Barraba

April 12, 2024

My Birthplace

Tamworth to Barraba

It’s hard to describe just how warm and welcoming the feeling is when you ride into the small town where you born and lived the first ten years of your life.

It’s truly wonderful to see relatives and family friends, and places, which have meant so much for so. Our family have been in the Barraba area for at least 160 years so the connections are very deep.

There’s even a large B&W poster of your mother on the wall of the IGA supermarket. 🙂

We rode about 100km north today. The weather was perfect and the hills were gentle. The traffic was heavier than I expected, but wasn’t too bad

Thankfully the donations to the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation scholarship fund are still coming in and it’s well on the way to the goal.

Morning tea stop cafe in Manilla. Cauliflower soup and tropical smoothie.

Remnants of the rail line to Barraba. There’s a proposal to bring this back to life as a Rail Trail which would be an excellent economic boost to the towns along the route.

The Water Diviner silo art on the southern edge of Barraba.

Joel surveying the wonders of silo art from a safe distance

Our former family home built by my parents in the 1950s and almost destroyed by a massive flood in early 1964. A natural disaster which forced a few major decisions and charges by our family.

A Barraba dog very keen to play with the cycle tourers.

Welcome to Barraba by the remarkable Brian Coote. Brian’s a retired pharmacist, avid photographer, traveller, historian, writer and wise elder of the Barraba district.

This plaque in Barraba records the remarkable war history of my hero Jimmy Darlington. Jimmy was a workmate of my grandfather and is related by marriage. I had the good fortune of knowing Jimmy in my childhood because he frequently visited my grandparents who I lived with for a while after the disastrous 1964 flood.

A Barraba icon. The town clock and war memorial.

The local IGA was a department store in the 1950s and 1960s. My mother worked in administration there. She’s now front and centre of this historic poster print in the entry way of the supermarket.

Uncle Don. 90 years old and still active.

With family friend Noel Matthews. He worked as a carpenter & builder with my dad for many years.

Today's ride: 102 km (63 miles)
Total: 772 km (479 miles)

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