Dubbo

We arrived in Dubbo yesterday and the weather is much more comfortable. The temperature over the last two days has maxed out at 15C. That’s not warm, but after the previous cold days, it feels almost tropical. The nights are stilll cold getting down to zero with a morning layer of frost.

Once we left our hotel which was right at the end of the longest straight on Bathurst’s Mount Panorama racing circuit we decided to do a lap. Because the ra ce track is built on public roads we were forced to drive at the speed limit. Jill recorded a video of our lap which took 6:05 minutes. While we were traveling at a death defying speed, we found out later thart the fastest lap of this 6.2 km race track is 1:59 seconds.

Before leaving Bathurst, we visited the large. and inpressive courthouse. When first seen this building with its East Wing (originally the Post Office) and West Wing (the Telegraph Office) is little short of amazing. It seems so grand for a rural setting. It’s probable that was much more respect for law in order in 1880 when it was built. It could be that the size of the court reflects on the amount of crime in those days, but I doubt it.

This Neo-Classical Court House is Bathurst’s most distinguished public building and is regarded by the National Trust as “one of Australia’s finest examples of Victorian public architecture”. Designed by James Barnet, it was completed in 1880. The wings, built as the postal and telegraph offices, were opened in 1877. The entire structure is 81 m long and 45 m wide.

After finding the address of prevous Prime Minister Ben Chifley’s house. It is indeed a humnble house that befits a man who worked for the railway. 

A unique set of circumstances surround this house. It was the only home Chifley and his wife ever lived in with his wife continuing to occupy it until she died in 1962). Mrs Chifley bequeathed the house to her “companion and housekeeper” for the duration of her life, it was then passed on to the Presbyterian Church which, in turn, sold it to the Bathurst City Council in 1962. 

By Victorian Standards, the road north to Dubbo was in good shape. It was mostly smooth and without many potholes. After a little while, we came to the little town of Molong. It is a rural service centre located in the rolling hills of the Macquarie Range between Bathurst and Wellington. It is surrounded by rich agricultural land famous for its production of fine wool, wheat, orchards, vineyards, beef cattle and fat lambs.

On one street corner is is a small park (the village green) with an old  Cobb & Co Coach House. It is now known as The Coach House Craft Gallery and is linked to the Yarn Market Craft Cottage.

In the 1800s Cobb and Co were an amazing Australian transport business. The first coach arrived at Bathurst, in 1862, from Victoria, to the applause of a large fanfare. At its peak Cobb & Co coaches were travelling 28,000 miles (44,800 km) a week. They had a total of 30,000 horses and were harnessing 6,000 horses every day. There was a total of 7,000 miles (11, 250 km) of regular routes throughout Australia and the web of routes from Bathurst to Bourke were part of 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of coach routes which stretched from southern Victoria to the Gulf of Carpentaria and criss-crossed eastern Australia. The Cobb and Co stables in Molong have been preserved.

This area of Australia was settled very early in the country’s history. This old cottage that we saw before reaching Welllington is an example.  There are many similar examples of old pioneering cottages scattered across the landscape.

Wellington is the second-oldest town west of the Blue Mountains. It is a relatively large centre in the Wellington Valley at the junction of the Macquarie and Bell Rivers. Again, there are many impressive old buildings n the town. 

The Oxley Regional museum, for example, is located in the old Bank of New South Wales building. It was first converted into the Catholic presbytery in 1922 and opened as a museum in 1967.

We arrived in Dubbo in the mid afternoon for a two night stop. The first European settler in the area was Robert Dulhunty who arrived after 1829 and and chose grazing land which he named ‘Dubbo’. It is believed to be a Wiradjuri word meaning either “cap”, “head covering” or “red earth”.

Our two night stop gave us the luxury of a sleep-in and a very late start today. We found another impressive courthouse and assumed, again that this have one day been a crime-ridden place to justify such an imporessive building. The local RSL, wherer we ate dinner last night, was not so impressive. It is a large ‘barn’ of a place with hardly any dishes on the bistro menu that were not deep fried.

We spent nearly the whole day, today, visitng the Taronga Open Plains Zoo, just a few kilometers out of town. I enjoyed doing some photography, doing my best to take photos of animals without fences and enclosures included in the image. However, this wasn’t always easy so I will see if I can remove them in some later editing.

Tomorrow, we drive north to Moree.