Statues, sculptures, space and the slow-life

When people think of Parkes and Forbes, they think ... the gold rushes in the 1800s, the bushranger Ben Hall, the movie The Dish, agriculture hub, more recently, the devasting floods and Elvis. Here is our experience.

Wednesday: Parkes
Currajong (due to lots of kurrajong trees in the area) was originally founded in 1853 and was a settlement to support thousands of hopefuls searching for alluvial gold. It then became called Bushmans, named after the local gold-mine called Bushman's Lead. Then in December 1873, after Henry Parkes, the Premier of NSW visited the town, it was again renamed to Parkes.

There is still evidence of gold mines - there is an active gold mine still pulling copper and gold out of the ground about 27km north of Parkes, using open cut methods as well as underground. As well as evidence of the immigrants, particularly the Chinese, of whom many chose to stay in the area after the gold rush died down.

Our 8km walk today took us up to the top of Memorial Hill, a war monument, that overlooks the town. We found it interesting that during the construction of the memorial in the 1920s, builders cycled the 33+km from Forbes each day, rather than using local builders from Parkes.

On the way we passed by this local character, Kevin Dumesney, who is part of the Who Is Parkes, art trail that features huge banners of locals across various regional towns.

The town has certainly embraced a quirky annual festival, featuring who other than Elvis Presley. Coinciding with his birthday in January, Parkes hosts an annual event celebrating his music and perpetuating the legend. 2025 will be the event's 32nd year - almost as old as Elvis was when he passed away (which was 42). Many of the shops in town feature something about the musician. There is a Graceland Motel in town, as well as a bit of street art.

The architecture in town is interesting too, with every era represented from Victorian, Edwardian, Californian Bungalows, Art Deco and odd-mixes of styles including rounded corners, bricks and walls - possibly from the 1930s?

Thursday: Forbes & the Parkes Observatory
We hopped on the bike today and headed 33km south down the Newell Highway to Forbes. You may remember Forbes being in the news for the floods they experienced in late 2022 with the Lachlan River; other towns that were affected included Condobolin and Hillston. Forbes is smaller than Parkes, but was established earlier, around 1817. With the look of the buildings around town, it appears to have benefited from the gold money, as the administrative and government buildings in Forbes are much grander than those in Parkes - the town hall, post office and courthouse.

As well as being the area that Ben Hall lived and worked as a stockman, station hand even owning his own station in partnership with his brother-in-law, prior to his bushranger days from 1862 to 1865, Forbes was also home to Ned Kelly's sister in the late 1880s (perhaps moving away from Victoria to distance herself from the tarnished Kelly name). Kate Hennessey (she changed her name from Kelly) had developed some fine horse skills, often seen breaking in horses (to her new husband's ire), and also winning the Wagga Cup. She married a local, William 'Bricky' Foster who was remembered as a 'wild fellow', a man who could be both abusive and physically violent, having been charged in the Forbes Magistrate's Court with using abusive language in his own house to his wife (although domestic violence was not a criminal offence at the time, a concerned neighbour had asked the police to intervene). Unfortunately, 5 months later, Kate's body was found in a local dam, wedged behind a log about 10 feet from the bank, and after a police investigation, the Magistrate returned the verdict of death by misadventure: 'that the deceased Catherine Foster was found drowned in the lagoon on the Condobolin Road, on the 14th instant, but there was no evidence to show how the deceased got into the water.' Kate's brother drove from Greta in Victoria to collect the surviving children so that their grandmother (Kate's mother), Ellen Kelly, could care for them.

When we rode into Forbes, the Lachlan Arcade attracted our attention. This amazing old building was ...

... opened in 1892 by Jewish merchant Daniel Berger. A brick and stone arcade with mezzanine level with some original features remaining, a large glass fanlight is featured on the first floor front wall. In its early years to 1904, the shop was a veritable heaven for Forbes shoppers, stocking everything from dress materials, men’s suits in silk or serge, boots, cards, groceries, wine and beer to novelties of all kinds. Since this time it has been a garage, paintshop, second hand shop, café and restaurant.

We dropped in for a cuppa, as it has now opened as the Sylo Café as a social enterprise, employing local people who have not had access to work or training opportunities previously. Every dollar spent at Sylo will be used to create jobs or address social issues in the community.

Forbes is also the launching place of a permanent, outdoor art trail - Sculpture Down the Lachlan. Here are some samples around Forbes ...
Family Matters outside the Wiradjuri Dreaming Centre, helps to tell the story of Wiradjuri culture.  It depicts two Indigenous women with child returning from gathering food.

Wiradjuri Dreaming Story Poles that talk about different aspects of Wiradjuri culture: Muraymin (religion), Yibirmanha (arts), Dhangaang (food), Ngangaaligu (agriculture), Buyabil (organisation), Widyungura (technology), Murunngidyal (domestic life) and Miyagan (family). The five story poles on the other side of Lake Forbes depict key wildlife that are special to the Wiradjuri people.

Rosa waiting patiently outside the Post Office:

The Pyramid read more about these amazing artists, Gillie and Marc.

The artists are best known for their beloved hybrid characters – Rabbitwoman and Dogman – who tell the autobiographical tale of two opposites coming together to become best friends and soulmates. The Rabbit and the Dog, as unlikely animal-kingdom companions, represent diversity and acceptance through love.

And an amazing couple in the bush at the start of the Forbes to Condobolin road.
Varanus (Goanna - Gugga), a 6m tall monster of a sculpture in the bush near the wetlands bird hides

The Hunter shows that even with straight lines and hard materials, a talented artist can pick up the gracefulness of an eagle in flight

Do yourself a favour and come and experience this amazing sculpture trail - the pieces are simply stunning. We can't wait to see the remaining 10 scattered along the 100km route along the Lachlan River to Condobolin.

From Forbes we headed back to about 20km north of Parkes, to the CSIRO's radio telescope, more affectionately known as The Dish, from the 2000 film that tells the story of Parkes' role in relaying the pictures of the NASA Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. It was truly as big and awe inspiring to be there. Amazing science, well ahead of its time, and still playing a leading global role in discovering new stuff out in space, and innovations with technology. Feats of which we should all be proud.

Grown-up Katie M performed really well today - her first real run out while travelling. It reminded me that is really is a 3D experience when we're travelling on the bike. The sounds, touch (the wind in your face and on your legs, the vibrations as trucks pass us, the jolts as we hit the rough patches on poorly maintained roads, or corrugations on dirt roads), and smells (all the typical farm smells, fertiliser manufacturing and my all-time favourite smell of summer: freshly mown grass); all of which you miss out on when you're cooped up in a car or van.

Friday: Parkes
Another walk around Parkes today (again, we clocked up about 9km), starting up at Bushman's Hill, the site of the Bushman's Lead gold mine. Unfortunately, there are not many artefacts remaining to show life on a gold mine 100 years ago.

And looking back to Parkes township and up to Memorial Hill from our walk a couple of days ago.

We also explored the Wiradjuri Ampitheatre and Garradyang Cultural Garden, along with sculptures and scar trees.

Over the last few days, we've observed a bird new to us; a fat, fluffy feathered thing, quite often scurrying around and fossicking on the ground.

It is an apostlebird; apparently quite a broad distribution across the eastern states of Australia, but not in the more southern areas - maybe too cold for them? And while I was doing that bit of research, I stumbled upon something that has piqued my curiosity for a long while - how do you tell the difference between a raven and a crow? Apparently, it's minimal, and generally if you're in a capital city, it is easy as there is only one species. My two fun facts for today!!

Tomorrow, we skip a bit further north, onto Peak Hill.