Monday, September 1st, to Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025 - A Walk Back in Time - Warrumbungle National Park, NSW

 

Skyline of Warrumbungle National Park, New South Wales

Warrumbungle National Park is about 280 miles north-west of Sydney – a 5.5 hour drive - but for us it was just two hours from Dubbo. The name means 'crooked mountain' in the Gamilaraay language, one of the indigenous groups who have lived here for close to 20,000 years. As you can see from the skyline in the photo above, it is well named. I could not find a lot of information on Google about the Aboriginal heritage of the area, but it is said to have been a spiritual place for the Gamilaraay, Wiradjuri and Weilwan people. I like to imagine it was a meeting place for these groups, just as it was for my sister Nadine, and me.

Alwynne (Left) and Nadine in 1960 - Warrumbungles (Photo by Geoff Hood)

It was not our first time here in the Warrumbungles. We had been here in 1960 with our father for a 'bushwalking' trip (the Australian term for backpacking). I believe it was my first experience of hauling camping equipment in a backpack. You can see me on the left and Nadine on the right – I was nine and she was 11. You can see that technical development in the world of backpacks has improved greatly. I have no idea how one would have fit tents, sleeping bags, clothing and food into the packs we carried then! Nor can I imagine that my little legs could carry it up the hills!

Belougery Spire - Warrumbungles

Nevertheless, the beauty of the landscape was held in my heart and, I returned with a friend in the 1970's when I had aspirations to be a rock climber. Together, we scaled this rather phallic looking peak, called Belougery Spire. When I look at it now, I am just a little astonished that I was able to do that. I don't recall it being particularly scary or difficult – I think we must have followed that diagonal crevice you see across the face of the rock.

Goats? What the........!

For some reason, these mountains have been calling to me again for the past couple of years – I yearned to go back to this area to re-experience this fantastic landscape again. Nadine and I allowed ourselves five full days so that we could travel at 'old lady' pace, which was a good thing, as we discovered on arrival, that the park had been closed for the week! They were conducting an operation with helicopters to cull the wild goats and pigs that have become a nuisance and are destroying areas of the park. They don't let anyone in, for fear they might be mistaken for a pig or goat and get shot! While I recognized the need for this – I have never seen goats in the wild in Australia before - I was profoundly disappointed, to have come so far to find myself unable to accomplish what I had planned.

Clock Tower, Coonabarabran

We began by getting supplies from the nearest town – Coonabarabran, population 2,387. They had a wonderful bakery which made excellent sandwiches with gluten free bread. We were very happy to find that in such a small place.

Hotel Royal, Coonabarabran

The town had several classic old hotels like this one. Although the town is small, it is a tourist destination and with the observatory, people are coming and going through here all the time.

Fish and Chips, or 'Coonabarber'

I like the juxtaposition of the solar panels with the almost crooked building here – and you know you can't visit a country town in Australia without a fish and chip shop. Note that you can get a haircut from the Coonabarber! LOL!

Window, Coonabarabran Local Aboriginal Land Council

I think this was my favorite window, though – 'Many Mobs, One Community!' at the Local Aboriginal Land Council. I like that sentiment. I was trying to find the difference between the term mob, clan, tribe etc, and it seems that 'mob' is a widely generic term that can apply to any of the above! I like it and hope to learn more as I travel. After wandering the town a bit, we picked up all the supplies we needed for the hotel we were staying at, which was about six miles out of town.

Siding Springs Observatory on Mount Woorat

In addition to being a national park for the beauty of its landscape, this area is also a dark sky park, home to the Siding Spring Observatory – the most important location for optical and infrared astronomy on the Australian mainland. All was not lost yet, so we visited the observatory and took a guided walk to the top of the mountain it is located on, Mount Woorat.

One of the Telescopes at Siding Springs Observatory

We learned that the funding for this complex was initiated through the actions of a scientist, Bart Bok, in the late 1950's. He was an astronomer who worked at the Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra and got the first photo ever taken of Sputnik 1 – the first ever satellite - with his telescope. He took it to the politicians in Canberra (the national capital) who were all freaking out about the potential hazards of the Russians having such an object in space, He was successful in persuading them to approve funding for better equipment so that they could keep better eyes on the skies, to get forewarning of possible threats coming from this new direction. They had been scouting potential sites already, none of which were ideal, as all were below the clouds. Because Australia has no high mountains, like they have in places like Chile, they settled on the Siding Springs site for its low humidity, dew point and relative proximity to universities.

View to the Northwest of Mount Woorat - Toward Pilliga National Park

The landscape to the northwest – the opposite direction from the Warrumbungles, was also very beautiful.

Many More Telescopes at Siding Springs

There were many telescopes up there, from so many different nations – including Korea, America, the UK, Poland, Hungary, Germany and Russia. They are big and small, optical and radio. The searches attempt to probe the cosmos for 'Dark Energy', and other planets with signs of life. We learned the astronomy in the southern hemisphere offers a unique view of the center of the Milky Way, like the Magellanic Clouds, which are not visible in the north. The astronomers we spoke to said this difference makes southern observatories  highly valuable to the science. Most of the observation is managed by robots today – partly due to safety concerns that arose following a huge fire in 2013, which just spared the telescopes there at the time, but destroyed the dormitory housing. There is a significant potential for people to become trapped on the top of the mountain if there is a rapidly advancing fire.

Moonscape! My Camera, Their Lens! Dubbo Observatory

Siding Springs is closed to the public at night, but we were able to visit a smaller, nearby observatory called Milroy Observatory which houses a big 40” telescope, that was the original one at Siding Springs. It was donated at the end of its professional usefulness on the condition it would be made available to the public. Unfortunately the 40” is not operational at present – repairs are hard, as parts are expensive and have to be custom built. (You might be amused to know that it was knocked out of operation by a plague of rats that chewed through all the wiring!) However, they provided an excellent stargazing show with another smaller scope and I particularly loved marvelous views of the Southern Cross, Alpha Centauri, Venus, Mars, the Jewel Box, and much more. I had hoped to get out my tripod and set up my camera to get shots of the Milky Way, but is was quite cold - in the 30's - and the moon was much too bright, so I abandoned that plan. The photo of he moon above was taken with my camera that used the lens from another observatory I had visited in Dubbo – it felt very much like cheating to say 'I took that picture'!

A Real Australian 'Bush' Feel Here - Mount Woorat

Once here, I found it absolutely glorious being back in the Australian bush, it is unlike any other vegetation I have experienced. Here you see the white trunk of a gum (eucalypt), spikey bushes and the strange grass 'tree' in the middle which we used to call 'black boys' (Xanthorrhoea) I'm not sure if that terminology is still common today. The grass like top grows a long spear-like structure from the top. We used to love finding them on the ground and pretending to throw them, or threated each other with them.

Wattle, Wattle Everywhere!

As you see, the wattles here were also particularly abundant – I don't remember ever seeing them so resplendent before. Even through the entire park had been thoroughly burned in wildfires 12 years ago (2013), the vegetation has recovered extremely well. Many plant species require fire to activate seeds. They said thee were even a number of new native plant species that regenerated after the fire. The sides of the roads where ablaze with the yellow of these small trees – it was wonderful. There were also many kangaroos alongside the roads – it required enormous diligence to keep eyes peeled in case they jumped across the road. Their dead bodies on and alongside the roads, told the story of unfortunate encounters and implied expensive repairs to the vehicles. We had a few misses, but managed to avoid them all.

Nadine (Left) and Alwynne with Belougery Spire and Breadknife View (Photo by Geoff Hood)

I am going to keep you in suspense as to what happened next – I don't want this entry to become too long. The photo above shows what I most wanted to see again – the narrow formation you see on the right, called The Breadknife. There were rumors that the excellent weather had allowed the culling process to succeed very well, so they might open the park a few days early. Our plan was to drive in early on Thursday in hope that the rumors were true – otherwise we planned to drive to the Pilliga forest to the north if my hopes were foiled. You'll have to stay tuned to see what happens!