Weekend Away March 2002

Wagga Wagga and the Surrounding District

ASNSW Members boarding the coach outside Allen and Nancy's house for a weekend trip away to Wagga Wagga.

We have one weekend away every year.  This is to socialise and visit aviaries.  We are very lucky to have Allen Fish in our club who arranges and organizes our trips for us.  We only have to pack a bag and board the Coach... Allen does everything else for us!

This year we decided to visit Wagga Wagga and the surrounding district.  We visited Wagga Wagga eight years ago and it was such a great trip we wanted to go again.

Friday 16th March 2002

Warren Moon our bus driver with Cathy and John... great T-shirt John!

After having afternoon tea (which was supplied by our club), at Allen & Nancy's home, we boarded our luxury Hopkinson's coach.  The coach was very comfortable... it had everything that you could wish for.  Our coach driver this year was Warren Moon who was very popular with everyone and of course a very safe driver.

We headed off south stopping at Marulan for a meal break.  We arrived at Wagga Wagga at approximately midnight where we where greeted by our host at the Boulevarde Motor Inn.  We found our rooms very comfortable and would highly recommend this motel to anyone.

Saturday 17th March 2002

Ready for our first aviary visit.

After breakfast which was served in our rooms and was very delicious, we were ready to start our aviary visits.  

Bruce from the Wagga Wagga & District Cage Bird Society Inc. joined our group and generously offered to be our tour guide for the weekend.  Bruce helped Allen to arrange the trip at the Wagga Wagga end.  Thank you Bruce!

Bruce - our tour guide!

First stop was to Colin and his wife who had about one hundred flights with grass parrots and their mutations, also rosella mutations, lots of neophemas, major mitchells, and many other birds.  Also they have a beautiful free flight finch aviary.

After thanking Colin and his wife we travelled over to Chris and his wife... what an eye opener!! Chris has one of the most outstanding aviaries that you could wish to see.  He has so many flights I lost count.

Chris has a good collection of grass parrot mutations and rosella mutations.  He also has the best collection of small conures that you are likely to see anywhere.

After inspecting every flight Chris and his wife invited us to a barbecue lunch which was catered for by the Wagga Wagga & District Cage Bird Society plus Chris supplied us with keg of beer.  Thank you Chris, we really appreciated your hospitality it was lovely to be in the countr... then it was time to go.

We travelled over to Temora to see John.  What a great setup.  Beautiful aviaries again!  John had a very good collection of grass parrot mutations, rosella mutations, galah mutations and many other birds, but the most outstanding bird in my opinion was the blue 28, it was really beautiful.

We had one more aviary to visit and that was to Barry and Alan. They also had the grass parrot mutation, rosella mutation, galah mutation, the blue 28, yellow princess and blue princess and many more.

After looking at all these beautiful aviaries we were again spoiled by our hosts and John (who came over) surprised us with beer and wine and soft drink.  We really appreciated this.  Thank you Barry, Alan and John!

Pat & Peter relaxing on the grass with a cool drink

Then it was time to leave and make our trip back to our Motel to get ready for our night out.  This year we decided everyone would do their own thing.  Some went to the clubs, others ate at Chinese, Indian or Italian restaurants. By all reports, all the food was great and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Sunday 18th March 2002

Bruce was there bright and early and we got started. Today we stayed in Wagga Wagga. First we visited Royce who had a good collection of most Australian native birds, and blue and yellow princess. Royce showed us what could be done in a backyard. Well done! Royce your aviary and garden were lovely.

Bruce's walk-in finch aviary

Next we inspected Bruce's aviaries.

He had lots of neophemas and grass parrot mutations. Bruce had an outstanding walk-in finch aviary. Bruce's wife had afternoon tea for us in her backyard and beautiful garden. Thank you, what a lovely setting, everything was perfect!  After a stroll around their garden it was time to go.

Bruce and Gail's aviaries

Our last aviary to visit was Bruce and Gail's.

They have a very big collection of peachfaces, small lorikeets, cockatiels and canaries. Gail & Bruce's aviaries were mostly suspended cages well set out.

Wagga Wagga & District Cage Bird Society Inc., was there again with a delicious lunch. Thank you to everyone who helped.

We would especially like to thank Bruce who gave up his entire weekend to guide us and give us a lot of information on the local and district areas.  Thanks Bruce you are second to none!!

After lunch it was time to board the coach to go home.  We arrived home approximately 6:00pm. Everyone had a good weekend.

On the bus on our way home

Our youngest member of the party also enjoyed the birds!

(Article submitted by Nancy Fish)
(Photographs supplied by John and Christine Gallagher)

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