were able to tear ourselves away from Canberra and home, heading north again, seeking some warmer weather.

This time we were heading to Parkes for our first night, a run of about 300km. We stopped at Boorowa for a break, but the cafe that we had ‘discovered’ a few years back on a BMW run, was unfriendly, cold and had nothing to eat that took our fancy. We wandered back up the road, stuck our heads into a cafe we didn’t recognise that only sold pizza, and ended up back at the bakery. We were only going to get a take-away coffee but succumbed, yet again, to the temptations of a rock-cake.

A pleasant enough run up to Cowra, then left and right to continue following the Lachlan Way toward Forbes. We pulled up at Goolagong, a tiny town at the junction of the road that goes either to Forbes or Orange, and made ourselves a sandwich in the van. It did occur to us that it was now colder than Canberra and starting to rain.

After lunch we pushed on to Forbes. It must be noted that the roads are in a bit of a mess due to the recent floods, so a slower trip weaving around potholes was the order of the day. I stopped just after crossing the Lachlan on the Iron Bridge (1892) to take a picture of the other side of the history sign, that I failed to take back in 2019 when we were last here.

We had thought the road a bit of a mess, but heading north out of Forbes on the Newell Highway we came across big road works, single lanes and traffic lights. We arrived in Parkes at about 3, parked up on the all-tarred terrace and nipped into town to get-a-few-things.

We are both a bit tired after our first day on the road and so the rest of the day was spent quietly n the van.

South Forbes, NSW

South Forbes, NSW