Parkes, Condoblin & Trundle


Saturday the 31st we left Forbes and drove to Parkes. Went straight to the Information Centre and found out where the dish was located and what else we wanted to see.  There was a video at the Centre which educated us about Sir Henry Parkes and his contribution to NSW. Glad we saw that.


I had presumed we would just go to the showground for $25 a night with power and water. Upon further inspection of ‘Wikicamps’ I found that the Spicer Caravan Park was doing a powered site for $23.40 for seniors. The park was right next to a reserve and away from the highway. So we went there and it was a great choice.


After set up and lunch we went up to the lookout which had a great war memorial.




A lot of the town was obscured by pesky trees.



We then drove the 20km north to the dish. It was good to finally see the big dish. We watched a 3D video which gave heaps of info and great pictures of Mars. It was all very interesting. It was also good to remember the movie, ‘The Dish’, because of seeing it and various references to it.








The most interesting thing though was out the front of the centre were two dishes at least 150 metres apart. The idea was that one person stands at the front of the dish facing in at the middle and whispers. Another person does the same at the other dish, facing in to the dish. Linda and I were able to converse with low voices at that distance of 150 metres apart. These photos indicate how far apart these dishes are apart. I was gob smacked.





Many of the pastures around these parts are planted with canola (I think it is) and it looks spectacular.






Sunday the 1st of September, Spring and a little warmer already, hooray. As we had the time we decided that going out the 100km to visit Condoblin would be worth it and when we head out that way again we won’t have to detour to see it. So out we drove to the Lachlan Shire. Condo is on the Lachlan River which looks like it had a reasonable amount of water in it.



There were a few of the very old buildings left which were mixed in with a number of art deco buildings. Postal services began in 1858. The postmaster complained of the poor salary compared with all the work being required by the many drovers coming through town. I would love to be able to go back in time and see what it was like back then.


















We went out the 3km to Gum Bend Lake which is a lake when there is some rain around, but not now. It is a great free/donation camp with showers and toilets and would be great with some water in the lake. Did not get any photos.

We detoured to Trundle on the way home. Trundle is a tiny outback town with one of the widest main streets you have ever seen.












On arriving back at Parkes we had a drive through town which we had not done till then. There were some impressive buildings but not like Forbes.




The night we were treated to a lovely sunset.







A thoroughly good visit to Parkes.

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