Travelling Australia - Journal 2010  http://www.travelling-australia.info

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6-10 October 2010 - Gunnedah
We stayed in Gunnedah from the 5th to 11th of October. Caravan park occupancy had the same pattern as we had observed in Coonabarabran with a few longer-term stayers along one side and a series of drive through sites which began filling in the middle of the day with caravans remaining connected to their towing vehicle. These were gone early in the morning leaving the park peaceful for the stayers for a few hours. Gunnedah, population about 7500, is the service centre for a prosperous agricultural area with heavy emphasis on grain growing. Wheat is the most widely grown crop in the Shire of Gunnedah followed by sorghum, barley, maize and sunflowers. The large number of silos in the town attests to the importance of grain in Gunnedah's economy. Several silos are along the railway line - this is the North West line running between Sydney and Moree with one passenger train a day in each direction and a number of freight trains by day and by night. Grain, containers and coal are important items on the trains passing through the town. The Saleyards on the edge of town (claimed to be the second highest selling centre in New South Wales) confirms the importance of sheep and cattle to Gunnedah's economy. Trucks loaded with stock leaving the Saleyard can use the Oxley or Kamilaroi Highways providing good access in all directions.
	Agricultural land near Gunnedah with mountains in the distance. The saleyards are in the immediate foreground.
The town is located in the Gunnedah Coal Basin and coal has been mined for 130 years for local use then for export. Some mines closed during the economic downturn of the 1980s but several mines still operate in the Shire of Gunnedah and there is a Coal Handling Plant and Rail Loader in Gunnedah. Vast reserves of high-quality coal remain in the Gunnedah Basin and this agricultural centre is having to come to terms with a resurgent coal-mining industry interested in mining coal as well as coal-seam gas exploitation. The jobs and economic benefits of coal mining are generally welcome, but there is community concern about the impact of mining on water resources and mining companies are being limited in the procedures they may consider using. BHP is investigating a possible coal-mine at Carooma but several mining techniques, including an open cut mine on the floodplain, have been excluded by the potential approving authority.
	Miner statue on the edge of the shopping area publicly remembers a couple of lengthy strikes in underground coal mines near Gunnedah.
Gunnedah is on the Namoi River but the town uses bore water in the domestic water system and the river has not been developed into a significant feature. Indeed, the town as a whole is gradually moving away from the river and associated flooding. An older residential area adjacent to the river shows signs of being out of favour and newer residential areas on the other side of the railway line are on the lower slopes of Porcupine Hill and much higher above the river. Although this is an agricultural region it is far from uniformly flat. River floodplains around the town devoted to agriculture are level but many individual hills and mountain ranges, including parts of the Great Dividing Range to the east, are visible from the town. A basalt topped outcrop on the edge of town, known as Porcupine Hill, is surrounded by a nature reserve with a walking track and lookouts on top. The best lookout, over the town and surrounding plains and hills, can be reached by a bitumen road. Gunnedah has a well-supplied shopping centre but most shops, except Coles and Woolworths supermarkets, are closed on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Serious efforts have been made to make the town attractive to tourists and the Information Centre is well presented. The title of Koala Capital of the World is claimed and eucalyptus trees have been planted in corridors to allow koalas easy movement around the town but those animals proved elusive as far as we were concerned. A former water tower near the Information Centre has been converted into a Museum but opening hours are severely limited. This is the birthplace of Dorothea Mackellar, author of the poem My Country, and the town has a statue of Mackellar near the Information Centre. Following the theme of Australian Poetry a Poets Drive has been established around Gunnedah with an item of poetry by a different poet on plaques at selected points around the drive. The Poets Drive ends at the Lyrical Loos - public toilets with poetry recited via a loop recording. Something different.
	Statue of Dorothy MacKellar near the Information Centre commemorates the Gunnedah childhood of the famous poet.

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