Some towns of NSW's Central West

Wheat silo mural at Weethalle. (Mural courtesy of Melbourne artist Heesco Khosnaran)

West Wyalong. Something rather special about this town's feng shui. I liked it.

Forbes, just after a bit of rain. (Not nearly enough rain, of course.)

More Forbes. These were substantial and prosperous cities once.

Parkes.

The city's namesake, Sir Henry Parkes was one of the founders of Australia. He was a poet and radical self-taught political activist from the Coventry/Birmingham area of England. His poetic skills and masterful speeches made him Premier of NSW five times, and he devoted much of his career to the cause of Australian nationhood.

Orange. Very trendy place to visit. Great wines, great lifestyle, great everything,they say. Pity it's almost run out of water. Good luck, Orange.











Bathurst. Fine old city this one. In fact it was one of Australia's first inland settlements.








These days Bathurst is especially famous for its Mt Panorama motor racing circuit, and its two annual big racing events in February and October.  For most of the year, the circuit is a public road, and you're free to drive around it yourself, so long as you don't exceed the 60km/hr speed limit!

Coventry's transport museum

I was very impressed by Coventry's transport museum. And as luck would have it, the day I turned up last month was the last day on which entry was free for non-Coventrarians.

It has a very extensive collection of bicycles, cars, and other stuff, illustrating a century and a half of the city's manufacturing output.

Initially Coventry was very big on bicycles, and when motor vehicles came along, all the bicycle companies switched over rapidly to car manufacture.

The day I was there saw a big gathering of Jaguar cars and their owners on the museum forecourt. They're particularly proud of their Jags in Coventry. It's one of the few of the big brands that's still manufactured there - mind you, it's owned by Tata Motors of India now.

It was Coventry's vehicle manufacturing industry that made it an obvious air raid target in World War 2. At that time it had switched to manufacturing mainly military vehicles.

I was delighted to encounter there examples of two of the cars that I've owned. And they were side by side!



There was a Hillman Imp. The last car I owned in England was one of these.



And here's a Hillman Hunter, my first Australian car. I see by the number plate that this one spent time in Tehran. When I passed through Iran in 1974 every other car was a white Hillman Hunter. I think it was something to do with one of them having won the much publicised 1968 London to Sydney endurance car rally.

Below: one of their many E-Type Jags

Coventry's cathedrals

There's a German term, 'Coventrieren', that was coined by Joseph Goebbels in 1940. It describes what was done to Coventry, ie the levelling of a city by air raids.

The city was pretty well rebuilt after the war, but the remains of the 14th century St Michael's Cathedral was left as a memorial. The new St Michael's Cathedral was built right next to it in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

I grew up a mere 30km or so from Coventry, but I've hardly ever been there, and never explored the place at all. I made a point of getting there last month, on an easy day trip from Birmingham. It's well worth the visit.







The new cathedral was designed by Sir Basil Spence, and is a Grade 1 listed building.