Culture country

Without intending to, I ended up staying in Forbes overnight, right beside the khaki Lachlan river. Forbes is in fact amazing: full of grand buildings from its gold rush past, and of water — the river, a huge lake, a swamp, and flowing creeks and irrigation channels for many kilometres beyond it. I kept being astonished that the creeks were running.

The screeching of hundreds of white cockatoos meant I took my hearing aids out…

I decided to vary my trip next day to follow the Sculptures Down the Lachlan road to Condobolin. What’s a few hundred kilometres here or there?

The first is a huge sand goanna, ‘Varanus’, by Glen Star, set in the Gum Swamp Wildlife Refuge.

It is formidable, both beautiful and intimidating.

The walk around the large Swamp takes you past several bird hides, each with small bird sculptures. It would be a wonderful place for waterbird watchers.

I made every sculpture stop on the 99km Lachlan Valley Way to Condobolin, but I’ll only show you the ones that moved me most, by their reference to the past, especially the Indigenous one.

‘Tower’ by Stephen King was simple but powerful. The sculptures along the Way are all large, so setting them in bush or farm land or reserves was appropriate.

’Sonata’, by Suzie Bleach and Andrew Townsend, was a compelling contrast of the delicate and the mighty.

‘Brumbies’ Run’, by Brett Garling, was as vivid as life arrested.

This huge warrior, ‘Heart of Country’ by Damian Vick, was contemplative and evocative; looking back? A heart full of rocks? The gaps in an incomplete life, with country taken? It got me.

And lastly, ‘Between the Silence and the Heartbeat’, by Clancy Warner, where the red hearts on each sombre figure stood out, silently reminding us of all the First People who were no more and the heartbreak legacy for those left.

I felt bad for leaving them there…

Big tick to the Lachlan Valley, and although I did reach Condobolin (awful) I will leave the aftermath saga for next post.