June 4, Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Grafton

We drove around Tenterfield to look at the old buildings. It's nice to see that the country towns have preserved their past so well.

Glen Innes was south. It had a huge number of well preserved buildings and a bustling down town. Glen Innes was settled by Scots, Irish, Welsh and Celtic people from France and Spain. Every year they have a Celtic festival to honor one of the groups. In a park on the edge of town were the Australian Stones. These were erected in the 1990s to honor the Celtic roots of the community.
There were 40 huge stones in a field. In the center was the Australis stone, with the Gaelic stone (for Scotland, Ireland and Isle of Mann) on one side and the Brythonic stone (for Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany) on the other. 24 stones, representing the hours in a day, were arranged in a circle around them. 4 stones outside of the circle marked North, South, East and West. 3 stones marked winter solstice sunset and summer solstice sunrise and sunset. 4 stones formed a path for the winter solstice sunrise. Stone 39 was the Irish stone, with an inscription in Ogham language. 40 was the Gorsedd stone, a flat stone used for ceremonies. It was all fascinating.
There was a stone 'crofters cottage' next to it where we had some coffee and Irish porter cake and Scottish Dundee cake.

Then we headed into the Great Dividing Range again. We stopped at an overlook for lunch and there were mountains as far as we could see. Fortified, we traveled the long, really winding, way down the mountains. It took a couple of hours.

That led us to Grafton. We just made a couple of stops there. According to our guide book the Grafton Gaol (pronounced 'jail') was notorious. The man at the visitor center said it was indeed notorious for having the worst of the worst criminals. It was in use until the 1960s. On Breimba St, a man planted two rows of fig trees in 1874. Now they are protected by the National Trust. We didn't drive down the street because the trees overhung the road so much, but they were impressive.
Our last stop was Christ Church Cathedral, a big brick building with beautiful stained glass windows. Some were installed when the church was built in the early 1900s, and others at different times. It was interesting to see the different styles of windows.
As we were leaving a man stopped us. He told us that when the bricklayers were working on the church, a girl and her mother walked by. The girl had a doll and she asked the bricklayer if he would put the doll in the wall. He did and it is in the front wall near the peak of the roof.

Now we're by the coast in Woogoola.

Pictures - Dragon fruit, Inside, Cottage in Tenterfield, Tenterfield RR Station, Glen Innes, Glen Innes Town hall, Stones Sign, Jeanne and center stones, View from a hill, View of Great Dividing Range, Grafton Gaol, Fig trees, Christ Church cathedral, Interior