Blogs from Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

After spending a week with my elderly parents in Wellington NSW, helping out around the house and yard, it was time to hit the road again with our caravan. I have included a photo of The Blacksmith Shop, where my grandfather, father and uncles plied their “Smithy” trade, located next to our family home in Wellington. I have previously mentioned about researching our family history this past year, and that research has revealed that my great great grandfather, Charles Cullen, and his brother Daniel Cullen, Blacksmiths by trade, left Ireland and embarked on their voyage to a new land (Australia) in the 1850’s. Charles sailed from Ireland on the “Agincourt” in 1852 with his young wife, Mary, and Daniel sailed on the “Daniel McIvor” in 1856. I searched for a suitable Blacksmith poem to include in ... read more

Day 8 (11/4/21)Temps: Max 17C, Min 5C Updated the blog this morning as feeling a little tired after yesterdays lengthy drive. Drove around Dubbo familiarising ourselves with the area & facilities. Went for lunch at the Western Star Hotel. Quite basic & no frills sort of place. We both had Steak Burgers & shared Herb Bread. Herb Bread was heavily laced with herbs, while the Steak Burgers were soggy & falling apart while trying to eat them. Drove a short distance & looked at the shops in the Dubbo CBD. Quite a lot of shops are closed down & empty. Still a lot of people out & about for a Sunday. Decided on the attractions we want to see & their pricing & purchased a Great Big Adventure Pass, which gives you entry to: Taronga Western ... read more

Brrr, it was cold this morning, but the sky was blue and the sun was shining. This made it a bit difficult to decide what to wear - if we started with our puffer coats on we were going to be carrying them before long. We decided to tough it out to start with in just T-shirts and jumpers ... which was fine when we were standing in the sun, but very chilly when we were in the shade! We made a good start and arrived at the zoo right on opening time at 9.00am, with our Melbourne Zoo membership entitling us to free entry at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo through the zoos’ reciprocal arrangements. After driving all day yesterday we decided that we should complete the six kilometre circuit of the zoo on foot. ... read more

We were still worrying about the broken aerial and so we decided to drive all the way in to Dubbo next morning and see if we could get it repaired. We tried a few places without luck, but then hit on an auto electrician who also did two way radio installs and he was confident he could do the job. You'll need to leave it with me for a couple of hours at least he said, so we walked into the city centre and had lunch and discussed what else we might do while we were waiting for the work to be done. The phone rang just then and the sparky was finished! Excellent work and then we needed to find somewhere to stay (we had selected a free camp site for the night but we ... read more

With family living a little north of Newcastle, this part of the journey is becoming common, but certainly not boring. There is an ongoing major upgrade of the Pacific Highway between Brisbane and Sydney, or more particularly a little north of Newcastle to Brisbane. Even though it is just a few weeks since we were in Newcastle, new sections of the 4 lane highway have opened, and others in various states of construction. Those who followed our trip last year around Australia will recall that we were stranded for about 10 days due to floods on the Pacific Highway. One of the major problems was the river at Kempsey which had a huge flood - just about 3 weeks before a new highway was due to open. This year the road is open and a huge ... read more