#2: [11-Mar-18]

02-Jan-2002 -- We decided to make an overnight trip to the confluence, as it was over three hours travel and we would not get a chance to look around the region and the Weddin National Park in the one day. We left Albury at 10:00am and traveled through Wagga Wagga, on to Cootamundra where the Yandilla Mustard Seed oil plant is located. Mustard seed oil does not taste like Mustard, and is our favourite oil. It is a very light product that is so smooth it can be used for hand oil. Leaving Cootamundra we went on to Young and could not resist the temptation of the fresh picked cherries the Young district is so famous for. We had lunch in Young and enjoyed the fresh cherries.

We travelled on to Grenfell and booked into the caravan park and pitched our tent. We went down town and looked around this well laid out neat and tidy town with a great bloom of flowers in every direction.

The first port of call in Grenfell was to see the place where one the most famous Australian poets Henry Lawson was born at the Grenfell Goldfields camp. Grenfell had one of the largest gold mines in New South Wales with shafts down to 354 metres - 750 feet. The gold mining area is now a well laid out park with the mineshafts, stampers and winding gear present. At the top of the old mine dump it has been made into a garden with native flora overlooking the mining area. A walk down to the Grenfell restored railway station admiring all the gardens and flowers on the way was a great end to the day.

Next morning we left Grenfell and travelled around the northern end of the Weddin Mountains National Park. We stopped and went for a walk around one of the cave hideouts of the famous bushranger of the region Ben Hall. The bushrangers always picked the beautiful areas with high vantage points to see if any of the police were coming to seek them out. There is a walk around ‘Seaton’s Historic Farm’, which is now part of the national park. Seatons Farm is how one man and his wife turned every bit of wire into something useful. Jim Seaton hand made 3 kms/1.8 miles of kangaroo proof fence by hand, with posts of local saplings, which are rot and vermin proof. A most interesting time walking around Seaton’s Farm and reading the information signs.

On the drive around the western side, we saw emus and wallabies. Fortunately the wallabies were more photogenic than the emus. The sulphur crested cockatoos, galahs and parrots were all around the water hole. We drove past the Weddin Mountains National Park and on to the adjoining Weddin State Forest where the confluence point is located.

We located the entrance gate to the forest and drove down the dirt track, which ran parallel to the rear fence. This looked pretty good as the confluence point was located towards the back fence. The distance was closing and we were looking towards the area were we expected the confluence point to be, when all of a sudden a huge grey kangaroo jumped across the road right in front of the car. I jumped out the car as quickly as I could to see if I could get a photograph with the zoom lens, but alas, the distance put between the two of us in such a short time was impressive. These large grey kangaroos can hop a distance of 4+ metres - 12+ feet when on the hop/run.

We parked the car under the shade of a tree, as by now the temperature had started to rise, and the thermometer was 33°C - 91°F. We donned our hats, sunglasses, water bottles, camera and the all-important GPS gear. It indicated about a 65 metre - 190 feet distance to the confluence point. We quickly located the point and spent time averaging the readings with two GPSs of different brands. We spent close to an hour at the site measuring the extremities of the confluence point to ensure we were as close as possible to the accurate position. While the GPS says 5 metres, I would estimate from our time spent it would be within 2 metres - 6 feet. We took the photographs and then walked around the forest looking at the birds and native flowers in a stream gully.

We headed off home and branched off at Cootamundra and headed down to drive through the Kosciusko National Park, which is one of the largest national parks in Australia. The route we travelled through the park was not one we had done before, and found it most interesting, and decided we would have to come back for a three to four day look around.

We eventually arrived home at 10:30pm having had a great time and fell into the shower and straight into bed. Fortunately we were both on annual holidays and could sleep in the next morning.

A couple of good links for information and parks of Australia:

http://www.auslig.gov.au/facts

http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au

http://www.npaq.org.au

http://www.tracks.vic.gov.au

http://www.env.qld.gov.au

http://atn.com.au/nsw

http://www.npws.nsw.gov.au