Uralla, Walcha and their hinterlands

First stop today was Uralla. The town centre's streetscape is highlighted by the New England Highway that runs north-south through the town's business district.

A panoramic view of Uralla can be had from a lookout on Mt Mutton which is to the west of the township.

If one spends any length of time in this small township then one simply has to check out the grave of C19th bushranger Fred Ward alias "Captain Thunderbolt".


A very interesting conversation was had with a local wool merchant who provided us with a detailed account of how the wool buying firm purchases (mainly) local fleeces and exports them to China.


Morning tea was had at Uralla's Galloping Gourmet. The cake we had featured apples, dates and coconut- it was absolutely scrumptious. If you're ever in Uralla you simply must taste the GG's cakes.


We then journeyed to the east of Uralla and visited the Gostwyck area where the focus is a quaint little village that is now privately owned. Although we were not able to visit the village or the nearby Deeargee woolshed we did manage a stopover at the Gostwyck chapel.


Then, it was off to Walcha, via Kentucky. This very productive sheep and cattle country appears to be set for a very healthy spring and summer. Dams are full and streams are flowing. Actually, we were somewhat surprised to find one causeway was still covered with water and that necessitated a committee decision about whether we should navigate the waters or opt for an alternative form of action.

After much deliberation the consensus of the touring party was that we couldn't wimp it - no such obstacle was going to prevent us reaching our planned destination, Walcha.

We arrived for a rather late lunch at Cafe Graze, which proudly boasts that it enjoys 2010 SMH Good Food Guide status. Lunch was a very generous helping of Sweet Potato and Pear Soup, accompanied by thick crusty toast - just the tucker for us as we prepared for a coolish afternoon.


An afternoon walk around the township enabled us to chat with a number of locals. One couple of mature-aged citizens gave us a very detailed description of major flooding the Walcha township experienced when it was inundated by a raging Apsley River in the early 1960s. These days the town is protected by flood walls on both sides of the river.

Another local, a long-term teacher at the local central school, gave us a detailed account of buildings in the town's centre.

Australian Labor Party redeems itself in historic agreement with The Greens in Federal Parliament [Transcript]

The Australian Labor Party entered into an historic agreement with The Greens on 1 September 2010.

This agreement comes into effect when federal government is formed after the results of the 21 August 2010 general election are declared.

It resets the national agenda in relation to climate change, constitutional recognition of Australia's first peoples, situating local government within the constitution, parliamentary reform and political donations among other matters.

As the goodwill this agreement represents does not appear entirely dependent on Labor forming a minority government, it also potentially creates a formidable force the Coalition and Tony Abbott may have to deal with as a political reality for the next three years at least.

Full transcript here.

It's a slow news week so let's hunt bogans

It is obviously a slow news week at The Daily Examiner in Grafton on the NSW North Coast.
On Page 4 last Monday it ran a story about the dreaded bogan, inserted what looks like a staged photograph and happily added to the stereotyping with a list:

SOMEWHERE, sometime during our lives we have all encountered someone we would say is a "bogan".
Those flannelette shirt-wearing, double-plugger rubber thong-sporting, stubbies shorts/tracky dacks-clad types with their mullet hairdos and trucker caps.
The stereotype of the bogan has been largely shaped by the media's perception of a certain class of Aussies, typically working class or unemployed.....

Bogan check list

You're a bogan if...

You wear the brand "UNIT" all over you

You wear white-framed sunnies

You wear big studs on your belt and your pants around your ankles

You wear ugg boots, short shorts and a big floppy jumper

You wear rip-off Holden racing team shirts

You wear your boxers higher than your pants

You let fireworks off in your backyard just for something to do

You wear more bling than a famous person

You've ever rolled a smoke

You've ever gone fishing with more beer than bait

You only go to the pub in happy hour cause you're too stingy to pay full price

You go to the pub and fill up on bar snacks so you don't have to cook dinner

You've ever driven a Datsun

You've ever taped your sunnies back together

You've ever had a fire in a 44 gallon drum

You go to garage sales

You've ever drunk VB in a can

You have ever driven all the way to Grafton from the Lower Clarence just for Maccas

You've ever worn a bandana under your flat rimmed hat

You own one of the many cars that line up in Prince Street, Grafton of a night to show off your Commodore or Falcon

You go to the speedway and take frozen leftovers for dinner in an esky

You wear a flanny undone with jeans and no shoes

You put your cigarette behind your ear.

Does Katter still hanker after our water?

These days Queensland Independent MP for Kennedy Bob Katter only seems to speak of water incidentally and in the last few days not at all. However his own website extols large-scale water diversion and still carries a Vision 2000 pdf file which states:

"In early 1995 a major breakthrough in the political fight to get Bradfield moving when Hon. Ernie Bridge OAM, a long-serving minister in the W.A. Parliament and current Shadow Minister for the Northwest, met with the Federal Member for Kennedy, Hon. Bob Katter MP, himself also a highly experienced senior Minister in the Queensland government, in Canberra to discuss the formation of a National Water Development Committee.

The purpose of the politically bipartisan committee that resulted from this meeting is to co-ordinate a National Water Distribution Scheme that will include the Bradfield Scheme, the Kimberley-Perth Pipeline, the Daly Scheme in the N.T., and the Clarence River Diversion in northern N.S.W."

So has Bob given up on the idea of stealing Clarence Valley fresh water for his irrigator and mining mates or will he be using his 'balance of power' in the new minority government to renew that push to turn some coastal rivers inland?

Does the NSW North Coast have to see off yet another greedy b*gger?