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 | Orange Vans car rental - Travel Guide |  |
ORANGE, on the Mitchell Highway en route from Bathurst to Dubbo, is a small city on the eastern slopes of Mount Canabolas; coming from Bathurst, the drive is a pleasant one through undulating countryside, with the valley opening up before you. Orange is a pretty place full of trees, including many European varieties; it claims to have four distinct seasons, and the chilly winter always sees one or two snowfalls. Its major industry is apple growing, based in the apple orchards southwest of the town. You can find apple-picking work here from late February or early March for a period of about six weeks, while cherry picking takes place from late November to early January; contact the Employment National (tel 13 3444). Many growers have rough accommodation on their properties but demand often outstrips supply, so bring a tent. The Orange Visitors Centre on Byng Street (daily 9am-5pm; tel 02/6393 8226, fax 6393 8220, www.orange.nsw.gov.au) has information on local attractions, which include the Ophir diggings. The first gold field in Australia established in 1851 and only 30km north of Orange, the site is still much as the diggers left it - beware of open shafts.
Orange prides itself on being rather cosmopolitan, and it has quite a café society and some well-regarded restaurants. Scottys on summer at 202a Summer St prepare gourmet sandwiches, while the Union Bank Cafe at 84 Byng St has a good range of vegetarian dishes and Cafe 48, at 48 Sale St (BYO), offer praiseworthy Southeast Asian curries. For something a little more special, Sloozi's on Summer Street (tel 02/6563 1314; dinner Tues-Sat) serve tasty food in a convivial, casual atmosphere, whilst Selkines on Anson Street (tel 02/6361 1179, dinner Tues-Sat) offers the opportunity of an expensive foray into modern Australian cuisine. A recommended place both to stay and eat is the Metropolitan Hotel at 107 Byng St (tel 02/6362 1353, fax 6361 3806; $50-115), just up from the tourist office. It's a huge old-fashioned country pub built in 1872, with a wooden verandah where you can sit and eat barbecued dishes, hot potatoes, damper and salad. Hotel rooms are clean and nicely decorated, and all have TV but no en-suite facilities, while the more expensive motel suites come with all mod cons. Alternatively, try the Hotel Canabolas at 248 Summer St (tel 02/6362 2444, hotelcanabolas@cww.otec.org.au ; $70-90), which has live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Pickers could consider the two caravan parks, both a few kilometers from the centre: to the north, the Color City Caravan Park on Margaret Street (tel 02/6362 7254; cabins $20-35); and to the east, the Canabolas Caravan Park, 166 Bathurst Rd (tel 02/6362 7279; cabins $35-50).
Forming a triangle, with Orange at the apex, Forbes and Parkes to the west are also important regional towns. FORBES, on the Lachlan River, is a graceful old town famous as the stomping ground of the nineteenth-century bushranger Ben Hall, who is buried in the Forbes Cemetery. PARKES, 33km to the northwest along the Newell Highway, is well known for its Observatory which has a 64-metre radio telescope. The observatory's visitors centre (daily 8.30am-4.15pm; tel 02/6861 1777, www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au) has a 25-minute audiovisual presentation, The Invisible Universe (daily 8.30am-3.30pm; every 30min; $3). Both towns have fast, reasonable internet access: at 195-197 Clannda St in Forbes, and 113-127 Rankin St in Parkes. Just east of Forbes lies the small township of ELLGOWRA, where in 1962 Frank Gardiner and his gang pulled off the biggest gold heist in Australian history. They took a total of $3700 in cash and 77kg in gold from a mailcoach - worth an impressive $1.3 million at today's rates. |
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