eucumbene

There’s usually snow up here at this time of the year. But not this year.

We’d come up to the highest point in Eucumbene locality- almost 1600m- and nothing. Judging by the grass, there hadn’t been much at all this season.

That didn’t mean it wasn’t cold and that stuff belting against the windscreen was ice not rain.

Halfway up the Nimmo Road there’s this tree that they call Dog Tree. I didn’t take a photo. I couldn’t. I actually don’t know what I felt when I saw it.

At first it looked like there were long strips of bark hanging down from the tree. I didn’t have my glasses on. As we drove past we could see that the “bark” was in fact the carcasses of dead wild dogs shot by local landowners. I get that the wild dogs are a huge problem here- they can decimate a flock of sheep and take many lambs each year. The extremes of grazing in this high country are difficult enough without factoring in wild dogs. I get that too. There have also been reports of them stalking fisherman. I don’t get why they need to display them.

The cabin we stayed in was originally 2 sets of sleeping quarters. They have been joined together by a roof. Heavy curtains act as doors to the small bedrooms. We won’t talk about the beds. A pot belly stove kept us toasty warm.

I love the different textures used inside- a mix of weatherboard, corrugated iron roofing material, stained glass and hardwood floors. It made it cosy. The sort of casual, put together, shabby country chic that you couldn’t replicate even if you tried.

Down the road a bit is Eucumbene Dam. This was created back in the mid 1950s as part of the Snowy River Scheme- and is connected by tunnels through to Tumut and the Murrumbidgee. I remember dad telling us lots about this when we used to do the run across from Bombala (where I lived at the time) to Tumbarumba (where my Grandma lived) when I was a kid. My Dad’s home town was Tumbarumba, so he knew all about it.

We used to go past the big facility at Tumut and the Talbingo, and all of these noisy bridges. There would be the 6 of us in the Kingswood wagon- 3 across the front and 3 in the back. Plus the dog. Every time we’d go over a bridge, the corgi, who had been sitting on the floor on Mums side would jump up barking.

Anyways, the Eucumbene River was dammed back in the  50s and the town of Adaminaby had to be moved as a result. Much like Jindabyne was. The whole area is now a trout fishing paradise- as well as being the largest storage lake in the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

On the way back to Cooma is a historic church. I know that because it says so on the sign. I took a photo, but didn’t read the blurb. It was too cold. And I wanted to go home…to sleep…for ages.

I’ll be doing another Sydney “stay cation” this week- the high winds and manky weather on Thursday put a severe dampener on my plans for last Friday.