2 November 2016 - Around Goondiwindi

Today we toured Goondiwindi (pronounced Gundiwindi) and found some time to have lunch at the Victoria Hotel.  Goondiwindi is a country town on the Macintyre River, which forms the border between NSW and Queensland and is also at the meeting place of six major highways, Barwon, Leichhardt, Gore, Cunningham, Bruxner and Newell.  It had 10,628 residents in the 2011 census and is the centre for major grazing, dryland farming and irrigation producers.  Cotton is one of its major products.

During the day we visited the Town Centre for some retail therapy and an excellent lunch at the Victoria Hotel, the Natural Heritage Water Park, the Gunsynd Statue, the new (1911) bridge over the Macintyre, the Tree of Knowledge and the Botanical Gardens. 

021116 Main Street of Goondiwindi

021116 Lunch at the Victoria Hotel.  We felt like a steak

021116 Flame tree in the Goondiwindi Town Centre

021116 The famous Victoria Hotel in Goondiwindi

021116 Bougainvillia near the Town
Centre - very prolific out west

021116 The heading says it all.  This Lake provides a
3.3km course for water skiing competitions

021116 Mum, Dad and the kids at the water park.
Note the tree roots in the background, suggesting
the water level has been much higher in the past

021116 "The Beach" at the Water Park

021116 The monument to the famous race horse, Gunsynd,
 on the banks of the Macintyre River

021116 Gunsynd's  performance over fours years

02116 Crossing the Macintyre - old and new.  Note the marks
of the various flood peaks below the picture - worst in 2011

021116 The "new" bridge over the Macintyre R,
 built in 1914, and showing marker for river heights

021116 The "new" bridge over the Macintyre R, built in 1914

021116 Self explanatory

021116 The Tree of Knowledge - not to be confused
with the one at Barcaldine

021116 What is left of the corrugated iron sign
nailed to the tree by Naomi Rackham

021116 A lonely pelican on the lake at Goondiwindi's
Botanical Gardens

The Macintyre is very important to Goondiwindi and has been a source of joy and heartbreak to its residents.  Key is its propensity to flood and it was not until 1956 that a levee system was constructed.

021116 A photograph of the Macintyre in flood

021116 Sign explaining the relationship between the
Dumaresque, Macintyre, Barwon and Darling Rivers

021116 Plaque for the design of Goondiwindi's levee system

The plaque reads:

"In 1956, Edward Vernon Redmond, Engineer to Goondiwindi Council, submitted a flood prevention scheme for the town.  He and his foreman Bill McNulty, had surveyed the floods by boat, marking the heights on trees.  The levee banks that he designed have saved Goondiwindi from major flooding ever since".

One never ceases to be amazed at nature's beauty as evidenced by the photograph of some stunningly striking, sun-drenched strelitizia (nicolia) flowers - love alliteration. Seconds later, nature added more to the scene.

021116 Strelitzia nicolai flowers outside our caravan door

021116 Strelitzia nicolai flowers outside our
caravan door, up close

021116 And then came ....... nature at its best

We will remember Goondiwindi well.