Kings Billabong is a wet-land area near Mildura that feeds the mighty Murray River. It is also flowing through what is an arid region. So on one hand, I saw bodies of water like this.
But when I look at my feet, I saw what seemed to me to be plants that belonged in much drier regions. They’re species that are certainly a bit different to those I find around Sydney, anyway. And of course they’d be different, since I was 1,000km west!
We’re continuing on our tour of NSW country towns. The next town we’re exploring is Milthorpe. It’s located on the other side of Bathurst to Hill End, 240km west of Sydney and 40km south-west of Bathurst. Unlike Hill End, it’s a very accessible town, located mid-way between the large towns of Bathurst and Orange. The land around it is generally flat, which attracted agriculture and grazing. It, like Hill End, is in the country of the Wiradjuri, whose lands extended from Mudgee, all the way across to Hay.
Milthorpe grew prosperous from agriculture and even has a railway station on the Western NSW line, with daily stops by the Dubbo-bound train. It is a busy tourist town of 1,300 people, and gets many visitors on weekends and school holidays. People love the living historical buildings, lovingly maintained. It’s also lucky that it’s now within the Orange wine region.
It might be a touristy town, but unlike towns of similar ilk closer to Sydney, I don’t think it is yet too well-loved.
The following day, the weather was not fine, but the rain just added to the drama of the scenery.
We still went for a slightly wet wander close to Pumphouse Point, and we found a lot to see. Tasmanian flora and fauna is so very distinct from those of the mainland. It’s one of the main reasons for visiting this area.
Today, we’ll concentrate on the flora. Despite the weather, it was early summer, so there was plenty of wildflowers in bloom.
Much of the flowers were small and wispy. I suppose they can’t get very big in so cool a climate.
Static and Silence 