Cootamundra, NSW

What another delightful town in southern NSW.  Population of approx. 6,000 people is the birth place of Sir Donald Bradman a renowned Cricketer of his time as a batsman.

1860 - 1862 many people settled in the town as it was the Gold Rush time, agriculture also became the thing after the mines were depleted.

The morning temperature was -7 degC for the two mornings we stayed in Cootamundra with beautiful sunny crisp days.

Sir Donald Bradman's birthplace.

Avenue of busts of Australian Cricket Captains.

Train Station and Post Office in Cootamundra

The old hospital, don't know what it's used for these days.

Caravan Park below

Henty, NSW

We drove over the NSW border to a rest area and small town called Henty.
This sign was at the rest area plus the sculpture.
If you click on 'The Henty Man it will be larger so you can read it if you wish.

The first European explorer to visit and record the area was Major Thomas Mitchell in 1835. The first settlers arrived around 1850 were squatters, allowed to lease crown land. The area was known as 'Dudal Comer', Aboriginal for 'Sweet Water', with the first property station taking this name.

The village of Henty was originally called Doodle Cooma. Nearby wetlands are still called Doodle Cooma Swamp; they cover 20 square kilometres and are a breeding area for water birds.

The post office changed it's name in 11886 as the railway station's name was thought to be confused with Cooma in the Monaro district.  The town's new name was after the Henty family of Portland, Victoria and Launceston, Tasmania.  Henry Henty has leased Round Hill station north of Gerogery (south of Henty) in the early 1860s (some suggest the lessor was Edward Henty).

Amazing when researching how connections fit - I live in Launceston Tasmania and here it's mentioned about Henty.

Typical of some rest areas the sheltered table and chairs.

Old Machinery to look at if you wish to stop.

Seeing as we didn't know where we wanted to go we took the left turn to Junee, and Wagga Wagga.

Lake Hume, Bethanga Victoria.

What a great find was this lake,  Lake Hume.  Grounds are well looked after, there are picnic tables and seats scattered about.  The weather was pleasant with a crisp chill in the air - this winter on our holiday.

The dam is a mix of a concrete gravity dam with four earth embankments. The dam wall height is 51 metres (167 ft) and the crest is 1,615 metres (5,299 ft) long with the auxiliary embankments extending a further 1,010 metres (3,310 ft). The maximum water depth is 40 metres (130 ft) and at 100% capacity the dam wall holds back 3,005,157 megalitres (106,126.1×10⁶ cu ft) of water at 192 metres (630 ft) AHD. The surface area of Lake Hume is 20,190 hectares (49,900 acres) and the catchment area is 15,300 square kilometres (5,900 sq mi). The dam wall is constructed of rock covered with clay and other earth and is designed to carry vehicular traffic. A controlled concrete spillway that comprises a gated concrete overflow, with twenty-nine vertical undershot gates, is capable of discharging 7,929 cubic metres per second (280,000 cu ft/s).

The dam wall was extended during the 1950s, and completed in 1961, necessitating the wholesale removal of Tallangatta township and its re-establishment at a new site 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of the original, as well as railway and road diversions. Monitoring of the dam in the early 1990s revealed that the water pressure and leakage had caused the dam to move on its foundations slightly, leading to concerns that the dam was heading for collapse, threatening Albury-Wodonga and the entire Murray basin. Authorities denied any short-term threat.

Traffic was banned from the spillway, and remedial work commenced involving, in part, the construction of a secondary earth wall behind the original to take the strain. Further upgrades to the dam at an estimated cost of A$60 million commenced in 2010 and are due for completion in 2015. These works include the installation of an improved filter and drainage system on the junction between the concrete spillway and southern embankment, construction of a concrete buttress on the southern training wall, and possible modifications to improve the ability of the dam to manage extreme floods.

Wikipedia

The lake is stocked with fish.  Most of these are introduced species - carp, redfin and trout though native species such as Golden Perch and Murray Cod can also be found.  The fishing varies from year to year.
It is also popular for water skiing, and several holiday resorts catering for fishing and skiers are dotted around the upper reaches of the lake.  An annual Canoe marathon race the 'Frank Harrison Classic' is run on the river beginning below the dam each February and attracts competitors from across Australia.
Wikipedia

The Hume Power Station is a 58 megawatts (78,000 hp) hydro-electric power station installed in the dam wall, and is primarily used for peak-load generation. The station has an average annual output of 220 gigawatt-hours (790 TJ). The power station comprises two 29 megawatts (39,000 hp) turbines and is operated by Eraring Energy. In October 2012, a high voltage transformer at the power station caught fire, requiring more than fifty fire fighters who worked into the long hours of the night to put out the blaze.

The power station was completed in 1957, running two 25 megawatts (34,000 hp) turbines. In 2000, these turbines were each upgraded to 29 megawatts (39,000 hp).
Wikipedia

View across the lake

Wodonga, Victoria.

Been a very busy time since arriving home from our long holiday.
Youngest son has come home to live for awhile plus his 3 little ones come and stay here a couple of times a week 2 nights at a time, that makes 4 extra in the house - but it's good fun for us even though much more work is involved it keeps us busy.

Whilst we were away two of my Aunties passed over to the other side, one was nearly 99 the other was 82, both my late mother's sisters mum being in the middle.
Then two other friends died whilst we were away.

Yesterday being Sunday we went to Hobart for the day and had High Tea at Claremont House at Claremont just before you get to the city of Hobart.  Both Aunties had private funerals.
So now all my Aunties and Uncles have departed this world - I'm the next generation but we won't go into that!  :)

Below is Claremont house - photo borrowed.

Another thing that happened and of course not as bad as the above was one of my external Hard Drives decided not to work thus loosing everything, today good news, plugged it back in and all this working so I'm doing a backup!  Always pays to just incase.

Back to holiday.

On June 29, 2017 we headed to Wodonga for 2 nights.  Still cold we had to buy another portable heater as the one we had went bung! The new one wasn't real good either and has since been returned and money refunded.
Bought another blanket as forget to bring the one from home which was the only thing we had forgotten to take.

Wodonga, Victoria itself is not far from the NSW (New South Wales border) with the city of Albury being a twin city in NSW.  Wodonga has about 38, 600 people and Albury about 90,000 people.

Whilst in Wodonga we went to Huons lookout with it's rather pleasant views of Soldiers quarters and a small area of Hume Lake.

'Major secondary industries based in Wodonga include a logistics distributions hub (LOGIC), a large cattle market, a pet food factory (Mars Corporation), a can factory (Visy), a cardboard box factory (Visy Board), a hydraulic hose manufacturer, an abattoir, and a foundry Bradken Limited as well as a variety of other, smaller enterprises. It also serves as a central point for the delivery of government services to the surrounding region.

Australian Army logistics base and a training centre for Army technical apprentices, the  Army Logistic Training Centre, which is based at Latchford Barracks and Gaza Ridge Barracks. It is also the home of a campus of La Trobe University and Wodonga Institute of TAFE.'
Wikipedia.

On the drive up to the lookout this cow posed for the camera.

Benalla, Victoria

The last time we visited Benalla, Victoria was in 2014 and prior 2012,  I wanted to take a photo of the Catholic Church, so hence I did about 15 minutes before Mass began in 2014, this time we drove past Benalla. Repost of the Church.

St. Joseph's Church was built in 1908, with various internals added over the years including the pipe organ which I didn't get the chance to take a photo of.

Colonel Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, AC, CMG, OBE was an Australian surgeon who was renowned for his leadership while being held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II.
This statue is to Honour him.

More Euroa, Victoria

Up Mt. Wombat in the High Country at Strathbogie (population about 309 people) to see the view, trees are nice but cloud the view.

The North Eastern Hotel was once a beautiful building.  The owner who lives in the building refuses to maintain it.  Apparently on the corner of the building is the Pub which is beautiful inside so we were told.

Below photo is the back of the Hotel.

The RSL Have several statues of their late towns men who fought in the War.

This tree below is near by in the park.

The bridge that goes over the Seven Creeks.

The Weir down the other end.

The weir across Seven Creeks at Euroa formed the pre-Olympic swimming pool for the town. Pre-Olympic swimming pools in Victoria are those that were replaced by standard 8-lane, chlorinated 50 metre Olympic swimming pools in the swimming pool funding spree leading up to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. 

Euroa, Victoria.

Continuing Euroa - yes there is a lot to see.

The pathway to the Train Station plus the station.

The above is Australian Coat of Arms.  These are on the brick wall as one walks through the tunnel to the train station.

Don't know what this building was used for, maybe a bank in years gone by but now it appears someone lives there, probably divided into flats.

The Post Office of Euroa.

Euroa, Victoria

We so liked Euroa in Victoria where we stayed for a couple of nights.
Walking down the street with camera in hand a man stopped us it turned out he was one of the Councillors of the town.  Great talking to him with all his knowledge of the town.

Major T.L. Mitchell camped on the banks of the Seven Creeks at Euroa during his 1836 "Australia Felix" expedition.  The Major Mitchell Parrots are named after him.

Euroa's claim to fame is that the National Bank was robbed by Ned Kelly (notorious bush ranger) in 1878. Much of the region's wealth once came from sheep but now it comes from horse studs.

The Euroa Hotel was built without the verandah by George Sutherland in 1884 in Railway Street. The style is an adaptation of Queen Anne work suitable for a country hotel, the architects being the then well-known to Euroa Tappin, Gilbert and Dennehy. C.L. Boos’s weatherboard North Eastern Hotel was previously on the same site. The new brick building was claimed to be the best of its kind outside Melbourne. It is an important part of the group of red-brick building facing the railways in this part of the town. Taken from Heritage - Euroa

This building was the residence of the Pharmacist years ago with his Chemist shop attached.

Part of the main street.

The above building is a Nursery, one would think they would fix the old building.

The sign on the Heritage walk and the newer building below where the old bank was that was robbed by Ned Kelly.