From Nindigully we made the short hop to Thallon, a big wheat and grazing area. Not a lot at Thallon these days. The main building is the Francis Hotel which is also the Post Office, Information Centre and the agent for a few other services.
The hotel also has two murals of the Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat on their water tanks. These icons are critically endangered but were once common around here.

Now we are seeing a few murals on this trip, but we enjoy them nonetheless. I suppose they can get a bit tedious though! So here, just for a change is Thallon’s big thing…..a big hairy nosed wombat!

The big mural in Thallon is on the GrainCorp Silos. The mural is easily seen coming into town, dominating the skyline.It depicts the Moonie River, a sunset background with sheep grazing. Pretty spectacular.

Next town along the way and further west is Dirranbandi. Stopped here for morning tea and had a look around their attractions. These included a great cut out of horses of the Australian Light Horse brigade, which made the last cavalry charge at Beersheba towards the end of the First World War. The General that lead the charge later acquired a property at Dirranbandi and grazed here until he died in 1939. Our towns out west certainly search far and wide to pick up and promote historical slices for their tourist propaganda!

Further along was a lunch stop at Hebel, right on the border with NSW. Few live here, but there is an old historic hotel/motel and opposite a general store and caravan park. Homealone enjoyed the ‘home cooked pie’ whilst Allthego settled for the Border Burger.

From Hebel it is 65 km or so to Lightning Ridge down the Castlereagh Highway. All day we have been travelling in a light sporadic spitty drizzle, enough to hassle the windscreen wipers. So it is good to finally see the welcome to Lightning Ridge display of the Barrel of Dreams, I think that is what it is called!