Life's Breeze: GILGANDRA NSW

Tamworth to Gilgandra

Gilgandra from Tamworth was 3 hr 19 min (283 km) via Oxley Hwy

This was to be a one night stopover and we pulled up outside the Railway Hotel Gilgandra, 6 Bundy St, Gilgandra. We were given a nice grassy block which we ended up having all to ourselves. Furthermore it is Free camping for patrons & Pet friendly

This is Country Style Pub Accommodation and we dined there that night to support the venue and were surprised at the range of meal options including vegetarian and gluten free which suited Sharon who is generally very disappointed with lack of choice of vegetarian meals.

We met a local character at the pub who entertained us with stories of the local area. Gilgandra is not a big town however is steeped in history and folklore.

We heard about the Hitchen brothers who in 1915 along with 20 or so men who were determined to enlist started off to march to Sydney. Gathering other recruits along the way, they numbered about 300 by the time they reached Sydney. This was known as the Coo-ee March and is very famous in Australian folklore. There is a large memorial in the centre of town depicting the event and I felt humbled and amazed to be in the presence of such amazing history right here in this little village

The old storyteller had a wide brimmed hat set to the side and looked up at me through a wrinkled eyebrow and with a mischievous grin said

"want to see something special"?,

without waiting for a response he got up and stepped over the grass verge to his Ute which was parked just beside the outdoor Pub seating and from behind the driver seat he lifted out a white sack and came back to the table. At this stage I was feeling quite ominous as to what was about to happen. I glanced at Sharon who was also looking a bit worried as he upended the sack contents onto the table. Out of the bag several large objects crashed down onto the table. He hastily picked one of them up and it was a rabbit trap. The entire contents all turned out to be traps and he proudly held this one up and admiringly said

"any idea how much this is worth"?

It looked like any old trap to me but turns out this man is a collector and the this particular trap was worth in the vicinity of $5,000. I relaxed a little on hearing this realising that we were not in the company of an axe murderer.

The next morning as we were packing up the van the old man reappeared and surfaced with several photo albums and treated us to a history lesson of the local area and the various

Coo-ee - re enactment marches he had been involved in over the years.

We were expecting to head to the Windmill Walk along the banks of the Castlereagh River to view the windmills and one of the things Gilgandra is famous for, however sadly all the windmills have been removed for restoration work.

On the way out of town we stopped and marveled at the Gilgandra Museum which is jam packed with old farm equipment and lots of memorabilia in absolutely magnificent condition. This was a last minute decision for us on the advise of the old character at the pub and I am truly glad we decided to stop as it one of the best collections I have witnessed on our many adventures