Whistlers Rest

Back in the spring I took this photo of a briar rose on the block.  I was annoyed to read sometime later that these are considered an environmental weed and decided to reject their opinion.  However this weekend having spotted yellow rose hips in several parts of the block I may revise my attitude.

This is of course the time of year to be looking for seed heads.  The everlasting daisies are beginning to set seed.

I found only one plant of this daisy-like flower on the block ... nearly pulled it out when I was attacking St Johns Wort because it was a yellow flower. I left it because I don't know if it is native or a weed. I was somewhat surprised to see it set seed like this ... must be some sort of dandelion.  There is a native dandelion but is that one or them I wonder? There is a clump of giant dandelions down near the back fence.

There was train at Clandulla station this weekend. Triple Alco 44 Class locomotives (built between 1957 to 1968) pulling heritage carriages from Sydney to Kandos and return. The local with the dog told me that coal trains go through at 2 or 3 in the morning and cement trains at 4 or 5 in the afternoon so I will try to photograph a cement train one day. This train had to stop here while the drivers did some stuff in the little shed that is the only currently functioning part of the station.  They did their thing, then locked it up again, tooted the whistle and waved us goodbye as they headed back home. Also being back at the station reminded me that I didn't answer one of Julie's questions. The iron things in my recent photo are steel rail sleepers which seem to have taken over from the wood or concrete ones.

The neighbours are wary of me.  As soon as I neared the fence to take a photo they scooted back to put distance between us.

There was a spider's web stretched across my path and I noticed a tiny spider that glinted with a little bit of colour in the sunlight. My eyesight is not up to fine detail any more so I poked my camera in her direction and clicked a few times as she scurried along her web ... thinking something interesting might be picked up by my lens. I had no idea I had captured one of these exquisite creatures that I have seen once on another blog.

I noticed on the drive to Clandulla this weekend that the tree trunks in the forest are suddenly creamy yellow because the trees are shedding their bark.  I therefore looked keenly at the trees at Whistler's Rest to see if they were stripping.  Some are.

There is old style play equipment in the park opposite Whistlers Rest.  Clearly this is a backwater, otherwise long ago these would have been replaced by small plastic replicas with soft fake turf below. But let me hasten to add this this village is not dead and certainly is not dying -- it is home to 300+ people. I think because it is so close to Kandos, with regular transport to and from, it didn't quite grow up as a town so has been more of a dormitory for miners and railway workers.  One day when we get to stay overnight rather than just quick visits I will walk the town and show you some of the houses most of which are quite modern and well kept.  

Here us the old school which now seems to be a private residence but the boys and girls toilets and shelter shed in the yard attest to its former life.

Here's a photo of the shop taken from the railway yard. I reckon it's been a while since anyone shopped there.  It seems there has only ever been one shop.  Back in the old days the butcher and other vendors came from Kandos and sold door to door. These days the short 6km trip to the supermarket at Kandos is nothing.  What has me wondering is that without a corner shop were is the heart of this community?  There is still much for me to discover in this town.

I understand a train trundles past our little abandoned station most days carrying coal all the way over the mountains to the sea at Port Kembla for export.  I have not yet seen one.

Sometimes old and abandoned is attractive. Other times just sad.  For me Clandulla station is a mix of both.

The line is maintained today for the same reason as it was built - coal.  There was a Clandulla coal mine which is now abandoned but a little further up the track the Charbon Colliery is still operating with both underground and open cut mining.

Back in the old days there was a twice daily service up the line to Mudgee.  Now the line is closed from Kandos onwards.  Today you'd wait a very long time in this breezy abandoned waiting room for a passenger train but the line itself is still open to freight trains.

Unlike other towns in the area which had a life as a staging post during the gold rush or serving rural communities, Clandulla seems to have sprung into existence with the arrival of the railway in 1884. The line was pushed through as far as Mudgee that same year. It took a while for this fledgling town to settle on a name.  The railway station began as Ilford but as the actual town of Ilford was 13 kms away that didn't seem suitable so it was renamed to Mornington 16 years later. But the locals apparently didn't like that name and within a couple of years had it renamed this time to Carwell but they didn't like that either so a couple of years later in 1905 is was renamed Clandulla and this time the name stuck. Clandulla is the name of the parish but where did the name of the parish come from?  I don't know.