Next Stop – Canberra

It was only 2C when we woke in Albury and there was a thin layer of fog in the valley. The temperature only reached a high of 11C today but there was no rain and no wind.

We looked out to the war memorial on the top of the hill and remembered that my my fellow veteran mates with whom I meet for coffee on Tuesdays would be attending the MCC War Veterans Group lunch today. I hope that they found the speaker interesting and that they enjoyed the day.

The highway north to the rural city of Yass is dual carriageway and easy driving. My new car does a good job of staying in the lane and adjusting its cruising speed when behind slower vehicles. If I turn on the indicator, it will automatically change lanes. I drove most of the way with just a ight touch on the steering wheel and the car did all the work by itself. The road from Yass to Canberra was only a single lane highway and I was careful to keep to the ever changing speed limit along the way.

Along the way, we turned off the highway to see a number of towns that we passed. I’ve seen most of them before but they are quite historical and always worth another look. The countryside that we travelled through is a prime grazing area but the green grass covering the andscape looks thin and superficial after months of drought.

Our first deviation was into the tiny villlage of Woomargama. There’s nothing there apart from a pub and and a service station, however there was a cute white church that was built in 1838, the year the town was established.

At Holbrook, we found many old buildings dating back as far as the early 1850s. Since the highway now passes the town, the main street  has much less traffic than the days when every heavy transport on the Hume HIghway travelled down the main street. Today, it seemed exceptionally quiet.

These days,  Holbrook’s primary function is a stopover and rest destination where the huge HMAS Otway submarine can be inspected in the town park.

Tarcutta is about half way between Melbourne and Sydney and for many years was the location where transport drivers changed over. Today it is a sad town with closed shops. Its bright spot is a memorial to truckies who have died in accidental deaths on the highway

Jugiong is now bypassed but has the famous Sir George Hotel in what was once its main street. It is a beutifully restored building. This hotel in Jugiong has a rich history dating back to 1845, when it was built by Irish settler John Philip Sheahan. It served as a vital stopover for travelers and drovers between Sydney and Melbourne during the 19th century. 

A next deviation was into Gundagai, about halfway along on today’s journey. It is situated on the Murrumbidgee River and has a new road bridge almost one kilometre long. There was once side-by-side road and rail bridges but only the old historic rail bridge remains. 

Gundagai is immortalised in at  least two songs – Flash Jack from Gundagai and On the Road to Gundagai. It is best known for the song about the ‘dog sitting on the tucker box’. This song references a lady named Mabel who is the ficticious wife of Dave with his parents ‘Dad and Mum’. This family were described in the famous poem by Steel Rudd in his 1899 series ‘On Our Selection’. There is a statue of this imaginary family looking resplendant in Gundagai’s city park.

The highway also passes little towns like Bookham that are now mostly a memory on the map. 

We thought that the city of Yass deserved a quick visit.  Historically it was an important rural service centre on the Yass River, a tributary of the Murrumbidgee. It was noted for its high quality wool and merino studs. Over the past thirty years has become increasingly known for its vineyards and its classy produce. It is no longer a stop on the Hume Highway but rather a quiet town with a broad main street, a number of attractive parks, a collection of handsome historic buildings and a relaxed ambience. These historic buildings include the courthouse and several old bank buildings.

For the next two nights, we are in Canberra and we will see what sort of things w can do while here.