DURING our two visits to Australia we fell in love with its stunning coastline and we were thrilled to find our way to some incredibly beautiful bits of wild hinterland. We have thoroughly explored two major cities, Sydney and Brisbane, and have passed through a number of other large urban centres. Short inland trips have given us some inkling of what the great outback is all about. Slowly we are forming a composite picture of at least a section of that massive country Down Under, but it is perhaps in small-town Australia where we have glimpsed its soul. Australia is big on road safety and signs regularly warn motorists to ‘stop, revive, survive’ at least every two hours to avoid road fatigue.
To encourage drivers to take this advice seriously, the authorities have set up safe, clearly marked rest areas, available around the clock, where motorists can park and walk round a bit or even have a snooze before continuing on their way. In many small towns this idea is taken a step further, thanks to a small army of kindly volunteers who man what they call Driver Reviver sites. Supported by Bushells Tea and the Centre for Road Safety, these sites are run by various volunteer groups including the Volunteer Rescue Association, State Emergency Services and Lions Club International. As well as safe places to stop, these sites provide travellers with free cups of tea or coffee, biscuits and, in some small towns, homemade cookies and cakes. Often they are attached to tourist information centres, too, which make them doubly useful.
For us, the best thing about them was the access they gave us to the small-town community members who give up their time to help keep strangers safe. As travellers in a foreign land, meeting these good people, chatting to them and finding out about their way of life was a big bonus. One of our first unscheduled coffee stops en route was at the Coffee Cart in the Park in the small Queensland town of Rolleston while we were en route to Carnarvon Gorge National Park. There we enjoyed coffee, cake, a warm welcome and interesting conversations with a whole lot of friendly townsfolk and fellow travellers.
The coffee cart wasn’t part of the official reviver site programme. It was a community fundraising initiative. It was nice to know that the small donation we were asked to pay for our coffee and cake went towards the beautification of the town’s already beautiful little Beazley Park, in which the coffee cart was situated. It was a delightful spot with all sorts of pretty picnic tables, a small museum and a charming little art gallery. It was also a popular meeting place for the many travellers who were passing through the town on their way to Carnarvon Gorge and other local tourist attractions. We had a great time chatting to everyone there and left Rolleston not only fully revived but more aware about what makes Australia tick.
One of our favourite small town experiences, though, was our overnight stay at Glen Innes in the New England High Country area of New South Wales. It was the first stop on the second of the two short camping trips we did while we were in Australia. We said farewell to our family in Brisbane early on the Monday morning, the start of a busy working week for our son and daughter-in-law, and headed off to have a look at the New South Wales hinterland, on a roundabout route to visit friends in Bellingen. Soon we found ourselves travelling through attractive little country towns like Warwick and Tenterfield along the scenic New England Highway. It really was a lovely route, the undulating road often winding through pristine forested areas and bits of national parks. We’d only have a single night in that area before we would need to head towards Bellingen and so we were hoping to find some sort of camping in one of the many national parks in that highlands region. It was not to be.
Instead, we found a delightful little camping and caravan park in Glen Innes, a town that takes huge pride in it beautiful old buildings, its scenic setting, its tradition of hospitality and, most of all, its Celtic roots. Glen Innes sells itself very successfully as a Celtic town and even has a monument to its early Celtic settlers, in the form of its famous Australian Standing stones. It is here that the extremely popular Glen Innes Celtic Festival is held every year. It attracts hundreds of people with various Celtic ancestors who dance around the granite monoliths to the skirl of the pipes. Other people just come along to join in the fun.
The Celtic theme was very evident in the displays staged in the town’s impressive info centre. The attached souvenir shop boasted a whole range of Celtic-related merchandise and a whole range of gorgeous teddies all kitted out in a wide variety of genuine tartans. The displays and souvenirs on sale also highlighted another Glen Innes attraction. Ever since sapphires were found in the creeks around the town, Glen Innes has been the haunt of fossickers, drawn to this mineral-rich area by the promise of finding some of these deep blue precious stones.
For the last 20 years, the town has hosted Minerama, an annual fossiking, gem and jewellery show that also attracts many visitors to the town. Another annual happening, the Deepwater Scarecrow and Wool festival, highlights the area’s rich wool heritage. There is also the Emmaville Sheep Race, in March every year, that sounds like great fun. We met all sorts of interesting townspeople and fellow travellers during our short but sweet stay in the Celtic treasure house of a town but what will really draw us back to Glen Innes and its New England High Country surroundings on future visits to Australia is all unspoiled natural beauty waiting to be discovered. There are no less than eight national parks and nature reserves, some of them World Heritage Sites, fairly close to the town. We didn’t have enough time to find out about them, let alone to set up camp ad explore any of them but when we visited the info centre we picked up a useful pocket guide to the New South Wales National Parks.
Forearmed with all the helpful information contained in this attractive publication, we are sure that, on future visits, we will be able to access at least some of the wild places waiting to be discovered in this stunning high country. We will definitely plan for a longer stay in pretty Glen Innes next time. we may even do some fossicking!
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