Wagga Wagga

---

This morning we travelled ten kilometres east on the Sturt Highway to Forest Hill to start today’s sightseeing at the RAAF Wagga Aviation Heritage Centre that is housed in the old Guard House at the entrance to the RAAF Base Wagga (even though, technically, it is at Forest Hill).

Before heading into the guard house to view the smaller exhibits we wandered around the well-preserved aircraft outside. The heritage centre is home to an F-111, a Mirage, a Korean War Meteor and a Vietnam War Canberra.

Also located outdoors is a memorial to the Empire Air Training Scheme which saw thousands of aircrew trained to contribute to the WWII war effort. More than 200 training bases were constructed throughout the Empire, with 27 in Australia and nine across the the Riverina and surrounding districts. Mural artist, Sam Brooks, was engaged to produce an artwork on a water tank beside the guard house that would capture the contribution and sacrifice of those who served with the EATS from the Riverina.

Next we drove to the City of Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens, Zoo and Aviary. Visually the gardens are a bit drab at this time of year but, with few people about, we were able to enjoy being serenaded by the currawongs, cockatoos and kookaburras as we walked around the gardens. Much to my disappointment we did not set eyes on a kookaburra, but we certainly heard them cackling away merrily on a lovely sunny morning!

From the gardens we made out way into the Zoo and Aviary. The dingos were also enjoying the sunny morning laying around sleeping in their enclosure. Well, mostly, there was one annoying one who was hassling for a game, but he could not rouse the other one to participate! As we continued on from the dingo enclosure we encountered a couple of black swans. We were a little bit worried about whether they would rush at us with their beaks snapping, but they strolled on by with barely a glance in our direction. Phew! I love swans BUT they are big birds and they can be aggressive. No cygnets to protect at this time of year I suppose??

We strolled by the kangaroos – western grey and red – and the swamp wallabies. All the roos were way up the back of their enclosures! The enclosure for the fallow deer was, well, fallow, ha, ha, due to being rested/renovated. At the next enclosure along we found the fallow deer sharing that space with the alpacas. Around the corner there were some more exotic hoofed animals – a couple of donkeys and a sheep?!

There was a gardener in the free-flight aviary being assisted by a couple of pink galahs. They were hilarious following him around as he raked leaves and nibbling at the tyres of his wheelbarrow. Initially there didn’t seem to be many birds in the aviary, but gradually they seemed to come out from where they were hiding. It was mainly parrots and budgerigars. We had one grey and blue parrot (no idea what it was officially) who made friends with us. First he landed on Bernie’s back and then posed for a photo peeking out from around Bernie’s shoulder. By this stage Bernie was getting anxious that the bird might poo on the camera bag on his back so I took it off his shoulder onto my hand … where is promptly closed its eyes and looked like it was settling in for a nap!! I tried to encourage it to climb off onto a tree branch, but it was not interested. Eventually I managed to coax it off my hand and onto a rock and we were able to make our way out of the free-flight aviary without a hitchhiker.

We lunched at The Gardens Café. Nothing fancy, just some toasted sandwiches. Before leaving the gardens we ventured down to the David Jones Memorial Rose Garden. Despite the fact that it is June there were still a few blooms hanging on. It must look awesome in the spring though! Our last stop was the Island and Bamboo Garden. Popular for weddings, there is a bridge reminiscent of the one in Monet’s Garden and a pretty gazebo surrounded by bamboo.

We drove back into the centre of town to visit the National Art Glass Gallery and the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. The National Art Glass Gallery houses a world class, nationally significant collection of contemporary art glass. Although there are approximately 400 pieces in the collection only a few are displayed at any one time. Upstairs the gallery also exhibits a number of curated exhibitions which feature well known Australian and international glass artists throughout the year.

What I found particularly interesting was the piece ‘Toorak ceiling’ (1976) by Leonard French the creator of the stained glass ceiling in the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria. Because you cannot see the detail of the ceiling in the Great Hall (it’s a long way up!) it was great to be able to gain an appreciation of the technique and design of his stained glass pieces. The only thing the glass gallery lacked was a resident glass artist. It would have been fabulous to watch glass art being created.

After all of the glass art we crossed over to the art gallery which is currently hosting the following exhibitions:


• UnEarthly – Hayden Fowler
• gii Mara-bula / Heart Hand-also – Juanita McLauchlan
• Only a Remnant – Nicola Dickson
• River in my mind, in my work – Nathalie Hartog-Gautier


UnEarthly is made up of a number of video installations that ‘invites viewers to engage with the complexity of the human condition and our relationship with the environment around us’. We are philistines as we failed to be engaged, we just found it all a bit weird.

Juanita’s work involved textiles so I could appreciate the skill involved in printing the fabric and stitching pieces together. However, I found it more difficult to connect with the more personal aspects of the work where the artist states that the exhibition expresses her understanding of continuities over time, that she shares with both ancestors and descendants.

Only a Remnant was the most relatable exhibition with the actual pieces being (to me) more traditional artworks. The theme of the pieces is biodiversity loss in the Riverina and the impact of European settlement on the homelands of the Wiradjuri people.

Nathalie’s exhibition utilises river landscapes to explore colonised environments and ecological devastation.

Intrigued by the idea of Wagga Beach we drove down to the bank of the Mighty Murrumbidgee River to check out the sand. On a sunny summer’s day this must be very popular with the locals. We couldn’t help but wonder though, how often do they have to truck more sand in?? Surely it must get washed away any time that the river runs high?

With a light drizzle starting to fall we completed a quick circuit of the churches - Saint Michael’s Cathedral, St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and Saint John’s Anglican Church - that are situated quite close together not far from the beach.

Dinner tonight at the pub where we both ate for what it cost for one of us to eat last night!! Can’t be doing fine dining every night and there is certainly nothing wrong with pub grub. The Farmers Home Hotel was packed on a Thursday night. It’s always a good sign if a place is busy and we were not disappointed with our meals. Bernie bought tickets in the raffle for a meat tray!! It hadn’t been drawn when we left so we passed out ticket on to the ladies we had shared our table with. I mean we really didn’t want to win the meat tray anyway. What on earth would we do with it?



Steps: 12,874 (8.82kms)

---

Comments

[Janet]

Welcome back travelers!
It was so good to read your entertaining and informative commentaries once more and admire the stunning photos too. I particularly love the photo of you with your new friend Tracey. I hope you are both well and enjoying being back out on the road again. I had not realised Wagga Wagga held such interest so I think maybe it is worth a road trip for the Morrisons some time in the future. Your guide will be invaluable for this purpose. I am keen to see that Glass Gallery, it is something we both really appreciate. If you haven’t been before - the Gordon Studio Glassblowers at Mornington Peninsula is worth a visit and they do have a viewing area to watch the art being created as well as a beautiful display of their wares. I look forward to the next instalments for a dose of great armchair travel. Lots of love Janet (direct from Cobble Cottage Haworth)

[Trabern]

Hidden gems
Hi Janet, Great to hear that you are now settled in at Haworth for the more relaxing part of your holiday. You have certainly packed heaps into the last few weeks. You two have given us some ideas for future visits to the UK. Although we have already been to a couple of places, you have certainly highlighted destinations and activities previously unknown to us. I think nearly everywhere has its hidden gems. I only realised last night that the Australian Fossil and MIneral Museum is in Bathurst so we managed to fit that in this morning before leaving Bathurst behind us. It can be hard to find out about ALL the sightseeing opportunities that are available when you are on the road. Despite the internet!! 😆💜T