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Pensioners Hill Lookout Sculpture Park

Sculptures on Pensioner's Hill

Pensioners Hill Lookout and Sculpture Park

A beautiful place with views over Gunnedah, Pensioners Hill Lookout also has a sculpture park, which makes an even more interesting place to visit. The walkway through the park is named after Ailsa Iceton, a nurse who performed many charitable works in Gunnedah. During the Great Depression, she would bring meals to the residents of Pensioners Hill.

The park’s brick wall is constructed from bricks recovered from the demolition of a chimney used for a nearby mine, thereby incorporating its heritage value into the new park. A plaque near the entrance gate details the history of the chimney.

Kamilaroi Peoples

On entering the park, the first display on your right is a series of carved trees. These are a remembrance of the Kamilaroi People and their ancestral animals totemic beings. The Kamilaroi people’s lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Australia.

Pensioners Hill Lookout and Heritage Sculpture Park

The park contains four sculptures by Carl Merten and Joan Relke, with each depicting the heritage of the Gunneda area. The sculptures show:

  • The Red Chief, a Kamilaroi man who lived in the area in the 18th century. He had a reputation as a warrior and wise leader of the Gunn-e-darr tribe.
  • The Pioneer Woman, early settlers facing harsh environments, isolation and loneliness.
  • Agriculture representing the rich grazing lands and crops across the Liverpool Plains.
  • The Coal Miner labouring underground.

Carved on the back of each sculpture is the Great Rainbow Serpent of Aboriginal mythology, tying them all together.

Mining Heritage

Behind the rock sculptures is a display of three mine skips on rail tracks. This display sponsored by the CFMEU (the mine workers’ Union) pays tribute to the coal miners of the district. It not only commemorates the workers, but those who did not make it home, after working in the dangerous mine conditions.

These skips add to the mining heritage reflected in the entrance wall, which shows the importance of the industry in the districts past.

Places to Relax

Placed throughout the park are beautifully carved seats, where you can sit and enjoy the park. If you want to relax under cover, a rotunda at the top of the hill is a great place to get out of the weather.

The View

The viewing platform gives a great view of Gunnedah. The silos and red roofed building in the photo is where the Dorothea Mackellar silo art sits. While there, look at the town from inside the rotunda, because it can be framed nicely by the entrance.

What Did We Think

If you are in Gunnedah, this is a great place to visit, because not only do you get a great view, but see great sculptures at the same time. It was nice to see the heritage of the districts tied together using aboriginal culture with the Great Rainbow Serpent.

To see what else there is to do in New South Wales, please see some of our other stories.

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First Fleet Memorial Gardens Wallabadah

Picnic Shade Area, Designed to Resemble a Sailing Ship

First Fleet Memorial Gardens Wallabadah

We hadn’t intended to stop in Wallabadah, but on seeing the sign for the First Fleet Memorial Gardens, we decided to. This is the great thing about driving with no fixed appointments, because you can stop at any time and see something interesting.

Another interesting thing to discover is the amazing variety of place names in Australia. Many are unique, as they are based on the local aboriginal language. In this case, Wallabadah means stone in the Kamilaroi language.

The First Fleet Memorial Garden is a memorial to the First Fleet immigrants, by stonemason, Ray Collins. Carved on tablets along the garden pathways are 1,520 names of all those who came out to Australia on the eleven ships in 1788. The stories of those who arrived on the ships, are told throughout the garden.

Wandering through the gardens, you find the names grouped by the ship they arrived on, along with a history of the ship. This is great, as you do not just find a plain list of names, but some individual history, which adds interest.

A picnic area with a sunshade fashioned to look like a sailing ship is also in the gardens. This continues the theme of the First Fleet even further.

A car park off the highway offers a safe place to stop, while also providing toilet facilities. This was a fun, interesting, and unexpected place to find on our trip.

Dubbo Regional Botanic Garden

Waterfall in the Japanese Gardens

Dubbo Regional Botanic Garden

Located next to the Orana Shopping Centre, the Dubbo Regional Botanic Garden is a green oasis in a sometimes hot dry central west. A large car park provides ample space to leave your car, with only a short walk to the entrance.

Japanese Gardens

Wandering through the Japanese gardens on a hot day was refreshing because of the running water and quiet surroundings. Waterfalls, a lake with Koi, sculpted dry gardens and beautiful trees make this a beautiful place to visit.

We loved the lake and fish because they were very relaxing to watch from the shade of a willow tree.

Sensory Garden Dubbo Regional Botanic Garden

You can enjoy this section of the gardens with all five senses because the design uses different plants for each. Colour, texture and smell are obvious, but sound comes from rustling leaves and running water, while taste comes from strawberries (or did during our visit).

This was an interesting section to visit, because it engaged all of the senses. With several areas to sit and relax, it’s a peaceful place to visit.

Oasis Valley

Oasis Valley displays plants from dry rain forest environments. A board walk winds through and over the plants, allowing great views of them. A nice surprise was the sculptures located here. Made from sandstone and depicting Australian wildlife, they are a great addition to the area.

The board walk continues into the Biodiversity Garden, providing a continuation of the local plant life.

Biodiversity Garden

The Biodiversity Garden is a living model of the major vegetation communities that thrived in this region before European settlement. The trails take you through grassy white box woodlands, past wetlands and climbs up a rocky, volcanic slope via a boardwalk. This is great because it lets you see endangered local plant life without going to difficult to find places.

What Did We Think?

This was a relaxing places to visit, especially the wonderful Shoyoen Japanese Gardens, which were beautiful.

To see what else there is to do in New South Wales, please see some of our other stories.

Our photos are available for purchase on