Our Trip West - Day Four - Baan Baa to Willow Tree

 Map of our Travels

Day Four 8/4/22

The morning view at Baan Baa

Where are off to today?

Emptying the Bog at Boggabri

Motorhome life is excellent, but like all things has an unpleasant side to it. The toilet cassette is showing it is almost full which means a trip to a dump point. Fortunately there are plentiful and the CMCA also helps to fund them.

Boggabri's Jubilee Oval looks a lot more country than is Sydney cousin.

Gee, the grass looks so green!

Back on the road to find a spot for Brunch. 

We arrive at Gunnedah and find it a little overwhelming at first, after the little towns and bush camps. We found a quiet spot to set up for a BBQ brunch - Woolshed Reserve.

Cody is chilling out!

After Brunch we need to explore the town. The Tourist Information Centre is loaded with ideas and it hits us that we are touring wa too fast to see what the places we have visited, truely have to offer. We spot the CMCA RV Park  a self contained camp which we will consider using when we return to the region.

The former Meggitt Ltd Silo site at Gunnedah is one of many Silo Murals around Australia.

There is even a Silo Art Trail, see https://www.australiansiloarttrail.com

Core of My Heart. [a.k.a My Country] By Dorothea Mackellar 

The love of field and coppice,

Of green and shaded lanes,

Of ordered woods and gardens,

Is running in your veins —

Strong love of grey-blue distance,

Brown streams and soft, dim skies …

I know but cannot share it,

My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel sea,

Her beauty and her terror —

The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests

All tragic ’neath the moon,

The sapphire-misted mountains,

The hot gold hush of noon —

Green tangle of the brushes

Where lithe lianas coil,

And orchids deck the treetops,

And ferns the crimson soil.

Core of my heart, my country —

Her pitiless blue sky,

When sick at heart, around us

We see the cattle die …

And then the grey clouds gather,

And we can bless again

The drumming of an army,

The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country,

Land of the rainbow gold —

For flood and fire and famine

She pays us back three-fold …

Over the thirsty paddocks

Watch, after many days,

The filmy veil of greenness

That thickens as you gaze …

An opal-hearted country,

A wilful, lavish land —

All you who have not loved her,

You will not understand …

Though Earth holds many splendours,

Wherever I may die,

I know to what brown country

My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea wrote this poem whilst homesick in England. 

Dorothea lived in a time where many thought colonial Australia was inferior to "Mother England". Core of My Heart [a.k.a My Country] quickly became Australia's best known poem where schoolchildren once were taught remember and recite the second stanza.

She also lived in the Gunnedah area.

[first published in The Spectator (London, UK) on 5 September 1908; it was originally entitled “Core of My Heart”, although it was later re-titled as “My Country”. The poem was published in some newspapers in 1908-1909 as “Core of My Heart — My Country”, and in 1910 as “My Country”. It was included in Dorothea Mackellar’s first book of poetry, The Closed Door and Other Verses (1911), under the title of “My Country”..]

We also visited Pensioner's Hill Lookout and appreciated the view of Gunnedah along with the artworks depicting the history of the area.
Pensioners Hill gets its name from being a shanty town during the Great Depression.

Pensioner's Hill Lookout

Pensioner's Hill Lookout - depicting Red Chief, a famous local Aboriginal leader.

Pensioner's Hill Lookout - Coal Mining 

Pensioner's Hill Lookout - The Rainbow Serpent a part of the Aboriginal Dreamtime

Pensioner's Hill Lookout - The city of Gunnedah 

Curlewis Grain Storage

The Mooki River, on the Kamilaroi Highway at Breeza NSW

Further on the Kamilaroi Highway at Breeza

"Who'd A Thought It" Lookout at Curlewis

"Who'd A Thought It" Lookout at Curlewis

"Who'd A Thought It" Lookout at Curlewis

"Who'd A Thought It" Lookout at Curlewis

"Who'd A Thought It" Lookout at Curlewis

Our camp for the night Willow Tree Freedom Camping Ground. The camp has toilets, showers, drinking water and some powered sites. Payment is by donation.

The community has a bowling club that is the hub of the community and is supported by volunteers. The club was rebuilt after being totally destroyed by fire and reopened three years later in December 2019 after a huge community effort.

We had a great meal and chatted with other travellers and locals.

Next - Day Five - Willow Tree to Home