Journey to the Hunter – Friday 18 April 2014: the adventure starts

My friend had not been well, so we agreed that I would pick her up at eleven. First, I had to pack the picnic basket with assorted goodies. I don’t often do this, the picnic basket that is, but we wanted to be able to stop where we liked.

A little after eleven, we headed north along the Pacific Highway. It was a gorgeous day, bright sun but not too hot. The expressway was crowded, so I was glad to get off that road and take the Peats Ridge Road.  As I drove, I thought of past trips along this road, something that I started to describe in Secrets of New England - along the Fossickers Way Day One back in 2006.

We stopped at Kulnura for a late lunch. The bikes were out in force.  We got out the picnic basket  with its various goodies, opened the wine.

Settlement around Kulnura is actually quite new. The Great North Road, the original road to New  England, ran further west and north. It was much later the settlers came to build their farms and, now, their metro escape havens.

From Kulnura. we drove on to the junction with the convict built Great North Road. I didn’t take photos; I need to go back to just explore and document, We drove on through Wollombi to Broke. Looking at the Wollombi entry on Wikipedia, I was stuck by the reference that suggested the Great North Road formed one part of the Greater Blue Mountains Drive. Get real, mate. This is another example of an a-historical southern takeover.

At Broke, I stood lookng up at  Yellow Rock, part of the Broken Back Range, while my friend went to the store to buy some more water.  

The Broken Back Range was to puzzle me throughout the trip. All the tourist material talks about it, but nowhere is there a decent description of its exact location! I had to try to work it out while we were driving around.

From Broke, we headed onto the Cessnock Road looking for the turnoff to Hermitage Road. Our destination, the Tuscany Wine Estate Resort lay up that road. It took us a little while to find it, but we were happy with the view from our room. There are some lovely vistas in the Hunter Valley. That’s the Broken Back Range in the background.   

Neither of us felt like doing much, so we got out the picnic basket and settled down with some wine and assorted goodies for dinner in the late afternoon sun. 

If you want to continue following the story of this trip, here are the later posts:

• Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: Broke Fordwich
• Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: St Patrick’s Singleton
• Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: on to Morpeth

The story of civil aviation in New England

Today’s post on my history blog, History revisited – introducing a flying history, starts the dramatic story of civil aviation in New England. I will bring the full set up as a special post when finished.

Later: I have added links to the three later columns at to bottom of the introductory post, link above, so that you can follow the story that way.

Armidale’s Brown Street – an iconic street

Today’s New England post, History revisited – Brown Street: an iconic Armidale Street, is on my history blog. It tells part of the story of this iconic street. 

Do you know any stories or histories of the University of Newcastle?

Today’s post on my history blog, Alan Barcan, the Sydney Old Left and threads in New England’s history, looks at one thread in New England’s history. I know a fair bit about life and thought at the University of New England, almost nothing about Newcastle University.

I have been asking around for histories or memoirs, but with little luck. A New England New State Movement colleague said that there was a history of the Uni, but again I have not been able to find it via search.

Do you know of any books? I really would like to find some. Otherwise, the University of Newcastle vanishes from parts of my history.  

Tastes of New England - A day at the Uralla Food and Wine Fair

Saturday was meant to be a lunch at NERAM Harvest. We arrived at the New England Regional Art Museum a little early.

When we arrived, we found that the NERAM Harvest team was off at the inaugural Uralla food and wine fair, Tastes of New England. What to do? Why, go to Uralla!

That meant a little time and organising, but I still had time to wander around the current NERAM exhibitions. They are simply fantastic. Here is an example from Mrs Newling's Drive, Elioth Gruner's "On the Beach", 1912.

For those who don’t know Uralla, it is a pretty little town about twenty minutes drive south of Armidale that has become a real arts centre. As we came to the showground, there were cars everywhere. The Uralla Rotary Club members were collecting post codes at the gate. Looking at me, one recognised me, they assumed that we were all from Armidale. In fact, there were multiple post codes. 

“How’s it going?” I asked. “Great” was the reply. It seems that there had already been 2,000 people through the gate. We wandered up the tree lined dirt track towards the sound of distant music, not knowing just what to expect.  

Coming through the entrance, we found that there were more than forty stalls plus a music tent and a number of kids’ entertainment areas. None had expected it to be as successful as it had been. This was the sign from the first stall we came to, Charley Ray’s Food Fusions.  

I had thought of pate as a different thing, for this was a terrine. It was only later looking it up that I found this description:

A pâté de campagne, or country terrine, is a rustic preparation, slightly more refined than a pâté grandmère mainly in that it uses only a small amount of liver—liver is a seasoning device here rather than the dominant flavor. Also unlike the pâté grandmère, some internal garnish, such as fresh herbs and chunks of smoked ham or duck confit, go a long way. The panade (notice that it's made with flour, not bread) helps to retain moisture and to enrich and bind the pâté.

Yesterday I ate the pate de compagne along with a trout dip from Deano’s Spring Water Smoked Trout with really fresh bread. Both were very nice indeed. I would give you links to both Food Fusions and Dinos if I could, but as local businesses selling locally they don’t appear to have web sites. Chaps, that’s a weakness.

Faced with multiple food stalls, the first thing that you have to do is orient yourself. So I set off to walk the stalls.

By Sydney standards the crowds weren't huge, of course, but it still took a little while to reach the music stage where The Jug Addicts were playing. This is the best Youtube video that I could find of them, but it actually doesn’t do them justice. You will get a feel for the raw energy and the crowd response, but not the range nor subtlety. 

Exhausted even after our short run through, we adjoined to the bar. I drank the first New England Pale Ale while my colleagues tried a Blickling Estate Riesling. I’m not sure that we can actually call it that any more, but that it is what it was.

Reinforced, we went shopping. That too time! Hungry, we gathered a bottle from the New England Brewing Company to go with lunch.

We had begun the journey because NERAM Harvest was cooking at the Fair. They proved to be cooking the gourmet fish and chips. We had come because of NERAM Harvest, so the fish and chips was where we went. This proved to be a longer wait than expected because of the size of the demand. Meantime, the girls drank New England beer.  

Having eaten, I went back to The Jug Addicts for a final thank you. They had been there throughout,   On the way out, I found an exhausted NERAM Harvest team having a very late lunch. They had no idea who I was. Still, I went over to tell repeat the story that I ran in A morning at NERAM - Flora, Cobcroft and Badham's Observing the Everyday.

The paintings are organised thematically to show different aspects of Sydney life - the beach, the buildings, scenes of day to day life. We really enjoyed it, but decided to take a break in the middle to have lunch at NERAM Harvest.

This was actually as funny as a circus. Outside in the rain, the men were trying to erect a marque to provide cover for Sunday's BBQ breakfast. "its like watching monkeys using tools for the first time", commented our waitress. "How many men does it take to erect a marque? Four, with one woman supervising."

It seemed only right, for all the participants were there at the table. Wandering back to the car, I thought what a nice day it had been.

Introducing a coolie trader

This post, The Chinese in Australia - introducing Francis Darby Syme, may seem a little remote from our history, but some of Mr Syme's coolies ended up in New England.

Introducing the AA Company

While headquartered in London, the Australian Agricultural Company was New England's first big public company. It was also one that had a huge influence on our history. This post, Introducing the Australian Agricultural Company, does as the name says.

History revisited - the changing UNE story through the prism of its wardens/VCs

This History Revisited column, History revisited - changes at the helm of UNE, is the start of a new series on the history of the New England University College/UNE seen through a prism set by Wardens/Vice Chancellors of those institutions. I will add the links at the bottom as I go along. 

• First column -  History revisited - changes at the helm of UNE
• Second column - History revisited - approach of UNE's perfect storm

New England Lives - introducing Robert Dawson

Yesterday's post on New England's History was New England Lives – Robert Dawson (1782-1866), company manager, pastoralist and writer. I split the New England Lives series between this and the history blog, depending upon the person. Dawson was an interesting bloke, and a significant figure in early New England history. 

Glimpses of New England Chinese life in the first half of the twentieth century

Yesterday's post on New England's history is as the title said, Family counts: glimpses of Chinese life in New England in the first half of the twentieth century.

I was talking to a colleague who grew up in Bundarra who remembers the Chinese store there. Its a long time since I have been to Bundarra. I wonder if the store is still Chinese owned?