Orroral Valley

Sometimes a last minute spur of the moment drive is just what's needed to restore a happier frame of mind.

So off we set vaguely in the direction of Namadgi National Park.

We decided to turn up the Orroral Valley road. Very pretty views from here.

I don't remember these shrubs blooming so profusely for a long time, if ever.

The Orroral Valley was settled by pioneers in the early 1800's. I googled Orroral to find out what it means and some time later, having wandered down various interesting side paths, all I had come up with was one source indicating that Orroral (and its various early alternative spellings) means "tomorrow". I like that. In the early 1900's the then owner, Andy Cunningham, was an aviation pioneer (he called his plane the Orroral Dingo). Four decades later the valley was chosen as the site of one of Canberra's space tracking stations. So it seems this valley has a history of looking towards the future.

The station began operating in October 1965. Its initial task was to support satellites and later it supported the Apollo-Soyuz program and the early Space Shuttle flights. The station closed in 1985. Now all that's left is the foundations of the buildings and the hardy European plantings chosen to withstand the extremes of weather, hot and often dry summers and cold winters, sometimes even snow. One of the information signs said that the landscaping was done by Fritz Rehwinkel of Queanbeyan. That must be the Rehwinkel I remember from my childhood whose nursery featured animal displays and who later established an animal park on Mac's Reef Road. With fond memories of the animal park that was an interesting bit of trivia to learn.

Animals have moved into the Orroral Valley site, our explorations were watched by dozens of kangaroos and there were frequent glimpses of camera-shy rabbits.

On the way back out of the valley we paused to take a photo of Orroral Homestead in the distance.