Sun, 18th October, 2015 Sunny Corner Recreation Reserve to Lake Wallace, Wallerawang

Rain showers and wind during the night. Overcast morning 19 degrees in the van.

Back into jeans and jumpers. Did my last blog upload so all up to date. Lou sent me a link to a petition that Bruce Schuler’s wife and daughter have set up to get the law changed that murderers can’t get parole unless they disclose where the victim’s body is. I went online and signed it for me and Steve. I hope they get it changed and they get an answer so they can get some closure.

Drove along the road from Sunny Corner to Meadow Flat (1050m elevation) and onto the highway again. Up to Mt Lambie at 1150m. Down again to 890m where we turned off to Lake Wallace (10km out of Lithgow). There is a big power station across the Lake but it is decommissioned now. When we went to Bathurst last year we drove up past it on our way to north. Using my old video camera which takes stills – not as good as my Canon but will have to do till I get my replacement.

Drove through Charles Darwin Park ,where one van was parked, down onto the foreshore where we found a few other vans. A baseball game was underway in the grounds. Found a spot and set up camp.

Lovely view across the lake with a few sailors making the most of the windy conditions.

Zoomed in on the dam wall across the lake.

Chatted with a couple from Qld who were from Kilcoy. I said my family was from there and went through the family names. When I said Arnold he said his uncle was an Arnold – turned out to be Scally whose father was my grandmother’s brother. What a small world. They told me their names but I forgot his (might be Ken) but her name was Roslyn and their surname was Smith so will have to check. His mother is Scally’s wife’s sister. Anycase had a nice chat about the area and Craig Lowndes as their property is opposite his. Well his wife and kids are still there, since they have divorced now. He said he saw Craig and the kids on the motorbikes before Bathurst. They were down for Bathurst too.  Another chap was fly fishing and said they catch rainbow trout and bass here. Ken showed us a photo of a nice rainbow trout a lady caught yesterday afternoon.

We drove into Lithgow (930m) to the Information Centre that has a huge miner’s lamp out the front.

Got a pile of brochures and found out that the Zig Zag Railway hasn’t worked since 2012 when it was shut down due to some safety paperwork issues. Also it suffered one million dollars’ worth of damage in the fires of 2013. So won’t be opening up any time soon.

Drove around to the site of the Lithgow Blast Furnace which was built in 1906 to smalt iron and transport it to the steelworks which lay a kilometre away. It was the sole producers of iron in Australia for about 7 years. Not much is left but there were good information boards to read.

Climbed onto the hill for a shot over the site.

 The pig breaker.

Then we wandered in for a look around as the fence had been removed at the front – naughty we know but some local kids were in their chatting on their mobile phones.

Steve pointed out where the big fly wheel from the steam engine used to be mounted.

Wandered around working out what’s what from my map.

This would have been the last bit of slag from the No. 2 Blast Furnace which sat on this circular base.

These round buildings were stoves and behind them was the material storage bins that could hold up to 50,000 tonnes of iron ore, limestone and coke.

Back onto Inch Street there were small sculptures lining the street. Not sure what this one depicted but we also saw a teapot, gecko doing a handstand, cleaver and other unusual things.

Old equipment is now used as play equipment – engine and carriage.

Went looking for the gun emplacements that had been installed to protect the Small Arms Factory during the war. The address on the info brochure didn’t agree with ‘girlie’ so we gave up and went back to the van.

Grabbed a drink and joined our neighbours for a chat. The temperature has dropped and the breeze is quite strong that I had to put my big coat on. So much for the warm weather!!

Into the van for dinner and some TV. 14 degrees outside at 9pm.