Saturday, June 27, 2015

Surf's up!


I never tire of the beautiful beaches near where I live.
It's a dream come true that we have been able to live here. I know it's only been 8 months since we actually moved here properly, but I hope I never tire of these scenes.










Watch out! There could be more.....

Thursday, June 25, 2015

We finally get to Bowraville.

Bowraville is a little gem of a town in the Nambucca Valley.
It used to be called Bowra, but people got confused with Bowral! (Which is about 600 kms away)


It is lately famous around these parts for having an indie theatre which shows movies and live gigs.
It has got a pleasant art deco facade and looks neat inside when we peered through the doors. We'll have to go back when there's something on to have a good look.
Apparently it was closed in the 1960's but was restored by the local community. Good on them!


Bowraville has a pretty quaint main street.
It is wide as many of the towns built in those days were - designed so that bullock teams could turn in the street. In this case the bullock teams were carrying red cedar logged from further up the Nambucca Valley.
Bowraville was the port where the logs were taken downstream. Hard to believe these days as the river is silted up - this is what it looks like now -


This was once a busy port!

Of course there were pubs, and this grand example survives -


When you visit Bowra, you just have to go to the folk museum.
Apparently it is "one of Australia's best"!
And it does have an eclectic collection of, well, just about everything.





Including a german mine -


And some rather freaky models!




There are a couple of shops worth poking around in -





At the top of the hill is the Phoenix Art Treasures with some great, so cheap, handmade crafts by local adults with disabilities. 

There's a lovely little garden cafe - The Mad Hatter Tea Garden, where we had lunch.


The main street has plenty of photo ops of the charming old weatherboard buildings, some a little unloved now.






This time we missed out on the Frank Partridge VC military museum....maybe next time, or maybe not.
Anyway we have now been there, done that and as I say we may be back to catch a show at the theatre or for a drive further into the hills.
Bowraville is about 20 mins drive from Macksville to the west of the Pacific Highway. took us about an hour from Kempsey.