7 April 2011 - Robert Martin Memorial Family Centre, Londonderry, NSW

Our last night here in Londonderry after a bright sunny day, hopefully the first of several to come.

We headed away this morning, first to Richmond, where we walked about the main centre and enjoyed the relaxed village feel of the place. We sat for a little while at the oval in the town centre on a park bench; Chris eating a packet of hot chips and I watching hundreds of corellas, some seeming to graze on the pitch and the remainder flying pointlessly and noisily from one tree to another above us.

From there we drove the short distance to historic Windsor, where we had called a few days ago. We found a quiet reserve by the Hawkesbury River to eat our lunch, then  found a car park in the centre of the town. We walked to the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery to see a visiting exhibition by artist GW Bot. This has merit, the artist shows great skill however we were not disappointed that none of the works were for sale. We did not linger but walked to the other end of the main street to call at the Hawkesbury Regional Museum. This was most absorbing, explaining the history of the Macquarie towns in the Hawkesbury Valley; Windsor, Richmond, Wilberforce, Ebenezer and Castlereigh. Only the first two have remained significant townships in this modern age, the others centres of rural settlements.

Lachlan Macquarie, known by many as the Father of Australia, was governor of New South Wales from 1809 and fulfilled the duties of that station over the next twelve years with wisdom and benevolence. Floods had swept through the valley over the years from its first settlement in 1789, one of the worst in 1806. In 1810 Macquarie decreed that settlement be only at the five towns and that it should follow the guidelines and design he laid down.

Here in Australia it seems that every second or third geographical feature is named after this Macquarie; Lake Macquarie, Port Macquarie, Macquarie Park, Macquarie Bank, Macquarie University, the Macquarie Centre, Macquarie Street, … and so on. Who needs a knighthood when one can have one’s name on every feature possible.

I was also very interested to learn about the production of mushrooms here in the region. Next to lawn turf, it is the main industry. We had observed large horticultural structures close to our camp and signs at the gate selling bags of “mushroom compost” for $2. We now understand what this is all about. In this state there are 200 commercial mushroom producers, employing 1,000 people, most here in the Hawkesbury. The compost in which the spore is mixed is made up freshly each week consisting mainly of straw from the horse stables from the breeders around the area, poulty poo from local farms and gypsum. The peat that is placed on top of that compost which is laid out on trays, comes from Germany! I do not know this for a fact, but the area of Germany from whence come my Bettjeman and Wellbrock ancestors is Teufelsmoor which is just made of peat. I wonder if it is from there the mushroom peat comes?

Looking back to the Penrith Lakes and surrounds

There were other interesting and well labelled exhibits, but not so many as to overwhelm a visitor. I thoroughly enjoyed the museum and would recommend it to any visitor receptive to learning the whys and wherefores of the locality.

We then drove a little south, and crossed the Hawkesbury River at Agnes Banks, and drove up in to the Blue Mountains, stopping at a lookout overlooking the Penrith Lakes and the quarry, Penrith, the river and surrounding countryside as far as the skyscrapers of Sydney centre, standing in the haze on the far horizon. We continued south east to Springwood where we joined the main road which we will take to Katoomba tomorrow and came east again back to Penrith and so back to camp.