Monday 15 July 2013

  THE WATERFALL WAY - COFFS HARBOUR TO ARMIDALE
WOLLOMOMBI FALLS - ON THEWATERFALL WAY
Don't you just love old chimneys?  The are a monument to pioneer families.  Some indication of the temperature this region plummets to in the winter.  Three fireplaces so close together.

Our first glimpse of Wollombi Falls through the trees on the short walk to the lookout.

 The great gaping gorge.  Wollomombi Falls are one of the highest falls in Australia.  We have seen it raging after heavy rains and reduced to just a trickle in drought time.






 After we left Coffs Harbour we went through Bellingen, full of craft shops and cafes.  Very arty.
 The old Hammond and Wheatley Emporium whereJim Muldoon helped with the restoration work. He made the wooden curved bow at the top of the building.  The Emporium is full of shops.  We didn't stop so it will have to wait till another holiday.
 The rich alluvial flats of the Bellinger River.

 As we began to climb the mountain up to Dorrigo the waterfalls began.
 The winding narrow road on the way to Dorrigo.  There is one bend on this road that can never be widened due to a colony of rare frogs that inhabit the bushland just on that bend!
 The beautiful Dorrigo Plateau.  They grow potatoes in Dorrigo and I once visited a daffodil farm there and we picked our own daffodils.
 The Dorrigo Hotel
 Sleepy Dorrigo. This building on the corner of the main street used to be an emporium,  Something happened in the family and the shop was just closed up, still containing all its stock.  It remained closed for about 20 years or so.  I saw it when it was all closed up and really would  have loved to have looked through all their wares.  Now it is a secondhand shop, but unfortunately was closed the morning we were there.  My brother Peter said he has never seen it opened.
 There is a train graveyard at Dorrigo.  All these trains and rolling stock were purchased with a view to opening a train museum.  They were being acquired while we lived in Grafton.  We had a tour of some of them when they were waiting down at Glenreagh.  Most of them got up the mountain before the trainline deteriorated too much.  Now some of the trestle bridges on the line have declined and are impassable.
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The 'museum' has now gone broke and the trains are beginning to deteriate.  There must have been 100 engines!

2 comments:

  1. What a shame about the trains. I love the old engines. And carriages! how bizarre that the emporium was closed for 20 years, still full of stock. What wonderful vintage stuff, still in original condition in original packaging!

    love Yvette

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  2. How sad about the trains! Jai would love it!
    Bummer the shops at Bellingen weren't open too, they sound so promising!
    I don't remember ever going to Dorrigo.
    The falls are so amazing. I always wonder what it would have been like to be a Pioneer and come across them!! You'd be like "WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I bet they didn't have many falls like that in England!

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