Discovering Country Towns – Day 1

Last week I wanted to deliver some historic papers in Clare and we decided to make an overnight stay. Having a dog meant we had to find a place where he’d be welcome and the best spot turned out to be a B&B at Farrell Flat, a place I’d never been. Driving across Adelaide midweek with roadworks and traffic slowing us down meant I was ready for a break when we reached Balaklava even though we’d only travelled about 110 kms!

Map of the mid-north area we visited.

Was the chimney an afterthought?

The Terminus Hotel -the pubs seem to be impressive buildings

Art Deco maybe? Fluoro jackets were in abundance.

Perfect country town image.

Next stop was a deserted farmhouse on Templeton Road, a backroad to Blyth.

Luxury home of numerous feral pigeons.

Room with a view.

Pioneers needed to be self reliant, it was a long way to a neighbour.

Blyth was where my dad was born, his family owned the Flour Mill at the time.

Looks like there could have been a Flour Mill here.

No sign of any old Mill.

A golfer will always find a lost ball somewhere!

Stylish pub – of course

Blyth main street on Thursday afternoon.

How much is that doggie in the window?

Next stop was Clare, unfortunately the online info I had was wrong and I wasn’t able to drop off my papers but we did enjoy some lunch and a walk around town.

Impressive use of natural resources and forward thinking.

National Bank

The Library seems to be the same design.

After Clare we were ready to discover the treasures of Farrell Flat. There are more houses in the town than we realized, most are on bigger blocks and there are plenty of trees and shrubs hiding houses. There is a Primary School in the town.

Our B&B

The Fruiterers

Our room – kitchen and bathroom through the door.

Lovely backyard garden.

Fantastic walled garden – walls built by our host.

Silo Art

The old railway station now a private residence.

Water Tower for the steam trains.

We took a drive to Mintaro, all I knew about it was that slate came from there but the whole town was like a trip back to the 1800s and is heritage listed. We didn’t go to the mansion, Martindale Hall, instead we walked around the street investigating the old buildings most have been restored and other are still undergoing work.

The Carpenter’s Workshop

Plaques like these are on all the buildings.

Magnificent old Fig Tree.

The Pub

Not far out of town, quarrying slate.

Back at our B&B we relaxed in the gardens until we became aware of TRAFFIC which we investigated. There were lots of utes and a big bus was stopped outside the Institute, it was a School Bus dropping off kids from Clare High School and parents had come in from the farms to collect them.