Almanac (Local Footy) Travel: Postcards from Hay

 

 

 

To Hay and Hillston and Booligal, via Griffith, and back

 

Our mission was to present a heritage plaque to the Hay Lions Football Club, the oldest football club in NSW, in recognition of the 150-year history of football at Hay Park. The touring party representing the NSW Australian Football Heritage Association consisted of Rod Gillett (Vice President) and committeemen Ken Gray and Peter Clark.

 

The journey to and from our destination on the saltbush plains of the Riverina would be by train, bus, car and aeroplane.

 

Following hard on the heels of our 2025 excursion to Broken Hill, at which the town’s Jubilee Oval became the fourth ground in the state to be awarded a heritage plaque, we believed we had the recipe for a successful trip – open your ears and eyes!

 

Our photo story follows the main legs in our Riverina bound trek: Sydney to Cootamundra by train; Cootamundra to Griffith by bus; Griffith to Hay via Hillston and Booligal by car; around Hay and at the footy; and our return to Griffith via Darlington Point by car before retreating to the seaboard via the air.

 

On the way we would seek football grounds, footy club stalwarts, footy history buffs, historic sites and places, as well as old mates. We hoped we would also discover new friends.

 

Here is the travelogue of our trek describing the landscapes we found, the people we met, the footy grounds we walked on and the history we discovered.

 

 The main stops on the trip

 

 

Sydney to Cootamundra aboard the XPT

 

Rod and I departed from Central on a fine and sunny Sydney morning aware that as the day lengthened we would encounter cold weather of the 11 degrees variety when we reached the South West Slopes. Ken was to fly directly to Griffith later in the day.

 

Full of anticipation, we glided through the outer suburbs of the metropolis guessing at where we were, looking for goal posts as a sign of the dominant football code thereabouts – observations we would repeat over the coming days.

 

Our itinerary for the four days in the Riverina was well determined, with meetings and rendezvous mostly teed-up and homework largely complete. Would our Cootamundra contact be there to meet us at the station? Clarke Oval, a footy ground we had both played on years ago, was the first site on our itinerary.

 

A striking feature of the rail journey was the feeling that we were travelling THROUGH farms and settlements – not beside them as you do on a busy freeway or highway. We chatted about footy projects on the radar for later in 2026 and 2027, taking notes on work to be done, meetings to be scheduled and contacts to be made.

 

At the time of our impending arrival in Harden, we spoke of the train derailment that claimed the lives of four passengers and injured many others travelling home on the South West Mail Train on a cold early morning in June 1948. One man who was hospitalised, and probably lucky to survive, was a footy figure of whom we had quite some knowledge. ‘Ossie’ Grose from Newtown in Sydney, then playing for Leeton, was seated in the first car – the one that experienced several fatalities that morning. Injured but not seriously so, Ossie spent a few weeks on the sideline before returning to play football. He is one of the 100 inaugural inductees in the NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame, and a photo of him in action for NSW appears on the front cover of the book celebrating the inductions.

 

Coota’s weather was as expected: cold and windy. Our escort did not arrive, so we set off on foot towards the main street to find some sustenance. Rod is a chap who will never leave a stone unturned, never shy away from asking a question, never afraid to strike up a conversation with a fellow passenger or a passer-by in the street.

 

Looking for a suitable lunch spot, Rod approached a young lady, “Can you tell us where the best place for a coffee and some lunch would be?” She replied immediately, “I go to the bakery around the corner, but some of the boys from work go to the new place just up the street.” That was enough for me. We headed to her second suggestion and were disappointed by the lack of service. Out the door we went. Plan B was to ask the next passer-by. She was an older lady, 38 years living in Coota, so she might know best Rod thought. She advised the café over the road. That sounds like an old-fashioned café, a good prospect we thought. She proceeded to escort us over the road and into the establishment which by now we had been told was where she worked. Although not on duty, she whipped behind the counter and took our orders.

 

It was bad advice. We should have gone with the recommendation of our first adviser. An average hamburger and an inedible egg and bacon roll were already on their way to our table. Retreating towards the railway station we popped into the bakery and purchased two take away coffees, hot enough to raise Coota’s temperature to 33.

 

The moral of the story was repeated many times over the next few days. Don’t second guess a perfectly good recommendation from a person who looks and sounds like they know what they are talking about. We promised to heed that advice.

 

Back at the station we hopped onto the bus, settled back and looked forward to the road leg of the day’s journey, and for me, through some very familiar country.

 

 

Cootamundra to Griffith on a bus

 

Within twenty minutes we passed through Stockinbingal with its streetscape from the 1940s and 50s, an ever-present reminder of better days in small country towns out this way.

 

Rod and I have postulated where the boundaries of the Riverina lie. Those discussions immediately came to my mind when we arrived at Springdale a little further on towards Temora. I noticed how the topography quickly changed from hills and slopes to gently rolling country and more extensive plains. I was also struck by the first sighting of cypress pine trees, so characteristic of the Riverina. I mentioned this to Rod later. My conclusion was that we had now entered country representing the eastern edge of the Riverina. I don’t know if he was convinced of my geographical theory, but at least he listened.

 

Temora soon came into view and the football grounds at Nixon Park. One with the two sets of verticals and one with the eight vertical posts. The latter is a ground I had played on for the Temora Kangaroos in 1977. We continued westwards on Burley Griffin Way towards Ariah Park – the home of the Quades. Ariah Park is known as the place of ‘wowsers, bowsers and peppercorn trees’, I reminded Rod. We did a lap of the main street, but no need to stop as there were no disembarking passengers and none to pick up.

 

Next, we passed through Barellan, the home of the sporting Goolagongs – Evonne and Maurice. We saw Evonne’s big tennis racket but not the place where Maurice, another NSW Hall of Fame inductee, honed his sharp-shooting footy kicking skills.

 

As afternoon declined into evening, Griffith was on the horizon and shortly our rendezvous with Ken at the railway station bus drop off point.

 

Griffith is a big and impressive place. The motel we had booked not so, we quickly discovered. Our first appointment was to meet Phil ‘Rowdy’ Rowston, father of Giants player Harry, at the footy ground.

 

Rod and Ken in Griffith, hard at training

 

Entering the footy changerooms we spied the team rules on the wall. Not a controversial whiteboard, just a potent reminder to players of what the club’s priorities are. We were all impressed with rule # 1 – “beer with the opposition”. “Pay your fines” was at the bottom of the list at rule # 7. Rowdy arrived and we chatted about Griffith footy and the focus of the Swans. We learned that premierships are not all-important. Having a viable footy club where you can play with your mates is. That is a sentiment many other country footy clubs could adopt!

 

At the social clubrooms adjacent to the ground we talked to the person who administers probably the most comprehensive footy club website in Australia – Trevor Harrison – the man behind Swans On Screen. – check it out.

 

The Heritage Association touring party Ken, Peter and Rod with Trevor Harrison (second from the right)

 

Tomorrow is another day as they say and we had a lot to see on our way to the Lachlan, to Hillston, to Booligal and across the One Tree Plain, eventually to Hay.

 

Griffith to Hay via Hillston and Booligal

 

Heeding our lesson from Cootamundra, we asked Trevor for his recommendation of the best place in Griffith for breakfast. He did not hesitate in recommending the café next to the Commonwealth Bank. We did not hesitate in accepting his advice. And we were wise to do so! Milano’s café is first class – great coffee, great breakfast and great service for three sometimes hard to please customers. We knew we would return.

 

A stroll down Banna Avenue to collect some newspapers revealed, going on the signage, the two candidates in the Farrer by-election with the strongest chances (an independent and the winner). By a country mile we thought! That conclusion was to be reinforced at Hay in the coming days.

 

From Griffith we headed northwest on Kidman Way, via Goolgowi, until we reached the Lachlan. The vegetation soon took on the typical mallee appearance and the countryside much drier looking.

 

Rod and Ken with our host Peter Lette at the Hillston sportsground

 

Hillston is one of five clubs participating in the Northern Riverina Football Netball League – the others being West Wyalong, Ungarie, Lake Cargelligo and Tullibigeal. The Australian brand of football was a latecomer to the town (in 2000) but it has quickly taken root and now is the dominant code. Our guide, Peter Lette, talked us through the local footy history and even sang with us a few verses of the bush ballad The Lachlan Tigers as we stood beside the footy ground on the banks of the Lachlan River.

 

After cruising the streets of Hillston looking for a pie, a milkshake and a coffee, we set forth for Booligal further down the Lachlan.

 

Banjo Paterson popularised the term ‘Hay and Hell and Booligal’ in his poem published in The Bulletin in 1896 (20 seasons after footy began at Hay). His words met with bitter disapproval from folk who lived out this way, especially people from Booligal, who took exception to his portray of Booligal as being worse than hell. The poem concludes with:

 

“Oh, send us to our just reward
In Hay or Hell, but, gracious Lord,
Deliver us from Booligal!”

 

 

Peter and Rod between the ‘goal posts’ at the Booligal sign

 

A sign such as this would cause Banjo to rethink his words, we thought. You might expect to see a welcome like this on the freeway into Melbourne or at the gateway to Sydney airport.

 

It is a neat 100km down the Cobb Highway from Booligal to Hay, with one stop a must – the site of the One Tree Plain Hotel. You probably know the song ‘Flash Jack from Gundagai’:

 

I’ve shore at Burrabogie and I’ve shore at Toganmain
I’ve shore at big Willandra and out on the Coleraine
But before the shearing was over, I wished I was back again
Shearin’ for old Tom Patterson, on the One-Tree Plain

 

The One Tree Plain is a landscape one might associate with desolation, boredom – totally inhospitable. But of course, that is not entirely true. Its situation on the Cobb and Co trail and the stock route from Moama to Wilcannia made it a necessary stopover place. A hotel was established here in 1862 and its refurbished remnants can be seen today.

 

 

Back in the car, windows down to encourage a cloud of Booligal flies to escape, we made a run for Hay.

 

Arrival at Hay and the BIG day

 

Our arrival in Hay can in no way be compared with the arrival in the town of some unfortunate souls in the mid-Twentieth Century. The Hay Railway Station was the end of the line for the Dunera Boys of World War II fame, and soon after, carriage loads of prisoners-of-war from Italy and Japan.

 

Within the walls of Hay Gaol Museum

 

The Furphy Watercart in the foreground is not out of place in Hay. Joseph Furphy, the author of  Such is Life, is the brother of the founder of the water carts (John Furphy). The novel is based on Joseph’s experiences of living in the Hay region driving a team of bullocks in the early 1880s.

 

Arriving from Sydney via Narrandera by car, having travelled along the Sturt Highway at night, in the period between 1961 and 1974 were young girls from Parramatta Girls Home. They were the most incorrigible and rebellious girls, to be punished horrendously by relocation to a maximum security institution located in a remote place, transported at night, in a frightening-looking van.

 

The Hay Gaol museum had another display that caught our eyes. A poster from the old days (1920-21) of footy in Hay when four teams competed in an intra town Wednesday competition – the Gymnasiums, the Imperials, the Suburbans and the Federals. It is locked up behind bars in one of the cells.

 

 

Once boasting half a dozen pubs, Hay is now down to one – The Riverina – located in Lachlan Street. Here we would meet Hay locals who would welcome us, nourish us, and quench our thirst for knowledge about the town and the football club we had come to honour. Enter Hay stalwarts, Robert (‘Buck’) Howard and his wife Robyn,  Rod’s old University of New England mate Duncan Fraser and Ken’s friend John Perry.

 

A spectacular autumn morning greeted us as we made our way to breakfast on the BIG day. The attention of the Hay Shire Council to the streetscape of the town is to be commended. Outside the Council building precinct, the pastoral history of the district is recognised in an array of sculptures and signage. One of today’s football umpires, Council General Manager David Webb, played a big part in that.

 

 

An invitation to morning tea beside the ‘Bidgee, out on the Maude Road, was accepted with open arms. The quiet landscape of the western Riverina with its horizon-to-horizon skies, waterways and diversity of life is such a contrast to the urban throng and human imprints of the seaboard capitals.

 

The Murrumbidgee River at Hay

 

It was time to head to Hay Park Oval no. 2 for the BIG day of sport and celebrations of 150 years of football in the town. The Hay Lions now play on the no. 2 oval, but when I played here almost 50 years ago against Hay (in Saints colours) footy was at the no. 1 oval. That ground is now the home of rugby league in the town.

 

A chance meeting with the niece of a Brownlow medallist was the perfect entrée to a day of footy and netball. Kammy Cordner Hunt was in town on other business, but she grabbed the opportunity to experience the atmosphere of the big day of football and to catch up with some old footy history buffs from Sydney. Kammy’s uncle is the great Melbourne player Don Cordner, winner of the 1946 Brownlow. The athletic Cordner brothers – Don, Denis, Ted (Kammy’s father) and John – were once described as “brawn and brains combined.”

 

The reserves match ended with a 21 point win to Ultima. After players ran on to the ground for the seniors match, they assembled on either side of the dais to await the presentation of the heritage plaque. Hay Shire Mayor Cr. Carol Oataway, Hay Lions President George Auldist and ‘Mr Football’ in Hay, ‘Buck’ Howard, were on hand to receive the award presented by Dr Rod Gillett (Vice President of the NSW Australian Football Heritage Association).

 

Rod, ‘Buck’ Howard and the Mayor

 

Little did we know at the commencement of the seniors match, but five Hay players looked like they would be stranded in Sydney after their flight to Griffith was cancelled. The club president learned of the dire situation before breakfast and, like a true Hay football administrator, quickly sought a solution. It was arranged that the players would drive to Wagga from where they would be picked up and flown to Hay in a plane owned by a local Hay grazier. All went to plan and the players lined up with their teammates.

 

 

To read a full report of the match click HERE.

 

 

Post-match celebrations in the club’s upstairs social room at Hay Park went until well after dark.

 

Another beautiful Riverina morning greeted the three of us as we made our way to breakfast on Sunday followed by a visit to the fascinating Dunera Museum at the Hay Railway Station.

 

 

No longer a place to catch or meet a train, the Hay Railway Station is the home of a museum that tells the story of the German and Austrian men, mostly Jewish refugees, who had fled Nazi Germany and were transported on the HMT Dunera to Australia and thence to Hay. Why? Because they were believed to pose a risk as sympathisers with the Nazis and best gotten as far away from Britain as possible. The men, known as the Dunera Boys, were removed from their peaceful free lives to a foreign land and a lonely, distant place on the Saltbush Plains.

 

The Hay camp comprised three compounds, each holding 1,000 men. The group had a high percentage of skilled professionals, tradesmen and artists who established an unofficial university, libraries and orchestras. They held concerts and theatre performances, published a newspaper and even minted currency for use inside the camp. Significantly, many of the Dunera Boys chose to settle in Australia after their release.

 

The Hay Railway Station and the South West Rail Line (extended to Hay in 1882) played an important role in providing footballers from Hay opportunities to play against teams from as far away as Leeton, Whitton and Narrandera. Special trains took players and supporters to intertown challenge matches, knock-out carnivals and representative games at those locations right up until the mid-1950s.

 

We departed Hay much the wiser and honored to have had the opportunity to make the visit. Promising to return, we knew there are other aspects of the life and times of Hay and surrounds that we should learn about. The Shear Outback Museum is one of those.

 

Hay to Griffith by car via Darlington Point

 

With Ken at the helm again we drove east on the Sturt Highway before reaching Carrathool. It could be said that the Saltbush Plains, in places, are better described nowadays as the ‘Cotton Drains.’

 

Cotton growing near Darlington Point

 

Crossing the Murrumbidgee, we discovered that the Murrumbidgee River Road would take us directly to our next scheduled stop at Darlington Point. No trucks and very few cars were encountered on this quiet stretch of road.

 

Rugby is the only code played at The Point these days, but back in the fifties, the Pointers played in the South West District League Reserves competition and after that in the Barellan and District League until the early 1970s.

 

A quick run north to Griffith soon found us back at Milano’s for coffee and vanilla slice. We vowed we would return … again!

 

Home on a QantasLink flight

 

 

Mission accomplished, Rod and I boarded a plane back to Sydney, while Ken had more to discover in Griffith and would fly home a day later. We had indeed found numerous football grounds, met some wonderful footy club stalwarts, shared thoughts and resources with a footy history buff or two, visited historic sites and places and were reunited with old mates. And as we had hoped, we also discovered handfuls of new friends.

 

After our take-off, the patchwork of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area was fully revealed.

 

 

Soon the conversation turned to where next year? And that is a delightful prospect.

 

All pictures by the author.

 

Read more about the Riverina from Peter Clark HERE.

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au home page click HERE.

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

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