Well, what an eye opener to the way other people live...... I had no reason to think that Moree was anything other than another country town and first impressions firmed that opinion. The main street of Moree was lovely. Beautiful old buildings, lots of lovely looking shops, well maintained. It wasn't until we were unpacked and settled into the Mehi River Caravan Park that we started to notice a few things that made us wonder......
The park itself seemed quite nice, and well maintained. We were lucky enough to secure the last powered site available in the park and so booked in for three nights so we could stick around and try our luck on the jobs front as there had been several advertised in the area. And so, it wasn't until a few hours later, when we were well and truly settled in that we went for a wander around the park with the kids and stopped for a chat with a fellow who was less than complimentary about the local indigenous community. It was after this conversation, during which he advised us not to go out at night, and after noticing all the signs in the park about making sure you lock your car and van, that we then noticed the fact that the caravan park was fenced with barbed wire!!!! If that alone wasn't enough to make us a touch nervous the next notice I read in the amenities block sealed the deal. Now most caravan parks have notices advising you to lock up your belongings, but this was the first one I had ever come across that advised us to lock the van even when we are in it!!!! After our drive to the supermarket later in the evening during which we also noticed that there was not a ground floor window, regardless of size, on any half way decent building that didn't have a security screen on it we made the decision not to make any job applications in this area. I told R there was no way I was going to live in the van with him at work in this town, and my decision was firmed even further when we took the kids to the playground the next day and the signs displayed around the play equipment stated no smoking, no drinking, and no syringes or blades!!!!
On our second to last day we took a bit of a sight seeing drive around the town, into the back streets, just so we could have a look. OMG!!! We counted in one street alone, four burnt out houses, one burnt out block of flats and so many completely trashed, as in no wall without holes, no full panes of glass, no ceilings at all and no complete roof, houses, that we lost count. There was an entire street of houses in this condition. At least a dozen houses all in a row in this condition.
In Moree's defence though, we did enjoy our hot artesian spas every evening in the caravan park. And did enjoy an afternoon at the new artesian water aquatic centre.. The aquatic centre had pools ranging from the standard outdoor pool temp right through to 41 degrees. From brrrr, to phewwww. I could only manage 10 minutes in the hottest spa before I got too hot and had to get out and the kids loved that Dad even got in for a swim.
While I'm not in any hurry to go back to Moree, I'm glad I did get to see the "other side" first hand. It certainly made for some very mixed emotion discussions. And I would be happy to go back to the park. It was a quirky, Australiana based, caravan park (including a beer and bullshit corner), and was the cheapest we have stayed in yet!
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