We continued our journey eastward today for 220 km, passing through Gravesend, Warialda and Inverell before reaching our destination, Glen Innes. We did a quick drive around Moree before we left to check out the Mehi River. We did find they had put flags out in the main street to celebrate our visit, or maybe it was for the approaching Christmas.
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| 021214 The Mehi River at Moree |
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021214 The flags had gone up in the main street of Maree
after our arrival the day before |
About 15km out of Moree we passed by Australia's largest pecan nut orchard owned by Stahmann Farm Enterprises. This is their main orchard but they do have one in Gatton. We never knew the trees were so large.
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021214 Pecan nut trees at the Stahmann orchard east of Maree
on the Gwydir Highway |
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| 021214 Pecan nut trees in Stahmann's orchard east of Moree |
Gravesend is a village housing about 275 people and is near the Gwydir River. Gravesend was the site of a research station breeding Cactoblastis moths later released to eradicate devastating prickly pear infestations. The Gnome wasn't interested in that. He was only concerned about not falling off the Gravesend sign.
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021214 The Gnome at home? This is the sign of the now unused railway
station at, you guessed it, Gravesend |
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| 021214 The Gwydir River near Gravesend |
Warialda is on the Warialda Creek and it is a centre for the local grazing and broadacre farming industries. Its name means "place of wild honey". It has a population of about 1100.
Inverell is situated on the Macintyre River. It is also the centre of Inverell Shire and is located on the western slopes of the New England Tableland. The population of Inverell is around 9500.
As we drove down the range to Inverell, nestling in the valley below us, we passed Bindarri Beef's abbatoirs. It was quite large. Near Glen Innes we passed a mob of cattle in the "long paddock" and we could only guess they were on their way to the abattoirs. There was plenty of green fodder in the long paddock and our thoughts turned to the cattle we had seen a few hundred kilometres to the west, barely able to find food to eat.
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| 021214 Bindarri Beef's Inverell abbatoirs |
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021214 Cattle in the "long paddock" near Glen Innes.
There were hundreds more |
We did observe a progressive change in the countryside as we approached Inverell. Some mountains appeared, there was water in some the creeks and there were patches of green, something of which we hadn't seen much over the last couple of weeks.
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| 021214 Pretty good country near Inverell |
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| 021214 Maize in the foreground, wheat in the background near Inverell |
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| 021214 Approaching Glen Innes. Green again |
When we saw poplars and weeping willows we knew we had arrived at the New England Tableland and it was not long before we were in Glen Innes. Glen Innes is about 1100 metres above sea level and it was to our pleasure that the temperature dropped from the mid thirties to 25 degrees by the time we had arrived. It is quite large, with a population of around 5200 and is a regional centre for the surrounding industries of grazing, sheep and cattle. Sapphires are mined in creeks and valleys to the west of the town. It is a picturesque town given that its climate allows poplars, weeping willows, fir, liquid amber, ash, elm, silver birch et al to proliferate. In springtime the rhododenrons and azaleas are prolific.
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| 021214 Poplars and weeping willows, yes we are on the New England Tableland |
We are now in familiar territory so we must be getting close to home.
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