Schouten Island, Tasmania Australia

The holiday over in 2017 so what will I blog about now! 
Often we travel to various places in Tasmania, sometimes in the caravan other times in the car for the day - so surly I would have photos to share of this magic Island called Tasmania, Australia my home Island.

Great Oyster Bay at Swansea on the East Coast of Tasmania.

That island is Schouten Island, the highest point Mt. Story is 400m high (1,300 ft).
In 1642 whilst surveying the area Abel Tasman (Dutch explorer) named it Schouten Island after Joost Schouten, a member of the Council of the Dutch East India Company.

Station Pier, Victoria.

Plenty of time as we arrived in the Melbourne area passing the Footscray Hockey Centre and the highway to Station Pier, Port Melbourne.

Bass Strait.

Ready and waiting to drive along the pier to board the Spirit of Tasmania to home the next morning.

Bendigo, Victoria

On our way home I wanted to call into Bendigo Woollen Mills to buy some yarn for crocheting - I did :) and had a lovely time.
Bendigo is a city in Victoria and was a gold rush city in 1850's. The city has some beautiful buildings but hard to find a park to take photos.  However the Catholic Church is a Cathedral up on a big hill and I've put some photos of the inside of the Cathedral taken a few years ago.

Echuca, Victoria

 I was saying in my last post how photos of the Murray River at Echuca were hard to acquire, but several years ago things were different in Echuca so hence these two photos from back then.

The first is the Murray River, the second a bit of bush behind the Caravan Park we stayed in - remember we went for a walk.

Echuca, Victoria

Echuca is in the State of Victoria.  It's across the Murray River from the town of Moama, in NSW.
Paddle steamers depart near the Port of Echuca Discovery Centre, which ias exhibits on the 19th-century river trade, plus part of the original Echuca Wharf.

It's a busy place and hard to find a park but finally we did only being able to take a few photos.
The second photo is the only one I could get of the Murray River at Echuca.

Echuca was founded by one of the most enterprising characters of the early colonial days, an ex-convict named Henry Hopwood.  In 1850 he bought a small punt which operated across the Murray river near the Campaspe junction.  The relatively small settlement known as 'Hopwood's Ferry" became Echuca as the town grew.
Wikipedia.

Jerilderie, NSW and the Black Swan also Deniliquin, NSW

Jerilderie is a country town of just over 1,000 people, it's an irrigated farming centre, and the area produces a quarter of all tomatoes grown in Australia.  Rice is grown, wheat, canola, mung, soybeans, onions, liquorice, grapes - sheep and cattle farms.

The windmill below is a steel framed one with fan which turns to the wind between a bearing at the bottom and a swivel at the top, all supported by guy-wires.  The fully restored windmill, there are only two known working examples in the world, are unique because their fan is contained and spins within the fully pivoting frame. Produced by the Steel Wings Company in North Sydney between 1907 and 1911 with only six models ever erected.
Jerilderie windmill stands 17 meters (56 ft) high with a 9-metre (30 ft) fan.
Some of the text taken from Wikipedia.

Some photos below taken of the lake and another area in Jerilderie as we drove through the town - of course stopping to take photos.

Below Waring Gardens in Deniliquin, NSW taken from the bridge.

You can see where Jerilderie NSW is on the map, below is Farm-ily's blog as the farm is in the State of Victoria. Finely, Tocumwal, to the left and south is Echuca, Victoria where we were headed in winter 2017 -  getting closer to home.

Wellington, NSW, around town.

A few photos in Wellington, NSW.  Some businesses are closed as in gone by the wayside, others are doing alright.  Coles is the local Supermarket.
The Pub on the corner and the Railway Station is the long building.
The last 3 photos - the Catholic School and Church.

Cameron Park, Wellington NSW

Cameron Park in the centre of Wellington for us was a great place to have a picnic which we did.
There were plenty of locals there around lunch time but were gone when I took these photos.

The War Memorial with all the names of the people in the district that were killed during the Wars.

Wellington, NSW

Mentioned Wellington NSW a few post back.  Whilst there in Winter 2017 I decided to have my hair cut short!  Found a hairdresser who had time to do it same day as I decided to have it cut short - the lady did a beautiful job. Haven't got a photo.  Have had the bob cut for several years it was time for a change.

Wellington was established in 1823 and was an agricultural station.  Squatters started settling along the Macquarie River and in 1832 a Church Missionary was established in the settlement to teach Christianity to the Aboriginal people of the area.   It took till 1885 for Wellington to be proclaimed a town.
Wellington is the second oldest NSW (New South Wales) settlement west of the Blue Mountains.
The town benefited by the development of the gold mining industry in the district from the 1850's.
These days the area of Wellington is the centre of rich agricultural land. While alfalfa and vegetables are grown on lands on the river, wheat, wool, lambs and beef cattle are grown on surrounding pastures.

Also not far from Wellington is the Macquarie Correctional Centre which opened in 2008.  A Probation and Parole Office was also opened in the centre of town.  Maximum security inmates are adjacent to the Correctional Centre.

Wellington is 354km north-west of Sydney.

The Prison was some distance from the road - and the photos are a bit far away but you get the idea.

At Coonabarabran, NSW

After we left Tamworth we headed to Coonabarabran, NSW for a couple of nights.  The town is in the hills and gets rather cold in winter, but the day we were there is was 35degC, yes, winter 2017.
Have been several times before to this lovely town, taken many photos in the past this time I took houses.
The Warrumbungle Rangers are near by plus there are Telescopes scattered around the hills and a Astronomical Observatory which you can see [here] from a visit we did in 2013.

This visit we had Chinese at the Restaurant which is associated to one in Sydney.

This is part of the main street which is also the Highway, there are not that many shops here the nearest town or city is some distance away.

The Catholic Presbytery.

A Hall

This building is need of some tender loving care.

Wide streets.

The above and below photos were taken as we were driving past, so they may not be as clear as they should be.  I'm not one for stopping in a street getting out of the moving vehicle and pointing the camera at a house, unless it's really necessary.

The map below, still some distance from Devonport in Tasmania.  You can see Bendigo just above Melbourne on the left, this is where we were headed after Wellington NSW.