Cruden Farm visit

November 17, 2025November 17, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

I was excited to get up and ready to visit Cruden Farm on a lovely overcast and gloomy Sunday morning. I wasn’t going to let a little rain stop me from ticking off this bucket list activity.

We’d had a great night’s sleep at our camp at Pakenham South Hall, a donation camp surrounded by farmland in every direction. We made sure to put our $10 donation in a zip lock bag with a thank you note and poked it under the back door of the hall. I did suggest that they attach a secure donation box to the wall as I wasn’t very comfortable just poking ours under the door but hey, that’s their instructions.

We packed up and set off back towards Frankston. Cruden Farm is located at Langwarrin inland from Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula. It only took us 40 minutes to drive to Cruden Farm with a brief stop at a bakery for some fresh bread.

We arrived to find the gate open already and a couple of cars parked. We found a spot to park where we thought we wouldn’t get parked in by cars if it became really busy later in the day.

We’d booked the guided tour so after checking in and receiving our garden map we had a short wait for our guide. We lucked in with our tour as we had Daniel Johnson, the Executive Director of Cruden Farm and Head Gardener Lewis Barratt, who has come to work at Cruden all the way from Kew Gardens in London.

Daniel is very passionate about the work they do at Cruden Farm and excited about all the plans they have for its future as a premier event space. Daniel brings that expertise with him from his previous position at Coombe in the Yarra Valley. Coombe was once the home of Australia’s most famous opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba, and it is now recognised as one of Victoria’s premier event venues. I remember passing Coombe as we came down via the Yarra Valley. It’s a bit hard to miss as the property is surrounded by huge, very tall hedges atop a brick fence. They are very impressive. I wish I’d managed to get a photo as we went past.

Having Head Gardener Lewis guide our tour was great as he has such a wealth of garden and plant knowledge and was happy to answer questions.

We began the tour at the side of the main house after entering the gates near The Gatehouse. Our first views of the garden were across the huge expanse of very green lawn that is home to the sunken lawn tennis court. White benches sit around the top of the green mounds surrounding the tennis court below so spectators can sit and watch the action.

Cruden Farm was a 1928 wedding gift to the 19 year old Elisabeth Greene from her husband Keith Murdoch. She lived there until her death at 103 years old in 2012. Michael Morrison was Head Gardener for over 40 years and between them they developed the 20 acres of garden we see now.

The house was once a simple unassuming farm cottage however while Keith and Elisabeth travelled overseas in 1929, Keith commissioned eminent architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear to enlarge the house. A three story addition was done and while it has retained the white weatherboard of the original farm house, huge columns have been added to the front facade, a bit like the Southern style in the US. The house would feel quite at home on a sugar plantation. When she returned Elisabeth didn’t like the renovations and spent years trying to plant trees to hide it.

The front driveway is lined with 130 lemon scented gum trees that Keith and Elisabeth planted in 1930. They were part of the Edna Walling plans for the garden. Edna Walling was considered to be the best garden designer of her day. She also designed the round lawn in front of the house and the low stone walls at the end of the driveway.

We continued our tour in a clockwise direction down past a delightful rose garden. Lewis explained that some of the roses are such old varieties that they have still not been able to identify some of them. The oval shaped rose garden is also full of perennial plants including spectacular tall foxgloves.

As we moved around the garden Daniel and Lewis told little anecdotes about Dame Elisabeth. Daniel had actually met her a few times. One little story I enjoyed was the garden bed behind The Gatehouse. Over the years many people gave Dame Elisabeth a plant for her garden as a thank you or gift. Dame Elisabeth wasn’t always sure whether she liked it or not, or where she would put it so they all got planted in the one garden bed until she decided on the plants future. Some are still there so it’s assumed she didn’t really like those!

Continuing around The Cottage we came across a huge lake. The lake was constructed in 1987 to provide a sanctuary for birds. Dame Elisabeth was involved in all stages of the lakes development. Hundred of daffodils were planted behind the lake. Willow trees were planted and sadly they are almost at the end of their lifespan. Oaks and wattles were planted to complement the bulbs below. The lake has a couple of islands and a peninsula reached by a stone arched bridge. On the end of the peninsula stands a tall stainless steel ‘Ibis’ sculpture by the artist Phil Price. It has a large blade that moves in the wind and reminds you of an Ibis moving their long beak up and down. It was commissioned by the family for Dame Elisabeth’s 100th birthday and she loved it.

One story was about how to rid the lake of duck weed that was a continuing problem. Dame Elisabeth came up with the solution, dig the lake deeper. So they did. The lake is about 30 feet deep and they’ve never had a problem with duck weed since.

Further around our tour took us towards the Picking Garden and as the name suggests is where the flowers were cut for floral displays for the house. This continues to this day. There are over 125 variety of roses and the star of the show is a row of ‘Dame Elisabeth Murdoch’ roses along the back of the garden below the high hedge. It is a hybrid tea rose created in her honour in 2002 and in Dame Elisabeth’s own words, ‘It’s as tough as old boots, just like me’. It is the first to flower each year and the last to finish.

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, a hybrid tea rose

The Picking Garden has recently been extended by Lewis to make it more symmetrical and it is a riot of colour. Everywhere you look you see another special plant. I loved the standard honeysuckles, they were covered in blooms. Flowering perennials abound including catmint, salvias, poppies, foxgloves, and more.

The picking garden beds are bounded by timber boards and crushed granite pathways surround each bed. There is a gorgeous square timber arbour in the centre with a climbing rose growing on each corner.

It started to drizzle rain while we were in the Picking Garden.

A wide set of stone steps leads from the Picking Garden up to The Stables. The Stables were built during the Depression. Sir Keith used local unemployed people to build the stables giving them work when there was none to be had. The stables were constructed with Moorooduc stone which has a high iron content and the stone definitely has a reddish colour.

The same team of men built the stone walls at Cruden Farm however they were built with stone found on the farm and are a different colour.

Sir Keith and Dame Elisabeth were keen horse riders but these days the stables only house the buggy that the family gave to Dame Elisabeth for her 80th birthday.

Our tour continued then to the Walled Garden designed by Edna Walling in the English style. The garden has changed over the years because it was found to be too hot inside the walls for the original plantings. The large walled garden was originally for fruit trees however only two of those remain and it now has a large perennial bed on either side of a grass walkway in the middle. At one end is a small lily pond. In the centre of the lily pond is a bird bath with a koala and baby statue. Dame Elisabeth bought it because she thought the grandchildren would like it.

The smaller walled garden was originally a rose garden but it was too hot inside the stone walls so they came out and a swimming pool went in. Apparently Dame Elisabeth loved to swim and was even in the pool every day even when she was over 100 years old, AND the pool is not heated.

When she was over 100 years old one of the gardeners found her attempting to climb up to pull out some daisy’s growing on top of the stone walls because there were just to many up there!

Lewis has spent a lot of time researching the plants that Dame Elisabeth planted in the walled garden and has tried to faithfully recreate it the way she would have liked.

Our one hour tour ended at the end of the Walled Garden and Richard and I enjoyed a brief chat with both Daniel and Lewis and thanked them for the tour. We were happy to hear about their exciting plans to add a restaurant and event spaces to Cruden Farm to help make it more commercially viable while still maintaining the simple style of its famous creator.

The Rolls Royce Car Club of Australia had a show on at Cruden Farm and the cars were all parked on the lawns behind the Walled Garden and Stables area. Richard wandered off to have a look at the Aston Martin cars as the Astin Martin Club also had their cars on display between The Lake and the Picking Garden. I wandered along the rows of Rolls Royces and admired the large Dam. The Dam was built in 1995 to take the run off from the Stables and other buildings. The Dam is very deep and has been invaluable in times of drought. There is a sculpture in the middle on an island called ‘Five Ways’ and it was designed by Dame Elisabeth and her farm manager Andrew Gobela and sculptor/gardener Ken Blum.

Beyond the Dam and Stables is the Farmyard and as Cruden Farm is still a working farm it is home to all the farming paraphernalia you need to run cattle and maintain 100 acres of farmland.

After wandering back past the Stables and down into the Picking Garden I found Richard admiring the Aston Martins and the rain was becoming heavier so we decided it was time to farewell Cruden Farm and get out of the city.

I had thoroughly enjoyed our morning at Cruden Farm and recommend it to any of you who are keen gardeners or have an interest in history.

It was an easy drive from Cruden Farm to the M3 motorway and we traveled northwards until we had to turn off and do a bit of a dog leg where the new North East Link is under construction. What a massive undertaking it is. It didn’t help that it started bucketing down rain as we drove through this section! Bloody Murphy!

The North East Link is ‘the missing link’ in Melbournes road network and will join the M3 to the M80 taking some 15,000 trucks per day off smaller roads. Most of it will be tunnels. It will even go under the Yarra River by tunnel.

Once we got through that nightmare of road construction we were quickly onto the M80 and followed that until it meets up with the M31 (Hume Highway) and we headed north on that. It had taken us about two hours to travel from Frankston down on the Mornington Peninsula, right through Melbourne and out the northern side onto the Hume Highway. That’s pretty amazing and it will be even faster once the North East Link is completed.

We pulled up for a lunch break at a road side Rest Area and over lunch and a cuppa decided to push on further to find a good camp for the night. We ended up at Murchison which is in between Seymour and Shepparton. We found a spot via WikiCamps that promised water views and we could have a fire.

We found the spot at Murchison Reserve. Murchison Reserve consists of a couple of ovals with toilets and club buildings. On the back fence there is a cattle grid with a gate. If you go through that you are on the river bank. The Goulburn River has very tall river banks and from the top we could see the river below. There were quite a few tracks that led down to the river edge however they were definitely for 4WD’s and not 26’ motorhomes!

We wisely stayed up on top although I did go for a walk along and down around the river and found a couple of sandy beaches. There was one lot of campers down there with a 4WD and roof top tent but you wouldn’t get down there with a caravan or motorhome.

We sat around a little fire until rain drove us inside and we enjoyed a dinner of lasagne, garlic bread and salad before settling into bed to watch Netflix.

As we dozed off for the night we could hear the pitter patter of rain but it wasn’t forecast to rain much and we were parked on grass so not to worry. It’s only getting through the very narrow gate that’s the problem. I swear there was only an inch or two either side of the motorhome as Richard capably squeezed through.

Yarck to Frankston

November 16, 2025November 17, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

We woke to a gorgeous morning at Yarck Recreation Ground. The sun was shining with blues sky and fluffy white clouds. The rain overnight has cleared away.

We packed up camp and before we drove out we went for a walk around the facilities to see if we could find a donation box. Alas there isn’t one. I would really like these small communities to have a secure lock box so we could make a donation to help offset their costs of providing such great spots for us self-contained campers to camp.

There seemed to be an abundance of coffee shops in Yarck and then we realised that’s because it is right on the Great Victorian Rail Trail so it is a very popular spot to stop for a break when you are cycling along the trail. The rail trail is another great thing that brings people to these small communities.

Our journey continued on via Yea and then down into the Yarra Valley through Yarra Glen. From there it was not very long before we reached the outskirts of Melbourne at Lilydale. We followed the Maroondah Highway until it met up with the M3 Eastlink then followed that southwards all the way to Frankston.

I remember as a child in the 1960’s living in Box Hill and a trip to Frankston was an all day journey. Now it is all just one big city all the way with a motorway to get there!

We pulled in at Frankston Waterfront Reserve where there was a large carpark. We had to park in the car section where we did take up 4 spaces but we tried to be right down the back so there were lots of free spaces. Frankston Foreshore is home to the Frankston Pier and the outlet of the Kananook Creek where it runs into the bay. We found a restaurant right on the water overlooking the beach and ordered fish & chips washed down with a cold beer. Ahhh!

After a delicious lunch break we headed the motorhome eastwards towards Pakenham where I’d found a great camp on WikiCamps at the Pakenham South Hall. A donation camp for self-contained RV’s. There were 8 RV’s already set up when we arrived and one of the locals who look after the hall was busy mowing the grass.

There are no facilities except rubbish bins and they like you to put your $10 donation under the door. I really think they also need a secure donation box!

It’s a great little spot surrounded by farmland but only a 30-40 minute drive to get to Cruden Farm the next day.

Great River Road to a gem of a camp at Yarck

November 15, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

What a top spot was Gadds Bend Reserve on the Upper Murray River. We spent the rest of the morning following the Great River Road along through lush green valleys with a short stop at Mt Alfred to admire the incredible view and the huge Eagle sculpture.

The Great River Road is a spectacular drive and we enjoyed it very much although we did have to watch out for large potholes on the edge of the road. Most of the road was in pretty good shape though. The road does wind in and out along the meandering Murray River.

We began our journey along the Great River Road at Towong and followed to its conclusion at Bethanga Bridge. Bethanga Bridge was part of the Hume Dam Project and was first opened in 1930. It was a joint venture between Victoria and New South Wales. The bridge is a 752 metre long road bridge with nine arches and is 37 metres above the riverbed. It was upgraded in 1961 and is now a Heritage Listed Landmark.

Once across the bridge we were back in NSW for a short time. I was able to snap a pic of the dam wall of Hume Dam as we crossed the bridge below back into Victoria. You could see water flowing into the river from the bottom of the wall.

Our journey then bypassed Wodonga and we made up a bit of time by traveling on the M31 (Hume Highway) until we turned off at Benalla. Benalla is a lovely town full of interesting street murals. I’ve written about those in previous blogs. We pulled into the RV free camp down behind the Benalla Library and found a lovely grassy patch to stop for a lunch break. There were 5 campers already set up in the RV Camp.

After lunch we continued on southwards through Swanpool and crossed Lake Eildon at Bonnie Doon.

Crossing the bridge over Lake Eildon at Bonnie Doon

We continued on via Merton and upon arriving in Yarck we found our way to the Yarck Recreation Reserve. It is a large grass area with lots of room for all sorts of RV’s. There is a toilet block, children’s playground and a shed with a BBQ. We don’t need those so we found a good spot right down the back next to an enormous Oak tree. Previous campers had set up a fire pit using rocks so we made use of that.

We spent a very pleasant evening around a little fire and, before retiring, we packed our chairs and table away. We were so glad we did as it rained during the night and we both love the sound that makes on our roof when we are warm and snug inside.

We counted 13 camps set up in the little Rec ground. Mostly caravans, a couple of motorhomes, one car and tent and a very unusual caravan/houseboat.

A short meander along the Upper Murray

November 14, 2025November 13, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

With a short window of opportunity for a getaway we packed up the Motorhome to head off for a week. Since our last big trip in the middle of the year we’ve had a busy time as we entered our 3 acre farm garden in the Open Gardens for Griffith Spring Fest. Spring Fest brings a massive influx of tourists to our lovely Riverina town to check out the famous Citrus Sculptures and the open gardens. There’s a Street Party, events at many of the cellar doors, a market day in the Main Street, and the Biggest Lap saw hundreds of classic and unique cars on parade down the Main Street. It’s a fabulous time to visit Griffith. Put it in your diaries for October every year!

We welcomed a record number of visitors to our garden over the 2 weeks of Spring Fest including 14 coaches and walk-ins over the Open Garden weekend. This all helped raise a significant amount of money for our charity, Hanwood Public School P&C, who did a mighty job serving delicious food and drink to the many garden visitors.

Jen’s Garden & Citrus Sculptures during Spring Fest, Griffith NSW

I’ve always wanted to visit Cruden Farm, home to the garden created by Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. Cruden Farm is located on the Mornington Peninsula near Frankston in Victoria.

The story of Cruden Farm is one of a life long passion for Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. As a new bride in 1928 she was gifted the small farm as a wedding present from her husband Keith Murdoch, a journalist and newspaper man. Over the years the modest weatherboard cottage was added to and updated and used as a weekend retreat for the family.

The garden has had a variety of garden designers over many years including the famous Australian landscape designer Edna Walling.

Dame Elisabeth lived to the ripe old age of 103 and remained a passionate gardener to the end. On the Cruden Farm website it says

In the words of her long term gardening companion Michael Morrison, ‘She loved every square inch of it, from boundary to boundary. There wasn’t a plant or patch of grass that she didn’t know intimately.’

In her will Dame Elisabeth left Cruden Farm to a Charitable Trust that now runs the farm. Cruden Farm is open everyday to the public and once a month they hold a special Sunday guided tour with one of the gardeners. We have booked in for that on Sunday 16th November. On that Sunday Cruden Farm is also host to the Aston Martin’s Concours d’Elegance & the Rolls Royce Owners Club Australia picnic. Richard is definitely looking forward to that.

Our first stop on this trip was to Braymont Garden near Tumbarumba to visit the owners, long time friends of ours Jim & Chris Brayne. We had a wonderful catch up with them over dinner and wine before settling down for the night parked in their parking area. Braymont Garden is a large farm garden with a cafe serving amazing food and even B&B accomodation. Check out their Facebook page for opening times and menus. You can book accomodation via Airbnb, just search for Braymont Garden.

The stunning garden at Braymont Garden, Tumbarumba, NSW

The next morning we enjoyed further chat and a coffee with our hosts before setting off southwards via Tooma and Towong then turned right to follow the Upper Murray River. It is a gorgeous drive down through the mountain valleys and it was all looking very lush and green. Coming down towards Tooma we could see the snow capped main range of the Snowy Mountains in the distance.

Travelling along beside the Upper Murray River was beautiful with lush green valleys and spectacular mountain views. The Murray along this stretch is quite shallow and was running very fast. The water is very clear and it’s calming watching the water tumble across rocks along its way.

Near Tintaldra we came across a sculpture of a giant Bogong Moth with gorgeous views across the river into the valley beyond. Bogong Moths are large 3cm long moths and were hunted by First Nations people who roasted the moths and enjoyed their fatty, protein-rich, nutty flavour. They sound delicious….NOT!

We continued on and came to an information stop in front of Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park. Pine Mountain is huge! It is made up of pink and grey granite and is one single enormous rock. It is one and a half times the size of Uluru and rises to 1092 metres from the banks of the Murray River. It’s really quite staggering. We stopped to read all the info boards and both declared them very well done. The stop includes a huge stainless steel statue of a Lace Monitor.

Interestingly, the National Park is home to some unique plants that are found nowhere else in the world.

Our First Nations people know Pine Mountain as Yabbarin which means ‘place of great talk’ and it is known to have been a meeting place of at least three First Nations peoples including the Wiradjuri, Walgal and Dhudhuroa people.

Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park, Victoria

We pulled into Neils Bend Reserve a bit further along the road for a lunch break and managed to find a spot on our own with lovely views of the river. We could hear the river bubbling along below us while we ate our lunch.

Further along, past Walwa and the turnoff to Jingellic, we decided to make camp for the night and headed into Gadds Bend Reserve. This is a large grassed free camp right on the river and there’s plenty of room for lots of RV’s including Big Rigs. The reserve is along 250m of very pretty river frontage. The road is in gravel and suitable for 2WD vehicles.

There is no fee but there are also no facilities so you need to be self contained. You are allowed to have a fire (when no ban is in place)

We were the only people there for a short time before two caravans came in and set up further along the river bank. What a lovely spot. Check out the view from our door.

Gadds Bend Reserve, near Walwa, Victoria

Barellan Good Old Days Festival

October 5, 2025November 13, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

What an amazing festival is The Good Old Days Festival held in Barellan on the long weekend in October each year. The festival celebrates our nation’s pioneer heritage and has the largest gathering of harness animals in Australia. These include the mighty workhorses, the Clydesdales, bullocks, camels, donkeys, mules and even goats.

Pioneering farming practices are on display with bullock and horse drawn ploughs, binders, wool wagon and a huge Mallee roller. The iconic Furphy water wagon is also on display.

Unpowered camping is available at the Barellan Showgrounds for $23 per night and Glamping Tents are also available.

There is a range of food options from BBQ’s to the various food vendor trucks. A variety of market stalls can also be found.

There was a grand parade, blacksmith talks and demonstrations, sheep dog demonstrations, talks by bullock drivers on how they train and use the bullock teams and you could even do a camel ride.

The highlight of the weekend was watching the successful world record attempt for the most number of horses harnessed together. The previous record was set in Canada with 50 horses. The practice run at this year’s Barellan festival had 54 however on the Saturday when it really counted the team went for broke and harnessed 64 horses. What a sight that was as the feet of 64 huge horses thundered past us.

We decided at the last minute to get the motorhome out and head out to Barellan to check out the festival. We arrived at Barellan Showgrounds late on the Thursday afternoon to find that all the camping inside the Showgrounds was already full but they had plenty of room in the overflow paddock. We found a good spot to camp and set off on foot to explore the displays. Our short walk from camp took us past the Glamping Tents and the brand new amenities block.

Friday was spent wandering the showgrounds watching the various shows and displays and finishing up with a show by James Blundell and Lachie Cosser on the main stage. We made use of the food vendors and the BBQ for dinner. There is a pub on site selling Barellan beer which we found to be quite good.

Saturday was more of the same however this day there were crowds of people. It was a huge crowd on the Saturday with most coming to see the world record attempt. I’ve heard since that 10,000 people attended the 2025 event.

We packed up and headed for home after two fabulous days.

Our last day – Cobar to home

August 7, 2025October 27, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

It was freezing cold as we packed up camp at Cobar Old Reservoir. What a great camp spot it is. It’s a huge area with room for lots of rigs. There must have been about 30 RV’s of all types from camper trailers to pop-top vans and caravans and motorhomes of all sizes. Council provide rubbish bins but that’s all the facilities. That’s really all we needed anyway as we are self-contained with our own bathrooms and grey water tanks.

We all enjoyed sitting around the fire and discussing our fabulous last few weeks traveling. I asked everyone which was their favourite camp spot out of all the ones we’d stayed in and I was so surprised that the kids all chose Lara Wetlands and Charlotte Plains. They said it was a toss up between the two. Isn’t that an interesting result? We’d stayed in some fancy caravan parks with jumping pillows, playgrounds, water parks and pools etc and they chose camping in the bush with an artesian pool to soak in and a camp fire to sit around.

We’d ticked off a few bucket list items like the crocodile cruise, seeing Whitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet, snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef and following the Dinosaur Trail through outback Queensland.

It was a great night’s camp for our last night of the trip. In spite of the cold the boys were snug and warm in their swags and we really appreciated our deisel heater in the morning.

We set off from Cobar about 8.45am and headed towards Mt Hope and Hillston. The road is a good one and just like the day before there were goats, goats and more goats.

It was a gorgeous sunny day for our last day of travel on this amazing trip. We stopped for a lunch break in Hillston and Pa shouted everyone fish & chips for lunch from a great little cafe near the suspension bridge. We got take away and went to the lake and for a picnic.

Back in the vehicles and all too soon we were home. Now to unpack, wash and clean, and get the motorhome ready for the next adventure.

Back to NSW and on to Bourke & Cobar

August 6, 2025October 27, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

Goodbye Charlottes Plains. We really enjoyed our stay. The bore baths looked quite spooky in the early morning with the mist coming off the hot water.

Ben and Maddie had to say one last goodbye to the farm animals.

We followed Katie’s van on the way back into Cunnamulla and again we saw lots of emus. Back in Cunnamulla we used their Dump point, filled up with lovely artesian water. The potable water was hot and we assumed it was coming straight from the town bore. Next stop was the servo to buy a couple of bags of wood for our campfires for the next couple of nights and we needed a gas bottle.

After leaving Cunnamulla we headed southwards. We had a quick stop at the NSW/Queensland border and we were very disappointed to find there was no rest area on the NSW side. There is one as you enter Queensland so people can hop out to take photos but there is none as you enter NSW. We just had to pull off the road. Poor form NSW.

Stopped in Engonnia for a toilet break. What a fabulous town sign they have. It’s made out of steel and I’m sure lots of people stop to take a photo with the sign.

We were back in red dirt country and between Ennognia and Bourke we saw lots of goats. We even saw a huge dead pig on the side of the road.

We arrived in the outback town of Bourke and, after crossing the Dalring River, called in to check out the Visitors Centre.

We drove into town and pulled up for a lunch break at the Historic Wharf area where there is parking for long vehicles. Again I made toasties for everyone.

Everyone was still keen to get some more K’s done so we traveled on towards Cobar. The biggest hazard was goats. Goats, goats and more goats. They were grazing on the green pick alongside the road and were very casual about traffic. They really didn’t take much notice of traffic at all.

Surprisingly we only saw two goats as roadkill. Obviously the goats go and sleep under the trees at night and it’s the nocturnal kangaroos that get hit by trucks. There were lots of those as roadkill. We even saw a feral tabby cat chewing on one.

Arriving at Cobar we stopped for a photo with the town sign. We hadn’t seen that one before as we’d always come into town from the southern entrance. Well done Cobar for your fabulous town signs.

We’ve camped at Cobar many times and we drove directly out to our favourite spot at the Old Resevoir. This is a fabulous free camp next to the old reservoir and the road to get there is all tar until you arrive at the res. Then it becomes a red dirt track. Evidence of the recent rains was in the huge potholes and gutters so it was slow going getting in. Council have still not put any gravel in the huge pothole near a big tree and it was full of water so we had to go around a tree as we’ve had to do before. It’s a well worn track around the tree now.

We found a great spot to set up camp next to the tree line where we were a little perfected from the biting cold wind. The boys set up their swags next to the van and close to the trees where they had no wind at all. Rich got a fire going.

I messaged an old school friend of our son, Michael, as Andrew lives in Cobar with his young family. I was pleased to get a response to say he was coming out to see us. Not long after he arrived dressed in footy gear and explained he coaches an Under 10’s Aussie Rules team. It was great to see him and catch up on his family news. He couldn’t stay long as he had to get to training, coach can’t be late!

It was Katie’s turn to cook and she cooked up a delicious chicken and mushroom casserole served with rice and we ate sitting around the little fire. We all talked about the last 6 weeks and what great adventures we’d had.

Charlottes Plains Day 2

August 5, 2025August 10, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

What a great sleep in! How relaxing is it when you know you don’t have a travel day and you can sleep in?

Later in the morning Rich and I took the kids down to the thermal pool for a soak. It was lovely soaking in the hot water. It comes out of the bore pipe at 42°.

Back at camp I got out my little camp oven and, using the hot coals from our fire the previous night, made a damper for morning tea. It was delicious.

It was a relaxing reading afternoon followed by another walk over to the thermal pool for another soak. It certainly was relaxing.

It was my turn to cook and we enjoyed a BBQ of steak and sausages cooked by Rich on the Biji-BBQ accompanied by a potato bake and a beetroot & feta salad. There was nothing left over! Ice cream in a cone was the usual dessert for the kids. Love that I can have ice cream in the freezer for them.

We had a chat around the campfire about the next few days and the kids surprised us by saying they were missing school and their friends. They were ready to go home. So we decided to have a big driving day the next day and see how far we could get towards home. We were still 825km from home though so it would probably take a couple of days to get there.

Ben and Maddie reading their lists of what they’ve loved about our trip

Cunnamulla – Charlotte Plains

August 4, 2025August 4, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

We enjoyed our short overnight stay at Charleville Bush Camp. It was $46 for a powered site. We found out that the park is now run by the son of the people who set up the park and as they have passed away the son inherited it. We felt that the park could do with some love as it was quite untidy but it has potential to be one of the better ones.

The amenities were nice and clean though.

We packed up and headed back into Charleville then southwards towards Cunnamulla.

30km southwest of Charleville we came to the the site of Australia’s most powerful explosion in transport history at Angellala Bridge. A truck carrying amonium nitrate crashed in 2014 and the resulting explosion was equivalent to 15 tonnes of TNT going off. The explosion measured 2.1 on the Richter scale and could be felt 30 km away. The explosion took out the road and rail bridges and sadly the rail bridge has never been rebuilt. You can no longer catch a train from Charleville to Cunnamulla, you have to go by bus.

Incredibly no one was killed in the accident, although 8 people sustained injuries. There is a memorial at the crash site. We pulled in to check it out. There is an area for cars and vans to pull into and info boards tell the story of the explosion. It is quite sobering. The remains of the railway bridge can be seen on the other side of the road bridge.

On the highway 120km from Cunnamulla there was water lying in large puddles on either side of the road . It looked like it had recently rained and the road had narrowed considerably. You wouldn’t want to drive off the road onto the muddy shoulder. You would sink!

Emus emus emus. We saw so many emus on the flat grassy plains. The children kept count and by the end of the day they’d counted 154 emus. That’s the most emus we’ve ever seen in one day!

We arrived in Cunnamulla, filled up with fuel then drove around to park near the VIC. I cooked toasties for lunch then we all walked down to the VIC passing under some trees that were full of white Corellas roosting. The branches were covered in Corellas.

We checked out the VIC and visited the statue of the Cunnamulla Fella. Of course we had to take a photo with him. Behind the VIC is the new Cunnamulla Hot Springs. We thought that would be worth a visit until we found out that it cost $45 per person for one visit. That would be a no from us.

We headed east towards Charlottes Plains. It is 50km from Cunnamulla to the turnoff to the Bore Camping Area. Lots of people make the mistake of taking the first road into Charlottes Plains however that road takes you to the homestead and the Shearer’s Campground where they have powered sites. Then you have to travel 8.5km back up to the Bore Camping Area Ground. If you wait and take the second road into Charlottes Plains it is only 4.5km of gravel road to the Bore Campground.

I’d seen the campground on so many social media posts I sort of knew what to expect. What I didn’t expect was the amount of campers. It was packed. Obviously the best spot to camp is along the bore drain however they were packed in like sardines along there so we drove right out the back and found a spot away from others. Much better!

We did a walk around the campfire until to check out the hot bore pool and it did look inviting. The water comes out of the bore at 42°. Scattered along the bore drain are bathtubs in sets of two. Anyone can hop in, fill up the tub and soak in the lovely hot artesian water.

Tyre tubes are available and you can hop into the bore drain and let the current carry you along. This is popular with kids.

Charlottes Plains have a pub on site and a merch shop. It’s all pretty cool.

There are fire drums scattered around the campground made from 44 gallon drums cut in half with legs welded on the bottom to raise them off the ground. There was one near our camp so we set that up and Rich got the fire going.

It was Katie’s turn to cook and dinner was tacos which everyone enjoys. We sat around the campfire until about 9ish.

Bilby’s at Charleville

August 3, 2025August 4, 2025 / jennyfletch / Leave a comment

What a cold night it was at Augathella RV Park. The boys even had frost on their swags. They said they were nice and cosy warm inside though.

We got away around 9.30am to head further south to Charleville. Katie had a quick stop at the servo to top up her diesel tank on the caravan as she might need it again to run the diesel heater over the next few nights.

We’d booked into Charleville Bush Camp for the night so we could have access to power & water and a laundry after free camping for the last three nights.

We duly arrived in Charleville and, as it was still quite early and our Bilby Experience wasnt until 1pm, we drove directly out to the Cosmos Centre. We left Katie and the kids there so they could check it out and Rich and I went back into town.

After parking the motorhome in the Main Street Rich and I wandered along checking out the stores. You know I can’t resist a good pie so we stopped at the bakery for a coffee and a meat pie. They were delicious.

As we were walking back towards the motorhome we came across katie and the kids. They’d had a great time at the Cosmos Centre learning about the solar system, our galaxy and the universe and were heading to the bakery for some lunch. We arranged to meet at the Visitor Information Centre.

The VIC in Charleville is inside the railway station. It is probably unique in that it is still a working railway station. Two trains a week come to Charleville. Sadly you can no longer take a train to Cunnamulla because part of the line south of Charleville was destroyed in an explosion many years ago. I guess the line is not viable enough to repair the bridge.

We were checked in by a lovely lady at the VIC who would be our guide to see the Bilbies. Katie and the kids arrived and we were all checked in. Promptly at 1pm we were called to follow the lady out onto the platform and further along we entered another door into a darkened room where chairs were set up. We all found a spot to sit and for the next half an hours we learnt about Australia’s dreadful record of animal extinctions since white people came to our land. It was shocking. Bilbies are one of those mammals that faced extinction except for some dedicated people who devoted their working lives to saving the Bilby.

We learnt about the Save the Bilby Fund and some of their great fundraising ideas such as convincing the chocolatier Darryl Lea to make chocolate Bilbies at Easter instead of Easter Bunnies.

We learnt about the feral animal safe enclosures that have been built and how well the protected animals inside the enclosures are doing. The cute little Bilby may be saved yet!

Next we were shown into the nocturnal house where a male Bilby and his two girlfriends reside. They are so cute with their bodies like a tiny kangaroo but grey and fluffy with long black and white tails. The male was about the size of a small cat, one of their deadly predators.

What’s that saying? ‘The best cat is a dead cat’. I’m sure the Bilby population would think so as their numbers have been decimated by feral cats and foxes and their habitats taken over by rabbits.

It was a great experience made better by the enthusiasm of our guide for the little creatures.

We left the VIC and headed to the hardware store to see if they sold wood and sure enough they did. We picked up a couple of bags of wood and a box of kindling.

It was time to find our camp for the night and headed westward out of town to Charleville Bush Camp.

The bush camp is set on a farm and has lots of powered and unpowered camp spots. Many of them are drive through. There’s an amenities block for females and one for males and a central laundry. There were lots of trees and it did feel like bush camping. The sites are large and people were quite spread out.

The owner told us at check in that he expects everyone to joint him at the communal fire pit from 4.30pm. Rich did ask if we could have our own fire and was told yes so we did that instead.

It was good to have power and water so we could get lots of washing done however Katie discovered there was no drier at the laundry only two washing machines. She was a little disappointed at that as it’s hard to get lots of washing dry when we are on the road each day.

It was my turn to cook dinner so I made a ginger cake to have for dessert with ice cream and maple syrup. Then I made a chicken, bacon & mushroom creamy sauce with spaghetii. The kids all went back for seconds and declared it a 10/10 dinner. I was happy with that!

As we were able to have a fire pit we sat around it to eat our dinner.

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