Goulburn and Taralga
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2006
1
6
11
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Goulburn,
Australia
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Goulburn is only about an hour from Canberra, up the Federal Highway to the Hume Highway. Though I spent only a few minutes on the Hume Highway, it was enough to realise how different Australia is from the US. This was Australia Day weekend, which in terms of travel is roughly the equivalent of Labor Day in the US, coming at the end of the summer. However, I could drive the 110 kph speed limit on the Hume Highway, probably the busiest long distance road in Australia (it runs from Sydney to Melbourne). I imagine the beaches were still very crowded, at least by Aussie standards.
Goulburn has a population of about 25000 and was bypassed by the Hume Highway
barrell racing
. This is killing its main tourist attraction, a two story tall cement merino sheep nicknamed Rambo. Rambo is actually, in my opinion, kind of ugly (I mean, more than one would expect a two story tall cement sheep to be) but it does hold the record for the world's largest cement sheep, which I'm sure was fiercely contested. Apparently oversized roadside attractions are a big deal in Australia, and Rambo is one of a breed of large cement animals found on Australia's highways. So there you go.Goulburn is actually a pretty cute little town. Since it was the largest city in the area before Canberra was built, it has cathedrals, a three times weekly newsapaper, a long and pretty busy main street, and a beautiful train station. In short, despite the building of Canberra and the highway bypass, Goulburn is a functional small city. That may sound like damning with faint praise, but I've been in enough American cities of similar size to really appreciate Goulburn, with its downtown independent department store, street parking, and busy commercial shopfronts. There's no Walmart on the edge of town here, and the strip by the highway consists of a couple of chain gas stations and a McDonalds and nothing else.
Mass at the Catholic church Saturday night was also a surprise
bronc
. I expected a half-empty old church, built to be a cathedral and now struggling along on one priest half-time. While the one priest half-time part seems to be true (and that is true of even churches in Canberra), with a few pews closed due to falling plaster, the church was close to standing room only, actually.Saturday I dragged myself out of bed before checkout and drove the 50km to Taralga. My poor car didn't appreciate the hills. But I got there about 11 after missing the turnoff for the rodeo the first time through the town. Taralga has a population of about 200, I guess, and has a school, a police station, a couple of hotels and pubs and a club, a general store, and the showgrounds where the rodeo was. There were several thousand people at the rodeo, I would say. I'd say it was pretty impressive, though I've never actually been to a rodeo, so I don't really know. But they had one awesome event that involved riding a bronc in a regular saddle while, and this is the genius part, simultaneously cracking a stock whip. I really would have loved to be there when the group of people thought of that event. Otherwise, it was bull riders, timed roping events, barrell races, bronc rides, and something called Man vs. Bike vs. Horse, which was much less exciting than it sounds. It was fun, though I got a reverse raccoon sunburn.
Comments
keep up the good work
I like to read this stuff and look at the pictures!