2018 Aussie Anti-clockwise Big Lap : 40. 2021 D. NSW Clockwise Unwinding Tour. Snowy Mountains. Kosciuszko National Park and Surrounds Part 2.

The New South Wales Snowy region continues to offer unique experiences.
As we explored on the 29th March we found Coolamine Homestead along a fire trail at the end of the Kosciuszko National Park's Long Plain Road and exhibits a range of different building styles dating back to the late 1800s.

Major renovations were carried out in the mid 1980s in keeping with that era.

It is evident that it would have really been something back in the day. Most the buildings are unlocked and open for passing visitors to enter and experience life a hundred years ago. By the visitors book towards the end of the day, we were only the third party of visitors for the day.

Imagine coming home to this after a hard day in the saddle 100 years ago.

No issues with neighbours here.

Kangaroos keep the lawns in check, with one not budging off the track as we entered.
He made it obvious that we were encroaching on his patch.

A water race, an open channel, led from a nearby creek to six stone line cisterns to provide water to various locations around the property.

The front door lock has certainly stood the test of time without any need for lubrication.
The brand looked like a lock-wood.

Good size fireplace

The internal walls have newspaper linings.
Some have been covered in Perspex as protection.

2nd August 1939. Just one month before the start of WWII

Lowes on the 19th October, 1939 seemed to have more of an upmarket wardrobe than their current range.

Ideal wall paper for the smallest room in the house deeming books, magazines and phones unnecessary.

The perfect weekend getaway from Canberra which is geographically only 70km to the NE; however, by road is a 270km drive taking three and a half hours.

Two steps made from taking a wedge out of a log.
Note also the thickness of the decking boards.

This room definitely needs newspapers on the walls to stop draughts.

The kitchen shed which is set apart from the homestead to avoid risk of fire and reduce cooking odours in the house.
The building has also been used as a garage during its lifetime.

Carrol felt immediately at home in this kitchen with the dirt floor, ventilation through the walls and large storage space in the ceiling.

Early weatherboards.

Log design for the Cheese Shed giving good insulation properties.

Say "Cheese!"
This shed was used to store a variety of dairy products, all possibly recorded in a log book.

Brumby quantity estimates vary greatly, but are thought to number approximately 14,000, mainly throughout the northern part of the park.

Again, we ask you to read the "Man from Snowy River" poem by Banjo Paterson, in order to appreciate these wonderful animals.

They were wonderful to see.

Brumbies. Born to run.

The leader was always on the alert and once she took off, the others would follow.

The colour range of the horses seemed to emanate directly from their surroundings. .

Brumby mob sizes can vary from two to eleven.

Note the ever vigilant leader at the top of shot.
To quote the Man, "The wild hop scrub grew thickly, and the hidden ground was full
Of wombat holes and every slip was death".

Horsemen and their steeds flood into the Kosciuszko National Park for the joy of wild bush riding.

A few weeks ago in Nimmitabel we spoke to a horse buff who was heading to this location with his truck loaded with horses and hence suggested us to head here. He mentioned that in the old days as a means of controlling numbers, horse folk were permitted to round up brumbies for keeping as their own.

Now numbers are apparently kept in check by aerial culling, with the debate continuing as to whether they are a majestic icon or invasive pest.

"For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush horses are"

Fenced in by a simple electric fence, one wonders if these domesticated horses are dreaming of joining the colt from old Regret and the wild bush horses.

As we drove along the dirt road of the High Plains, almost without knowing it, we crossed one of Australia's premier rivers, albeit right up at its source.

Australia's second longest river with a length of 1,485km before joining the Murray.
Here it is in its infancy.

At approx. 1.5m wide, the headwaters of our mighty Murrumbidgee which flows to form the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area covering 400,000 hectares and reaping $5 billion of produce annually.

Cooinbil Hut is the central feature of the camping ground taking its name on the Long Plains and is a favourite for horse riding campers who bring their trusty steeds with them for some high country riding.

Camping in the National Park is free apart from a one off $6 booking fee paid to monitor the number in the park for Covid tracing. Talking to others though, we have found the majority of campers don't book and hence pay; with us even meeting some folk from Brisbane who mentioned as we neared them that they were in quarantine awaiting from Covid results, and had moved into the National Park as the Victorian border had turned them away.

Cooinbil Hut is a reminder of the early 1900s pastoral life.
The original inhabitants would not have had any social distancing issues.

A verandah out the back and an old rocking chair.

Clarke Gorge and Blue Waterholes are also towards the end of the High Plains Road..

Simply gorgeous

Possible rainbow eucalyptus?
Open to suggestions!!

Great complexion

Blue Waterholes Cave, concealing the waterholes.

Skull Cave from the Phantom comics.

If barbequed bovine, ovine or porcine tastes equine, this could be the reason.

A drive to Mount Selwyn Ski Resort and Cabramurra showed us the extent of damage from the devastating fires of 2019/2020

Evidence of fire damage could be seen about one third the way up the legs despite no trees in the vicinity. .

Road safety barriers stand up to vehicles better than they do fire.
Massive piles of these heat distorted barriers were encountered.

All the ski runs were transformed into black runs giving challenges for even the most experienced skiers after Mount Selwyn was completely burnt out by the fires.
All is full steam ahead with new lifts and state of the art snow making guns in readiness for the upcoming ski season.

We made the 80km round trip to Cabramurra to find the town closed due to fire damage, with us and the four other cars who arrived in the short time we were stopped, asking why a sign couldn't have been placed at the turnoff on the highway forty kilometres earlier.

Our final campsite in the Kosciuszko National Park on the banks of Jounama Creek before heading back into civilisation proper with power, water and flushing toilets.

Talbingo is an old Snowy Scheme relocated town with a state of the art playground. These kiddies were doing the big lap in a caravan with their parents from WA, and would put hamsters or mice to shame in the wheel.

Fun in the treadmill.

We did not try this!
Every playground needs one of these to help prevent childhood obesity.

We settled into Tumut for five days over Easter, when all the National Park camping areas fill with Easter and school holiday makers.

The office at Tumut.

View from the office.

The cooking centre of up to nine camp ovens with infinite temperature settings on extended 44 gallon drums for the annual gathering of a clan of 35 from all over NSW.

One of the apple capitals of Australia suffered also from the fires.

Acres and hectares of covered fruit.

Gala apples and fresh apple juice were our choice from this orchard covered in netting.
They lost twenty five percent of their orchards, and their cherry tree fields in the fires, and were evacuated when fires melted the plastic hoses and fixtures effectively destroying their fire fighting resources.

New York in Australia?
The Big Apple of Batlow.

Sheep were almost as plentiful as apples.

Tumbarumba is a highland town which supplied some of the best pies we have tasted from a legendary pie shop in the main street.

The softwood timber industry is the main employer with tourism and viticulture on the increase.

Tumbarumba in Autumn (or Fall for foreigners).

We watched these ducks swim upstream for five minutes whilst staying in the same position.
Sitting on the bank would have achieved the same results.
They had possibly seen the earlier photo of the boys in the treadmill.

Learning how to use gravity and momentum.

Moguls without snow.

Twenty seven tonnes of gold was produced in the region of Adelong. It was an old gold mining town with major infrastructure built on the river. Many of the ruins are still in existence.

Adelong's innovative way to disguise an otherwise non-descript brick wall, even including the air conditioner at the top left.

Outstanding both day and night.
The bridge in the background has fairy lights once darkness comes.

Downstream of the quaint village of Adelong, are the enduring Adelong Falls and Gold Mill ruins.

Looking more like the ruins of Rome than Australia.
Rome wasn't built in a day and nor was this mill site, being built and modified between the years 1859 and 1914.

Solidly built having withstood 100 years of floods.

A sluice gate to regulate flow can be seen at the end of this aqueduct.

Built in 1865 this site office shows more substantial walls than current demountable designs.

This water wheel rotated at 3.5rpm, was 8m in diameter, 1.4m wide, had 64 buckets, required 31,200 litres/minute, produced 35hp per minute and drove all the machinery in the mill.

A buddle is used as part of the extraction process with the aid of water.

The furnace.
Note the chimney on top of the hill.

Iron pins were used to hold the top row of rocks on dam walls, with this remnant showing how effectively it did so, with the far rock now suspended in mid-air.
The dam was blown up during the Great Depression in 1930 so silt behind could be washed for gold.

A local showing such a contrast to the life of a brumby.
No wonder it has developed big feet and a long face.

The ancestors of Carrol's on her Mum's side lived in the Oberne Creek district of NSW with her great grandmother being a Bardwell. The Bardwell's had land holdings of up to 45,000 acres dating from the 1860s.

Carrol's Mum, Uncle and Grandmother lived on the farm during WW2 in the only two story, thirty two room homestead in the district whilst her Grandfather was stationed in New Guinea. The school was repositioned onto the property to be closer to the children of the area.

Upon the death of her parents, Carrol's Grandmother was inexplicably left out of the will, with the solicitor having no knowledge of her existence.

We went in search of the site of the homestead and after speaking to some wonderful helpful people, met the lovely Marilyn, a neighbour of the property. She devoted her day to showing us around.

Marilyn had to nip out to round up a neighbour's runaway bull.
Had things been different with Carrol's grandparents life, this could have been Carrol on the quad.