Today we decided to give the car another test and drive out in to the country to take some photos of the dry landscape and to visit the township of Molong – a place I’m having trouble pronouncing. I keep saying ‘Moolong’ instead of ‘Mowlong’. I’m putting it down to all the cows in the fields.

As you drive out of Orange you very quickly leave all the imported tree varieties, noticeably Ash and Maple, and revert back to the native gum trees common throughout Australia. The biggest change, however, is the lush green grass that gives way to very dry grassland and sparse vegetation. The straw coloured grassland is only broken by the occasional yellow or purple weed by the roadside and the sporadic green shoots in fields lucky enough to be irrigated by bore water.

This is a region showing all the signs of a desperate lack of rain. This is cattle country.

It’s a comfortable drive on good roads, some of it new, with the hills and pointed poplar trees giving it a look very reminiscent of New Zealand’s South island. And then the trees thin out leaving just open grassland as you pass through the region’s cattle stations. Just dry grass and gum tress hanging on for the next break in the weather.

Molong was a stop and change point for the horses used to haul the 19th Century coaches run by Cobb and Co. used to link the cities, countryside towns and villages throughout Australia prior to the arrival, in the case of Molong, the railway in 1886. Previously a 5-day horse-drawn journey with a change of horses every 16Km, the train helped speed the delivery of mail, wool and cattle to Sydney allowing the town and its surrounding sheep and cattle stations to prosper.

Embroidering a Yarn

The old Coach House once owned by Cobb and Co. is home to the Yarn Market Screen, a 4-panel embroidered screen depicting Molong throughout the ages, and created to celebrate the bicentenary of 1988. It took two years and seven months to complete the stitching.

We were lucky to arrive at the Coach House just as a local guide arrived and she very kindly showed us around the interior of the building and explained its past and current history.

Animals on Bikes

We were also reminded of an amusing project created by members of the local community sculptured from scrap metal supplied by local farms. Known as Animals on Bikes it runs for 120Km from Molong to Dubbo and features sculptures of animals riding bicycles. The first of which is a Duck-billed Platypus riding a unicycle. We are curious enough to make this a diversion from our planned route when we leave Orange heading for Dubbo next week. We will especially be looking out for Elvis the Kookaburra! For those as curious as us checkout: www.animalsonbikes.com.au

A number of additional historic buildings still stand with their original decorated windows along the high street, though many are now used by local businesses.

Coffee, of course, was enjoyed while watching what little traffic there was pass by. So far removed from the manic roads and streets of Sydney, this is outback countryside New South Wales style.