The Dubbo Chronicles ... 3rd Road Trip

After last week's trip it was back into the fray straight away, so another brief interlude was just what I needed. We left Dubbo at about 7:30 and headed south, destined for a place called Wagga Wagga. The scenery on the journey south was no different from much of what I had seen of the greater western NSW area the week before. The storm which in the last post was just coming in, was just leaving again...

Despite the storm, the fields seemed just as dry as ever...

even the sheep looked as if they were trying to suck the lichen off the rocks (a slight hyperbole).

There were a lot of 'character filled' houses, and I wondered how hard people had to work to scratch out a living in some of these places where irrigation wasn't possible and one's livelihood was entirely up to the fate of the weather. Once we were south of a place called West Wylong the fields started to green up a bit with more pasture...

There must have been the ability to grow a lot of grain, because I lost count of the number of granary silos we passed. Here are a few snaps of some of them...

 They were all built alongside the railway. 

We made it to Wagga Wagga by 1pm. Wagga Wagga - 'place of many crows' (wagga = crow, wagga wagga = many crows) was a much larger version of Dubbo.

Like Dubbo, it is build along the course of a river, the Murrumbidgee river...

There were a few nice buildings, my favourite was the Catholic Church of St Michael...

Anyway, we grabbed a quick bite for lunch and then met with the Director of the newly opened ED, and gained some more insights into the design for our own. After catching up with old colleagues that evening we made another early start back to Dubbo...

Above and Below: Just after sunrise.

It was a much finer drive back to Dubbo - the weather had turned.

On the way back we stopped and visited a further two new emergency departments, much smaller than Wagga Wagga, but very useful to see, especially as they were both designed using the architect that we are employing. The first was Lake Forbes. Here is a photo of the old hospital, as seen across their new helipad...

The second was Parkes. After visiting Parkes, we had to stop for some lunch, so we got to stop at the cafe at the Parkes radio telescope (something people had been telling me I should visit for the past 3 years). 

Although ginormous, I almost couldn't see it from the main road...  

 

Up close it was much larger.

I guess it is more impressive for the role it played historically than for its size compared to modern radio-telescopes. It was used to help track Apollo for the moon landing, something which became the subject of a movie called "The Dish"...

Above: Trailer for The Dish

Below: Short documentary clip about the telescope

Above: The telescope the night of the moon landing.

Below: The telescope today. 

That was the last of the interesting sights we saw before heading back to Dubbo...

I am looking forward to finishing up my tour of duty this month and returning to Willowbrook on Friday to see Peter and to check on the progress. He has been working hard to get things ready ahead of the first wedding, including finishing the folly and creating a fountain in the front courtyard. I shall keep you posted on my return.