01-19-2020: A Visit to Mudgee

We went to church at St. Malachy’s this morning. Father Owen was quite thrilled that he had visitors from America. He said we had traveled the farthest ever to hear his homily. He had the congregation applaud in greeting. Upon leaving and shaking hands with Father Owen, he invited himself to Margaret’s for a cuppa. He was quite interested to know how everyone was related and asked a lot of questions about Malta and how the family got to America and Australia. Margaret said that was his modus operandi in inviting himself into the homes of parishioners after the service for a cuppa.

We then went back to Rylstone to visit the Cottage Museum, which is only open on Sundays. The building had been moved to its current location, totally renovated, and now houses a lovely little museum and the historic district office. There was a nice collection of old photos and items showing the history of Rylstone. I was quite impressed with the actual interior size of the cottage. There was one large room, kitchen and a smaller room that likely served as a bedroom. Another small room served as the office. The ceilings are very high, giving the rooms a large feeling. It didn’t appear that large from the outside.

The Cottage Museum

After the museum, we drove to Lue where there is a bonsai studio. Unfortunately, it was closed. We then decided to drive to Mudgee for a late lunch. The drive is about 55 km from Rylstone to Mudgee, but the drive was interesting and beautiful, albeit brown and parched.

Map of the Rylstone, Kandos and M

This area is of great pastures, stands of timber, rolling hills and encircled by mountains in the distance. The current biggest industry is wine production. As we got closer to Mudgee we saw lots of green vineyards and huge fields of hay that were green due to large irrigation systems. The contrast of the brown pastures to the bright green hay fields was quite eye-popping. Also, the location is in a river valley, the Cudgegong River, and so the area is quite fertile.

Mudgee is a lovely town of about 12,000 people. It got going with the first English settlers arriving in the 1820s. The town was formed around 1850. Shortly after its founding there was a population explosion due to a gold rush. Gold was discovered near Mudgee and the town became a mining town, providing lodging and supplies to people who arrived to strike it rich. Other mining was also done, predominantly coal. In addition to mining and wine production, the agriculture of the area is of cattle, sheep, wheat, alfalfa, olives, fruit, tomatoes, corn, honey and dairy products.

The town itself is very quaint. There are many heritage buildings along the wide streets. Many of the buildings are two story buildings having large second story balconies with beautiful wrought iron railings. Christine and I both commented that this reminded us of buildings in New Orleans.

We had a late lunch in Mudgee and Margaret, Clare and Daniel did a bit of shopping. The drive home was again beautiful. We went a different route and passed a huge reservoir, Lake Windamere, which was created by damming up the Cudgegong River. We want to stop and take photos of the view, but there were no shoulders on the road, so Christine had to snap a picture from the moving car.

End of Lake Windameer

I think the reservoir was a source for water in fighting some of the bush fires. The helicopters and planes loaded up with water from the reservoir.

Upon arriving back at home, when Clare went to feed the goats she noticed one missing. She went in search of Ace, the missing goat, and found her having given birth to twin kids. It was nearly dark so Margaret and Clare drove out into the paddock to pick up Ace and her new babies. Margaret had said earlier that there was a possibility that a goat would give birth while we were here. She also said that if the birth was a twin birth they would name the kids Christine and Linda.

Clare with our new namesakes, Christine and Linda

We naturally were thrilled, and the new kids are so cute. We think they must have been born just a few hours ago.

So, the end of another great day!

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