Narrabri

My job as a lawyer with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (New South Wales) involves my appearance work in the Local, District and Supreme Courts of New South Wales. It so happens that one such case involved me needing to journey out to Narrabri in country New South Wales (about 500 km north-west of Sydney).

This was no holiday of course and not a simple task. I had to be up at 530 AM in order to be at the airport in time to board my flight to arrive in time before court. And of course Narrabri finds itself lacking in wheelchair accessible transport so my means of getting from the airport into town were somewhat limited. Thankfully the local constabulary were more than happy to oblige and took care of me, my legal clerk Brigid and my personal body guard, Vincent.

Upon arriving at the Narrabri Airport aboard our Qantas Link dash aircraft our party of three wandered over to meet our police connections and transport into town.

The boys in blue lifted my wheelchair into the back of the Paddy Wagon (see the photo) while I was placed into a police car and then off we went into town.

Following the hearing in the pretty little courthouse Brigid, Vincent and I had some time to kill before our flight left at around 8.00 PM. One of our friendly officers, was kind enough to volunteer to take us on a scenic drive before dinner around the district and it was just terrific.

The first place we were taken to was to the CSIRO Australia Telescope site. Although it was closed by the time we got there we were able to see first hand the amazing telescopes (see photographs).

The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), at the Narrabri Observatory, is an array of six 22 metre dish antennas used for radio astronomy. It is operated by the Australia Telescope National Facility, a division of CSIRO.  

Associated with the Telescope is a Visitors Centre where you can view the telescope. Although we did not get to access them I am informed that there are also a number of new interactive displays and a video's to watch in the Visitor’s Centre so it would be well worth a visit should you find yourself in the area. 

There is a barbeque area available for public use just near the telescopes and as we observed in our visit there are plenty of kangaroos and galahs around as well as the odd emus, echidna koala according to our hosts.

CSIRO has recently installed new displays at the Australia Telescope Visitor Centre.
Open Time

While being driven around and shown the area it quickly became apparent that the area remains a centre of excellence for cotton, beef and wheat production.

Narrabri and the surrounding areas offer some unique attractions for nature enthusiasts, including the spectacular Mt Kaputar National Park with its 36,000 hectares of wilderness formed around the extinct Nandewar Volcano, which rises dramatically out of the black soil plains. Even though I myself cannot explore such natural landscapes easily I am able to take up a vantage point and enjoy the gorgeous scenery as depicted in the photographs we took at dusk.

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