June 2022

Good Idea: Explore a new part of New South Wales for the long weekend

Bad Idea: Head inland when it’s June in New South Wales

We decided to head inland to the Central Tablelands during the June long weekend. Karen and Cillian had never been before while John had been once when his dad had visited in 2019.

It was a 4 hour drive to Orange from our home in Sydney so we planned our trip so that we could stop at Wentworth Falls. We had stopped here on a previous journey to the Blue Mountains and it’s a great little spot. The village has a number of cafes and restaurants but the piece de la resistance is the lakeside park. There is a great little food van, electric BBQ spots, two big playgrounds and a nice walk around the lake and the dam.

After our lunchtime stop it was down the other side of the mountains, past Lithgow and then Bathurst and then before we knew it we were arriving in the outskirts of Orange.

Blackman’s Swamp

In the 1820s British Captain Percy Simpson arrived in the area and established a convict settlement called ‘Blackman’s Swamp’ after his guide – James Blackman. Between 1829 and 1844 a number of graziers migrated to the region and it was decided by surveyors that a village was to be established. Sir Thomas Mitchell was tasked with picking the spot and naming it. Having been an associate of the Prince of Orange in the Peninsular War (they were both aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington) he decided to honour his friend and Blackman’s Swamp became the town of Orange.

The town saw an initial surge in population growth thanks the discovery of gold at nearby Ophir and as conditions were well suited for agriculture it continued to grow. Today the gold has run dry but Orange is a major centre for wine making, vegetable and fruit farming. A train line linking to Sydney (via the Blue Mountains) was completed in 1877.

A real sliding doors moment occurred when Orange was proposed as a site for the Australian national capital city – ultimately losing out to Canberra.

A Country Practice

We were deep into the Australian Autumn so the whole town was awash with red, gold and brown leaves – on trees and on the ground. It was also freezing! We made the mistake the first morning of walking a couple of blocks to the Farmer’s Market at the nearby Showgrounds. Luckily Cillian was dressed up like an Eskimo with a big jacket and boots and snuggled under a rug in his buggy.

The market was great, good selection of hot food vendors, coffee kiosks and the usual assortment of meat and fruit and veg. We bought some curry pastes from a pair of Vietnamese ladies before getting some sausage sizzles and a hot drink to warm us up.

After the market we walked into the town centre and popped into the Orange Regional Museum. Built in 2016 it is an impressive building that contains a decent cafe, tourist information centre and a small museum. There was a pop-up exhibition called ‘How Cities Work’ based on the phenomenal artwork and imagination of James Gulliver Hancock. Cillian loved it as they had construction costumes, a play area, arts and craft and plenty of things to explore.

Golden Brown

We had an midday tasting booked in at Nashdale Wines, a small but very stylish winery to the west of the town. We listed it as our fifth best winery to visit in Australia. The cellar door is stylish with 3 sides covered in big windows so you can look out at the vines as you sip on your wine. You can even stay there now as some glamping tents have been put up.

Afterwards we visited Lake Canobolas. As Cillian enjoyed an afternoon nap in the car, Karen popped out to the cafe and grabbed some sandwiches. By the time that the Prince was awake the weather had cleared so we jumped out of the car to explore the area.

Originally this man-made lake supplied drinking water to Orange but since 1970 it is solely used for recreation. Sat on 103 acres and below the volcanic Mount Canobolas, this nature reserve was awash with trees and yellow leaves everywhere. It had a number of lakeside pathways, plenty of ducks for Cillian to chase and a playground with a massive flying fox.

Step back in Time.

We spent our sunday exploring the villages that surrounded Orange – starting with the very picturesque Millthorpe – located to the south of the city.

It’s a compact, historic town, classified by the National Trust and contains a number of antique buildings. It has a number of wine bars and fancy restaurants that combined with a couple of hotels would be a great place for an intimate weekend. It also had some gift shops and a cracking museum – making it a great place for a toddler just the same.

It’s always had it roots in agriculture, growing significantly in 1870 with the onset of rail travel and the construction of a large flour mill in 1882. Ironically the town’s decline after World War 1 spared it from serious redevelopment and so today it looks as it did all those years ago.

Nothing less than the Monochrome setting on the camera would do!

And here is how it looks in technicolour…

The museum – the Golden Memories Millthorpe Museum – was fantastic. Spread across 8 buildings and a large footprint it had everything from tractors to old fashioned radio equipment and everything in between. One of the buildings is given over to a collection and timeline of Australian inventions.

After the museum we needed to go on a nap-drive. This is where we drive for around an hour or two so Cillian can fall asleep. On this occasion we drove back from Millthorpe – straight though Orange and then up to another town called Molong.

Located 30km north of Orange and on the main roads to Dubbo and Parkes the town of Molong owes its continues existence due to a nearby copper mine and as as service centre for the nearby farms of Cabonne County. We just stopped for a little bit as we had a booking in the afternoon but it was quite cute.

After driving back from Molong we headed to a winery called the Heifer Station. A cellar door that was almost turned into a cattle farm until the new owners realised the farm was on some of the richest soil in the Orange region. The first vintage came out in 2012 and they have not looked back since then. In 2016 they opened their cellar door in a 100 year old wool shed.

We really enjoyed the food, some wine and most importantly all the farm animals on site.

Switching Tracks

After enjoying an amazing winter weekend in Orange it was time to head back home.

We don’t like travel days. Long periods of time in the car and heading back to Metropolis (Sydney) and all its traffic.

So we always try and tack on a fun stop along the way.

This time we would be stopping in Bathurst and visiting the Bathurst Rail Museum. it is a monument to the transformative power of rail travel – how it opened up these regions and connecting them to Sydney and the world beyond. Housed in the Railway Institute building it has a museum and a model railway the size of a tennis court. It also has the world’s largest permanent Brio toy train layout. Cillian spent the mid morning running around and chasing the moving trains, shouting choo-choo and enjoying the Kids Central Space. We had some lunch in the cafe and managed to blag a seat on the train – a carriage converted into dining space outside the front entrance.

Cannot recommend this museum enough for little ones.