Hello to everyone back home in Canowindra and district from Allan and Debbie.
From Rockhampton we headed west and stayed at Anackie and looked in on the Annual Gem Fest that ran for the week and a must see as it covers pretty much anything to do with minerals from under and above ground. Stalls, live music and lots of food and visits to towns such as Emerald, Sapphire, Rubyvale and Anackie itself.
Onward to Longreach for four days, fairly famous as the original home of Qantas Airways and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Longreach also has a long history of being a cattle town and area and as such has the Stockman’s Hall Of Fame. This was our second visit in five years to the Hall of Fame yet you can still see so much that we missed last time, so much history back to the early Aboriginal stockmen and early settlement. The displays and interactive communication methods take you on a journey through time to the present.
We then travelled down south through Tambo to Roma for a couple of days. Roma is another area noted for a large cattle farming area and also the vast Roma Saleyards. Lots of old history here and also home to a massive Bottle Tree.
From Roma we headed further south into NSW and Lightning Ridge, our first time in our home state for four and half months. Lightning Ridge is all about opal mining. Everywhere you go or look there is some sort of digging happening. The whole area is dotted with old and new digging sites. We obtained maps from the Visitors Centre that you use to follow on your own selfguided tour of the diggings.
We next head through Bourke and onto Broken Hill then down to Mildura for a week so will update again in a couple of weeks.
Regards Al and Deb.