Scratching our itchy feet part 2 – history and lavender 

After our stay in the sweet small town of Urulla, we made our way to another historic town in northern New South Wales, Tenterfield. 

Famous for being the “birthplace of Australian Federation” due to it being the location of Sir Henry Parkes’s pivotal 1889 speech calling for a unified nation, it is also renowned as the inspiration for the iconic (at least in Australia) Peter Allen song “The Tenterfield Saddler”. 

We enjoyed wandering through the town and seeing some of the historic buildings including the Post Office built in 1881 and the Tenterfield Saddlers built around 1870.   

We also took in the School of Arts where Sir Henry Parkes delivered the Tenterfield Oration which proposed that the six separate British colonies in Australia should unite into a single federation. 

While we were in Tenterfield we had a wander around some of the interesting shops there and found some wonderful treasures. 

Unfortunately some of the items we fell in love with (like a gorgeous heritage style solid wood dining table and matching chairs) were too large to take home but Cathy found (amongst other things) a genuine Stetson hat that fitted perfectly and suited her really well and I found a gorgeous little children’s bentwood rocking chair. 

On our way to our next stop at Aloomba Lavender farm we hopped over the border to Queensland and had a very good gourmet pizza lunch and wine tasting at the Balancing Heart Winery in Wyberba near Ballendean. 

After our long lunch we drove back into NSW to the beautiful Aloomba lavender farm – part of a 4000 acre cattle property east of Stanthorpe.

Cathy discovered this camping ground through a cousin of hers whose family on the other side (the Bonners) had owned the cattle property for generations. 

It was a beautiful place to stay – a real bush camp with cows and their calves just over the fence but with access to electricity so we could plug in to keep warm during the cold nights. 

Unfortunately the lavender wasn’t in season but the gift shop was brimming with lavender goods that emanated its lovely fragrance. 

During our stay we visited another nearby winery – Symphony Hill Wines. Here we tasted some lesser known (in Australia) varieties such  as Petit Verdot, Lagrein, Albarino and Gewurztraminer.

Some of Symphony Hill’s finest wine is aged in one of three terracotta amphorae, imported from Italy, and made from special porous clay that allows the wine to breathe correctly as it is ageing. This enables the wine to soften as it matures without any oak flavours influencing the wine.

On our last day of our camping trip we visited  Sutton’s Juice Factory  in Thulimbah, just ten minutes out of Stanthorpe. 

The store is housed in an old packing shed and is absolutely chock full of items made from apples! 

There were rows and rows of bottles containing hand made juices created on the premises from many different varieties of apples. There was also apple cider, apple brandy, fruit liqueurs, apple cider vinegar, apple syrup and a wide range of preserves and sauces by on sale. As you can imagine, we didn’t go home empty handed!

There were also different types of apple pie (and other delicious treats) on sale in the cafe and of course we just had to sample some of them!

Stanthorpe was the last stop of our trip so all too soon it was time to cross over the border to Queensland and drive the short-ish (2.75 hours) back to our home in Lake Manchester, Brisbane. 

We had really enjoyed our first caravan adventure and before we were even home we were beginning to plan the next one with Peter and Cathy. 

We do love travelling but as always it was great to be home and to see our little granddaughters again (plus their parents of course!).