Inverell

 After a poor excuse of a breakfast at Stannum House, we headed off to Dubbo. Prior to Covid, they served a very good brekkie, but it's now difficult to get the staff these days necessary to provide food.

Shortly after leaving Tenterfield, we passed by Bluff Rock.

Driving out in the country is wonderful with virtually no traffic.

Marianne was still getting excited about seeing coloured leaves.

By Aussie standards, this is lush grazing country.

A curious arrangement of trees.

Coloured leaves.

Windmills on the hill tops.

A beautiful collection of gum trees.

We arrived at Inverell which I had read about in a travel article suggesting it was a beautiful town.

This monument was in the park where we visited the toilets.

Elegant church.

We walked over to visit the monument and it was very interesting.

There are plaques identifying the old families that contributed to the area.

The wings of the monument have large plaques depicting life for the various groups. This commemorates the local Aborigines.

Aussie animals.

Town life.

Sports.

Elegant house. Solar panels are very common in Oz, but they do detract from houses like this.

We were hungry after the meagre brekkie so I had an apple turnover with cream. Another name for the concoction is 'rat coffin with pus'. It was pretty good.

Marianne had some cake type thing which she liked.

Inverell is a prosperous little town and on a Saturday morning, it was more busy than what the photo shows.

Former elegant shop converted into a cafe.

Above the shop fronts.

Look at the pressed tin roof. Inverell reminded me of what Maryborough used to be before the shopping mall arrived and destroyed the viability of the downtown area.

About forty km west of Inverell is the site of the Myall Creek massacre of 28 aboriginals.

Presumably, the massacre took place somewhere down in the valley. Subsequently, the white people who took part in the massacre were tried and seven were hanged. Punishment of the perpetrators was virtually unheard of and was very controversial. There were many massacres all over Australia.

We had hoped to visit Sawn Rocks which is a curious rock formation, but as we arrived, so did the rain. The rain continued for most of the rest of the day's trip which was not pleasant, but the drive in the morning was wonderful.

Wallangarra and Tenterfield

 We have started a three-week trip to Adelaide to visit my older sister. We will go cross-country and then return via the coast road.

Much of the day's trip has appeared in other blog entries, so I have just included a few photos from the last hour of the drive.

We stopped at the old station at Wallangarra which is on the border of Queensland and New South Wales, just a few miles from Tenterfield.

The Queensland trains ran on 3' 6" gauge tracks and arrived on the lefthand-side platform. The NSW trains run on 4'8" standard gauge tracks and arrived on the other side to the right. Passengers would move through or around the building to get to the other side.

The border. Red is Queensland, white is NSW.

The NSW side in the afternoon shadow. It's Autumn here so the European trees are changing colour, much to Marianne's delight.

The NSW platform.

Some Aussie trees change colour, but it's flowers blooming, not leaves.

Passage to the other side.

The service stopped in 1997 but the Railway Museum in Toowoomba occasionally runs a steam train down to this station. I might try to do the trip sometime. My parents took us on a trip to Sydney by train in 1952 and we changed trains here. I remember it was really cold.

It's not common to see armchairs like this on a railway platform.

In the background on the left is Bald Rock.

Water supply for the steam trains.

Back on the QLD side.

We continued the remaining few miles to Tenterfield and this is where we are staying. It's Stannum House and has several rooms available.

There are numerous statues festooned around the property.

This is our 'Blue' room.

I think the bed is wider than it is long. I could just fit with my toes touching the end.

Because of covid and the subsequent shortage of staff, their dining area was not open which was a pity. The menu looked pretty good. The owner recommended a couple of other places for dinner, but one we tried was booked out. We eventually had a very undistinguished steak at a pub. Pickings are slim for dinner in Tenterfield.