Bingara - Time to Reminisce

For those following our Blog you would have guessed by now that we re-visit places more than once, We also [mainly me - Mick] don't see much interest in large City's and prefer to be away from the hectic pace that City's have. Country towns however hold great interest to both of us and we enjoy exploring some of the out of the way places. Our trip North took us back into familiar country again;

Aboriginal for ‘shallow river crossing’, Bingara is nestled on the Gwydir River in the New England area of northwest New South Wales. Bingara is at the heart of the Fossickers Way, a picturesque route that offers a quiet alternative to the New England or Newell Highways. Prior to European settlement, the Wirrayaraay tribe of the Gamilaraay Nation occupied the land. The first European to discover the area was the explorer Allan Cunningham, en route to the Darling Downs in 1827. The town of Bingara was founded in 1840 and gold was discovered in the area in 1851.

Bingara hold's it's own special connection to me, it was the town my Mum and her 2nd husband Neil came to live after leaving Carrum Victoria in the late 70's. After Mum & my Dad seperated when i was just a baby, Mum's time was spent working to raise her three sons, she had no relationship for 20+ years untill she met Neil through a Gem Club. They both loved the fossicking lifestyle and decided to move to Bingara, where they married. They fitted in well with the small country town involving themselves in the Arts & Crafts group and other local groups, Neil was an expert 'whittler' and could turn a length of wood into a linked chain. After 12 years or so Neil passed away and Mum a few years later, both their ashes are scattered at the Batterham Lookout which overlooks the town and is seen from their front porch.

We have visited Bingara more times since they passed away than we did when they were alive, funny how life can work.

Forbes Bird Hide - Gwyder River Bingara

Not much to report, left Hay and cruised along the highway untill we arrived at the Bird Hide 2klms South of Forbes, we had previously stayed 'in town' along the river but thought the Bird Hide sounded more interesting, as it turned out we we were treated to one of the nicest sunsets we have seen. We had company for the evening as a couple on a Honda Goldwing 'Trike' motorbike & trailer called in and camped the night.

Forbes Bird Hide - Sunset

Another Mode of Transport


Left Forbes, drove along the Newell Highway and after visiting the Telescope Satellite at Parkes we stopped at Hickey's Falls for the night, another spot we have stayed previously and enjoyed. This time i went for a swim below the falls and was enjoying the water cascading down upon me untill i felt the tell tale sign [ouch] of being bitten by leeches .... Bugger that i thought as i scraped three of the blood sucking mongrels of my legs and swam back to the rocks and out, to get some pay back i put the yabby nets in and collected around 40 yabby, kept 20 and let the smaller ones go. For tea we had Scotch Fillet Steak with a garlic Yabby sauce ..... very nice and beats any fancy restaurant meal we have eaten.

Parkes Telescope Satellite Dish

Hickey Falls


We decided to continue on via Narrabri & Bingara, despite the GPS trying to lead us up closed roads we managed to get on the right track and re-visit Sawn Rocks for the night, No Tent's allowed here, so it's just as well we bought the Bushtracker along & only stopped for a few hours untill rested.

Sawn Rocks





Our days journey ended at Gwydir River just out of Bingara, another of those places we have stayed at before and enjoyed. Two other Bushtrackers are camped along the track and we have made our aqauintance with Leigh & Mitta & John & Laura. The river is flowing strong / too strong for our Kayak ...... easy going down stream but a hell of a long walk back .... so plan B is the kayak is back in it's bag for the duration of our stay.

Vinefera State Forest - Sandy Point Hay

The short visit we had with our Daughter & her Boyfriend flew by fast, and Vickie's Doctors appointment was good news with no changes in her eye condition, and with the next appointment not for another 6 months we left Glenelg today on Australia Day and headed off. Tonight we are camped beside the Murray River in the Vinefera State Forest, CAW5 #337 it's been a very hot afternoon & evening and we have been sitting outside the van watching the Australian Open Tennis on TV.

Vinefera State Forest Camp


The night cooled down and around 2am we were reaching for the sheet & blanket, the forecast was another hot day as we left camp and headed towards Swan Hill and then on to Moulamein, this was a lovely old town with interesting history, we were going to check out the Old Court House but it was closed and open for appointments only, many of the small shops were closed so we made do with a cuppa in the park beside the river.

Morning Tea at Moulamein




Moulimein to Hay is uninteresting as far as scenery goes, just vast plains and very dry. In Hay we are staying at Sandy Point CAW5 #523, a lovely camp with flush toilets, plenty of shelters with free BBQ's. It's the local river launching area as well and we have had a few 'locals' drive in with some ski boats which was very interesting to watch.

Sandy Point Camp Hay



Tomorrow we will be heading North East on the Western Highway and may take a detour and check out Lake Cargelligo CAW5 #1094

# Footnote - Well last night was an interesting time, around 10pm we had some local hoons come into the park and do some laps in their three cars every 30 minutes for the next two hours, the dust hung in the air long after they had their 'fun', we surmised whether the local caravan park pay's them to harrass visitors, but HAY what does it matter ....it kept us entertained.

Lipson Cove S.A.

We love this place, we have been here almost 2 weeks and the time has flown by, the weather has had it's up's & downs but appears to have settled back into perfect conditions with temperatures around a comfortable 27 - 28 degrees.

Paul [Ivan Millat] & Sally along with Steve [Dick Johnson] & Jo have left us but what makes this lifestyle so great is the people we meet and we are certain we will all stay in touch with each other, hopefully we will meet up again somewhere during the year. We had many great laughs and we christened Paul aka Polly as Ivan due to his resemblence to the infamous back packer murderer Ivan Milat, Steve was the spitting image of V8 Legend Dick Johnson ... it was all good fun and everyone enjoyed the humour.

The Group

Polly [Ivan] & Sally

Steve [Dick] & Jo

John & Shirley [UK]



John with the 25' van has been here the longest and is referred to as the Mayor of Lipson, he intends to stay another week before moving slowly West. John & Shirley both from the UK have fitted into the happy hour scene easily, great humour is always a pre-requisite and they have no shortage of that, just as well because they know bugger all about fishing but that didn't stop Shirley catching a whiting yesterday afternoon and John a slimy Wrasse this morning.

Vickie and i took the Kayak out again this afternoon where we spotted the local sea lion floating around basking in the lovely sunshine, he wouldn't let us get to close but close enough so we could check each other out. We also had the pro shark fisherman arrive yesterday and fillet his catch just off the beach leaving all the carcasses to float along and end up on the foreshore! This is the 2nd time he has done this and hasn't made to many friends here. I took the baitcaster out and caught 3 nice salmon trout which we will cook up the same as we did the salmon i caught a few days ago.



Friday today and we will hang around a few more days, Tumby Bay has an Arts Festival on that Vickie wants to look at, so Monday looks to be the moving on day, we will probably drive straight to North Glenelg and park the van on Erin's front yard again for the week untill Vickie's appointment and then head off again making our way slowly to Kilcoy Qld where we will be farm sitting for a couple of Months.

On the weekend we had some locals come for a kite surf, i wandered down to the beach and offered to take some photo's of them which they were very appreciative, they put on a good show despite the winds becoming very strong.

Lipson Cove

Catastrophic! that is the weather forecast for lower South Australia, for the past week we have been experiencing high temperatures around the 40c, the last two days have been the hottest and hot gusty winds around 30knts. Last night we slept with all the windows & screens open to get what sea breeze we could catch, it wasn't the most restfull night sleep we have had. With the hot winds and temperature already heading up i went for a fish, within a few casts i had hooked onto a nice sized salmon around 2.5kg, I had been fishing for whiting and was using an old baitcaster that a Western Angler forum member Ed Oklowski sold me around 8 years ago for $50, if you read this Ed you can be assured the 'old' setup is still working well, best $50 i've spent.

I percervered with a some more casts to the deep gutter but nothing else other than a small blowie took the bait, so it was back to camp where i filleted the fish and Vickie cooked it in a egg wash and coated with breadcrumbs & parmesan cheese, delicious with some tartare sauce.




With forecasts for high fire danger throughout the area we are staying put where we are untill things cool down, we don't have to be in Adelaide untill the 25th January for Vickie's eye Doctor's appointment. We have a friendly crew of other campers around us to enjoy happy hour with, John a retired police officer from WA in a 25' Retreat Caravan, Paul & Sally from the Hunter Valley with a Bushtracker, and Steve & Jo in a camper trailer, others have been and gone throughout the time we have been here.

Well what a change a few hours can make, since writing and posting this up we have had the cool change hit us along with lots of rain and wind, i was up in the night making sure things were put away and the drawers that we are carrying over for our daughter where covered with a tarp, I have also set up our water catching bucket to funnel what water we can into our holding tanks. Now it's a wait and see game to find out what the day brings.

Pildappa Rock - Lipson Cove

Change of plans, with the gusty coastal winds increasing we decided not to head back down the western side of the Eyre Penninsula instead we choose to go check out a Rock, Pildappa Rock which is 15klms NE of Minnipa. This was a fantastic spot, a mini Ayres Rock with no restrictions on climbing or camping, here the Shire encourages picnics and overnight stops with plenty of long drop toilets, picnic tables, shelter with lighting and water tanks provided.







We spent plenty of time climbing over the rock which resembles Wave Rock at Hyden WA but nicer, it is easy for all ages to climb, the views are great and the cooling winds on top of the rock blew away any flies, the same couldn't be said for around the base as the flys were very friendly but not as bad as we encountered leaving home.

We were joined by two other vehicles during our stay, one couple travelling with a caravan and the other couple with a camper trailer, they were keen as they had 4 large dogs with them and we were quite happy that they stayed on the opposite side to where we were and both left early in the morning, i don't even know whether they bothered to have a look at the view.





We decided to drive down through the towns of Wudinda, Lock & Cummins and head for Lipson Cove which is on the eastern side of the Eyre Penninsula 19klms North of Tumby Bay. Wudinda has a great granite statue symbolising the Australian Farmer, the sculpture is beautifully carved and well worth a look.





Lock & Cummins were like most of the small towns we passed through, hardly a soul out and about and with all the businesses closed for the weekend, except for the Cummins Hotel where we were given the thumbs up by a few patrons as we cruised slowly past.

We have been to Lipson Cove previously and enjoyed it enough to come back, we just hoped that it wasn't busy like Point Sinclair at Penong. Driving over the last hill the ocean looked fabulous and there appeared to be only a handfull of other campers, but with limited sites we had to wait untill someone left before we could take their place so we just set up on the side of the main entry for a night. The next day some campers left so we are now in 'our' spot and spending our time relaxing, walking along the beach or rocky cliff trail's and fishing, we have seen hundreds of rabbits. Today we will get the kayak out and have a play with that, we saw plenty of Dolphins yesterday afternoon so we hope they will be back.

Back on the road - Denial Bay

Christmas 2009 ..... all finished, we had a lovely time back at home and though we 'lived' in our van and shared the cooking duties 7 weeks was long enough. I'm sure our kids living in our home would think the same, our grand daughters are beautiful and at the age where they continue to surprise us with the things they come out with, we will miss them dearly on the next part of our nomadic lifestyle.



So leaving home we decided to take the great eastern highway instead of dealing with the mobs of people that would have been flocking to the south west, it's hard enough to find a nice quiet spot near the ocean when it's not school holiday time let alone Christmas / New Year. The temperature was forecast to be 40c and they were spot on for the Perth area, where we were on the open road i think temps were closer to 50c!! It was a stinker of a drive even with the aircon on the winds were a hot easterly and we copped them head on for the next two days, economy dropped to what we usually get out of the F250 but at least it didn't get hot like the trip back home, the change of radiator fixed that problem. We stopped at Meckering for 'smoko' which has a lovely memorial rose garden and plaque for the Meckering Earthquake in 1968.



We stopped the 1st night at Boorabbin Rest Area [#332 CAW5] at the temp was 38c inside the van so i got out the Honda generator and fired it up so we could run the aircon, no hardships for us. The flys were horific and we recalled last time we stopped here we had an electrical thunderstorm and the flys were bad then.



Up early and we were greeted to already high temperatures and millions of flys so we didn't waste time hitting the road again, Another nice spot for a overnight stop would be the gorge just east of the Norseman / Eyre highway turnoff, we stopped for a cuppa but the heat was relentless. Our next overnight stop was at Moodini Bluff [#10 CAW5] we had driven a long time today to escape the constant heat and it was a pleasent cooling breeze that greeted us when we pulled in and 'set up camp' not that we have to do much, open the door and windows and get a cold drink out of the engel.

Our 3rd night we thought we would drive down to the town beach at Point Sinclair 21klms Sth West of Penong, we had stayed here last January on our trip over and enjoyed it, as were driving in on the dirt road we started to remember some farmers that we met telling us they bring their caravans down over the Christmas / New Year, it wasn't untill we drove over the last hill and saw the parking area full of vans & vehicles that we realised what they meant. We had no choice but to continue down the hill so that we could turn around and head back out, we caused a few raised eyebrows as i did a 3 point turn to face back up the hill.



We had spotted a large lake on the track in with a vehicle parked on the sandy beach so we thought we would give that a look, speaking with the couple who were enjoying the serenity we decided to take the chance and stay the night even though we saw a hand written sign saying no camping. During the afternoon a few other vehicles came in with the owners either swimming or water skiing, no one hassled us and we made sure we didn't leave any rubbish the next morning when we left. Refueling at Penong at a very reasonable price of $1.24 litre we stopped at the cemetary and had morning smoko, something we do everytime we pass the town of Penong.







Another place we have visited before was Denial Bay just before Ceduna's border inspection, as we had some vegies to consume we decided to go back for another look at a spot we camped previously. To much delight we found it and no one else was on 'our' patch of turf - or dirt should i correctly say. The temperature is down to a pleasent 27c but the ocean winds are up in the gusty / blowy cyclone level, still that means no fly's and it gives us time to catch up on a few things. We will most likley stay here a couple of nights before moving on and down the Eyre Penninsula again.