If Coonamble wasn’t remote then Quirindi, sitting just off the New England Highway north of Scone, is not exactly remote either. But it is a beautiful area, has some family history and also gave me the opportunity to catch up with some old friends.
Settled in the junction of the Quirindi and Jacob & Joseph Creek it’s about equidistant from Scone and Tamworth. Not far before the turn off to Quirindi is a sign showing the Great Dividing Range and at this point pretty much the water on one side of the road flows east and on the other side of the road it flows west. Will that change your life? No. But a fun fact nonetheless.
The rivers in Quirindi move westwards and they flow into the Namoi before making it to the Darling out near Bourke and eventually joins with the Murray on the border and drains into Lake Alexandria south east of Adelaide. Now I am not overly knowledgeable about the names of rivers but I am fascinated by them. I get blown away that the water that falls on the New England Highway will flow down to Quirindi and will eventually make it to Adelaide. If you ever look at the map of indigenous countries there are many smaller nations condensed around this river system, supporting the largest population of indigenous people along an inland river system prior to white settlement. That is because that river system was thriving with water and food. Those rivers are now far from their former glory which is such a shame but understandable in this day and age. If we want to feed a big population we need to mass produce agricultural products and these rivers are the enablers of that. Hopefully we can find a way in the future to have the rivers and the foods – how good would that be.
From an aesthetic perspective one of the nicest things that has happened in the country is the elaborate and amazing art work that adorn the large grain silos. The art is truly beautiful and really stands out in the fields. There is a fine example of this along the railway line in Quirindi where the art is impressive but they also project a light show on to the silos each night telling the story of the region. It probably rabbited on a bit long but it was a pretty nice exhibition.
In country towns, and I may have mentioned this before, there are museums that try to show past life of the area that you are visiting. However, there is often a very fine line between what some will call a museum caretaker and others would call a hoarder with a problem. I cannot say that about the two museums in Quirindi, they are both absolutely brilliant. First is the Quirindi Rural Heritage Village Museum and the other is Bob’s Shed. Both were fascinating insights of the history of the area but also the general history of Australia. Bob’s was really cool and had a couple of things that really appealed to me:
- A group of mobile phone models that I actually used back in the day ;
- A bunch of Johnson and Johnson products that I jokingly suggested sent me through private school and were enabling me to do what I am doing today ;
- A mocked up bar with only 5 tap beers, 3 of which were Tooheys – it was a simpler time ;
- A model train engine that I used to have as a kid ; and
- An impressive replica of Brockies Mobil 05 Holden touring car.
What hit me hard was the fact that all of these were things of my past. I am that old now that museums are where I would take my kids to show them life in my day. OMG that is sad LOL.
The landscape and bird life in this area are also quite breathtaking. I had a couple of really nice evenings in a bird hide on Quipolly Dam where I was able to see and photograph some beautiful birdlife, one of the most incredible sunsets and even a little turtle navigating its way across the dirt road around the dam. I think staying there a bit longer I would have found other wonderful things to shoot.
Quirindi is not far from Willow Tree, a little town on the New England Highway with 3 or 4 shops, a dozen or so houses and of course a pub. In such a small town one would expect an old rundown pub with 4 or 5 pissed locals propping up the bar and some poorly cooked pub food.
Not the Willow Tree Inn, not at all. They have the section for the regulars but out back they have a restaurant called Graze that is famous for its steak. And I can now say categorically and without exaggeration that the steak I had that day was THE best steak I have ever eaten. It was so divine. It nearly made me come out of wine drinking retirement because a nice big Shiraz would have gone down so well.
But what makes this towns little pub such a popular one? What makes this pub different from the ones I saw in Coonamble? All I can think is that it’s location is pretty good. It is not that far from Tamworth and Newcastle for people to go up and back for a day trip and it’s not a bad area for a weekender from Sydney and the mid north coast, so it gets a steady stream of punters. Secondly there is the “basic” part of the pub where the regular can go and still feel like it is their local. Finally, they have specialised with their steaks and they have got a top shelf chef up there to create those masterpieces that people are prepared to travel for.
A mark of how good this place is was the fact that while we were there a young guy chose to propose to his girlfriend there at the end of a long grassed area. Their extended family were all there but they were yakking away so much that they missed the whole thing. They were a lovely couple and the family were very stoked. I offered to take some photos of a re-enactment of the proposal and was so happy to be able to do so for them. They would be married now so I do hope they are doing well.
It is pretty obvious that as you move away from the large coastal cities of Sydney and Newcastle things change, things get tougher. But it has always been like though the toughness was different. Today, it is generally a net migration away from the town, less spending capability, less jobs, less services and some may say less opportunities. And when comparing country towns if yours is reasonably close to a large metro city then you have a huge advantage over the one further out. On a similar note I have long been a big advocate of incentivising universities to establish campuses in regional cities because if you look at the towns doing well all of them have a Uni and a Hospital. If you get these two things in your town you will be doing ok. Then if you establish a fast train from Sydney to Newcastle, Bathurst, Goulburn then you allow for bigger populations out of Sydney and in to those regional centres and closer to those small towns like Willow Creek and Quirindi and hopefully strengthen those towns and the towns beyond. Vote 1 D Colmer for PM lol.
I really enjoyed hanging out in Quirindi, there was a certain charm to it. I do hope it can turn around the little slump it is experiencing and grow to be a stronger rural town.
