Hunter's Outback tour
14 June 2022 / Story & Photos by tour members
DAY 1 – OUTBACK TOUR – SATURDAY 28TH MAY, 2022. - Chris Cameron
Not a great start – the organisers - John & I - mixed up the start time and arrived at Cessnock airport meeting place 2 minutes before departure time! But we still managed to leave close to time and headed out on our waypoint run through the vineyards to regroup at Broke. A sudden heavy squall saw us all pull over to put our roofs up, but typically, it stopped shortly afterwards.
Then on to the New England Hwy for morning tea at Taylor Park in at Aberdeen. We had expected it to be raining, but so far so good. Heading on to Merriwa, we stopped at our first silo art for the trip – the gorgeous sheep frolicking in their red socks through a field of canola under a brilliant blue sky.
Merriwa Silo & Rain Squall through the windscreen
Splitting up across a café and the renowned bakery, we enjoyed a tasty lunch, then headed on to Dunedoo and our second silo art. The scene depicts local jockey Hugh Bowman astride the mighty Winx with trainer Chris Waller alongside. On the other sides the silo depicts the local rural landscape with black swans flying overhead.
End of Day drinks
The drive to Coonabarabran took us through picturesque rolling hills and green fields and we arrived at our motel with enough time for some of our group to wash the mud off their cars. We enjoyed drinks & nibbles in the sunny but cool pool area, followed by the short walk to dinner at the Royal Hotel.
DAY 2 – OUTBACK TOUR – SUNDAY 29TH MAY, 2022. - Denise Birrell
Today was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Up early to a brisk Coonabarabran morning and off to the G K Rohr Warrumbungle Viewing Platform which gives a panoramic view of the Warrumbungle National Park. It’s home to Australia’s first Dark Sky Park, an honour bestowed on only 13 places in the world where low light pollution means the night sky is beyond vivid.
The Warumbungles
We then called into the Warrumbungle Visitor Centre, viewed various displays and enjoyed morning tea. Back in our cars we drove to the White Gum Track and walked to the lookout over the mountains. Truly breathtaking, mother nature at her very best. On our way again to the Siding Springs Observatory for lunch and our tour.
Siding Springs Out & In
Our guide, Brannock, was very informative and entertaining. The observatory is the largest optical telescope in Australia and astronomers can wait anywhere up to 2 years for the opportunity to use it. Part of our tour took us high up on the outer perimeter of the dome to look out at the many smaller telescopes and enjoy the spectacular views of the surrounding valleys.
Views from the Dome
DAY 3 – OUTBACK TOUR – MONDAY 30TH MAY, 2022. - Phill Power
Left our motel at Coonabarabran at 8.30am, a chilly 10 degrees.
Proceeded on through Baradine to Coonamble for our morning tea stop. There was nuisance rain on this leg that meant the MX5s were getting rather dirty!!!! After morning tea, we headed for Walgett to view the water tower with a great painting of Jimmy Little, local indigenous hero/musician/actor/teacher. From Walgett to Brewarrina for our lunch stop, very windy and 19 degrees. Our bird watchers enjoyed spotting emus and brolgas along the way. It was great to see the rivers flowing and cattle in great condition from a good season.
After Brewarrina we headed for our overnight stop at Bourke. Only one small hiccup as we had new members with us on this tour who did not understand that a MX5’s fuel gauge is not to be believed, resulting in limping into Bourke with just 5 litres of fuel in the tank!
Serenaded by browsing chickens, we enjoyed drinks in the motel gardens before walking to the pub for dinner, returning home just in time to meet the lockout curfew at the motel.
DAY 4 – TUESDAY 31st MAY. - Jill Power
Left our motel at Bourke at 8am, a chilly 12 degree start to our day. We proceeded to check out the local water tower with a painting of Percy Hobson, Australian indigenous high jumper who was born in Bourke in 1942 and passed away in January of this year. Percy won medals at both the Empire and Commonwealth games.
Bourke Water Tower & Morning tea @ Coonamble
From Bourke we proceeded along the Kidman Highway to Cobar for our morning tea stop, spotting plenty of goats along the way. Then onto Mt Hope (population of 19) for lunch at the pub in the middle of nowhere! Our visit coincided with the world’s biggest morning tea, giving us a choice of the regular menu or cake and sandwiches contributing to charity.
After Mt Hope we were bound for Hillston (our overnight stop) which is on the Lachlan River in the western Riverina. Hillston has extensive fruit, cotton and vegetable cultivation.
DAY 5 – OUTBACK TOUR – WEDNESDAY 1ST JUNE, 2022. - Natalie Davies
We started our Day 5 drive around 8.15am. It was a very cool, windy and beautifully sunny morning (temperature 5°C "feels like" -1°C). Our first leg of the day was from Hillston to Hay, moving from the more desolate areas into the expansive flat area of the Hay plains. Hay marked our furthest point to the south west and also the lowest altitude of our tour, at just over 100m above sea level. Another cool and windy morning tea in a park then on to viewing the Hay water tower which many in the group agreed was the best so far.
From there we headed to Whitton Malt House for lunch via a quieter and much more pleasant road just to the north of the Murrumbidgee. The food was well presented and delicious. We were universally amazed by the scale and quality of this development. Before leaving, we lined up the 6 cars and took photographs with the Malt House in the background. It was truly a great place for lunch!
Next, we headed to the top of a hill in Narrandera to view another water tower art. Our destination for the next two nights was Wagga Wagga. Once settled in we gathered together outside our rooms for drinks and to discuss tomorrow, before going our own ways for dinner.
Narrandera Water Tower
DAY 6 – OUTBACK TOUR – THURSDAY 2ND JUNE, 2022. - Barry Luttrell
A fun day with a driving loop through alpine regions with leader John Purcell
It’s not raining, just fog with the promise of good weather for our alpine run. Five cars left our motel enroute to the local water tower mural at Turvey Park on Captain Cook Drive Wagga Wagga. We had views across Wagga Wagga through the fog and photo opportunity with the water tower. Discussed how drones are used to check communication towers with the technicians.
Leaving the tower, we descended into a thick fog on our route to Tumbarumba Bakery for morning tea progress being made easier by following a local who knew the roads extremely well. As the fog cleared, we upped the rate of progress to take advantage of clear roads, scenic mountains and bends free of those pesky potholes! Arriving at our morning tea stop we found that they had had snow the previous night so morning tea was consumed in front of the bakery in very crisp mountain air. The park below the main street provided our comfort stop with a cute stream and bridge providing more photo opportunities.
Leaving Tumbarumba we continued our travels along Broadleaf Park Rd including an Oops Got Lost u-turn, but along a very scenic road in both directions. Devastation of the forest by the bush fires of previous years was extensive with many kms of burnt and dead alpine trees, but this gave us unique views and photo opportunities across the ridges.
More great views and roads that suit MX5s and Z4s took us to our lunch at a local café at Adelong. Adelong had an interesting small main street with 1940s facades on some buildings.
From Adelong we travelled on the Snowy Mountains Hwy, Hume Freeway and then Sturt Hwy back to Wagga Wagga. The scenery from Adelong to Wagga Wagga is mostly farming, which was quite different compared to the Tumbarumba alpine side.
A great driving and scenery day was had by all followed by drinks at our motel and a brisk walk for dinner at the Union Club Hotel.
DAY 7 – OUTBACK TOUR – FRIDAY 3RD JUNE, 2022. - John Purcell
9:00am start for our drive to Dubbo and one car down as Bruce and Natalie left us to do some visiting in the region. Mostly highway driving this time with strong, very cold winds meaning roofs up for this run. Distance and limited road options restricted the route. Our morning tea stop at Herridge Park Wyalong was a B.Y.O. with Phill and Jill providing a tea cake that Phill had heroically gone to Wagga Woolies first thing on that freezing cold morning to buy.
Our next stop was Parkes Radio Telescope for lunch. Many know its supporting role for the moon landing and of course its starring role in the movie “The Dish”. The display at the visitor’s centre was really interesting with mock-ups of the original control panels used in the sixties. No tours today as it was in use and we actually saw it realigning while we were looking at their outside displays.
Parkes Radio telescope MX’s handle Mud but not 18” Water
The plan was to do some back roads to Yeoval and onto Parkes but this choice was cut short. After passing some road workers at our turn off it wasn’t long before we were stumped by water across the first causeway we came to, not deep enough to worry a 4wd but too deep for our MX5s - and who knew what was to follow around the next bend. Turning around, it was back to the now amused road workers to continue our drive to Dubbo.
DAY 8 – OUTBACK TOUR – SATURDAY 4TH JUNE, 2022. - Kerry Redfern
Bruce & Natalie headed off home today, stopping to visit family along the way.
Glenn & Denise headed off to visit "THE ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE", established by John Flynn in 1928. Glenn purchased a very special jumper and both had a most enjoyable day.
We also lost Phill & Jill who started on their run home, meeting up for lunch with friends on the way. Unfortunately, while travelling their car was hit by a bolt which means a new windscreen - making two for the trip as Glenn also got bad windscreen damage.
The rest of the group headed to Western Plains Zoo at about 9am, John got onto the line to arrange a cart - which all 5 of us were very happy about. Chris took off as soon as we got to the Zoo heading to the Rhino to listen to a keeper talk. Once John completed the entry detail he took charge of the cart and found quickly the handling very lacking compared to his MX5.
I got lost from the main group (or John was having a good time driving around), but we did all meet up at the cafe for morning tea. By this time the sun was out and even had a little heat which made the break very enjoyable. We continued on our way around some other exhibits then went to the main cafe for lunch.
After lunch we did another lap to look at the animals we had missed or just revisited and saw Zebra, Elephants, Lions/Tigers and many more including John’s favourite, the Meerkats.
On our second lap John improved his skills and tried to race another family to the finish line, but the young mum’s driving was just too good. John blamed my weight for the lack of performance (weight is the devil of speed). Barry, Jenny, Chris and myself appreciated his performance.
When we got back to the Motel, we a had drink with Glenn and Denise and decided we would go to the RSL for dinner. Although the club was packed, we enjoyed a predinner drink and a nice dinner, then walked the 300 metres home.
DAY 9 – SUNDAY 5th JUNE. - Chris Cameron
A thoughtful call from Canberra member Rod Nicholas alerting us to the poor road surface on our planned route home along Bylong Valley Way saw us reschedule to come back from Dubbo through Dunedoo. Now down to 4 cars, a leisurely start saw us cruising – tops up (too cold for anything else!) and heaters on – to Cassilus Park for morning tea.
The light traffic on the road made the run very enjoyable, with a surprise sighting of a family of very robust pigs fossicking on the side of the road just before our stop. Strong chilly winds meant a very brief stop, then we headed on to Denman for our final lunch together.
Graze café in Denman has reopened under a new name with the food as delicious as ever and was lovely and warm inside. After lunch we dropped our roofs, and opted for the fun route along Bureen Road to Jerry’s Plains, joining the Golden Hwy for our final stretch. Splitting up in pairs, 2 cars headed through Broke to return home, and 2 continued onto the M15 for their final stretch.
We covered a lot of territory in the 9 days, somewhere around 3,100km and saw some amazing and hugely varied country along the way. A huge thank you to John for his hard work in putting the trip together and to everyone who came along, making this a fun and truly memorable trip.
