Melbourne to Wagga Wagga

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Finally … we were able to head off today on our long-planned road trip to NSW. Since our trip in 2019 we have been planning to head north again to explore more of what NSW has to offer. We were all set to go in mid-2021, just after Bernie retired, but then Victoria was locked down AGAIN and we had to stay at home instead. Then we planned to head north early last year, but there were once in a hundred year floods throughout NSW so we drove west to South Australia instead. Our patience has paid off and we now have the truck packed for our NSW adventure.

Speaking of the truck (aka the ISUZU MU-X) Bernie is very keen to try out all of the modifications and accessories he has been organising for it. First and foremost is its suspension upgrade to make sure our gross vehicle mass is still legal when we are all loaded up for a road trip. Then there’s the roof rack and the awning which have both been added since our trip to SA. Hopefully all will make touring more comfortable for us.

We set off in light drizzle and headed towards the Hume Highway. Despite a few slow sections due to road works we enjoyed an uneventful journey to Glenrowan where we stopped for lunch. At the bakery we enjoyed the biggest, freshly made salad rolls we’ve had in ages. And, despite stopping for a latish lunch, we beat the rush of workers who came into town from the solar farm. The solar farm is already vast and it looks like they are currently working to expand it to at least twice its present size.

We continued through Wangaratta and Albury/Wodonga on the Hume Highway before turning off onto the Olympic Highway (A41). When we have travelled north before it has been on the Hume and Newell Highways. The Olympic Highway runs northwards in between the other two highways. If we have ever travelled this way before we certainly don’t remember!! The road was named Olympic Way in 1963 in recognition that the Olympic Torch for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games travelled between Cowra and Albury on this route. In 1996 it was renamed Olympic Highway and the route between Wagga Wagga and Cowra was used again during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games torch relay.

We stopped again at Culcairn to stretch our legs. We decided that while we were out of the car we should photograph the classic country railway station. As luck would have it, Bernie was just lining up his shot and a southbound passenger train rattled through the station. We could not have planned that better if we’d tried!

We made another very brief stop at the Henty Man Rest Stop. The man was originally shaped by an itinerant worker in the early 1930s from a tree burnt out by a swagman's fire. It was a district landmark until it was destroyed by natural elements about 20 years later. Prior to Henty's Centenary in 1986 the man was restored by a group of local identities with assistance from the former Culcairn Shire Council. At the Centenary celebrations, Councillor Hugh McKay dedicated it to the men of the road, who had to walk the length and breadth of Australia during the Great Depression seeking work.

A little further up the road at Yerong Creek we found the Yering Creek Water Tower Mural. The mural was designed and painted by Melbourne-based artist Khosnaran Khurelbaatar (Heesco) in 2018 using 140 litres of undercoat and over 200 cans of spray paint!

Continuing along Olympic Highway we encountered The Rock. Not Dwayne Johnson, but a town named The Rock because it basically sits beneath a rock/rocky outcrop! The Rock Nature Reserve – Kendal Aboriginal Place offers scenic picnic spots, walking opportunities, birdwatching and rock climbing BUT today we drove on past keen to finish our journey for today in Wagga Wagga before the sun set.

About 20 minutes later we arrived in Wagga Wagga. We picked up a few supplies from Woolies and then checked in at our hotel for the next two nights. At dinner time we walked all the way around Bolton Park (we needed the steps after being in the car all day!) to Hide Steak & Bar where we shared a delicious ‘meating plate’. We spent most of the afternoon driving past paddocks of Angus cows so tonight we ate Angus beef cooked three different ways.

We are not expecting any trouble at the motel tonight. There are two police vehicles parked downstairs so we figure with members of the police force in residence that everyone will be well behaved.



Steps: 11,896 (8.5kms)

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Comments

[Joy Woolston]

I hope you have some nice, warm days for your trip. I remember staying with some relatives on their farm in Culcairn many decades ago. I'm sure I must arrived at and departed from the Culcairn railway station. I even briefly went to the Culcairn school with my cousins. Happy travelling!

[Trabern]

Memories
Hi Joy, lovely to hear from you. I am happy to have triggered some childhood memories for you. A train trip to Culcairn to visit with your cousins sounds like quite an adventure! We have been lucky with fine and sunny weather so far.