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Australian Road Trip
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Chapter Three Australian Road Trip |
Late in 1975 we decided to do a road trip. By now I had sold the Holden Monaro and bought a panel van. Most people thought of a panel van as a work vehicle, but with a little thought they made an excellent RV. Most people sneered at them and called them shaggin' wagons. Eileen and I were married so I didn't care.
Our van was a little different though. It had a 308cubic inchV8 motor, which had a larger carburettor, and exhaust extractors, four speed floor shifted transmission, wide chromed wheels, bucket seats, and GTS Monaro dashboard instruments. It cost me Au$3,000. I bought it through my next-door neighbour from Dalby, who was now sales manager for a Holden dealer, and even he wanted me to put down a 10% deposit before he would order it, in case I changed my mind. A year later Holden couldn't make enough Sandman panel vans.
We drove from Miles to Rockhampton. On the way we stopped at the old gold mining town of Mount Morgan. There is no gold worth mining any more, and it has become a popular residential town. Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia. More beef is exported through here than anywhere else in the country.
From Rockhampton I drove 450 miles to The Gold Coast. We decided to see the movie The Exorcist. I was so tired that I fell asleep in the theatre seat. First I leant on Eileen. Then I leant onto the person sitting on the other side of me. I decided to go to the van and lie down. While trying to cross the street everything was a blur. I couldn't focus. Car, street, and shop lights were dazzling and my head was spinning. Was Regan in my head?
If she was, she left during the night. When I woke in the morning I was fine, except I had a toothache. We spent a few days travelling down the Pacific Highway to Sydney where we stayed with friends. My toothache was getting annoying by now so I went to a dentist. The young dentist could find no problem.
We drove on to Canberra. After a visit to Parliament House and the war museum we went looking for accommodation. In 1975, colour TV was new, but it had come to Miles. We had one. In Canberra we stayed at the Travel Lodge motel. This was upmarket for us, but we decided to splurge. In the Travel Lodge, in the national capital, they did not have colour TV! They did have reverse cycle air conditioning though, thank goodness, because it was freezing.
The next night was colder though. We slept in the van on the banks of Lake Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains. In the morning we drove to the car park near the summit of Mount Kosciusko, which at 2228 metres, is the highest mountain in Australia. It was just a short walk to the summit, and I wanted to climb on top of the cairn for a photo, because I would then be the highest point in Australia, but Eileen wouldn't let me. Some adventurers climb the highest peaks on every continent. Well I've started.
I have looked at several road maps while writing this, including the one we used in 1975, but I cannot name the towns involved in the next part of the trip. We drove back to Berridale, went around the eastern and northern shores of Lake Eucumbene, and then headed south-west to join up with the Murray Valley Highway to Albury and Wodonga;
I think. All that I am sure of is that it happened before Cabramurra.
On the map I believed that I had enough fuel to reach the next town, but probably not enough to reach the one following. At the next town there was no fuel. At the following town I noticed a large new building with cars in the car park. There was a petrol station nearby, but it was closed. We drove around the streets of the town and realised that all the houses were abandoned and unkempt. There appeared to be no shops at all.
We went back to the first building. It was L shaped with the long part of the L towards us. There was a doorway at the end of the L so I went inside. There was an arcade with shops. Newsagent, foodstore, butcher, etc, but no people. At the end of the corridor there was a door opening into the large square shaped body of the L. I opened it and walked into a very busy public bar. After recovering from my surprise I asked the bartender if he knew how I could get fuel. He told me to ask one of the men playing at the pool table. This man managed the petrol station and when he finished his game he came and served us with fuel. Apparently this was a town within a building, with accommodation attached to the bottom of the L for the workers that would be maintaining the hydroelectric power system.
We drove on to Melbourne where we stayed just long enough to leave. Sorry Melbournians. We did not know anybody, and did not know what to see or do.
Kryal Castle is near Ballarat. It is a vast complex of gothic towers, turrets, parapets and battlements, complete with moat and drawbridge. It features live re-enactments, a magic theatre, a collection of arms and armour, art gallery, heraldry, maze, Itty Bitty World, a comical cemetery, and a licensed tavern and eatery. They have accommodation, tours, and cater for functions. Why it is in the middle of Victoria, Australia, I don't know, but we entertained ourselves there for several hours.
From there we made our way to Swan Hill. This Murray River town boasts a living museum town within itself that was the best of the best when we were there. The popularity for this type of attraction seems to have waned over the years. The only complaint I have about historical museums is when the display tags on items say, 'Such and such AS USED IN THE OLDEN DAYS'. I remember using a lot of this stuff when I lived on the farm; and I'm not that old!
A few hours drive from Swan Hill is the city of Mildura. Here we visited the Wolf Blass winery and went through the tasting service. We bought a few bottles and then drove back into town for the night. At a bottle shop I noticed the same wine at cheaper prices than at the winery. I also bought a carton of XXXX beer cheaper than I could buy it in Queensland where it is brewed.
This was as far west as we were travelling so we made our way back to the town of Euston and turned off into New South Wales again. The countryside around the town of Hay was the flattest I had ever seen. We would see a windmill as the only thing on the horizon, and it seemed to take forever to reach it, and then nothing to see again.
From Hay we travelled to Forbes. Like Swan Hill, they also had a living historical town, not as big as Swan Hill, but claiming that they were at stage two of seven stages. Sadly the next time we came through they were no further advanced, and I believe it has declined further since.
The next town we visited was Dubbo, which has the old gaol as its most famous attraction. We wandered through the complex a lot more freely than its earlier inmates, and watched the mannequins performing attempted escapes.
From there we moved on to the town of Parkes. 
Its most famous attraction is the nearby 64 metre giant radio telescope. 'The Dish' was made even more famous by appearing in the movie of the same name. It played its part in communications during the Apollo moon flights that first put a human on the moon. It has also starred in TV commercials, documentaries, and even a Korean romance movie. Astronomers use the telescope to measure the radio energy produced naturally by objects in the universe such as stars, galaxies, and clouds of dust and gas. For the visitor there are displays, interactive exhibits, theatres, including a 3D theatre, souvenirs, and a cafe.
Back home in Miles my toothache came back. It had started at the Gold Coast on the left side of my jaw. In Sydney it seemed to be on the top right. I went to the elderly local dentist. He moved his probe around inside my mouth, and then pushed it into the bottom right. I levitated out of the chair with a scream of pain. With the help of a nurse to put her foot on me, and with the dentist constantly reminding me to watch my language, he removed one wisdom tooth. Apparently the nerves in the mouth criss-cross, which is what must have fooled the young dentist in Sydney.
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