Booligal

Made famous by Banjo Patterson's poem 'Hay and Hell and Booligal', the village of Booligal is a small cluster of houses on the tree-lined Lachlan River. It is surrounded by open expanses of grass plain and saltbush that stretch to the curve of the horizon in the distance, broken only by grazing kangaroos and emus, while hawks, wedge-tail eagles and galahs soar overhead. The village boasts a general store and post office, a cricket oval for the occasional social game, shaded eating areas, playground and toilet facilities. A primary school, complete with tennis courts, has recently reopened with one teacher. And of course, what country town would be complete without a hotel? The Booligal Hotel provides travelers with beverages, BBQs and beds, often in that order. Explorer and surveyor, John Oxley, was the first to discover the wide plains beyond the Lachlan River. Booligal became an important staging post for the Cobb and Co network in the golden era of the squatters when 100 000 acre sheep stations were held for a shilling an acre- today's 10 cents! The John Oxley Memorial was erected in the township in 1967 to commemorate the explorer's journey down the Lachlan River. Booligal, which is Aboriginal for 'windy place', is also the home of the Booligal Sheep Races.