Blog 4 – “Bound for South Australia” – January 2008

Example of scenery from Flinder Ranges, en-route to Hawker for supplies

Happy New Year everyone!
Our previous blog finished as we left Louth, on the Darling River in New South Wales.  From there we followed the Darling downstream as it meandered past Tilpa to Wilcannia, then departed the river, heading west to Broken Hill for a few days.

At last, and with a sense of relief, because we, and no doubt some of our family and friends, were starting to wonder whether we would ever leave NSW, we headed further west and crossed the border into South Australia. (more…)

Blog 3 Supplement – The Story of T.A. Mathews & The Monument of Louth, NSW

The monument at sunset.

The following article was inspired by the CD “Firestone” by Tonchi McIntosh and Andrew Hull and the present-day people of Louth.  The material is derived largely from a paper written by John Huggins following the “Back to Louth” Reunion of 1985.  It also draws on discussions with Wally Mitchell, a long time resident of Louth, and material and articles provided by Shindy’s Inn. Information concerning the fate of the ship “The Great Britain” was sourced from Wikipedia.

Our experiences of Louth have been constantly blessed by a sense both of serendipity and synchronicity.  Time and again we’ve had chance encounters with people connected to the story of Louth.  The latest occurred as I prepared to upload my photos of the Louth monument, to this site.  With perfect timing, we received a kind message from Sue Huggins, a complete stranger to us, but whose research had gone into her husband John’s booklet, which formed the basis of most of the following information.  John is a direct descendant of TA and Mary Mathews.  Sue has been most generous in providing us with some early family photos, sketches and letters relating to this fascinating story about some of our pioneers.  Thanks Sue for your help, generosity and very kind words of encouragement.

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Blog 3 – Outback NSW, here we come! – December 2007

View of Breadknife formation from Grand High Tops - Warrumbungles

Hello everyone.  We are sitting in our camper trailer on a cool day, writing to you from the Red Banks Conservation Park in South Australia, near Burra. It is trying desperately to rain, but so far not with any great success.  Rain would be somehow appropriate, because it was while sheltering from torrential rain at the Warrumbungles that we wrote our last blog entry.

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Blog 2 – South Eastern Queensland, then we return to NSW – October 2007

Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby,  Crows Nest Ntl Pk, QLD

We’re not quite sure what happened.  We had great intentions of updating the blog more regularly after a belated first entry.  Then we blinked, and somehow nearly two months had passed!

So, where do we start.  We are writing this entry in the Warrumbungle National Park after a day of torrential rain, with rivulets running through our campsite and at times our living area. This was  followed, thankfully, by late afternoon sunshine that revealed sparkling clifftops through shrouds of mist.  But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

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Blog 1 – Our Journey Begins – July 2007

Sunset on Ridge Walk, Mutawintji Ntl Pk, NSWOur first bush campsite in our Adventure Camper Trailer, at Cocoparra National Park NSW.

We’ve been on the road now for 5 weeks and felt it about time to give everyone some news about our adventures.  After a pressing time to get away from Canberra, packing and storing the house contents, re-housing our cats, finishing work, etc, etc we finally got on the road.  We were overwhelmed by the level of support we received from our family and friends before our trip and have appreciated your emails and SMS’s on our travels.  It is always great to hear from home.

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