Junee is a rail town, of that there can be no doubt. And why not? It lies right on the Sydney - Melbourne line. But this was not always so. In fact the Junee of today was moved some 8 kilometres from the town's original site, now imaginatively known as 'Old Junee.'
It is a mistake, however, to believe that the railway was the genesis of Junee's existence. Like many, many Australian country towns, Junee began life as the spot on the map around which a very large cattle grazing property was established, back in the 1840's.
And then.....gold, what else? How many times have I written this tale. Here in the Junee district the first discoveries were made in 1868 with the inevitable result, although the 'rush' here was nothing like the magnitude of those in Victoria in the same era. Although gold remained important until the mining operations ceased in the late 1880's, Junee's real future in its new location was guaranteed, in the medium term at least, by the importance of the railway through the area.
If there were ever any doubt as to the significance of the railway, the grandeur of the Junee Station, built in the 'French Renaissance style' and completed in 1883, soon puts paid to that.
Later, to further cement the importance of rail to Junee, work commenced on the Junee roundhouse in 1942. When fully operational in 1947, the turntable, 100 feet long, was for many years, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. And it is still in use. (thanks to 'panoramio' for this aerial)
We shall soon take a closer look at both these establishments during our town tour, but firstly, a quick note on 'modern' Junee and what makes it tick economically. And here, I shall rely on Wikipedia for the text.
"By the early 1970s, Junee's business leaders were faced with a rail
based economy in decline. Many locals credit AJJ (John) Thompson,
appointed as town clerk in 1970, as the "Father of Modern Junee" for his
vision of the town's future and for taking the hard decisions that were
needed to reinvigorate the township.
With financial assistance sourced from the State Government, land was allocated for new housing developments and new businesses were
enticed to move to the town. Local producers were encouraged to
diversify into new products.
Almost forty years on Junee is known for its lamb and high quality crops of wheat, canola, oats, barley and triticale. A manufacturing sector has also evolved with emphasis on steel engineering, meat processing and organic flour.
It is also the location of the Junee Correctional Centre.
Housing development has increased steadily and community facilities
have matured and developed to make Junee a sought after lifestyle and
tourist destination in the Riverina District."
This is all well and good, I hear you say. Well done AJJ Thompson, but what the hell is 'triticale'? A very good question. I would love to say that the answer comes directly from my own encyclopedic knowledge of all things agricultural, but that would be too obvious a lie. With thanks to the ever reliable Internet, I can however inform you all that triticale is a hybrid grain resulting from crossing wheat and rye. The result is a form of wheat which is highly bug resistant. Why doesn't everyone grow it? No idea.
So with that gem of knowledge planted firmly (it has been a while!) let's have a look at Junee itself, beginning with a look at the railway station from across Seignior Street, the road which brought us into the town, and which is really the Olympic Highway.
As I have previously mentioned, this is still very much a working station, the evidence of which was quite clear not long after we had crossed the tracks from the roundabout which forms the junction of Seignior Street and Broadway (we'll pop back here shortly).
We had no sooner wended our way through the pedestrian barriers, when the warning bells sounded and the boom was lowered to allow the safe passage of this rather small tanker train. Freight and passenger trains pass through Junee at all hours of the day and night, and the inevitable deep rumble which accompanies their passage is part of Junee life.
Immediately beyond the crossing, the road forms a T junction. Turn left and the Olympic Highway continues through the town and on off to Cootamundra, Young and beyond,
past this pretty little town park.
A right turn leads the short distance past the bulk of one of Junee's many large pubs (now a B&B) to the entrance of what I'll term the railway station square, where one of the station buildings can be seen in mid shot.
So now we have come to the corner and can see down past the front of the old pub building to the next (corner). This is typical of this part of the town. Here the main road skirts around the area occupied by the railway station and its entrance quadrangle. (this is all very hard to describe and I couldn't find an aerial shot to make it clearer, so please bear with me).
The building at the end of this short roadway has the unmistakable look of a grand old hotel, and indeed it is. Unlike its near neighbour, the Commercial Hotel is still a going concern. Immediately to the right of this photo, if we were to pan in that direction,
we would be looking directly down into the station quadrangle entrance roadway, the view in the first photo of this missive. Here is the reverse view.
The Commercial Hotel stands on the eastern side of Lorne Street, which is the hub of the Junee CBD. This road also leads out to to a left hand turn which becomes the road to Gundagai,
and it was on this corner that we came across this imposing old building, once home to Junee's Commonwelath Bank. Here we were in for a real surprise.
In addition to the two storey section, this building continues along Lorne Street where we could just see some evidence of what looked like a roof garden. Surely not.
Indeed it is. This is now a private home, and as the sign proclaims, is on the market.....and don't the photos say it all. What a beautiful and imposing residence this is. I didn't quite get around to finding out who currently lives here, but I can tell you all this could be yours for a mere $575,000. Imagine what this would cost in an established city suburb...millions!
This really is the extent of the commercial section of Lorne Street, and here we did an about turn and retraced our steps back to the railway station, where there was more to be seen.
This is the eastern entrance roadway which runs past the two storey southern end building
where, at the far end, the railway 'cafeteria' still serves coffee and cake and light meals to visitors. I was unable to get a photo which made any sense inside (much grinding of teeth!)
so have resorted to presenting one which I found on one of the several public information boards detailing the history of rail in Junee (cropped to exclude the unwanted detail...hence the odd shape) What wonderfully grand places these were in their heyday.
But we had more to see in Junee. With one last look along the platform, which still reflects the extraordinary opulence of this huge country town station,
it was back across the line to the main town roundabout where yet another large watering hole, the Junee Hotel, holds pride of place on the junction of Seignoir Street (off to the left of shot) and Broadway (to the right)
In the nearby park stands a statue to one of Junee's most well known sons, well, to those to whom rugby league is a religion at least.
Any who watch this sport will be more than familiar with the nasal tones of the game's most famous and infectiously excitable commentator, Ray Warren, imortalised here in bronze. Having now spent so much time in the eastern states, I have to confess that the game is growing on me.....Ray's voice is now well known to your scribe, and I have to say he is good at what he does.
Broadway is probably the grandest of all the Junee streets. Here stands the clock tower Memorial to those locals who served in various theatres of war, just beyond which,
at the head of an impressive array of roses, is a separate small memorial (erected by the Vietnam Veterans Federation) dedicated to those who served in that conflict, and particularly those of D Company, 6RAR, who fought and died during the battle of Long Tan on 18 August 1966.
As we strolled along Broadway's wide expanse,
we had more than one reminder of our part of Adelaide. The Broadway Cafe here could not be more different in both style and location to its namesake which looks out over the Gulf St Vincent at South Glenelg,
and the same could be said for Junee's Broadway Hotel, but the names were enough to stir very fleeting thoughts of home.
Broadway is also home to the Junee Ex-Services Club, another of these NSW and QLD establishments which cash in (writer's comment) on sentiment evoked by the 'RSL' or 'Ex-Services' names. The Clubs apparently put precious little back into these organisations. I noted with interest that this is currently the subject of increasing concern by the powers that be in the RSL in NSW. I shall be paying close attention to developments.
Apart from a street walk and the old buildings of Junee, there are three other noted tourist points of interest, the Licorice and Chocolate Factory, 'Monte Cristo', reputedly the most haunted house in Australia, and the railway museum and roundhouse.
To my complete surprise, my chocoholic wife was not interested in visiting the first of these, and, when we did toddle up to Monte Cristo, in her role as The Treasurer (once she had seen the exorbitant entry fee) this old mansion became the subject of an instant embargo (one with which I completely concurred).
That left the roundhouse and off we went, stopping long enough on the way to snap the impressive towers of the Junee Catholic Church.
A kilometre or so west of the main township found us pulling into the car park outside the circular brick walls of the roundhouse,
and making our way into the museum part of the complex.
We paid the very modest entry fee and wandered in, and here again, the editor's pen has slashed through the myriad of photos I took in an effort to offer but a sample few and spare you all from complete blog boredom.
In the first section of the museum are railway displays of all sorts imaginable, such as this working example of the board used by the train controllers to manage the traffic on all the lines around Junee.
Photos of some of the magnificent old steam engines were to be found on almost every wall. I am old enough to have actually travelled in carriages hauled by locomotives such as these around country South Australia.....they did bring back memories.
As could be expected, a huge model railway was in constant operation, and beyond the room housing this display we stepped out
into the museum section of the roundhouse, clearly fenced off from the operational area.
Here we wandered in and out off all manner of old carriages and trains, many of which brought back vivid memories for us both of some of our railway journeys. It was whilst we were doing this that I heard noises coming from the 'working section' of the establishment.
Out we flew, and sure enough we were on hand to watch one of the current crop of working diesel engines about to use the turntable to reverse direction.
From its slot in the semicircle of working rail lines, the engine edged its way (backwards) onto the turntable
and once centred on it
one of the two man crew hopped into the tin shed at the end of the turntable and hey presto,
the engine was rotated through 180 degrees
and in short order was making its way out of the roundhouse
and on down to the nearby shunting yards.
I have no idea how often in any one day this operation is carried out. I was just tickled that we happened to be on site when this one was. A working turntable and roundhouse indeed, as all the promotional and other material stresses.
For us that completed our 'tourists in Junee' bit. We were again about to be on the move. We had decided to spend Anzac Day in Cowra, where we had ascertained there were to be a number of relevant functions. It was time to pull down and make ready for our departure.
But before we leave, I have just one more Junee snippet to share. Throughout our stay, the local farmers were all engaged in burning off their stubble fields. I must say that after our experiences in the Victorian high country, more smoke was the last thing I needed, but fortunately that from these fires rose straight up with some spectacular results. This one looked as though a mini atom bomb had been exploded.
Whilst this one did not 'mushroom' quite as distinctly, you can see that both fires produced sufficient heat to sent the hot air up to a height where they formed their own cumulus clouds. And would you believe, within fifteen to twenty minutes or so, all this smoke and water vapour from each of these fires simply vanished.
So, on that somewhat different note....farewell Junee. We had certainly enjoyed our all too brief four nights here.
