Ardlethan drive...

 

A week ago - pre rain - I drove to Ardlethan, a small town in the Coolamon Shire and then on to Barellan in the Narrandera Shire...

This post just focuses on Ardlethan, in the rich Mirroul Creek country of the Riverina region...

The township was established in 1903 and the rail link to Temora was opened in 1908...

The wheat silos by the rail link were built in early 1920...

Significant tin deposits were discovered here just outside the small township in 1912...

The tin mines were not officially closed till the 1980's...

Always like to take views of scenery along the way...

There are always silos and train tracks...

The London Hotel is right near the town entrance by the railway...

This hotel opened in 1910...

In the first park, I found this intriguing sculpture?...

Not exactly sure what it is...

But nearby, I found this plaque...

Connection?

Lions Park and Stewart Park overlap...a green space by the railway...

At one end of this park, closest to the silos, is this building, significantly structured in tin...

And this is the view behind the museum...

More on the story of the kelpie HERE...

It appears that the above claim has a contender...with the Victorian town of Casterton...

(See the link above for more details)...

Another featured sculpture in the park is this one...

Francis Alexander Bradley won the 1937 Diamond Jubilee Stall Gift...

The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short-distance running race. It is held on the Easter weekend at Stawell in the Grampians, Victoria...

The Palace Hotel, built in the 1920's, after the London Hotel, is looking a little sad...

But I was intrigued by the main front door features, even if there was no hotel name in sight there...

Finally, as I drove out of the little town, there was the delightful patch of water, part of Mirroul Creek I presume...

And, of course, the geese that featured in an earlier post HERE...