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Weekend Away – Historic Windsor & The Hawkesbury

By 16/05/2022February 28th, 2024No Comments

A group of fifteen Connect: Inner West clients and staff embarked on another fun-filled weekend adventure.  Our destination this time was the historic region of Windsor and the Hawkesbury.

We were blessed with sunshine and lovely temperatures for the entire weekend – the first drops of rain falling only as we delivered our final clients safely back to their homes on Sunday afternoon.

Friday

What’s a weekend bus trip without supplies?   We made our way to Windsor via the Lindt Factory Outlet to stock up on goodies, to see us through the three days (or maybe just the one, depending on an individual’s’ consumption rate!!).

With all our treats packed into the bus, we took a scenic drive through Windsor Downs and on to Windsor, following along the river, witnessing the devastation left by the recent floods.

We dropped in to the Hawkesbury Regional Museum to catch up on our history of the area and took a short stroll to The Doctors House nearby.   This old heritage listed building is named as such, due to it being occupied by doctors from 1858-1992.

With bellies rumbling, we stopped off in the Windsor Mall to have lunch at the lovely Second Home Café, followed by a stroll through the mall and some light shopping in the boutique stores.    A couple of clients managed to find another sweet shop – just in case we were already running low on sugar after the Lindt store.

The group then embarked on a scenic drive of the Windsor Heritage Trail, which encompasses several notable, heritage listed buildings in Windsor Town.

After checking into the Colonial Motel for a freshen up we concluded our Windsor Heritage Trail by visiting the Macquarie Arms hotel for dinner, the oldest hotel in Australia.

Saturday

With a big day ahead, we kicked things off by following the Richmond Heritage Highlights drive.  As with the Windsor trail, the tour highlighted many of the beautiful old buildings, this time in Richmond, which are heritage listed.

From here we headed north to explore the Hawkesbury River Towns.  Our first stop off was Ebenezer Church, the first Presbyterian Church in Australia.

Over delicious scones and hot tea, our group was given an interesting history talk about Ebenzer, the Church and the local school, by resident expert Ted Brill.  Ted and his wife Sue have been hosting visitors to the Church for many years.  They provide visitors with their exception Devonshire tea and the opportunity to buy locally made goods in the small on site shop.

With full bellies yet again (which soon became the theme of the trip), we set off to Hadden Farm.

Hadden Farm has been owned by Neil and Darcy Shedden since 1979 and is operated as a horse spelling agistment property.   Darcy hopped onto the bus and provided a guided tour around the stunning property from the comfort of the bus.   A small splinter group made the tour on foot, guided by Darcy’s daughter Bree.

Thanking Bree and Darcy for their kind hospitality, we then made our way to the much anticipated Tizzana Winery.

This vineyard in was established in the 1880s by Italian born Dr Thomas Henry Fiaschi (who coincidentally also practiced in The Doctor’s House in Windsor town).

Our host John, provided everyone (except staff of course) with samples of their beautiful locally made produce.   We also enjoyed a homemade lunch of fresh sandwiches and the best apple pie in the Hawkesbury, perhaps even the country!  It was truly delicious, and was made in-house.

Following a long lazy lunch, we headed back to the motel via Wilberforce and settled in for some (more) wine and cheese.  The weather gods remained kind to us, and it was like sitting out enjoying a summers evening.

Sunday

After packing up and farewelling the hospitable folk at the Colonial Hotel, we headed up the hill to the picturesque Village of Kurrajong, via the Bellbird Lookout.

We made our way back down to the Kurrajong Radio Museum where we were hosted by the very gracious Pat O’Toole.   Pat gave us a talk about the history of radio and pointed us in the direction of some of the magnificent items in the museum, providing some colourful tales surrounding many of the pieces, and how they came to be there.  The entire collection has been put together over many years by Pats husband Ian.

We finished our weekend away off, circling back to Windsor to visit the Windsor Mall Sunday Markets.  After a bit of a shop – and some more food, we completed our tour, and headed home, pretty tired – and ready for bed (or maybe that was just me!).

Join us next time.

Perhaps you would like to join us next time?   If so, make sure you are registered on our mailing list to ensure you don’t miss out on, not only our weekends away, but all the other fantastic offerings on our social calendar.

 

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