Day 6 – Oberon
What a freezing cold night it was. We needed the extra blanket! Once I was up and showered I checked the weather for Oberon and it was only going to get to 17 degrees. Brrrrr!
We had planned to visit Mayfield Garden but decided that the weather was too cold to be wandering around a big garden and we just went into town instead. There was a sign at the Reef Reserve Campground for the Men’s Shed. It had a number to call if you wanted firewood.
I did a couple of loads of washing and now we were all caught up but also out of water so filling up was required. Our grey water tank also needed emptying and we couldn’t do that where we were camped.
First stop in town was the dump point to empty the grey water and toilet cassette. There is a pay water filling station however we couldn’t use it to fill up as it requires a cam lock and we don’t have one of those on our water hoses. We will never use the water tap next to the dump station as we just don’t want to take the risk of it being contaminated so we now needed to find a water fill point.
We had a drive around town and found the Showground and inside the Showground was the Men’s Shed. Opposite was the amenities block for campers and right outside was a water tap. Rich went in to see the Men’s Shed people to ask about wood while I got the hoses out to fill our tanks. Rich came back and said they’d told him we could fill up and there was no charge but they didn’t have any wood. They did say that they take bags of wood to the local fishing store in the Main Street and they might have some so that would be our next stop.
LOL they’d also run out of bags of wood! What next? Maybe one of the servos would have some. At last we drove into one of the servo’s and they did have bags of wood. 15kg for $25 so we bought 2. OK wood sorted, water filled, grey tank and cassette emptied. Now what?
As it was nearly lunchtime Rich wanted to know if there was a Chinese restaurant in Oberon. After googling it we found the RSL has a Chinese restaurant and one of the motels also has a Chinese restaurant. We chose the RSL and boy! I’m glad we did. It was the best Chinese meal we’d had since we were in China back in March! We recommend the bistro at the RSL if you are looking for delicious Chinese food in Oberon.
Following lunch we had a bit of a drive around town and we think we found the major employer in the town. The timber mill! It’s enormous and we could see stacks and stacks of timber packed up ready to go out to timber retailers. There looked liked lots of work was going on and we guessed that the mill probably employs the most amount of people in the little town.
We drove out to check out Oberon Dam and the dam wall. It was blowing gale out there and there were white caps on the lake. The damming of the Fish River started during WWII to provide a steady source of water for the Shale Oil facility at Glen Davis. The shale oil ran out but the pipeline still runs to Glen Davis supplying town water to the valley.
Lake Oberon supplies water to Lithgow, Bathurst, Oberon and parts of the Blue Mountains. It is also well known as a premier fishing spot. It is regularly stocked with Golden Perch, Murray Cod and Trout.
Oberon is a small country town of only 5,500 people in the area. It is located on a plateau on the Western edge of the Great Dividing Range. It sits at 1113m elevation so the climate is much cooler than home. They even get snow here in Winter!
Explorers Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813 and by 1820 settlers were taking up grants of land along the Fish River. Oberon was originally called Bullocks Flat and permanent settlement began in 1839. The name was changed in 1863 and Oberon was declared a village.
Oberon relies on the passing travellers and sadly since the bridge at Victoria Pass has been closed that passing trade has dried up. The chef at the RSL was telling us how much that has affected the town. Most businesses have noticed the drop in trade and they are all hoping it picks back up when the Victoria Pass is finally opened again next year.
We headed back out the Reef Reserve and as our spot at the car park had been taken we went to one of the other spots I’d noticed yesterday on my walk. We don’t have as good a view of the lake but we are a bit more protected from the very cold wind. I can still glimpse the lake through the trees.
I spent about an hour in the later afternoon with an empty bag and my picker upper going around the camp site picking up rubbish. I collected half a bag of stuff like beer bottle caps, bits of plastic, glass from smashed bottles, toilet paper and even a container of markers left behind by someone. What a lot of rubbish! I do wish people would pick up their rubbish before they leave!
