I have done this circular walk a number of times and prefer doing it in an anti-clockwise direction, contrary to the recommended (signposted) route. Don’t worry you won’t get lost and it’s a great walk in either direction, I just prefer to walk the longer, less steep, downhill section first-up with a shorter steeper finish.
Continue reading “London Bridge Walk – via London Bridge Homestead”
London Bridge, Googong – Walk via Drawdown Crossing
It is amazing to think that millions of years ago, around 420 million to be more precise, the London Bridge, Googong area was part of the ocean floor. As the ocean receded the arch, which would become known as the London Bridge Arch, slowly formed by water leaching through the fossiliferous limestone, enlarging cracks, until a passage big enough to let the Burra Creek through was created. The arch reached its present form about 20,000 years ago.
Continue reading “London Bridge, Googong – Walk via Drawdown Crossing”
St Andrew’s – An insurance write-off?
Recently on a trip back to Canberra from Goulburn I decided to forgo the main Hume Highway and take the much more scenic rural route – Tourist Route 8 via Bungendore. About 10 kilometres out of Goulburn the sandstone and rubblestone church pictured above caught my eye. I took a slight detour (a few hundred metres) off the main Braidwood road for a closer inspection.
The Towrang Stockade and the Great South Road
When Messers Hume and Meehan visited the Goulburn area, the first Europeans to properly explore the area and see its potential, in 1818 they certainly did not do the trip from Sydney in two hours, along to-day’s multi-lane Hume Highway which connects Sydney to Melbourne via Goulburn. Rather, they would have travelled across country on horseback and on foot, if lucky along Aboriginal tracks. The 200kms trip would have taken many days, if not weeks, through a heavily, and almost impenetrable, forested area covered with Bargo brush. Continue reading “The Towrang Stockade and the Great South Road”
Goulburn as a Rest Stop along the Hume Highway
Goulburn is just over two hours drive from Sydney and about an hour from Canberra. Alas, it is all to often seen as only a convenient rest stop en route from Sydney to anywhere on the southern part of the Australian land mass, though most typically Melbourne, Canberra or Adelaide. Continue reading “Goulburn as a Rest Stop along the Hume Highway”
Art and Culture in Goulburn
Most people visit Goulburn for its history and the serenity of this country town, large enough to be blessed with decent cafes and dining options. Indeed, people who have been to Goulburn may raise an eyebrow on seeing the title of this review and determine that it will be one of my shorter posts. Continue reading “Art and Culture in Goulburn”
Other Civic and Private Buildings in Goulburn
I have written a number of posts on individual buildings in Goulburn.
This post is a compendium review on a number of other civic and privately constructed buildings in the city that I find particularly interesting. It is by no means intended to be fully inclusive and there are many other beautiful buildings for the visitor to explore on their own account – the statuary in my main picture above adorns one such building, the former Australian Mutual Provident Society on Auburn Street. The centre of the city is small so just park your vehicle and go for a wander. Continue reading “Other Civic and Private Buildings in Goulburn”
Goulburn Historic Waterworks Museum
The museum is located in the original Waterworks building on the banks of the Wollondilly River, at Marsden Weir. In addition to the museum providing an insight into the history of Goulburn’s water supply, the surrounding park area is a lovely location to enjoy a picnic and/ or a walk along the river. ‘Steaming days’ on which the original water pump can be seen in operation are held on an irregular basis (about six times per year) and an annual Steampunk Victoriana Fair weekend is held here, annually in October. Continue reading “Goulburn Historic Waterworks Museum”
Sherwood Homestead (Former) Walk via Mountain Creek Road (Plus)
There are three official walking tracks to the former Sherwood Homestead, about 35 kilometres drive from Canberra. I have written separate reviews on the other two – from Blue Range Hut (the most popular approach) and from East-West Road (the easiest). This review covers the walk from Mountain Creek Road but as I could not resist the temptation to take in two peaks in the vicinity of the former homestead the 8.4 kilometres official walk increased to 11 kilometres and became somewhat more difficult, on the huffing and puffing scale.
Continue reading “Sherwood Homestead (Former) Walk via Mountain Creek Road (Plus)”
Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre
Based on a quick look at my main picture above you could be forgiven if you thought this review might be about a sports arena of some sort. What we actually see here is a Railway Roundhouse, in fact the largest one in New South Wales. Continue reading “Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre”
The Rambling Wombat 