Skip to main content

Country Places


I was very pleased because I thought we were going to pass through Gulargambone.  Why I want to see Gulargambone I don't know, I think it is because it has such a great name.  Perhaps one of our bush poets wrote about it.   AD Hope is not a bush poet but he did put Gulargambone  in his poem Country Places which is about "weird names, some beautiful, more that make me laugh."

Anyway, it turns out we were not a Gulargambone but at Giralambone -- which proudly announced itself as a Tidy Village winner.  It can't take a lot of effort to become a tidy village ... mow the front lawns of the one or two houses and take a beaten up car or two to the dump.  There is not a lot here, the general store and the skeleton of the old railway station which gave it birth.

As it happens Giralambone does have a literary connection. It's the historic location of the incidents in the story "The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith"  by Thomas Kaneally.   [Opps wrong.  The schoolteacher  Helena Kerz murdered in the incident is buried here, the location of the events was Breelong]

Comments

  1. freefallingJuly 27, 2012 at 1:00 PM

    Ha!
    I just had a look at it on Google maps.
    I thought the road between Moree and Gundy was straight - it ain't a patch on the Nyngan/Bourke road!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jose the travelling padreJuly 27, 2012 at 7:51 PM

    I'm sorry to disappoint you about the Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith thing. Jimmy and Joe Governor and their companion Jacky Underwood murdered members of the Mawbey family at Breelong. Breelong is on the Castlereagh Highway between Gilgandra and Mendooran. I was recently at a dedication ceremony for an interpretive sign in the rest area at Breelong telling the story of the massacre. Gulargambone has a really good cafe located in the old cinema. It's worth a visit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joan ElizabethJuly 27, 2012 at 10:00 PM

      Doing my research too quickly. The schoolteacher killed in the jimmy Blacksmith incident it buried there. I will update the post. I will get to Gulargambone one day ... and Breelong too.

      Delete
  3. Jose the travelling padreJuly 29, 2012 at 9:04 AM

    Ellen Kerz was the governess. Breelong is quite pretty. I recommend a road trip heading up to Mudgee, then through Coolah and Binnaway to Coonabarabran, explore the Warrumbungles then head to Baradine. A big loop through the Pilliga Forest through Gwabegar to Pilliga then back to Coonamble. Then follow the Castlereagh River back to Gilgandra and Mendooran. Armatree is worth a look as are many other little hamlets in the region. You should check out my blog on Teh Castlereagh http://thecastlereagh.blogspot.com.au/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Larras Lee

We passed through Bakers Swamp without noticing anything.  Then reached our last dot on the map for this trip - Larras Lee and saw this.  The roadside monument says: In Memory of  WILLIAM LEE  (1794 - 1870)  of "Larras Lake"  a pioneer of the sheep  and cattle industry  and first member for  Roxburgh under responsible  government (1856 - 1859).  This stone was erected  by his descendants.  --- 1938 --- This is a repost from a few days ago. Thinking I would use this for this week’s Taphophile Tragics post I dug a little further into William Lee’s story, it’s a very colonial Australian one. William was born of convict parents, living his childhood years around the Sydney region. In his early 20s he was issued with some government cattle, recommended as a suitable settler and granted 134 acres at Kelso near Bathurst. He was one of the first in the area and did well. A few years later he was granted a ram and an inc...
9 comments
Read more

The end

I retire from the workforce this week and to celebrate have decided to retire my current blogs and start afresh with a single consolidated blog -  My Bright Field  - to record the delights of my new life adventure. If you are interested follow me over there.  I will still be Sweet Wayfaring and collecting Royal Hotels.  The delights I discover along the way will appear together with my gardens and towns where I live.
Post a Comment
Read more

Coolibah?

Is that a Coolibah tree beside the abandoned house? Every Australian knows about Coolibah trees because the bush ballad Waltzing Matilda is nigh on our unoffical national anthem but most of us live nowhere near the inland where they grow. Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong, Under the shade of a Coolibah tree, And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled, You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me. Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me, And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.
13 comments
Read more