Thursday, September 4th to Saturday, September 6th, 2025 – Yay! The Park IS Open.

 

Sunset at Whitegum, Warrumbungle National Park

As we had planned, on Thursday, we drove to the start of a short walk, Whitegum, near the eastern entrance to the park, and were thrilled to see the gates wide open. We had been told that it offered a good view of the range and we were not disappointed. The photo above was taken at the end of the day, but I have put it here because it is a fabulous photo for us start with! (Sorry, I don't mean to brag – but I love it, especially the way the light reflects on the white trunk of the gum tree.) It is a view to the west, and the peak over which the sun is setting, is called Split Rock.

Panoramic View Looking South From Whitegum

This is the view looking south from Whitegum, from earlier in the day, where you can see most of the peaks. From left to right, they are Crater Bluff, Belougery Spire and the very small bump after Belougery Spire is the elusive Breadknife. The big one almost in the center of the photo is Bluff Mountain and the tallest between the two tree trunks is Mount Exmouth. They are all volcanic remnants from a shield volcano which first erupted around 18 million years ago, when this part of the earth's crust passed over a hot spot in the earth's mantle.

Formtion of Warrumbungle Volcano at Crystal Kingdom, Coonabarabran

Shield volcanoes are the nice gentle ones, like Hawaii – things don't blow up, the lava just flows and makes a nice mountain. Much of the original volcano has eroded away now, leaving the hardest remnants of trachyte rock forming the crooked skyline of today. This diagram above shows it pretty nicely.

Egg and Bacon Plant

I had come here in spring, hoping to see wildflowers and there were many examples. This delightful little guy is a variety of Eutaxia, that we used to call 'egg and bacon plant'. It always made me hungry when I saw it.

Australian Bluebell

This pretty blue flower gave a contrast to all the yellow surrounding us, and is the Australian Bluebell - Billardiera fusiformis.

Crater Bluff and Breadknife

We were very pleased that the park was now open – they said the culling had finished early because of the good weather, so I felt very fortunate. I still nursed my quest to get closer to the fabulous Breadknife, which was quite difficult to see from the Whitegum lookout. It is a formation which is nearly 360 feet high, but only 12 feet wide. It was formed when magma squeezed between two layers of rock – possibly sedimentary rock - to form this thin volcanic dyke. I thought it was fascinating as a child and images of it are iconic for this area. You can see the shadowed side of it here slightly below Crater Bluff. Note also the yellows of the wattle along the side of the road – clearly I want you to really appreciate how vibrant it was.

Typical Australian Bush

In an effort to get a closer view, Nadine and I followed the recommendation of a ranger and took a trail called Gould's Circuit to a spot called Macha Tor. He said there were great views from there. Again, the day was beautiful, just a few wispy clouds in the otherwise intensely blue sky..

Bearded Dragon

Some of the locals were not so happy to see us. This little bearded dragon held his ground against the two giants pointing their cameras at him – we thought he was awfully cute. I think he's a species of Pogona.

Grey Kangaroo

Equally oblivious was this grey kangaroo, who ignored my attempts to capture an image of him through the brush. He was busy chomping on grass and was the only kangaroo we saw away from the roads. He seemed a little rough looking - although he was not skinny. He wouldn't get his head out of the grass, so you see him all crouched over.

A Goat!?

Unfortunately, in spite of the just-finished culling, the bleating of goats was an almost constant background noise and they were the animals we saw the most of. They appeared to have discovered a small cave/crevice near here and no doubt had a grand old time hiding in it from the expensive and deadly helicopters flying overhead in the previous days. I have never seen these in the wild in Australia before and I'm very saddened that they have become so abundant. This is not their natural environment and they compete with the native species for food and resources.

Belougery Spire and the Breadknife

The path we had chosen was challenging for our old knees, even though the distance was only around 4 miles return It was the steep uphill with many steps that challenged us, but we managed to navigate it steadily. When we reached Macha Tor, we decided the final rock scramble was too much for us – while getting up might have been possible, getting down would likely have been dangerous, so we satisfied ourselves by sliding around the base of the rock and sticking our noses out as far as we could get. It did not allow the vista I sought, but the Breadknife was clearly visible. In the photo above, we have Crater Bluff at the back, Belougery Spire in front and the Breadknife to the right.

The Breadknife

Add a little telephoto lens and finally! Mission accomplished! Here is the Breadknife in all its glory. Ahh, yes. Now you can see how it got its name.

Eastern View From Macha Tor

Before we took our tired legs back down all those steps to the Pincham Camp, we sat and relished the view to the east. I love the softness of the tree covered hills. Considering that 90% of the park had burned in the 2013 fire, the recovery has been robust.

Sunset Over the Warrumbungles

Our return that night found two tired people who were very pleased that we had pushed ourselves, yet neither suffered injury or anything more than short term tiredness. It had been a very satisfying day. An additional day to make up for the park closure would have been welcomed, but this was it, we were headed back to Dubbo the following day - Saturday.

Welcome to Gilgandra

During our drive back to Dubbo, we passed through a little town called Gilgandra. It's slightly bigger than Coonabarabran, with a population of 3,126.

Royal Hotel, Gilgandra, New South Wales

They also had a Royal Hotel. Could it be a franchise?

Heartland Church, Formerly Western Monarch Theatre

Gilgandra also had a magnificent art deco style former theatre, built in 1934. Originally called the Western Monarch Theatre, it is now a church.

Country Women's Association Table at the Saturday Market

There was a Saturday market and I stopped at the table for the Country Women's Association, a very important service organization for women in rural, regional and remote areas. The organization was established in 1922 with the purpose of improving the conditions for women and children. To many people it is not seen as a powerhouse organization but more focused on food and domestic issues. They lobby and have exercised political clout in improving dental services, child care, road safety and crisis relief for rural people.

'Sconversation' Mental Health Guidelines from CWA 

The woman from CWA was interested in where I came from and wanted to know if there were women's organizations on Amelia Island. She seemed genuinely interested and gave me a flyer that has a scone recipe on one side - a very traditional act that the organization is known for (tea and scones) - but the flyer has a twist by calling on people to start 'sconversations' to share what's on one's mind to boost mental wellbeing. Mental health in these communities is a concern, when people face adverse conditions resulting from fire, drought and flood, in this fragile climate. This can lead to consequential financial losses and enormous emotional stress. In Australia, the suicide rate increases as one moves further away from major cities. The other side of the flyer she gave me had a very thorough flow chart to help people assess where they're at emotionally and mentally and encourages seeking out help when indicated.

Coo-ee March, 1915, Commemorative Statue

We ended the conversation with her pointing out the statue of this First World War Soldier, which commemorated the Coo-ee March of 1915, when 25 young men left Gilgandra and walked the 320 miles to Sydney, arriving a month later. The word coo-ee travels well through the air and is used in the bush to find people or be found if one is separated. It is an ancient Aboriginal Australian word meaning 'come here, here we are, where are you?' as a long distance greeting. During this march in 1915, the cry of 'Coo-ee! Come and join us!' attracted 238 other young men to support the homeland (England) at Gallipoli in Turkey. It was a proud moment in the country which had only become a nation fourteen years prior.

'Instagram' Pic at the Crystal Kingdom, Coonabarabran

Oh, but I do go on, so lets end on a silly note. I had shared photos of Nadine and me in the previous blog, showing us as the nine and 11 year olds that we were in 1960. We were headed for Dubbo airport where Nadine would go on home to Canberra while I am headed to the North Coast of New South Wales to visit my other, younger sister Toni. It seems only fair to share a photo of the two of us now, to commemorate our time together. This photo was taken in the Crystal Kingdom in Coonabarabran, and I thought we still look like two silly girls, sitting on those kid size dinosaurs. LOL!

It has been a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit brief venture for me, into the Australian bush. I'm sorry you can't hear the birds, smell the eucalypts and feel the sun on your skin.

 Thank you for traveling with me.