Aided by the internet’s ability to direct us anywhere at the click of an app, we’re on the hunt for flowers. Not a bouquet — a field.
Beyond every elbow of the New England Highway a new vista emerges to delight us. Green fields to infinity and lazy hills roll away amid splashes of purple Paterson’s curse, tractors, horses, cows and tiny towns that pass like a gasp. A boon of our self-guided flower trail is the joy of being out in the country, travelling someplace we’ve never been within our own vast land. There’s also the smiles our money — spent at shops, farms and on accommodation — brings to struggling towns affected by flood, drought and COVID-19 restrictions.
Sunflower gold
In January, a different type of gold is emerging, luring travellers to the small agricultural town of Quirindi. It’s deep in the heart of the Liverpool Plains, roughly four and a half hours’ drive northwest of Sydney in the foothills of
