Colonial Ancestors - Road Trip Stage Two - searching for Booroomugga, day one!

Old Steam Engine in the home paddock at Booroomugga

Cecily and I set off on the second stage of our trip with a very vague understanding of what we would find. The outcome confirmed for me the artists way of researching as synchronicity ruled and we made connections we would not have made if we had known where we were going at the start.
We were searching for Booroomugga, the property that my great grandfather had occupied in 1882. I had grown up believing that he was a great pioneer and proudly believed that I had come from 'pioneer stock'. It took 21 years before I began to learn otherwise.

The road to the past

We drove to Nyngan first as I remembered going there when I was 10 with my Mum's cousin Meg Kelly who was the last surviving member of the Kelly family and ran the remains of the huge property which was so big that as a child I remembered it being on the map of Australia.
This was the only time I had been to Booroomugga. It was a trip with my mother Nan and my first cousin Anne Stanwix. Anne had just lost her mother, which I was mostly insensitive to. We both loved the old homestead and the vastness of the property. The story was told that Isabella Robertson Kelly, used to walk around the verandah of the homestead for her exercise and after 16 times she had walked a mile. 'The men' went out kangaroo shooting one night and they bought me home a joey they had found in the pouch of one of the dead kangaroos which, bizarrely, I took home on the plane to Melbourne at the end of our trip.
I had noticed that as soon as we left Deniliquin and the safety of home turf heading to the outback, Cecily had become anxious. She was wary of how she would be treated by the largely white service providers in outback NSW. She was expecting racism based on past experience. Thankfully we had nothing but kindness, but I did see that I was able to mediate these relationship which made it easier for both sides to relate. The first night we stayed in a fabulous hotel in Nyngan (Outback Motor Inn) which was a lucky first choice. As soon as I went to check in I knew we would be fine as they had Aboriginal paintings on the walls. They were very friendly and hosted the best meals I had had in a motel.
When we arrived we noticed an Aboriginal woman sitting having a cigarette outside with another woman. Cecily thought she looked like her grandmother and was interested to see if there was any connection. I was also interested to see if she knew any of the people from the area.
I think I surprised her when in answer to her question on what we were doing there, I said I had come to find out whose land my people stole. She turned out to be the Executive Director of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation at the Department of the Premier and Cabinet for the government of South Australia. We all had dinner together and she was most supportive of my project, asking if she could assist with connections in Sth Australia, saying the exhibition must be seen nationally. That was a great boost to my confidence as well as a great start to the trip northwest.

Travelling in a SUV