Roadtrip to Collarenebri in the Clanger PART 1

Give me an apartment on wheels & I will head for the hills. I am the happiest when  I am on the road in one of my Classic vehicles on a road trip to somewhere.

I know that I have mentioned this before, however this time I really do not know where to start with my story to visit one of my Grazier friends. Farmer John & his wife Biddy Witts,  live in Collarenebri in northern N.S.W. which is only 92kms or 57mls from the Queensland state border.

Farmer John & Biddy live on a 24,000 acre crop & sheep property called “MUNARGO” Farmer John recons it is a hobby farm when you compare it to his next door neighbor's property.

Their neighbour’s property is, wait for it, 500,000 acres, yes that’s the truth. They only do things up this neck of the woods big time. 

What really blows my mind is the maintenance that would be required on the fencing, 100’s if not 1,000 of miles of fencing to look after to keep control of their cattle & sheep.

I am going to try to keep this blog to the bare minimum,  however with my story & photographs that need to accompany this adventure it will still be over the top. I think that you will need to go to my facebook page to read about my week being spoilt rotten with country hospitality, everyone looked after me like a Silkworm.

Departed Sydney at 0400am to beat the traffic out of metropolitan Sydney in my 1931 Model A Ford 2 door Delux sedan to commence the 740kms or 460mi. road journey to Collarenebri. 

My 1st rest break was approximately 2 1/2 hours into the journey beside Lake Windamere. (see photo) Earlier that morning I had prepared a picnic basket that included Salmon & onion sandwiches on 9 grain bread, I also had 2 rock cakes slathered with real butter & to wash it all down I had made myself a Thermos of Black tea with lemon & sugar.

First rest break, parked beside Lake Windamere between Gulgong & Mudgee.

Once I had refreshed myself it was time to hit the bitumen again, there wasn’t too much traffic on the road which made the driving conditions a real pleasure on the open road in my beautiful 92 year old 1931 Model A Ford.

Just after dawn is when the wild life is on the move & definitely the most dangerous time, there was an abundance of road kill (see photo) on the road as you can see with my next photograph. Unfortunately this Fox was a little too slow & never made it across the road.

For the next couple of hours I had to be on my toes to dodge Kangaroos & Wombats that wanted to share the road with me, thankfully no hiccups or near misses.

I drove the Model A Ford all day with 3 petrol stops along the way before I finally arrived into Colli around 1630pm as the sun was setting in the west. I must admit to be behind the wheel for 12 hours of a 92 year old “Clanger” really takes it out of you. I was very relieved to pull into “MUNARGO” to be greeted by my friends Farmer John & his delightful wife Biddy.

Biddy had prepared dinner for us, we enjoyed a few cool amber transfusions, told a few lies, ate dinner & off to the land of nod. Rest assured I did not need any rocking to sleep that night.

Farmer John was up to his ears with shearing his sheep when I arrived. 

We were up at 0600am the following morning drove out to the shearing sheds to meet the shearer’s & their team. I was fascinated to watch the full process of what needs to be done with the process of shearing. I watched in amazement the back breaking work that the Shearer’s do (see photo). There is no room for the weak hearted out here, they all work their butt’s off. 

O.K. the Shearer’s make big bucks, they are paid $3.50 for every sheep they shear, I was talking to one of the guys & he told me that he had shawn just over 200 sheep yesterday, do the math on that & you realise the big bucks they earn.Trust me they deserve every penny of that.

The shearing team hard at work. One of the guys that started flying with me as a Trolly Dolly 48 years ago who now lives in Sweden loved this photograph & compared it with Tom Roberts  “Shearing of the Rams” painting in 1890, 123 years ago. Not too much has changed.

Later on that afternoon Farmer John & yours truly went mustering 600 sheep in the paddocks on Farmer Johns property on his very, very fast side by side Pioneer 1,000 Honda, accompanied by his 2 sheep dogs, we were preparing the flock of sheep that would be shawn the following day into their holding pens.

These 2 unfortunate sheep in the holding pen had been singled out to be short loin lamb chops later in the afternoon.

On the way back to the homestead that evening we decided to drive down to the Barwon River to check out this “BIG” semitrailer that had 4 huge tractors strapped to its trailer (see photo). 

I parked the Model A Ford next to this enormous rig & got a chat on with the guys to find out what they were up to. They were returning from a town called Coolatai, near Moree where they competed in a “Tractor Pull”. They told me that they had won everything that they entered. All I could think of was “boys with their toys” good luck to them.

My 1931 Model A Ford parked beside the Semi that was transporting the Tractors that competed at Coolatai in the “Tractor Pull”.

They offered us a cool beer so I decided to stay around for a while, as you do in the lay back country environment of Cooli. The boys told me that they we’re overnighting beside the Barwon River to catch a few fish & down some amber transfusions. 

While we were there they caught some fish (see photo) yellow belly I believe they were called.  Not too shabby I thought, fresh fish cooked on an open fire for dinner that evening, you can’t do too much better than that can you, if so let me know!!

They would head home in the morning to Griffith & Tarmore with their toys.

My very best new friends showing off their catch of the day.

It was such a magnificent afternoon I decided to take the Model A Ford for a quick trip through the township of Colli to show it off to who ever was wandering the streets on their way to the refurbished Collarenebri Hotel, then on the way back to the homestead I stopped the car just before you drive over the Barwon River. See photo for this classic photograph.

Model A Ford parked just before crossing the Barwon River.

To be continued... PART 2 to be published in a couple of days.