~ On the Road to Gundagai – Midway between Melbourne and Sydney ~

This is a place I’d never heard of, let alone knew there was a song about it. I opened up the maps and Gundagai seemed the obvious choice, plus I liked the name! The song was sung by Slim Dusty and written in 1922 by Jack O’Hagan. Some useless trivia that might come in handy for a quiz night.

Another one night stand in another motel, The Tuckerbox Motor Inn.

A tad chilly to throw something on the barbie!

After checking in we drove back into “town” and had dinner at The Family Hotel. A lovely country pub in a fabulous building.

Located along the Murrumbidgee River, Gundagai is quaint and picturesque. Perfect for a morning’s walk along the high street and learning about the history of this small town.

The Tuckerbox Motor Inn, I imagine, gets its name from the “Dog on the Tuckerbox” monument.

A tribute to the pioneers who came to settle the colonies and their dogs.

The legend of the Dog began in the 1850s with a poem Bullocky Bill by an otherwise unknown author ‘Bowyang Yorke’, about the partnership of the bullockies who opened up the land to settlers, and the dogs who accompanied them and guarded their possessions.
Source – Visit Gundagai

It was interesting to read about certain events that had occurred over the years in Gundagai. For instance, The Great Flood in 1852, when the Murrumbidgee River broke its banks.

The sculpture below honours two indigenous men who went above and beyond to aid in the rescue of several people.

Continuing our walk I found three murals of cows with a plaque commerrating one of them.

The legend of three sisters – Daisy on the left was screaming in frustration and jealousy. Melba was producing so much milk that it left Daisy dry. The same goes for Daphnie on the right.

Melba was the World’s Butter-Fat cow in 1924. In over 365 days Melba yielded 32,522 lbs of milk. I wonder how she felt after all that pulling and tugging!

The wide high street of Gundagai, a misty morning clearing to a beautiful sunny afternoon.

We did have a wander around the Pen Museum. Anthony had quite the chat with the “curator” about the amazing amount of pens exhibited. It was definitely a labour of love as there was no entry fee just an honesty box. There was also other paraphernalia such as buttons, badges and pins.

All too soon it was back to the car and onwards to Sydney. Stopping for petrol I spotted “The Big Koala”. There seem to be a few Big Koalas around Australia along with Big Kangaroos, Parrots, Sheep. They are something of an icon along the highways.

Before I nodded off I spotted some odd looking boulders along the highway, so had Anthony make a stop. When I googled them they are called “Mystery Boulders”, and remain so because there is no other information out there!

We enjoyed our stop in historical Gundagai and finding out about this country town.