Town 21: The journey south continued today as I make my way home and to a break from travelling over the Christmas period (a few local places will be visited though). After travelling back into New South Wales and an overnight stop at Moree, I continued my journey mostly along the New England Highway, except for a diversion to take in one more town – Bundarra.

Now Bundarra is not mentioned specifically in the “I’ve been everywhere” song. The song instead mentions Bouindarra and I have been unable to trace Bouindarra and various online discussions would indicate others have been unable to find this destination also. Two suggestions for where this could be are Bundarra and Boroondara. I’ve used Bundarra as:
a. The spelling and pronunciation shares a greater similarity to Bouindarra (just remove an ‘o’ and ‘i’ and you have Bundarra)
b. It is more ‘out in the sticks’ and therefore more in keeping with the ethos of the song.

Bundarra is a quaint, quiet and sleepy old fashioned place and apparently when translated means grey kangaroo. Many old buildings line the high street, outnumbering the people, and a sturdy bridge allows traffic to come and go over the river. One building catches my eye in particular, the local garage. Apparently this was built in around 1890 but is still in use today. A couple of locals were having a good ‘chin wag’ as I passed.

Bundarra

I buy some provisions from friendly assistant at the local store before continuing my journey through the Hunter Valley wine region before finally reaching the Central Coast – and a much needed cup of tea!

UPADTE – 26 March 2010

Since visiting Bundarra I have also visited writer of “I’ve been everywhere”, Geoff Mack. I mentioned Bouindarra to him and he advised me that it is not a town, but a district of Melbourne that is no longer, it is now known as the “City of Boroondara”. How does Geoff know this? Well, Bouindarra was the place of his birth.

Given this new information I made a visit to the City of Boroondara today for completeness, stopping by the district of Camberwell, within Boroondara. There was not a lot to spot other than the council offices and a few of the Melbourne trams that would pass by from time to time. There are a few shops, but predominantly it is a residential suburb.

Boroondara