Corryong and beyond

Well, we survived the windy night, which continued throughout the day. It rained a little, but not a huge amount. Spent Thursday morning hanging around the caravan, then ventured into Corryong after lunch. Visited the Man From Snowy River museum. Jack Riley is credited as the inspiration for Banjo Patterson's famous poem. Jack is buried in Corryong and the museum bears his name. The museum has very little to do with him though, but does have a wide collection of other bits and bobs.

This statue of Jack Riley is at the Corryong Visitor Info Centre. He is buried in the Corryong cemetery, having died in 1914. His tomb credits him to be 'The Man From Snowy River'. It was cold and windy at the cemetery so we made a hasty retreat for the warmth of the caravan. As evening drew close, the wind died down. This is the creek running past the caravan park late in the day.

 

Following yesterday's not so nice weather, today was a beauty. Blue skies, no wind. So we headed into NSW, through Khancoban which was purpose built for Snowy Hyrdro workers, and into Kosciuszko National Park. The Alpine Way was closed due to a rock slide, but we were able to get as far as Scammel's Lookout which gave us magnificent views of the Western side of the highest of Australia's Alps, covered in snow. Kosciuszko itself was not visible, hidden behind Abbots Peak apparently.

 

This truly was a magnificent view!

 

On the way back to Khancoban we stopped at the Murray 1 Hydro Power Station, part of the engineering marvel that makes up the Snowy Mountain Scheme, built in the late 60's and early 70's. It was interesting learning some of the history and how it all came about. Work Place safety has come along way in those 40 years, judging by some of what we saw. It's hard to imagine the greenies would ever allow such a project these days as well. Even though this is 'clean power generation'. The water that turns the turbines at Murray 1 powers 3 separate power stations, before being released for irrigation - sure beats burning brown coal!

 

 

Back at the caravan park, we did many laps of the park - one lap is a 600 metre circuit!

 

Saturday saw us at the Corryong 7th Annual Vintage Machine Rally. We saw a tractor pull competition, old cars, old trucks and heaps of stationary steam motors in action. Co-incidentally, while watching the tractor pull, Ethan lost a tooth. He'd been on about it for days. Perhaps the thought of a tractor pulling it out was the final straw!

 

Here's a 'Hubcap Portrait'!

Back at the caravan park, we watched the grand final out under the awning, even though it was quite cool and breezy. The kids enjoyed making rock towers and other creations down at the creek. This is Zac's version of Fred Flintstone's house...