Our first stop this morning was at Deniliquin where Jill’s parents met each other. Jill’s grandfather was posted there as Inspector of Police in the 1930’s. Jill’s dad was posted there as a young banker and met her mum through some mutual friends of her grandparents.
We found that the old Police Inspector’s house is now the headquarters of the local historical society. It is only open for two hours on Tuedays and we were very fortunate that this coincided with the time that we were in town. Over the years, the house had fallen into disrepair and was extensively restored in the 1990’s.
Jill could remember a few details about the house from conversations with her mother. The front rooms appear to have been living rooms and bedrooms. The old kitchen with original fuel stove is still at the back. There are some tennis courts up the road where Jill’s mum remembers playing tennis.
We found some articles about her grandfather, Frederick Ruffels, retirement function in the 1937 editions of the local paper. They went ainto great detail about the event, guests and gifts from the community. (After retiring, he moved to Queenbeyan where he lived for the rest of his life).
We stiopped for lunch in Jerilderie, which is famous as the place where the Kelly gang locked up many local people before robbing the bank. The town does a good job of promoting the Ned Kelly story and you leave somewhat unsure as to whether it might in fact be more significant than Glenrowan. I guess both towns have very little else of significance as a claim to fame.
The rest of the day’s trip was acrosss rather flat plains with farming based on crops and sheep to Nerrandera and onwards. Driving became tedious after a few hours although the country side was very green after some very recent rain.
Here we are now sitting in a simple 3 star motel in West Wyalong for the night. Tomorrow, we are off to Dubbo.
