For a start, if you draw a line on a map in a north-easterly direction from Grenfell and a line in a north-westerly direction from Cowra, these two lines will intersect at Gooloogong.
Alternatively, Gooloogong is on Lachlan Valley Way roughly midway between Cowra and Forbes and only a kilometre from the south bank of the Lachlan River. It’s also on Warraderry Way, a less-than-major back road that connects Grenfell to Canowindra. And it’s midway between Rockhampton and Hobart as the crow flies.
But it’s not Evonne Gooloogong’s hometown. That would be Barellan, where a Big Tennis Racquet recognises its most famous daughter.
Gooloogong has two claims to fame: a log cabin hall and a friendly pub with good tucker. It was the second of these two that drew us there.
When we left Nicholls at 9:30am it was 10°, calm and sunny and there was a fair bit of school holiday traffic. By the time we rounded Yass it was down to 9° and the northern horizon was looking decidedly cloudy. And when we paused for coffee at Murrumburrah there were more clouds than there was blue sky. At least the temperature had climbed back up to 10°.
From Murrumburrah we rode via Kingsvale and Young onto Henry Lawson Way. Eighteen kilometres north of Young (where it was 11°) we turned left onto Old Forbes Road to get a close look at the imposing Weddin Mountains, where bushranger Ben Hall is reputed to have hidden out in a cave in the 1860s.
Unfortunately, the mountains were shrouded in low cloud (and they aren’t that imposing anyway) and the road was wet from showers that were moving through the area. But the countryside was in fine shape, with vivid green wheat and canola crops and pastures pushing their way skywards, farm dams brimming and lambs and calves looking plump, juicy and delicious.
Old Forbes Road took us onto Mary Gilmore Way and into Grenfell. Bypassing Grenfell’s CBD, we headed north-east on Gooloogong Road, which after a while changed its name to Warraderry Way, and into Gooloogong. It was now an almost tropical 12° and overcast.
The building housing the pub is quite extensive but much of it is given over to shops that appear to have closed eons ago, leaving the pub itself huddled in the left-hand end. The eight of us grabbed a big table in the modest dining room, which was warmed by an open fire.
Lunch was delicious (I had lamb cutlets with chips, gravy and a beaut assortment of vegies) and we had some interesting conversations with locals and other travellers. Oh, and amongst ourselves, of course. Who knew that you could have one normal kidney-shaped kidney and one round one and still walk and talk?
After lunch we ducked into Cowra for petrol and returned home by the usual route. The roads had been wet but the showers had somehow managed to miss us and by the time we reached Canberra the sky was again clear and sunny – as it had been all day in the Socialist Republic. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all.
- Ian Paterson Honda GL1800
- George Attard Triumph Tiger 800XRT
- Alan Munday Yamaha FJR1300
- David Brown Kawasaki ZRX1200S
- Kevin Sherman Indian
- Peter Thomas BMW G650GS
- Butch Wills BMW K1100
- Chris Dietzel Kawasaki GTR1400
