The Tingle Factor Box

Roaming Roy Finds A Spanish Front - James Theatre Dungog

This week, with Mothers Day here, Roy thought it was time to take his Mum and Grandma to the local cinema. He thought a cinema would be interesting to write up, but it couldn’t be any old theatre though, it had to be one which was interesting and different. When he heard that the James Theatre in Dungog had reopened, he was very excited and wanted to share some of his photos of the building which he took on a visit a few years ago.

The James Theatre, which many people will know of due to the Dungog Film Festival, is located in Dungog, not far from Gloucester. To get to Dungog you can come by either Clarence Town Road or Stroud Hill Road. There is plenty to see in Dungog, with parks, local shops, a tourist information centre and cafes. The theatre itself is at 6 Brown Street, which is not far from the local train station.

James Theatre, which is also known as the Dungog Theatre or Dungog Picture Show is reputedly the oldest purpose built cinema still operating in Australia. It is a beautiful, Spanish style building, which adds character and charm to the historic town. The first film to be screened in the town was shown in the School of Arts in 1897, which was not long after films were first shown in America and Europe! The history of the theatre on the current site though doesn’t begin until 1912, when the Dungog Electric Lighting Company, set up theatre seating and a screen. There was seating for 1000, but the theatre at that time was an outdoor theatre with no roof.

In 1917, James Stuart on whose land the theatre was operating, took over the business and began constructing a building (including a roof!) to house the theatre. The original building didn’t look quite the same as the one we see today though as in July 1930 the theatre had a massive overhaul and facelift to accommodate the ‘talkies’. It is thought that the Spanish style facade was added on to the original building at this time, and the screen moved to the other end of the hall. There was seating for 650 people in the newly renovated theatre, and the front section had a flat floor and removable seats to allow for dances and other community activities. A stage, supper-room and dressing rooms were also added. In 1980 the theatre was purchased by the council as a community centre and the cinema continued to operate until 2011. After a short hiatus, new projection equipment has been installed and the cinema has reopened, though the film festival which it is famous for remains under threat, with a new community group attempting to reinvigorate and relaunch the festival.

Roaming Roy Finds Life In Miniature - Gloucester Tops

This week, with the weather getting cold and winter approaching, Roy decided it was time to show some of the pictures he took on his last trip to Gloucester Tops. Roy loves the Barrington and Gloucester Tops areas and is fascinated by the different types of plants which he sees there. One of the things which intrigues him most is the ‘life in miniature’ which he has noticed in the high, subalpine areas.

If you would like to visit Gloucester Tops you will need to follow Gloucester Tops Road. The road is sealed for some distance, but much of it is dirt and some even travels though farms – so watch out for cows! There are 6 river crossings to make, but they all have proper fords and we saw some quite small cars which had made the trip. Obviously, take care on these river crossings and NEVER enter flood waters. There is a flood detour which we saw signposted.

The areas which fascinate Roy in the Gloucester Tops are the subalpine areas. Subalpine areas are just under what is called the alpine area where it is too cold for trees to grow. In the subalpine areas it is cool all year round and much of the water which the plants receive comes from snow and ice. Until this snow and ice melts, the water is locked away and the plants can’t benefit. There is only a short growing season for plants in subalpine areas because of the cold and often it is also very windy and open. In Australia there are few species of tree which can grow in these harsh environments, and the main one is the Snow Gum. This tree is the hardiest of all of the eucalyptus. Unlike trees which grow in such cold conditions elsewhere in the world, the Snow Gum is an evergreen, adapting to have branches which droop under the weight of snow and allow the snow to fall off the leaves.

Other plants in the subalpine regions have made different adaptations. Plants in the subalpine areas have to grow quickly, with the time from flower to seed to germination being short because of the short growing season. Often the seeds can stay dormant in the winter and will not actually germinate until they detect a period of moist conditions which means the snow is melting and the warm growing season is starting. As water is not always easily available, the leaves are often tough, small and leathery to reduce the evaporation, and some are even rolled or covered with hairs! The most obvious adaptation though is in the size of plants. As you can see in the photos, there are plants which we see elsewhere growing in the subalpine zone, but they are very small! Even the Snow Gum is a small gum tree which only occasionally reaches 20 metres tall and usually only grows to between 4 and 8 metres tall!

Roaming Roy Finds A Marriage Place With A Difference - Marriage Trees

Earlier this week, Roy was going through his photo archive of last years visits, looking for interesting places which he hadn’t yet written up. He came across photos from his visit to Raymond Terrace and remembered the beautiful ‘Marriage Trees’ and fascinating building he discovered in the old central business area. He was really taken with the history in this quiet street and the beauty of the streetscape when he visited and wanted to share the photos with his friends.

If you would like to visit Raymond Terrace it is located at the confluence of the Hunter and Williams Rivers and is a little less than 30 kilometres North from Newcastle along the Pacific Highway. The Pacific Highway does not run through the centre of the town, but you can easily detour into Raymond Terrace by taking Adelaide St which runs all the way through Raymond Terrace before rejoining the Pacific Highway. There is, of course, plenty to see in the town with shops, parks, restaurants, walks and plenty of history and heritage! The area which particularly interested Roy is King Street, the original business centre.

There are lots of historic areas in Raymond Terrace with the area first being explored in 1797 by a member of Lieutenant John Shortland’s party, whose name was Raymond. Lieutenant Colonel Paterson, who was the then governor, visited in 1801 and was followed by Governor Macquarie who visited in 1812 and 1818, both times with the view to establishing a settlement. The town site was surveyed in 1822 and 1823 and Raymond Terrace was gazetted in 1837. Land sales began in 1838 and not long after a courthouse, police station, flour mill and punt were in use and soon the area was an important shipping port along the rivers.

By 1840 the main centre of business in Raymond Terrace was King Street which is only a short distance from the river bank. King Street was also the centre of ‘personal’ life in these early days, the centre being two heritage listed fig trees standing majestically about half way down the street. These trees were reputedly used in the early days of Raymond Terrace, before the Churches were built, as the location for weddings. King Street was abandoned as the centre for business in 1855 when the street flooded.

Roaming Roy Discovers A Spiky Character - Echidna

This week, Roy was going through some of his photos which were taken last year when he found photos of a very exciting event – meeting an echidna in the wild. Roy loves Australian animals and thinks that they are amazing creatures unlike anything else found in the world. He loves two specific animals most though, the platypus and the echidna. These animals are even more unique than the Australian marsupials, and Roy thinks they are fascinating and beautiful. When he was lucky enough to see an echidna in the wild, he was very excited and had to share the experience!

Echidna’s can be found in many temperate areas of Australia and are also found in parts of New Guinea. Roy has often seen them roaming along the edge of the road (and always warns his friends who are travelling in the bush to watch out for them!), but has never had much luck in getting photographs with them, because they are quite shy and tend to disappear in the grass or curl up in a ball. This echidna, who we met on the road to Barrington Tops, wasn’t too worried about Roy though, and was happy to hang around looking for ants while Roy took his photos.

Echidna’s are sometimes known as the spiny ant eater because their entire body, other then the underside, face and legs is covered with sharp spines. They are shy, slow creatures which are generally solitary, other than at mating times. They have sharp claws which they use to tear apart logs and mounds looking for food, mainly ants, termites, insects and larvae, and for digging. If they are frightened they will dig themselves into the ground so that only their spines are visible, or if the surface is too hard, will curl into a tight ball so that their spines protect their bodies. Many people Roy knows think echidnas are the Australian version of a hedgehog or American ant eater. With their sharp spines and long snout they do look a little similar to these creatures, but they are actually not related to them at all! The echidna is a monotreme, and there is only one other species of monotreme other than the echidna – the platypus. Roy met a platypus at Jenolan Caves and if you would like to read about this meeting, click here.

So what is so special about monotremes like the echidna? Monotremes are mammals but they also have characteristics which are reptilian, including a lower body temperature than most mammals. The biggest difference between monotremes and other animals though comes in the way it gives birth to and feeds its young. All mammals other than monotremes give birth to live young, but monotremes like the echidna lay eggs like a reptile. Echidnas lay their eggs directly into a pouch and after 10 days they hatch. Unlike reptiles, who produce no milk, the young of monotremes, after they hatch, suckle milk from their mother, like mammals. The echidna has no nipples though and the milk is produced through patches on the skin. The young stay in the mothers pouch for about 2 or 3 months (they leave when they start to get too spiky for Mum!), but the mother continues to feed them milk until the baby echidna is about 6 months old.

Roaming Roy Babbles On - Babblers

This week, Roy felt like doing a little bird watching. Roy enjoys sitting, watching birds flit about in the trees, and when he discovered that there was a walk dedicated to a specific bird, the Babbler, in Gloucester, he had to find out more. On his last trip to the area, he investigated the walk and visited a few times in the hopes of seeing  the little birds and we were thrilled when we eventually had success.

If you would like to visit the Babbler Walk, it is located in Gloucester, just off Cemetery Road. To find the walk drive along the road until you nearly reach the cemetery. The Babbler walk, and the fenced habitat area will be on your left. There are interpretive signs and a walk along the outside of the fence, and you might see the babblers flitting about in the trees. A local man also told us that the babblers are often seen on the ground or nesting in the trees in the cemetery, especially if it has recently been mown as they feed on the insects the mowing stirs up.

The Babblers which are seen along the Babbler Walk are Grey-crowned Babblers. They are medium sized birds (not too big, not too small) with curved black beak and a black line from the beak through the eye. They have white eyebrows, a grey stripe on the centre of their head and white tips on their feathers. They don’t fly particularly well and you can may see them hopping around on the ground. They live in family groups and you often see them in large groups. They are also quite talkative and when they are feeding they can be heard chattering to each other. Each group has one matriarch who is the only breeding female in the group, though others help to bring up the babies.

So why do these birds have a specific, fenced habitat? The Babbler is common in NSW, and has a wide distribution area, but their numbers have been falling in areas east of the Great Dividing Range. In the Gloucester shire their numbers have dramatically declined, and the council decided to try to stop them disappearing altogether. They found several family groups in the area and created the fenced habitat to stop foxes, cats and dogs from attacking the birds. The fence does not completely enclose the area with no ‘roof’ and the birds can come and go. The fence also helps to preserve the habitat where the Babblers live as loss of habitat has caused the decline in numbers. When a group becomes isolated from other groups the birds cannot breed successfully and the numbers of birds drop. By keeping this area of habitat safe, the council hopes that the birds will continue to breed and remain part of the local area.

Roaming Roy Investigates A Grave Story - Joe Governors Grave

This week, Roy decided it was time to share another bushranging tale with his friends. He knows that many of his friends are fascinated by stories of bushrangers, but also knows that most of his friends only know about one or two of these Australian outlaws. Most know the name Ned Kelly, but there were other, fascinating bushrangers who roamed Australia. This week, Roy thought he would visit Joe Governor’s grave, and share the story of this important bushranger and his more famous brother, Jimmy.

Roaming Roy Takes Stock - Quirindi Stock Brands

Earlier this year, Roy enjoyed a trip into an area he had not explored before. Roy had never been to the Liverpool Plains area before, and even this trip was only for a day, but he loved what he saw. He visited the town of Quirindi, and was fascinated by the plaques set into the pavement outside the shops. The plaques were stock marks, and Roy wanted to find out more about why they were there, and what they were.

If you would like to visit Quirindi, follow the New England Highway to the junction of the New England and Kimilaroi Highways. Take the Kimilaroi Highway and you will run through Quirindi. There is plenty to keep you entertained in the town with shops, cafes, parks and of course the stock marks to see. The stock marks are set in the pavements on Station and George Streets, and it is well worth a wander along the streets to have a look at some of the designs.

We don’t exactly know when farming began on the Liverpool Plains. There is however documentary evidence that there was stock at the very least moving through the area as early as the 1820s. In the early days of farming in the area though, fences were not very common and herds of animals, particularly cattle, were very big. It was important that farmers could show which animals belonged to them, especially if the animals were being taken to market when it was possible that your animals and another farmers animals might get mixed up. Branding was the best way for farmers to ensure their animals were identified. A metal branding iron would be heated in the fire and then applied to the animal (on the neck, rump, thigh etc), leaving a mark behind. Each station had its own stock brand which would be used to ensure their animals were clearly identified as belonging to them. The brands which are featured in the streets of Quirindi are examples of these brands, mainly of those associated with known cattle and sheep owners in the area.

When there were new calves they also had to be branded as bushrangers and cattle thieves liked to steal unbranded animals which they could then sell. In 1866 a law was passed which made it illegal for station owners not to brand their animals, and there are stories of cattle inspectors being run off properties or even being plied with drink to stop them confiscating unbranded animals. Even today animals are still branded, though there are increasingly sophisticated methods of applying an identifier to animals, including freeze branding which is almost painless for the animal.

Roaming Roy Finds A Blue Aussie - Blue Heeler

This week, with Australia Day so close, Roy wanted to visit something or somewhere which was quintessentially Australian. There are plenty of places which are associated with European colonisation, and many things which are associated with Australia, like Vegemite, Meat Pies and Kangaroos. There are some quintessentially Australian things which people don’t tend to think of though, and Roy decided he would like to visit one of those. So this week Roy decided it was the perfect time to visit Hunter, the Blue Heeler.

If you would like to visit Hunter, the giant Blue Heeler statue, it is located in Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley. He is on the corner of Hill and Bridge Streets, just up the street from the Tourist Information Centre, and is so big you can’t miss him! He is on a street corner, not in a park, so he is very prominent.

The Blue Heeler is a type of dog. You might wonder what is so special about it to be classified as ‘quintessentially Australian’, but the Blue Heeler is the Australian Cattle Dog and was bred in Australia, for Australia. Early in the history of Australian colonisation by Europeans, farmers were opening up huge areas of land to breed cattle (and sheep), but they also had to be able to round them up again. In those days, the cattle stations were huge, with lots of rugged areas and not many fences. In fact, branding was used to allow farmers to tell which animals belonged to them as it was not uncommon for herds to meet up! Cattle were mustered (rounded up) only once or twice a year so the cattle were really very wild.

With such wild cattle, it was impossible to muster the cows without dogs, but the European dogs which were being used were not able to cope with the hot, rugged conditions. Many of the farmers and stockmen started to experiment with creating an Australian dog, suited to the conditions. In the 1840s a man named Thomas Hall had the first (and original) success. He lived at Dartbrook, not far from Muswellbrook and had bred the popular English breed, the Northumberland Blue Merle with the Australian native Dingo. This crossbreeding created the Blue Heeler. Unlike the English dogs, it could withstand the heat and rugged conditions and also worked quietly. The English dogs had often scattered the cattle by barking, but the Blue Heeler was quiet, only nipping the heels of the cattle if they weren’t behaving. Today, the Blue Heeler is found all over the world and is a popular, reliable work dog.

Roaming Roy Kisses Under The Mistletoe

This week, with the end of the Festive season approaching, Roy decided he wanted to tell his online friends a little about one of the famous Christmas and New Year plants, mistletoe. Many of his Australian friends think Mistletoe is just a tradition for people who live in the Northern Hemisphere, as they assume it doesn’t grow in Australia. Although we do not have the same types of Mistletoe as our Northern Hemisphere friends, we do have plenty of Mistletoe plants! So this week, Roy thought he would like to tell you a little about them.

Roy sees Mistletoe Plants all over the place. Some are growing near where Roy lives, but the ones shown in this post were found on Burning Mountain and at Cattai National Park. Roy has seen Mistletoe in almost all of the places we have visited, yet so many of his friends don’t even realise it is there. Mistletoe grows in other trees and we usually see it in Australia in Gum Trees. Where you see a dense ‘ball’ of foliage hanging from a branch you may well find it is a mistletoe plant growing in the tree. They are particularly easy to see if the branch and surrounding area (or the tree) is dead or unhealthy!

Strictly speaking, Mistletoe refers to a single plant, Viscum album L, which is the plant so famous in Christmas celebrations (of course kissing under the Mistletoe is also a popular New Year activity!) This plant played an important role in many early religions, including that of the Druids, and was thought to have mystical, magical properties. It grows across Europe, in America and into Asia where it is found in Japan. More generally though, Mistletoe refers to a group of plants which grow as parasites on other trees and shrubs. In Australia, we think of Mistletoe as a European plant which is important to  Christmas celebrations, yet Europe only has one native species of Mistletoe, far fewer than the 85-90 species we have in Australia!

You might wonder, if Mistletoe is so common in Australia, why you don’t see it growing alongside the road, but it is often there, only far above your head, growing in the trees. So how does it get into the trees in the first place? Mistletoe produces striking berries (most famously white, but often actually red) which are popular with birds, including honeyeaters, and a bird actually called ‘the Mistletoe Bird’. The seeds have evolved so that they are not destroyed when the bird eats them, but come out the other end intact, ready to grow. They are left on trees (especially by the Mistletoe Bird who actually wipes the seed on the tree when going to the toilet) where they grow into the famous plant. If you would like to learn more about Mistletoe, and about the stories and myths surrounding it, click here.

Roaming Roy Putters Along The Putty Road

This week, Roy felt it was time for a road trip. NSW has so many fascinating old roads which provide not only a little history, but often also breathtaking scenery and views. Unfortunately, many of his online friends don’t tend to know they even exist. There was one route in particular Roy had been wanting to travel for many years, and he wanted to share the road with his friends. So this week, Roaming Roy Putters Along The Putty Road.

If you would like to travel the Putty Road, it travels between Singleton and Windsor and you can enter from either end. Roy went from Singleton to Windsor. The Putty Road links the New England Highway in Singleton to Windsor Road. There are very few facilities along the road, but it is a beautiful drive and there are plenty of places to pull over and enjoy a picnic. The road is about 150 kilometres long and makes for a lovely morning or afternoon out and about.

The Putty Road is a very old route, with its origins dating right back to 1820 when John Howe, a police constable in Windsor, set off to reach the Hunter River. He took a group of men and 6 horses with him, along with 2 Aboriginal guides. Their trip was successful and Howe wrote to Governor Macquarie to inform him of the successful expedition. In 1823 the route was opened as a road, known as the Bulga Road or Parsons Road, but it was a rough and difficult trip. The road itself was long, rough and hard, but it also had some areas which were extremely steep to add to the difficulty of travelling. In fact, travelling down into the valley at Putty itself was so difficult that people had to unpack their horses and carry their loads down themselves!

As well as being difficult to travel though, the road was very dangerous. The main reason why people used the road was to drove cattle, but by 1827 it was also well known as a cattle rustling route and later still it became known for bushrangers. People wanting to travel the road had to apply for permits which stated how many people would be in the group, what animals they would be taking and how many, what goods they were taking and how long they thought their trip would take. It wasn’t until 1942 that the road was rebuilt to allow modern road traffic to use it, though the road remained a reasonably rough dirt road still. It would not be until 1963 that the road was sealed. Today, the road is a well maintained and popular route with beautiful views and plenty of history. It is a good road, but can be dangerous and there are some very windy sections. It is used as a shortcut to the Hunter Valley by many truck drivers and unfortunately many have died. There is a truck drivers memorial to commemorate them.