Passing through New South Wales country towns....

 

 

 

One lovely weekend in late winter, I had the privilege of traveling 7 hours north to spend some time in the township of Orange, Central West New South Wales. It was such a pretty town, despite the wind chill factor, and I actually saw snow fall for the first time in my life - so feathery and light and very very pretty. However, it was not the snow at Orange that I wanted to share with you today, but rather, a couple of great old buildings that I spotted as I passed through the many country towns on my way there.....the first two, above, were in the town of Cootamundra and I was charmed by the large art deco-ness of the design....naturally, my imagination ran wild with all sorts of uses and ideas for these buildings in a world where monetary limitations did not exist...... dance studios, cafe restaurants, event destinations, dance halls, roller derbys, vintage stores or a combo of all of the above !

 

And lastly, in the cute little veranda town of Lockheart, I spied this eye catching 1960's modernist designed Council offices....wow ! Once again, a super hip Madmen-esq era cafe or club leapt to mind, or even a funky art gallery or hi fi store.

 

What would you do if you could get your hands on a darling piece of mid century real estate, and money was no object?

A diamond in the rough......

Oh for a tattslotto win !! I would grab this little beauty and breath life back into her generally untouched gorgeousness again.....and oh my, check out the bathroom, heavenly !!! (Just lose the ghastly vanity....)

Art Deco Gundagi

Arnt these old Art Deco buildings just darling?! Thanks so much to my good friend Travis who shared these with me, they are from the beautiful town of Gundagi in central eastern New South Wales, Australia. I have said it before and I will say it again - you find such treasures in little old country towns ! This old town is now bypassed by the Hume Freeway, but once upon a time served as a rest stop on the journey from Sydney to Melbourne. Built on a foundation of agriculture, and then gold mining, Gundagi was made famous by the charming old song "Road to Gundagi" - first published in 1922. The song became particularly popular during World War 2. Brilliant Australian writer and poet, Banjo Patterson, also wrote a poem entitled "The Road to Gundagi" - so our humble little Art Deco town has graced quite a bit of Australia's 20th century history. Definatly worth a visit for history's sake !