Wandering Matthew

And we find ourselves five miles from Gundagai...

"( The dog sat on the tuckerbox )
Nine Miles from Gundagai"
Jack Moses

I've done my share of shearing sheep,
Of droving and all that;
And bogged a bullock team as well,
On a Murrumbidgee flat.
I've seen the bullock stretch and strain
And blink his bleary eye,
And the dog sit on the tuckerbox
Nine miles from Gundagai.

I've been jilted, jarred and crossed in love,
And sand-bagged in the dark,
Till if a mountain fell on me,
I'd treat it as a lark.
It's when you've got your bullocks bogged,
That's the time you flog and cry,
And the dog sits on the tuckerbox
Nine miles from Gundagai.

We've all got our little troubles,
In life's hard, thorny way.
Some strike them in a motor car
And others in a dray.
But when your dog and bullocks strike,
It ain't no apple pie,
And the dog sat on the tuckerbox
Nine miles from Gundagai.

But that's all past and dead and gone,
And I've sold the team for meat,
And perhaps, some day where I was bogged,
There'll be an asphalt street,
The dog, ah! well he got a bait,
And thought he'd like to die,
So I buried him in the tuckerbox,
Nine miles from Gundagai.

Yes, nine miles from Gundagai, but they put the monument five miles away, because it would be better for tourism.

Keep sitting, dog.

Next stop, beyond...

So, we urge on, along the road to Gundagai, where the gum trees are growing and the Murrumbidgee's flowing. Gundagai is a cool town. Our first stop was the tourist information center, which houses the Rusconi Marble Masterpiece, a cathedral in miniature comprised of 20,948 pieces of New South Wales marble. It took 28 years to build, completion taking place in 1938, and it has been on display in town ever since. Rusconi was also the sculptor of the Dog on the Tuckerbox bronze.

After looking gape-mouthed at this wonder for about ten minutes with "Along the Road to Gundagai" being looped in the room, we got excited and headed into town with no help from the uptight lady in the information center.

Though Hume and Hovell were the first Europeans to see explore the area, the floodplains of the Murrumbidgee below the present town of Gundagai were a frequent meeting place of the Wiradjuri-speaking peoples. As the Murrumbidgee is a major tributary of the Murray, the area has been an important place since before history has been recorded.

The river has since been dammed near the Snowy mountains, mainly due to unpredictable flooding, and is now half the river it used to be. Early settlers actually settled on the flood plain despite warnings for Wiradjuri locals. The most notable flood was in 1852 when the town of Gundagai was swept away and 89 people, a third of the town's population was killed. The town was rebuilt on higher ground.

From Wikipedia:

The efforts of Yarri, Jacky Jacky, Long Jimmy and one other Indigenous man in saving many Gundagai people from the 1852 floodwaters were heroic. Between them, these men rescued more than 40 people using bark canoes. Yarri and Jacky Jacky were honored with bronze medallions for their efforts, and were allowed to demand sixpences from all Gundagai residents, although Yarri was maltreated on at least one occasion after the flood. Long Jimmy died not long after his rescues, possibly from the effects of being exposed to the freezing cold and wet conditions.

It is claimed that the Gundagai community developed a special affinity with the Wiradjuri people and that the flood and its aftermath was the birthplace of reconciliation.

The river now with some of its famous bridges. Gundagai was always a main stop from Sydney to Melbourne:

The town's oldest intact building, the three-storey former flour mill built in 1849 on what were clearly very solid stone foundations as it is the only building remaining from the original townsite. It became a rabbit-freezing works in 1918:

Where we ate had great lamb cutlets:

The old rail station:

The grave of Captain Moonlite:

That's all from Gundagai. The next stop is five miles away.

So, not much happened in Albury-Wodonga. We crossed the Murray with very little ceremony, and the speed cameras finally let us alone. NSW cares more about wearing your seat belt than if you're going 1 mph over the speed limit. We stayed at a nice YHA in Albury, more of a moter park than a hostel, and set out the next morning to Canberra. We stopped at few places along the way. Holbrook was the first of these most excellent settlements. The entire road to Holbrook is plagued with signs advertising a place called Morrison's Cafe. They swear they have the "best coffee on the Hume." I think I agree with them. It's some damn good coffee. After Kate and I had our mochas we explored the town.

Holbrook:

As we had also found out on our way in, Holbrook is known as the Submarine Town. This is because they have a submarine (HMAS Otway) in a park.

Holbrook, since it has been permanently settled, has gone through many names, the most recent being Germanton. In WWI, amidst anti-German sentiment, the town folk decided to name the town after then Lieutenant Norman Holbrook, an English submariner.

From wikipedia:
"Lieutenant Holbrook was in command of the submarine B11, an old and obsolete craft built in 1905. Notwithstanding the difficulties of a treacherous current in the Straits, he dived under five rows of mines and torpedoed and sank the Turkish battleship Mesudiye, which was guarding the mine-field. He then succeeded in bringing the B11 back to the Mediterranean, in spite of being attacked by gun fire and torpedo boats. When they got back to safety the B11 had been submerged for 9 hours. He later achieved the rank of Commander."

He was around 26 years-old. It makes me feel like I've done nothing with my life. He was honored with the Victoria Cross for those adventures. He also visited Holbrook a couple times.

The HMAS Otway has nothing to do with the town other than it's a submarine. It's a cold war submarine, launched in 1966 and decommissioned in 1994. An Oberon-class submarine, the Otway worked attack/patrol duties. Australia had five other submarines from this class, bought from the British. We got to see one of her sisters in Sydney.

Mural:

As I said before Holbrook was named Germanton. That's because the first white person to permanently settle at Ten Mile Creek was a German shepherd, Johann Pabst. he moved there in 1838 with his wife and two daughters and later became the publican of the Woolpack Hotel on July 29th, 1840 and the area became known as "the Germans" and later Germanton. Kate and I got to see the Woolpack Inn as it is now a museum. This isn't the original building. They rebuilt it after a fire in 1895. The curator was a really nice guy.

The musuem had dressed-up life-size mannequins in some exhibits. That was Kate's favorite part.

There are more, even one of an infamous bush ranger, but I don't want to overwhelm you with too many pictures. Here is a picture of an old fire truck:

And here is a monument celebrating Holbrook, Pabst and another founder, I forget his name:

That's most of what we saw in Holbrook, but we soon found ourselves on the road to Gundagai.

Glenrowan is a quiet town of under 1,000 people, but it a huge tourist area because it's where the criminal and bloody bush ranger Ned Kelly had his last standoff with police. The whole gang wore bulletproof armor with each unit weighing about 96 pounds. They were good, but left the legs vulnerable. The gang holed up inside the Glenrowan Inn with hostages on the day of June 27th, 1880. Police seized the inn the following morning. Kelly survived the standoff. He was hanged on November 11th, 1880 at the Melbourne Gaol for the murder of one Constable Lonigan. If you want to know more there's plenty on the internet that is far more detailed and better than this lousy description.

Glenrowan:

Kate St.:

A huge statue of Ned Kelly:

Apparently there is a Glenrowan Wine Region where people drink wine while wearing Ned Kelly armor:

And in the wine region we found our first big thing! The Big Cherry!

And then we head off! There were some other cool things in Glenrowan we could have seen, but we got there too late. The highlight would have been the Ned Kelly animatronic show that could be too scary for children. We turn toward Wodonga-Albury.

Around time for Easter, Kate had her school holidays. We rented a car and drove on the wrong side of the road, Northbound. One could still see the effects of the bushfires in rural Victoria as we drove on the Hume Freeway. We stopped in places like Mansfield, Violet Town, and Glenrowan while we drove to Albury, NSW.

Picking up our faithful car from the Franklin St. Budget Car Rental. It was a Nissan. You can see our guidebooks on the dashboard:

Easter Traffic on the Hume!

Bush affected by the fires:

On our way to Mansfield:

Mansfield's a pretty town. It's located at the foothills of the Australian Alps near Mt Buller and Mt Sterling. The main street is a park way of sorts, with a big slab of green in the middle of the street. There are a couple major hotels and restaurants. The post office was pretty neat, though I didn't get a photo of it. There was a carnival of sorts happening when we dropped in. I got to throw a bean bag from the car at a target. I also encountered my first roundabout and nearly died. In the town graveyard one can find the graves of three law enforcement officers that the Ned Kelly gang killed. <i>The Man From Snowy River</i> was filmed near Mansfield.

Here is the best picture I could find to give you a sense of the main street. The memorial in the foreground is for the people the Kelly Gang killed:

Here is a band playing:

On our way through the mountains to Glenrowan:

The scary road to Glenrowan. I bet it was even more terrifying when bush rangers roamed the land: