Bowral & Surrounds (13th June 2020)
We spent the day exploring Bowral and surrounds, incorporating lookouts, markets and a bit of shopping, as well as a visit to the Sir Donald Bradman museum and the obligatory picture of him. We also found the Mary Poppins statue!
We visited the historic town of Berrima, established in 1830 and visited a historic abandoned mining town called Joadja, which was established in 1870. The current owners run a distillery onsite so we took part in a tour and tasting before heading off to explore the riuns. We had no idea this place even existed, we saw a sign on the side of the road saying there was a historic town so we followed it to see where it lead! About 30km and a dirt road later we arrived.
You’ll find the ruins within the property grounds of the Joadja Distillery and they do run tours of the ruins (not currently due to COVID). However, they were happy for us to take off in Leia and explore the ruins by ourselves which was great, luckily most areas were well signposted with information. We both love our history and exploring old ghost towns and ruins and have spent hours wandering around them all across Australia. This town was added to the NSW State Heritage Register in 1999.
From 1870–1911 Joadja was a thriving shale mining town and was home to approximately 1,200 people. During its heyday the town even had its own school, post office, general store and bakery. They mined oil shale from which kerosene was extracted by the Australian Kerosene Oil and Mineral Co.
We visited the historic town of Berrima, established in 1830 and visited a historic abandoned mining town called Joadja, which was established in 1870. The current owners run a distillery onsite so we took part in a tour and tasting before heading off to explore the riuns. We had no idea this place even existed, we saw a sign on the side of the road saying there was a historic town so we followed it to see where it lead! About 30km and a dirt road later we arrived.
You’ll find the ruins within the property grounds of the Joadja Distillery and they do run tours of the ruins (not currently due to COVID). However, they were happy for us to take off in Leia and explore the ruins by ourselves which was great, luckily most areas were well signposted with information. We both love our history and exploring old ghost towns and ruins and have spent hours wandering around them all across Australia. This town was added to the NSW State Heritage Register in 1999.
From 1870–1911 Joadja was a thriving shale mining town and was home to approximately 1,200 people. During its heyday the town even had its own school, post office, general store and bakery. They mined oil shale from which kerosene was extracted by the Australian Kerosene Oil and Mineral Co.
