Wednesday, April 30, 2025

📍Uralla & Armidale

📝 Day's Highlights

• Uralla

Another recommendation from the information centre was to visit Uralla and go to the museum there. So, after breakfast that is what I did. Uralla is only 20km or so from Armidale, so the drive didn’t take that long.

The museum is housed in an old flour mill that has been lovingly restored. There was plenty to see - with exhibits ranging from fire-engines to the to the treatment of the Chinese in the goldfields. There were two sections that were particularly interesting. One related to the bushranger Frederick Wordsworth “Thunderbolt” Ward, allegedly the longest roaming bushranger in Australian history. He was killed near Uralla, and the museum has a lovely series of paintings depicting his last day alive.

Uralla Museum

The other section was called “It’s just not cricket”. It had a selection of items that were not very historical but very funny (if you know cricket). These included the “opening bat” which had two doors to make it wider (donated by Geoff Boycott), the “vampire bat” (complete with fangs), the “Stonehenge bat” (“dug up in Wiltshire which proved that the stones were wickets and the graffiti of them was early sponsorship”) and the “old bat” (picture of a grumpy elderly lady). If nothing else, it showed that the curators had a great sense of humour).

Aussie humour

On my way back, I decided to detour via Rocky River, which had been a gold-producing area. I never found the town, but I did go on a very enjoyable drive along roads where vehicles were the exception not the rule.

Back in Armidale and my usual afternoon and evening. Off to the Welder’s Dog, then to the Whitebull for a steak, with just a light shower of rain that was hardly noticeable. An early night tonight as I have a long drive tomorrow.

Armidale weather

🚗 Distance driven : 87 km