Above: “Boureong”
November 11th, 2015
Finally we got the Jackaroo back on Tuesday at 4.30pm and had already packed up most things ready to move on. The idea being to take a bit of the distance out of Parkes to Gunning (about 280km in total). We ended up stopping at a rest area at Ooma Creek just 15km north of Grenfell; this is part of the old low level bridge crossing before the “new” bridge was opened in 1999, Not a lot of traffic past here and plenty of room for just us!
Finally arrived at Bob’s before lunchtime and parked the van next to the shearing shed and its small toilet block, water supply here as well so we are fully set up.
Boureong is one of the oldest properties at Gunning with the house dating back to the 1830’s, about 40 years before the railway arrived (1877 )and was tracked right past the back of the house! In the early days Gunning was the end of the line and thus the main railhead for decades. The original Boureong land was about 3500 acres on what is now both sides of the line, Bob’s remaining part is 450 acres including the original buildings plus a newer shearing shed, machinery and hay sheds.
He is running Black Angus cattle with most cows currently with new calves; during our stay they were all in the far grazing paddock.
The railway line now carries the daily Canberra and Melbourne XPT service (above) and very regular (and long) goods services, often with up to four locomotives because of the gradients involved, including Northbound from Gunning. (Below)
