I Love Japanese Gardens

In recent years I have travelled widely in Japan, visiting such cities as Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Kanazawa, Okayama, Kurashiki, Hiroshima, and many smaller places up in the mountains. And, when I have visited such places I have always been on the lookout for Japanese gardens, which I love for their design, colour, flora, and peacefulness.

What is not widely known is that Australia has a formal Japanese Garden in the little town of Cowra in the NSW Central West. And I was able to show it Brian and Daphne on our trip to Canberra. They were impressed, like me, in its high quality - in many respects on a par with the beautiful gardens I have seen in Japan itself.

But before I show-case Cowra's contribution to the Genre, I m should explain why the gardens are located there. That's simple. Cowra had a PoW (Prisoner of War) camp during the second world war and housed Italians (presumably captured in North Africa) and Japanese. Moreover, the Japanese staged a famous, though unsuccessful break-out in 1944. Many of those who escaped were recaptured (Cowra is a long way from a major city) or committed ritual suicide. The gardens both commemorate these events, but also the spirit of reconciliation between us and them in recent decades.

Let's start with some views of the camp, of which little remains:

The gardens are located nearby and I'll let the pictures talk for themselves.

Lovely, aren't they? I could have spent hours walking the many paths taking in the views, looking at water features and traditional Japanese images - bridges, icons, plants, and even a little house with sliding partitions and tatami mats. The only really jarring feature was the Australian Eucalypt, not widely observed in Japan itself!

AS

Around Hill End

On our way from Armidale to Canberra, a lengthy distance of some 850 km, we had three major stop-overs: the old gold mining town of Hill End, an over-night in Orange, and the Japanese PoW camp and gardens in Cowra. The first and last of these are the subject of this and the next post.

Hill End is in the lovely rolling high country of the NSW Central West, much of which lies in the region of 700 to 800 m asl. It was also the site of a major gold discovery in the middle of the 19th century and prospered greatly until the easily worked deposits began to run out in the first decades of the 20th century.

All that remains today is a shadow of its former self - but rather lovely in a way. It's a time-capsule of Australia at Federation in 1901 and, for that reason, an important tourist attraction.

The former hospital, seen here, is now an important museum of life in the gold-fields in its heyday. It was impressive. The pub below also looks a museum piece, but not in a derogatory sense. It is absolutely typical of its period and well-maintained, a with the grocer's business below. On looking around it I got a real feel of life a century ago.

And the town is dotted with period residences like these.

Brian and Daphne were impressed.

AS

Evening Star

After 4 days of hobble weather associated with a cyclonic depression that formed just north of Sydney, the skies cleared and we have a beautiful crystal clear Autumnal evening. It's much better than grey cloudy and windy days with English-style drizzle!

And what caught my attention on a barely moonlit night was an immensely bright 'star' in the north-west sky. Checking on the internet, I confirmed it's Venus and it was so inspiring I was drive to photograph it with a hand-held camera.

This is the outcome!

I daren't increase the focus because (a) I'd have lost the trees and (b) the resolution would not have been so clear.

AS

A Scottish Experience

Brian and I decided to have a 'Scottish day' by visiting Glen Innes, a small town of c. 6000 people about 100 km north of Armidale. He and I wanted to have a look at the higher parts of the Tablelands and some of the piles of stones lying around, plus some of the  architecture in the town itself.

This region has considerable Celtic connection judging by the various place names we encountered. North of Guyra we came across Llangothlin, where we turned off the New England highway and ascended via narrow country lanes to Ben Lomond. This tiny community lies, as you can see, at 1363 m (or c. 4400 feet), but doesn't quite resemble its namesake! From there it was down-hill along dirt roads to Glencoe, another tiny place with little more than the Red Lion pub - itself an attempt to construct an English pub in the outback.

Glen Innes is a nice town with some impressive buildings, a few of which are shown here.

After a short walk around the main street we headed to Celtic standing stones, which I reported in an earlier blog posting. Brian tried to extract Excalibur from its rock, but unsuccessfully. Then we walked up Tynwald Hill to get a view over the stones, which - like many European examples - can serve as an observatory for judging the seasons..

At the top of Tynwald Hill we found a curved wall containing stones brought in from various historic sites in Scotland. A few are shown here and I presume that many more bits of rock will be added over time.

The it was on to a Stonehenge which is many millions of years older than its more famous version on Salisbury Plain. Our Stonehenge was created by nature alone!

AS

Celebrating Earth Hour

The 28th March 2015 was Earth Hour and the nearby town of Uralla celebrated it with an after-dark lantern parade for families and children. Brian, Daphne, Dot and me decided to participate as spectators ... we're perhaps a little too old to walk around carrying lanterns even if the distance was only a kilometre or so!

It was a rather beautiful occasion as I hope these pictures show.

AS

Brian and Daphne's Armidale

Although Brian and Daphne travelled quite widely around NSW, they spent most time in around Armidale. Here are a few of their experiences. Armidale has many dams around it supplying water for industrial and domestic purposes, but one of the most attractive is Dumaresq Dam, which is now a recreation reserve no longer used for water supply. It host a lot of wildlife - especially fish and birds like these. The dam wall requires some expensive restoration work to make it safe and, as you can see, the impounded lake is quite full.

Here's a stately old eucalypt and Brian being a little aggressive!

Fortunately, Armidale had its Autumn Festival during Brian and Daphne's visit. The main event was a series of parades on the Saturday morning. We had coffee in one of the many cafes lining the main pedestrian mall before heading out to sample the action. The New England region, with it's considerable Scottish ancestry, has numerous pipe bands dressed in full regalia. We saw some of the bands practising apart from each other before they coalesced for quite a dramatic combined performance in front of a considerable crowd.

Individual bands then participated in a long street parade. One headed a long line of vintage cars

The parade also featured various social organisations, groups of children representing the town's  numerous schools and then groups of people from many different nationalities. The pictures show China, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia - not ethnic groups one would find in Europe or North America!

On another occasion, Brian and I had the opportunity to go star gazing. UNE has an observatory at the Kirby Farm - better known for its world-class smart-farm technology. It's shown here at sunset. The main telescope under the dome shown here was under repair, but the local astronomical society had a variety of instruments we were able to use. We saw Venus and Jupiter - the latter with three of its moons clearly visible. We also saw the main band of the milky way, parts of Orion, the southern cross (Crux Australia), and one of Magallenic Clouds - our nearest galaxies. It was a lovely night out.

B & D were also around in time to visit UNE's series of annual graduation ceremonies. We saw the smallest of the four events from the verandah of the main homestead, Booloominbah where we sipped more coffee just before the commencement of proceedings. Events included the opening academic procession to the open-air dais in Bool's grounds, the conferring of degrees, and the installation of a new Chancellor.

On another day, we took a trip down Uralla way and introduced B & D to a local celebrity - Captain Thunderbolt - otherwise Fred Ward. This 19th century bush-ranger held up stage coaches and was eventually shot by police.

 

Uralla also has the best 'real-ale' brewery in the region and I took a quick look inside the crowded facility before we headed off for a meal in the nearby 'Top Pub'

Uralla was also holding a farmer's market on the day we were there - very much like Armidale's equivalent, with lots of stalls selling not only fruit and veggies, but also local craft products like these cosmetics - all to the sound of an accomplished band.

Finally, for this post, we visited the nearby sheep station at Gostwyck -  a very large and famous property. Gostwyck had so many employees at one stage that the owners constructed the beautiful little church shown here against whose walls the three dudes - me, Brian and Daphne posed for an elegant picture.

AS