Sweet Wayfaring

Things are a bit busy for me at the moment. I will return in a week or so.

Today is Anzac day so it is fitting to observe that nearly every town (past or present) has a war memorial dating from World War 1 when so many of the youth of this land lost their lives in battle.  No town seems to have gone untouched by this carnage.   Burraga, our town of today, is no exception.  The war memorial stands in the local park along with displays recording the other important history to this place, the copper mining era. Visit Burraga over at 100 Towns.

Frost, now that is something seen a lot more in country towns than in the coastal city areas and out Oberon way the winters are especially chilly. This post, chosen for a Tuesday to participate in Taphophile Tragics, was taken on a frosty morning in Oberon a few years ago.  At the time I was surprised to find headstones looming over the hill but was keen to get on my way so didn't investigate further until I chose to include it in this series.  I think it is the Old Methodist Cemetery dating from 1859 and still in use today. V isit Black Springs another town in this district over at 100 Towns .  I can vouch that it is also a very chilly spot in winter.

Whenever we take city guests on a drive to explore the towns and country west of the mountains they always warm to places like Oberon, Mudgee and Rylstone and pretty much ignore the run down places I adore.  The attraction of these towns are the tidy streets, buzz of activity and cafes.  I am not altogether sure the cafes matter that much to the locals but from my observation they are essential to attracting out of town dollars. The Monkey Bean Cafe is in Oberon, quite a big town (population 2,700 in the town and 5,500 in the district). Oberon is set in the middle of in sumptuous rolling rural acres, huge spreads of pine forest and nearby Blue Mountains wilderness areas. A perfect location for a weekend getaway. At this time of year they promote mushroom picking in the pine forest but with those people dying in Canberra earlier in the year from misidentified wild mushrooms perhaps it won't be so popular this year. See more of Oberon and district over at 100 town...

I don't have a new series to run but have a plethora of towns that have not yet been posted over at 100 towns.  So thought I would work my way through these at the same time as mulling over life in the bush. Now this sign at the school of Rockley amused me.  Why would a school in a town of with a population of less than 200 people and with just 16 students need to advertise so stridently. Surely every kid within cooee of the town goes there as a matter of course and their Mum and Dad know when it's time to enrol the kids. This made me dig in a little further.  According the myschools website they have 1 teacher and 2 non-teaching staff (1.2 Full time equivalent). Enrollment has grown from 9 in 2009 to 16 in 2011.  That is 78% growth - enough to make any marketing manager proud. They are big into marketing at this school, the fence boasted other signs about them being sun smart and into healthy food.  The neat and tidy website talks of other amenities such...

Royal Hotel, Binnaway contributed by Ray Five new Royals!  Ray who has an Art Deco in the Australian Bush blog sent four and Julie from Sydney Eye has sent a Royalish hotel that is now masquerading as office space in Darlinghurst. I picked the one from Binnaway because it looks like my type of town. Pop over to the Royal Collection to see the other four.

I could not find any evidence of a town at Browns Creek but it was the location of an open cut and underground gold mine in the not too distant past.  It was closed in 1999 when the mine flooded.  At the same time farmers reported that a section of Browns Creek dried up. The old mining site is now used by a landscaping company. This is the end of this trip. I've added Browns Creek as a locality over at 100 towns.