Friday, January 12, 2007

Back to Brown

Gundagai is another New South Wales town that we visited on our recent trip to Melbourne. I've often wanted to stop and take photos in this area and, as time was no object, we found two very good lookouts on hills to the north and south of the town. (Click for enlargement and more detail.)

Very long bridge carrying the Hume Highway over the Murrumbidgee River flats.

Two now unused bridges - road bridge on the left (this is where the highway used to run) and railway bridge on the right.

The hills are as dry and bare as can be.

View to the north. Green area would be irrigated from the Murrumbidgee River.

View over the town of about 2000 people.


Hume Highway descending the hill into the town.







Bridges from the south side of town.

Views over the Murrumbidgee.

Posted by Picasa If you click on this photo and enlarge it you will see a small stone cairn in the right third of the photo, among the trees. This is where the town used to be before being swept away in a flood in 1852 killing 89 of the then 250 residents.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your photos. The countryside looks so dry but it's still beautiful in my eyes.

Kerri said...

Thanks for these photos Alice. It's lovely to see the Aussie countryside, in any state....be it wet or dry.
Yes, it's beautiful countryside even brown with just a touch of green.
Those poplar trees sure are popular :)

Thanks for sharing your Australia with us Alice!

DellaB said...

Great photos, thanks Alice.

Aren't the bridges amazing ... specially when it looks like they are built to go over - nothing - hard to picture raging rivers under them though.

My mum always used to say, with a laugh, about the bridges in Queensland (we have a lot of rivers along the coast, that always used to flood and trap people in the wet):

"Funny, why did they build all the bridges under the water?"

thanks again for some wonderful images..

:-)
Della

Val said...

On Tuesday I took the train to Castlemaine and back, and as the tracks are generally elevated, I could see more of the countryside, and especially dams. They are, in a word, empty, and the ground is covered with yellow stubble. But still, there is something about the countryside in southeast Australia (which your photographs have captured, that capture my heart. I too think it's beautiful.

Anonymous said...

ok - so where is the dog on the tuckerbox?? :) - I adore Gundagai - it was a place that we stopped at on our to Melbourne when I was a little gal and went with my dad, interstate trucking. But hasn't the tuckerbox changed? It is soooo touristy now.
our land is so dry, its sad.

Anonymous said...

Nice pictures, and longggggggg bridges.....

Anonymous said...

Love those pictures.
I love all the place names, & used to love to listen to my Aussie Grandfather talking about all the places he had been, & telling stories with all those place names.
I often wonder if he got homesick, but dont think he ever came back here, after moving to NZ, where he met & married my Grandmother.

Anonymous said...

Stunning scenery, unbelievable to think that a countryside so brown and dry can produce floods that killed so many. i found that photo quite moving, looking at the dry valley that must have been so transformed on that day.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting post with the photos. At first I wondered, why bridges when it's no water? Then I realized that it was river flats...

See we don't really have dried out floods over here in Sweden :-)

Love the scenery, it's beautiful with all the hills too.

LindaD said...

Fascinating.. beautiful countryside. Looks much like California in the dry season.. You can tell where there are tiny springs since there are little slips of greenery.

Your garden pictures are like the rains after a parched time
Thanks for sharing all these photos.. I've been preoccupied, but happy I caught up a bit with you..

WendyAs said...

We are going brown down here is Tassie too. Water restrictions are an order.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful vast landscapes Alice but so very, very dry, just quite the opposite to here in Wales. Marion

Marlene Depler said...

Thanks for sharing photos from your recent trip to Melbourne. It's great to see places that I've never been.

We are having such cold, snowy weather here. I'm ready for a trip to somewhere warm!

I have just had three of my grandchildren for nine days while Mom and Dad were away for some training with their mission organization. They are darling children. Nevertheless, I am exhausted.

Anonymous said...

Hi Alice..
Great shots of Gundagai i haven't been there for ages, now i have the urge to see it again.
Hope all is well xx
Gwen

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, a lot of brown. Very dry in this area. It is so interesting for me, to see your country-side.

Sigrun

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your photos of Gundagai ... it is a lovely area ... I spent some time there a few years ago.
Hope all is well.
Take care, Meow

Anonymous said...

Alice so nice to see your photos gosh those overseas must love your blog it is like a nice armchair tour of our beautiful country for sure.

I see you came down this way for a visit good for you I do hope you enjoyed yourself and we must get to know more about your holiday not that I am nosy! lol lol justin interested.

joy to you always.
Lee-ann

Anonymous said...

I remember gundagai as being the town we stop at to get a cool drink and go to the 'you know where'. Christopher never let me look around for too long. One day we are going to travel around Australia and stop in all the towns along the way and investigate the people and it's special places. Won't be until the chickens leave the coop though. Lots of love, Nicole xox.

Anonymous said...

As much as I love living in New Zealand, there is nothing quite as beautiful as the dryness of Australia.

Anonymous said...

With the lovely brown photos of my home town its hard to believe the scenery could ever be green - but all those brown areas can also be the deepest lush green in Spring when we get the Spring rains, (which we didn't in 2006).

Gundagai is a very very special place in Oz and probably the lynchpin of the continent but there are numerous other beautiful places worldwide also.

Happy day all.

Anonymous said...

Yes Gundagai is so very beautiful. In fact we have just purchased a house there and will soon be apart of it.