Floriade tour continuedYvette

Bushmen and bullocks by the Murrumbidgee

We decided to take our time on our road trip to Canberra for our recent Floriade 2013 visit. Much as we love the Hume Freeway for all it offers those who want to get where they’re going quickly, it regularly tempts one to divert and re-find the towns and picnic spots that were part of the rather more tedious but intermittently more stimulating Melbourne–Sydney journeys of old.

Being the intrepid adventurers and seekers of art, craft, flowers, design, food, wine and inspiring gardens that we are, we were delighted with the rewards reaped from our spontaneous decision to spend a night and morning in Jugiong, on the banks of the magnificent Murrumbidgee River in New South Wales.

The first delight was spotting horses, bushrangers, stockmen, bullock drays and carts in the main street. No, we hadn’t stumbled into a quaint ‘reproduction-of-how-it-was village’, nor had we become unwitting extras in the next Australiana nostalgia movie; we were looking at remarkable sculptures by local artist Keith Simpson. The life-sized and remarkably life-like works are fashioned from rusted, rusting and disused bits and pieces of scrap metal, farm machinery, boilers and chain mesh salvaged from farms, sheds and fence-lines throughout the district and beyond.

Simpson’s commitment to recycling and repurposing even extends to displaying his sculptures in a disused truck stop, though his hand-painted sign at the site directed us to a gallery nearby where we could view more of his works.

Stay tuned for more (and unexpected) Jugiong delights …