We are moving on south to the Scone region, known as the ‘Horse Capital’. But before setting off we thought we should get in some horse action here at Paceway Tamworth, right here on the track just beside the van.

Also had a look at a couple of interesting things around town. One being the 1.5 km long King George V Avenue constructed and planted in 1936 with memorial English Oak trees to celebrate the reign of the King.

A number of the trees have died and been pulled out, others are on their last legs. The Council are doing a replanting program to restore the avenue. Some nice canopied stretches remain.

Back in town there is the Bicentennial Park running the length of the CBD and along the course of the Peel River. A fountain is at one end near those country music heads and the war memorial at the other end.

There is a bronze statue of a horse used by the Australia Light Horse Brigade during WW1. Between 1861 and 1931 around 500,000 of these horses, known as ‘Walers’, were exported for military service in India, the Boer War and Egypt. Only one returned to Australia. Rather than being left behind to an uncertain future Australian soldiers humanely killed the horses.

Scone is about 140 km south of Tamworth a short hop but we decided to stop at the free camp beside the creek at Wallabadah, about half way. A pretty spot for some afternoon feet up time in the sun!

Wallabadah has some unusual gardens. It is home to the ‘First Fleet Memorial Gardens’, a bicentennial project. It is the only place in Australia that lists on a memorial all the names of the people aboard the ships of the First and Second fleets. Decedents come here from all over Australia for reunions and family gatherings.

There are eleven small gardens representing the ships of the fleet approaching a much larger garden in the shape of Australia, a little hard to visualise from ground level.

Why Wallabadah ? Many other places in NSW although offered didn’t want it. I suspect it may not have been built here today. Liverpool Plains Council is looking after the site, even though it is getting a bit ragged. Some TLC needed!

Had some rather tasty but heavily fried lamb chops for dinner at the small hotel, which dates back to 1867. Many of the small towns along this stretch of the highway were staging posts for Cobb & Co coaches in the early days of pastoral expansion.

Another Wallabadah gift to the nation is this statue of a Rock Wallaby, common to the area and perhaps from which the town’s name was derived.

Next day we moved along towards Scone, stopped at Willow Tree for a while to look at the Information Centre displays. There was a video showing here of the light show that is played each evening across the silo art we saw in Quirindi a few days back. Interesting to maybe see in real time sometime!

Murrurundi was the next pause for a quick look at this old town. The old post office has been reimagined as an art gallery. But! The old stamp vending machine has been preserved for posterity. An oddity these days but I do remember them well.

This one ‘shut up shop’ when postage was 12 cents, a 10 cent and 2 cent stamp were dispensed.

And this horse drinking trough beside a T intersection on the highway has been here a while.

Getting late so we got back on the road to Scone. A little disappointed when we arrived in the Horse Capital. The two van parks in the town looked a little grim, lots of huts and you couldn’t see the spots for vans among the concrete and timber. Seemed to be mostly worker accomodation. Not for us. So the other option was about 29 km out of town at Glenbawn Dam.

The dam was 5 km down the road from the powered site area. We made a trip down there for a look see. Looked a lot like most dams, plenty of water and boats.

This proved a great location for our three night stop in this region.