Saturday 5 June 2004

Abernethy 2004


Abernethy Weekend 2004

Gil and I took a break at the Hunter Valley at a place called Abernethy this small village has a lot of history and only 15 minutes from most of the vineyards. 


We stayed at the beautiful Abernethy House built in 1927 which has been painstakingly restores in the unique style of yesteryear. 




Most of the 14 guest rooms overlook 2 acres of country garden and surrounding forest. 
The whole atmosphere was wonderful, warm fires and the old style verandahs just magic. 







We did some homework before we left home and found there was an abandoned coal colliery at Aberdare so we went exploring. 


This colliery was in operation in 1913, during World War 1, which was constructed by Caledonian Collieries and because of this colliery a rail line was built to meet the needs of this colliery and was called the Aberdare Central Colliery Railway.   


Unfortunately there was a huge fire in the Colliery in 1943 that closed it down for 12 months, the mine was eventually closed in November 1961. 


The historic site has been preserved as a Heritage Park (including the poppet head structure).  We spent quite a bit of time walking around this site to envisage the workings of the mine.













We visited the 200 hectares of the Hunter Valley Gardens that was only opened the year before in 2003 so a lot of the plants were not established but this was very spectacular all the same.




We called into a cheese shop and had a wonderful coffee in the Hunter Valley Gardens Village.  
























The themed gardens are just beautiful, the Rose Garden, Oriental Garden but it was the Storybook Garden which caught our eye it was just like walking in a fairy tale book.

  We did not have enough time to see everything so we will make another trip back and see the progress and spend more time.
























Potters kilns these are fascinating kilns which have been around since 1929 in Nulkaba. 


Due to the clay in the area two gentlemen began making bricks consisting of the wire cut pressed brick that were used in coal mines, houses and public works. 


As the work load increased they commissioned a new kiln under the specification of W Cunningham who was a pottery maker in England in 1929.  
These kilns have a lot of history and just look amazing.

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