Bingara Town

Bingara is a pleasant little town on the banks of the Gwydir River which provides an attractive backdrop. Indeed, the day we were there (i.e. yesterday) the river banks were home to large numbers of campers or caravanners, and recreational groups in canoes, fishing, or on horseback. By Australian standards, this is a large river

This large tree on the river bank, with its extravagant root system, caught my attention!

Like many small towns, the main street is wide - it's the Fossickers Way connecting Tamworth with Inverell. The trees in the median strip offer a little shade and the shops mostly have wide awnings to protect shoppers from the often hot sun. Fossicking, incidentally, is all about looking for precious gems and the nearby Copeton Dam area has diamonds.

This is the Gwydir Shire Council building, which is an impressively maintained historic building.

And across the road is the impressive, and famous, Roxy Theatre. Built 80 years ago in the then popular Art Deco style, this was a cinema before falling into decay and then being resurrected as both cinema and home of a theatrical company, plus a kind of convention centre. Remember, this town is home to c. 1300 people and it's stunning that it has such a priceless asset.

And on the corner we had lunch in Peter's Cafe, which has also been there since the 1930s and is also decked out in Art Deco style. You can see Dot sitting where we had a very pleasant lunch. Mine was a fish-burger, with the fish being a Barramundi fillet, probably Australia's most sought after native fish from the top end.

Across the road was another great example of Art Deco architecture populated with various kinds of commercial premises.

On walls all over town there were large works of art displaying something of the town's history - in this case presumably an early exploration of the district by some prominent dude whose name escapes me.

Like most towns, there's a pub in vernacular architecture with the upper floor a covered verandah edged in wrought iron lace-work. Armidale has quite a few of these kinds of building often dating back to the 19th century maybe 50 years after many rural areas were first settled.

Every small place used to have a fancy court-house, but the number of courts has been greatly reduced and this example now provides a variety of government services. It's well maintained, beautifully designed, and another credit to the town.

And here are the famous orange trees planted to honour fallen soldiers in two world wars. Each year, when the fruit have ripened - which is about now - , the town's school children ceremonially pick the fruit as an act of remembrance. Indeed, this coming Friday, four days away, is ANZAC day (25th April). It's a public holiday to celebrate Australia's greatest military disaster at Gallipoli (in Turkey) during the first world war.

So there you are. It's a pleasant spot with nice architecture and a good bit of history.

AS