Country treasures . . . the antique shop at Dunedoo alone is worth the trip.
Like most visitors, probably, we didn't plan to stay the night in Dunedoo, a town in central-western NSW that raises the odd weary titter over its vernacular-sounding name. But then, planning is not the forte of this traveller.
We'd been to the Warrumbungle National Park for what was supposed to be a few nights of camping. On the way there, setting off from Sydney a bit late in the day, we'd reached the Upper Hunter when heavy rain set in. We made it to Gunnedah by early evening, so we stopped there for a night in the basic but comfortable Courthouse Hotel.
Next morning, we'd gone to Coonabarabran, stocked up on the supplies and extra camping gear we needed, then headed into the park as the weather cleared. We got in one of the shorter bushwalks before setting up our pup tent. Suddenly it seemed puny compared with the multi-room canvas houses erected all around, with fold-up tables, chairs and other comforts.
By tearing up and burning an extensive World Bank report on the developing countries, that I found in the car, we managed to get some damp timber alight in the fireplace and as deep night set in, retired. The freezing night sapped all warmth from our cheap sleeping bags. By dawn, we were grateful to get going early on a day trek. Back in camp by mid-afternoon, the call of the wild faded with the prospect of another night in the tent. By late afternoon we were packed up and back in the car heading south-west to Sydney. We got as far as Dunedoo when the idea of a hot meal and a bed seemed more compelling than a few more hours' drive to Sydney.
Dunedoo looms as more or less a single strip of shops along one side of the road, with a railway line, a wheat silo, a freight siding, a children's playground, parkland and a largish public toilet on the other - though thankfully not the three-storey Big Dunny that local boosters proposed a few years back to put the town on the tourist map, along with Goulburn's Big Merino, the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour and so on.
The name actually has no etymological link with the outdoor privy. Some think it's vaguely Scottish. The town started as Bolaro and then became Redbank before settling on a local Aboriginal word meaning "black swan", many of which are found on the nearby Talbragar River and lagoons.
We pull in at a motel named the Swan, a newish place with a colonial theme, where we find a comfortable, spotless room with a single and a double bed, bathroom, television and tea-making goods for $85 a night. Teenage son gets the double, I get the single.
We wander down the main drag, as far as the two-storey Dunedoo Hotel, a fine late-Federation building, now the town's only pub since the Royal closed a few months back. The town flourished when the railway came through in 1910. Now, as country towns consolidate into fewer big ones such as Dubbo, Dunedoo is struggling to hold its 800 or so residents.
The hotel has pressed-metal ceilings, a kauri staircase and a front bar that retains its traditional decor and grizzled collection of drinkers. A meeting of some kind is taking place in the more refined dining room.
The pub has counter meals and accommodation: 10 rooms and 27 beds at $20 a person, with shared bathrooms. Dunedoo Golf Club, a little way out of the town's centre, has a Chinese restaurant with an ambitiously long menu. But we're done with driving and after buying a bottle of wine across the pub counter, we decide to turn back up the street and eat at the White Rose Cafe, done out a bit too self-consciously in 1950s milk-bar style.
At the back, a mother and daughter cook up traditional country meals for the odd traveller and tradesman. The roast of the day and the hamburger (total bill $31.40) go down well and we return for a comfortable night's sleep at the Swan.
Next morning I'm browsing the window of Talbragar Country Antiques when the owner opens up and invites me in. Cup of tea in hand, I wander through room after room of restored old furniture - some humble pine, others the fancy result of big wool cheques - to a huge workshop in the back. It's a treasure trove that alone is worth a stop in Dunedoo, even if you don't spend a night.
The centre of Dunedoo is the Dunedoo Pie Shop. We consume a big breakfast here and head down the highway towards Mudgee across undulating fields of spring crops.
FAST FACTS
Dunedoo is located at the intersection of the Golden and Castlereagh Highways, about 100 kilometres east of Dubbo and 60 kilometres north of Mudgee. It can be a stopover on the way to the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo or to Coonabarabran and the Warrumbungles. Eastwards, roads lead to the Upper Hunter and to the Blue Mountains.
Stay at the Swan Motel or the Dunedoo Hotel. Eat at the White Rose Cafe, the bakery, the golf club or the pub. Browse Talbragar Country Antiques for rustic furniture and bric-a-brac. They'll pack up and freight anything you can't fit in the car. Dunedoo's best events are the annual Dunedoo Bush Poetry Festival, held in March or April, and the Dunedoo Show in February.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.