Blogs from Moree, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania
October 19th 2011
Tuesday 18th October - the poor weather didn’t materialise overnight but, the advanced preparations Graham had done just in case, stood us in good stead. Without really trying we were ready to leave Goondiwindi soon after 8:30am. As we left ‘Gundy’ we felt a tinge of sadness as we were about to leave Queensland after meandering around the state for the last 2 ½ months. It’s a state with an incredible range of climates, flora and fauna and we have loved all of it. Our journey to Moree, our next destination, was only about 130 kilometers so we weren’t in any hurry. However, we had to allow for a change in the clocks as, unlike Queensland, New South Wales, just across the river from Goondiwindi, adopts a “daylight saving” strategy, a bit like our British Summer ... read more
September 24th 2011
For the last two months, I've been working in the outback. I've enjoyed it a lot. I was picked up from the bus station in Moree, which really isnt a bus station. It was more of a bus stop. I was picked up by the owner's wife named Roz, who was probably about 55 years of age. She took me to the store as I would only get to go to the store about every 10 days or so. We started driving to our destination and there was a GPS in the vehicle we were driving. After about half an hour, there were no roads on the GPS. I was like where are we going? She said it was a dot on the map. We were going there on dirt roads all the way. They ... read more
July 7th 2011
Day 5 Thursday 7th July 2011 Nyngan to Moree Today we travelled through the Macquarie Marshes and stopped at Willie Station, an eco tourism type facility (and a working station). Our drive from Willie Station included our first water crossing, about 50 metres long and 0.3 metres deep. We all came through without any problems! Not far beyond the crossing was a large viewing platform, looking across an area of the Macquarie Marshes where many birds came and went. Somewhere on the dirt road today we shed a wheel trim, which ultimately turned out to be not a bad thing (but more of that later). We arrived at our night’s stop, Moree, in time for Nigel to enjoy a dip in the thermal springs at the caravan park (but not me, I’m not a fan of ... read more
Hi from Moree, love the hot pools!
Published: July 3rd 2010Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Moree
July 3rd 2010
Hi all Thanks for the emails received this week, we love getting news. We ended up having 2 more days at Lightening Ridge - one day it rained, and the next we drove out west to the Grawn and Glengarry opal mining area, and did some fossicking there. There are two huge piles of rocks (tailings) that individual claim holders use as a dumping area, when they sink their bores. We saw several old trucks come in and dump rocks there. The public can fossick these areas, and we found some more rocks with small amounts of opal. We left Lorne Station, up the "dry weather road" (after the rain it was still a bit sticky), and headed south east. We arrived at the freepark at Burren Junction Artesian Baths to find at least 25 other ... read more
May 31st 2010
Hi everyone! So I've just started another semester of classes, but before those began this week, last weekend, a bunch of girls and I jumped into 2 cars and went on a road trip to an Aussie friend's family home where she was having a huge bash for her 21st birthday! We drove 600km south and inland to this town called Moree where the primary industry is cattle farming. Taking the scenic route we went through a bunch of different kinds of terrain from lush foresty stuff near the coast, up through mountains with giant ferns (looked like ferngully) and hairpin turns, through eucalyptus forests that is koala habitat and then through farmland and flatland with scraggly trees dotting the landscape that is kangaroo habitat. Then we broke through another forested mountain range before driving a ... read more
November 24th 2009
Howdy all, I have recently returned from working the grain harvest on a property located out of Munginidi on the NSW / QLD border. With memories of the snow a very distant memory I was treated to 30 degree plus days and big open skies. The harvest runs in this part of the world from early October through to Christmas depending on rain and other seasonal conditions. In total we (Stuart a Scottish backpacker) and I helped the farm staff harvest over 35,000 acres of Barley, Chick Peas and grain. It was really a very fantastic experience however driving and operating the large farm plant took some serious getting used too. At approximately $600,000 a header we left the combine harvesting to the experts and drove the chaser bin. A large bin (30 tonnes) connected to ... read more
Yawning, Poor Concentration, Tired? - Sounds like another day at the office
Published: November 15th 2009Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Moree
November 14th 2009
DAY 372 I can vaguely remember hearing the sound of Andy pumping water directly from the water tank, he is filling the kettle, whilst on the one hand I am thinking “great a cup of tea” on the other hand I am thinking, it must be nearly time to get up, it is only just daylight outside I check my watch it says 4.45, but I know that it is really 5.45 as we came through a time zone change yesterday when we crossed the Queensland border into New South Wales. I fall asleep again, but it is not long before I can hear my name, Andy is calling me and telling me my tea is ready. He tells me he called me twice before I finally stirred, I never heard those, it is 6.15 but ... read more
November 7th 2009
This bulletin is covering one month of travel and taking us into new working experiences! As mentioned in “Part 1”, we arrived back in Gunnedah, in search of koalas, gear for our working life and future employment opportunities. First goal - Koalas! We set off for Porcupine Lookout, a reserve well populated with our furry friends. Setting out towards the middle of the day was probably not our brightest idea, as koalas are renowned for sleeping through the day and being more active during the mornings and evenings. Undeterred, we set off on the bush track, meeting up with another couple who were returning after an hour through the bush with not one koala in sight! We pressed on and obviously took a different path to the other people, as we soon found ourselves back on ... read more
"We are Lucky to have you in Australia"
Published: January 14th 2009Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Moree
January 13th 2009
Day 67 Today sees us moving out of Glenn Innes and on to Moree. I had in fact intended on bypassing Moree to drive straight to Narrabri, however Robin mentioned that Moree was worth a visit. So after packing away the tent, saying our goodbyes to Robin and Helen, we hit the road towards Inverell, this time filling up with Diesel and making sure that the Jerry can was also full with Diesel, we are not filling the sub tank yet as there is no need while we are in areas that have plenty of fuel stations. Away on the 38 the scenery and the temperature started to change, we were now coming down from the high altitude and coming back to 217metres above sea level, rather than the height of Snowdonia. The terrain was opening ... read more
