Sunday, July 12, 2009

Nar Nar Goon - the Mural Town


This morning was my corner duty day – if you have been watching the Tour de France, you would be aware of the traffic control involved? Well smaller club races are no different, albeit on a smaller scale. Safety and duty of care are always the main issues today in this litigious society.
Get on with the story Leon….
OK so I did my corner duty out in the cold with my Hi Visibility vest and the all important stop/slow lollipop sign (I felt important) and did my bit for the year.

These days road racing is some distance from the built up areas of the Melbourne sprawl. On this occasion the race was about 65 kms south east from the city.
Not far from the corner that I was marshalling is a small town called Nar Nar Goon. It’s probably no more than a km or two from the main highway. I’ve always been intrigued by the name, even as a child. It means Koala in the language of the Aboriginals from the district.
I can remember a radio personality by the name of “Joffa Boy” Allen talking about the local Nar Nar Goon football team. Before the war they would race cars on an old dirt circuit out there. I’d interviewed some of the drivers who raced there before the war in my book “Rob Roy Hill Climb”.
As well as the local footy club, Nar Nar Goon would have their Potato Festival to raise funds for local community projects – there was even a Miss Nar Nar Goon, a title to be proud of by a local Belle that raises the amount of funds.

Anyway, I thought being so close, I’ll have a look at the town out of interest.
These days Nar Nar Goon is known as the “Mural Town”. The walls of the different establishments are tastefully painted with scenes from an earlier era of the town.

Hope you enjoy the photographs – click on them to enlarge.
Have to go now, Sue wants me to vacuum. I have to build up some Brownie points for next weekend.

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