It’s usually the way isn’t it, you make a plan to get a few things finalised and then you get a phone call that could change life’s plans and you aren’t there to take advantage of it.

Could have been a great role and hopefully still in the running for it come Monday.

……or sometimes things work out for better options ahead. 😉😉

Wednesday we lit out early (not as early as we thought, forgot about time change!😂) and headed down the coast.

We stopped in at Emerald and Paddlewheel’s to see how they were and then on to Dad and Mum’s for the night.

Catch ups with my brother, nieces, Fiona and of course a couple games of Scrabble with Mum never goes astray!

Onward to Canberra for paperwork and visits; stayed with Trooper for a couple of nights, dinner with Trail Rider and Wendy, lunch with my Rori boy and down to the poo farm to cause a bit of trouble. 😊

Saturday on our way through to Bathurst we take the road through Boorowa and Cowra.

Usually we are coming through here in the Spring where it was meadows of golden glow, field after field filled with flowering canola. The fields are bare and dry, a little bit of green in some places see the sheep surviving well.

Boorowa is a small farming in South West, New South Wales (NSW). There are only about 1200 or so people living here.

The first unofficial residents (1821) in Boorowa were two Irishmen, Rodger Corcoran and Ned Ryan, who were ex convicts having received their ‘ticket of leave’ or pardon from the Governor.

The first Land grant came to Thomas Icely in 1829 and by 1837 a mill was operating along with an inn and some houses on the future town site of Boorowa. The village was established at its present location in 1843.

As usual in those days, there was much lawlessness, mayhem, boundary disputes that led to livestock theft, arson and murder.

Bushrangers often took advantage of the remoteness of the town as they roamed the mountainous wild lands. They would make raids in the town and on stations.

With later large land parcels sold to ‘ticket of leave’ men, the area also went through a short boom of gold, copper and iron extraction. One copper mine continuing operation up until 1900.

Now the little town continues its sheep and cattle stations in quietness. No longer subject to bushrangers and outlaws, this is pure farm country.

We continue through to Cowra, in the Central West of NSW. Population approx 10,100.

The township of ‘Coura Rocks’ had its beginnings (European settlement) in 1844. 1847 the township site was called Cowra and it proclaimed a village in 1849.

Hmmm sometimes history makes me wonder, why is a village different from a township? If it was surveyed in 1817, technically did it not exist from back then? The mind boggles.

Miners heading to gold fields made their way through here and over the next 50 years expanded rather rapidly.

• 1857 first school

• 1870 first bridge built over the Lachlan River
• 1880’s Gold was discovered at Mount McDonald
• 1886 the railhead from Sydney reached the town
• 1888 local government was granted
• 1901 the first telephone exchange was established

During World War II, Cowra was the site of a POW Camp for mostly Japanese and Italian detainees – captured military personnel.

In 1944 the infamous Cowra breakout occurred. Some 545 Japanese attempted the mass breakout. Four Australian guards and 231 Japanese died during the recapture of the POW’s with another 108 wounded.

Still to this day Cowra’s Japanese gardens have those laid to rest in their with other memorials to those who served in Darwin and World War 1.

Photo by John O’Neill

Made a quick stop at Cowboy Guns and Gear and had lunch with Wondering Hans.

On to Bathurst!

Yours in travels

Kat xo