After a lovely day spent at Salmon Ponds we headed back to New Norkfolk, the view on the way.

We drove through Bellata NSW to Narrabri.
Bellata is a small village of 529 people, it's an agriculture area. We didn't venture into the village, just kept going.
As you can see the ground is very dry and certainly not a great deal of colour.




We stopped for to have a walk in the area above, it's off to the side of the road, a 'rest area'.

Continuing south in Winter 2019 we headed to Millmerran to stay a few nights in the caravan park.
We stayed at Millerran on the way north and noticed that the lake within the caravan park was so much lower.
On the way back in October the lake had so much less water in it due to the drought,  even the caravan parks grass was dry and not green like before.  I believe it has rained since.

Millmerran is a rural town, population of about 1,600 people.

Firstly a photo of farmland as we travelled towards Millmerran in Queensland.





Once green and many caravans but this time hardly anyone travelling in the drought in October 2019.



In past years I can remember the water being to the top of that mound of soil. The photo below can remember the water being to that ridge.

Whilst staying at Stanley we headed inland for a drive through farmland and turning back towards Smithton same day.
Irishtown is small with farms scattered here and there and about 300 or so people in the area.

The photo is of onions, the second of farmland, then a watering hole and scenery. It's very pretty looking around that way with windy roads.

After Gretna we headed to Tarraleah in Highlands of Tasmania - more on Tarraleah a Hydro Town next post.
This is some of the scenery along the way taken from the vehicle as we moved along.






The map shows in red the area of Tarraleah, the road where it says Ouse, somewhere around that area along the highway these photos were taken.

The farm we lived on when first married was at the foot of what is called the Western Tiers, though we were some distance away.  Had a wonderful view of the country side plus a Creek/River ran through the bottom of the property.

There was an orchid next to the house, the trees were old and didn't bare much fruit as the previous owner had neglected them. So out they came. The photo below is 'old', my husband driving the tractor, our friend,  two of my cousins plus my father.

My husband is a Professional man but long before that he was a farmer of sorts working on his father's farm. Also driving his father's truck as his late dad had a carrying run, meaning a truck and tray which my husband drove into the city (Launceston), Tasmania and collected items for the farmers which included anything from small items to furniture. However, father in law sold the business after a few years, so that left my husband to work on the farm, which was only a small one but not enough work for two full time men. It was decided that my husband would work driving a milk tanker, collecting milk from far and wide taking it to where it was processed. This job took up to 8-12 hours a day with one weekend off, once a month back then. He was only 21 years of age.

Father in law, God love him would come to our house that weekend and ask my husband to help him, but that ended up being all day plus well into the night, which my husband got tired of after a few months, having no days off at all.
So the interesting thing is this: Every time my husband saw his dad coming up the road my husband would get on his mini bike and ride for several km's till his father went home :) I was left explaining that I had no idea where my husband was, and I didn't.  He was here one minute and gone the next!

Eventually after 8 years of living on the farm my husband said to me just out of the blew, 'We are moving to town'. So we did.  He studied, luckily was employed as well.  I was able to walk into a Professional job immediately upon arriving into the city, much easier back then than today. So a new life began for the farm boy, me always a city girl.