About 13 kilometres out of Yass is the turn to the Lachlan Valley Way which heads up through Boorowa and Cowra and then onwards by various roads to Parkes. Boorowa has certainly changed a bit since the last time I went through there and it really has brightened up and is looking good which is great as it looked quite depressed for a long time. Cowra is as it always seems to be and not a great deal seems to change. It is always an impressive drive into town along the avenue with the golf club on one side and the big old trees along the other. I also went out to visit the Japanese Gardens which don't seem to have changed a bit in years and years. I know that they actually have, but it always seems to be comfortably the same and so peaceful (well it is when they turn off the ride on mowers and the blower vacs). I must say though I am not too sure about their town claim of being the Centre of World Friendship, who knows maybe there is a much friendlier place out there in the world, but I guess then again it may be. Cowra is driven by the "Breakout" that occurred in 1944 when 1104 Japanese Prisoners of War, who were imprisoned at a make shift camp near Cowra successfully overcame the machine gun posts using improvised weapons and bolted for the bush. This resulted in 231 Japanese prisoners being killed and a further 108 injured, and 4 Australian soldiers killed. The breakout is known for being the largest and bloodiest escape attempt of WWII. No wonder they aim for a bit of peace now is it.
Onward then to Parkes. Nice little country town, though not really that little at all, after all the major chain supermarkets don't invest in a town if it is too small do they, and they are all here. I went out to the tourist information centre to see what there was to see and who knew they actually have a small car museum on site, and they currently have two Morris Minors in there too! A 1955 SII Ute and a 1971 (late) Traveller in great condition. Actually all of the cars there look to be in very good condition, they are all privately owned and loaned to the museum for a period, so I guess that means the cars change over too to "keep it fresh". The on again further out of town, like 21 kilometers out of town, is the structure that the towns name is most widely know because of, The Dish. No it isn't some over enlarged plate of food from Masterchef or My Kitchen Rules (is there possibly a chance that somewhere out there someone doesn't immediately think of them when the hear that highly over used word, dish), it is the CSIRO Parkes Observatory that was the subject to a rather popular Australian movie of that name in 2000. The 64 metre diameter radio telescope has been in use since 1961 and was one of several radio telescopes used to receive the live TV footage from the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. It is a big beast and to be honest for something of that size I was surprised how quickly it can actually be repositioned.
Anyway tomorrow is heading for Bourke...
We're at Cowra, but is it really as the advertise?
The Cowra Japanese Gardens
The CSIRO operated "The Dish", over the Visitors Centre
Lovely afternoon for some intergalactic messeges
Count, meet the Dish
Nice sunny afternoon to visit Parkes and the Dish
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