Hay Plains Dayride.

nev

Super Térrarist
Since I'm not working at the moment, any day is a good day for a ride, so after checking that weather forecasts were looking acceptable a route was plugged into the GPS and the alarm was set for 5:30am Wednesday.

5:46 I was geared up and on my way. Out of Melbourne north bound and first stop was Echuca for fuel.
The pub at Gunbower
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Crossed the NSW border at Barham and had a quick break at Tullakool, which started as a WWII POW camp for Italian prisoners before becoming commercial rice farms after the war. In total about 12000 Italian POWs were brought to Australia during the war to work on farms to replace the men who had gone to fight.
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A bit further up the Moulamein road was a viewing platform for the irrigation system
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Though, there's not much irrigation going on here in these dry channels.
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A quick break by the river in Moulamein
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About 10km of the road from Moulamein to the Sturt Hwy is still dirt but a good rate of knots is still practical, and once I crossed into the Hay shire, the road improved considerably
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This should link to a 3D view of the above (if you're using a compliant browser like firefox or chrome)
https://plus.google.com/104648580394866335637/posts/MRGX725Rt8g

Once I hit the Sturt Hwy headed into Hay for fuel then further east to Darlington Point. Although I've ridden through Hay a few times I've never ridden this section of the Sturt Hwy east of Hay. Stopped in Darlington Point and bought some lunch. When I was a kid I had some cousins who lived here and we visited whenever we were travelling north, so I always stop in town if I'm passing through.
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And a Bill's trough behind the pub
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One of 4 irrigation channel diggers imported to dig irrigation channels in the Riverina.
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The countryside in this area is quite unique. I never see this type of gum anywhere else in Australia.
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Detoured a little off the main street in Jerilderie. This building was the Telegraph/Post Office
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and a nice lake in town
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The RFS must be burning off near Tocumwal
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The old bank building in Tocumwal
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And a Bill's trough at the pony club
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Hope vines near Numurkah
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Last fuel stop was in Kialla, and I rolled into the garage at home at 5:26pm.

GPS track of the trip.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zsD-yxSKFWwk.kWQftrvDjG0I&usp=sharing

And just to give people who haven't travelled these areas of Australia before some idea of how flat most of this country is, Excluding the first 150km or so and the last 120km (crossing the great dividing range) the middle 750km of this ride (Rochester to Mangalore) has a total elevation ascent and descent of 210metres and 205 metres respectively. That's an average gradient of 1:1900. (about 50cm per km).
 

Paul n Dixie

Part of the furniture
:clap:Nice work as always Nev :D

I always appreciate the local history and facts you take the extra time and effort to include :D
That Dragline "digger" in the Park is Massive!
can you determine what breed it is from the radiator emblem?- I cant discern it. Id like to try to find out some more about it :)
Thanks for taking us through the Hay Plains :D
Cheers Paul and Dixie
 

nev

Super Térrarist
:clap:Nice work as always Nev :D

I always appreciate the local history and facts you take the extra time and effort to include :D
That Dragline "digger" in the Park is Massive!

Yeah it sure is. You could drive a medium sized car into the bucket.

According to wikipedia, the manufacturer of this also manufactured most of the steam powered diggers used to dig the Panama Canal.
 

Paul n Dixie

Part of the furniture
A quick search states that this machine was in full working order in the early 2000's! and could be seen working in Biennial display! doesnt look like its a goer now :(
 

robbieb

Tassie Daddy
A quick search states that this machine was in full working order in the early 2000's! and could be seen working in Biennial display! doesnt look like its a goer now :(

The old blokes who knew how to operate it probably weren't goers any more themselves :(
 

goodie

...
Thanks for taking us there, nev.
Especially since it's not very likely that we'll be going there anytime soon.....
 
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