The town
Bingara (Aboriginal for creek) is a fascinating little town. Its not busy and you will drive through it before you know it, but it’s a town with an amazing history and is well worth a few days visit.
Up here, where the mountains meet the western plains, has always been a special place. At this point in this valley, there is a shallow river crossing which has long been a significant place for the aboriginal people.
In 1827 explorer Allan Cunningham came to this same crossing where he camped. He named the river the Gwydir River after his benefactor Lord Gwydir of Wales.
The discovery of gold in 1852 brought thousands and thousands of prospectors to this area. In the 1880s copper and diamonds were discovered causing a rapid development of the town. Bingara is one of the few places in Australia where diamonds have been found. In fact Bingara was the largest producer of diamonds in Australia at that time, and Bingara diamonds are the hardest in the world. At its peak there would have been more than 70,000 people working the goldfields. Today the population of Bingara is around 1,300.
Bingara is known for its art deco architecture and the Roxy theatre complex is the most outstanding example. This was built by 3 Greek immigrants as part of the post depression surge in rural Australia. After being unused and unloved for 40 years the building has now been restored to its original glory. It is regularly used for film and theatre.
One afternoon when I was in town taking photos of the buildings, a woman came out of the stunning Peters cafe attached to the Roxy and asked if I wanted to have a look inside. I spied Kerry across the road and called her over.
These people have fully restored the cafe to it’s 1950s glory. Everything is authentic, down to the aluminium milkshake holders, and the place looks fantastic. It will have a wine bar towards the back. There will be re-opening of the cafe on the next weekend. It’s a great adventure and we wished the couple well. It will certainly provide another attraction to Bingara.
There are many other buildings showing the same art deco or early Australian style. Of course the Imperial Hotel is far from the art deco, but still presents as an outstanding building.
To see some photos of Peters Cafe, the Roxy and other building click here.
Day 1
We had a great few hours at the Three Creek’s Gold mine – you do need to put aside some time for this and it is worth it.
This is a small working commercial mine that also opens to tourists who are looking to have a hands-on go at gold panning. Joy and Peter run the mine and Joy spent 3 or so hours with us teaching us the intricacies of both fossicking for quartz crystal and also panning for Gold.
We spent most of the time panning for gold next to the creek. We each panned down 5 or 6 pans, to a small sand mass, checked those out for nuggets (none) and put the remains onto a collection pan.
At the end Joy took that and panned it careful to extract the gold. It really was an enjoyable experience and although we didn’t get the big nuggets we were after, we came away with memories of a great time, lots of crystals and a small bottle containing a few specks of gold and a small piece of crystallised Gold.
The cost was $25 a head, well worth it. There is a video (8min) of our experience with Joy showing how to pan for gold – click here.
After that we went around the Rocky Creek glacial area. On the way we saw a smallish stand of grass trees, which includes some of the largest and oldest in Australia.
The Rocky Creek glacial area is an amazing geological feature resulting from glaciers which existed some 200 million years ago. All the original landscape features have been slowly eroded away.
At the end of day 2 we were heading into town for dinner when we felt a puncture. We tried to lower the spare wheel but Toyota does not make a simple operation like that very easy. In fact we were missing the piece that would fit into the lowering mechanism. So we called the NRMA and about 40 minutes later Richard had come and changed the wheel for us.
Day 2
First thing, I did try to repair the puncture using the plugs and the repair kit. However the hole, caused by a stone like an arrowhead, was so large that the plugs just would not hold. So we took it into the tyre repair place.
While the tyre was being repaired we visited the site of the Myall Creek massacre, about 30km out of town. On June 10, 1838 a band of white men, led by a squatter, killed 28 aboriginal women and children and old men, and burnt their bodies – the younger men were out collecting bark.
Amazingly, three white men brought the case to Sydney and many of the killers were arrested. This court case marked the first time in Australian history that white men were tried for crimes against aborigines. Seven men were hanged as a result. The squatter was never charged. The reconciliation Memorial is extremely well set up. It was quite a moving experience.
We then went up to Copeton Dam to have a look there, as it has been many years since we had been in the area. Unfortunately the state recreation area has now been privatised and it cost $12 a car just to drive in.
We had a look at the golf course, with the rough old sand greens, and then went down to have lunch by the water. This was the first time that we actually used the awning off The Cruiser – it worked very well as it was a very hot day.
Our accomodation
Although there are some free camping sites along the Gwydir River on the road to Copeton Dam (photo), 5 or more km out of town, we stayed in the Riverside caravan park in Bingara.
This is an older park but we really, really enjoyed staying there. The facilities are excellent, although a little dated, and it is very quiet. We have a good grassy drive-through site with a concrete slab, and the bush kitchen is also pretty good. There is a swimming pool right next door. Good value for $28 night.
There is a dump point close to the caravan park, halfway between the Road bridge and the swimming pool. We used that (our first time) on the way out of Bingara.
To see some photos of these places and our experiences click here