The Wild Reed

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026

Part 4: Gunnedah

I share this evening a few images from my recent time in Gunnedah, my Australian hometown.

Gunnedah and its surrounding area were originally inhabited by Indigenous Australians who spoke the Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay) language. The area now occupied by the town was settled by Europeans in 1833. Through my maternal grandmother’s family, the Millerds, my family can trace its connection to Gunnedah back to the town’s earliest days. For more about the town’s history and my family’s connection to it, see the previous Wild Reed posts, My “Bone Country” and Journey to Gunnedah.

Above: A depiction of Gambu Ganuurru, “Red Kangaroo,” the Indigenous Australian warrior and leader of the Gunn-e-dar people of the Kamilaroi tribe. After his death in the late 1700s, he was buried in the traditional way inside a carved tree.

Above and below: In driving from Port Macquarie to Gunnedah, one of my favorite sights is the area just on the other side of the mountains before one arrives at the town of Walcha. The landscape is dotted with popler trees, which at this time of the year (autumn in Australia) stand like columns of living flame. Just beautiful!

While in Gunnedah I stayed with my dear Aunty Ruth, my mum’s younger sister and only surviving sibling. We had a wonderful time.

While in Gunnedah I caught up with a number of childhood friends and neighbors, and enjoyed visiting places and viewing sights that feel part of my very bones.

NOTE: Commentary on the following images to follow.

NEXT: Armidale

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Australian Sojourn, March 2025 – Gunnedah
• Family Time in Melbourne, Guruk, and Gunnedah (2024)
• Australian Sojourn, March 2023 – Gunnedah
• Photo of the Day – March 25, 2023
• Across the Mountains . . . From Guruk to Gunnedah (2019)
• Family Time in Gunnedah (2019)
• A Visit to Gunnedah (2017)
• Australian Sojourn, May 2016 – Gunnedah
• Australian Sojourn, March 2015 – Gunnedah
• A Visit to Gunnedah (2014)
• Journey to Gunnedah (2011)
• This Corner of the Earth (2010)
• An Afternoon at the Gunnedah Convent of Mercy (2010)
• My “Bone Country” (2009)
• The White Rooster
• Remembering Nanna Smith
• One of These Boys is Not Like the Others
• Gunnedah (2006) – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Saturday, April 18, 2026

Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026

Part 3: Guruk

I’ve spent the last four-and-a-half days in Guruk (aka Port Macquarie) on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. Here with me during this time was my older brother, two of my four nephews, and my two great-nephews. They had all traveled up from Melbourne on Monday, April 13. My younger brother and his family, who live just south of Guruk, also joined us on a number of occasions. The primary purpose of our gathering in Guruk was to spend time with our mum/grandma/great-grandma (right).

Although she continues to make a good recovery from the stroke she experienced last April (just a day after my return to the U.S. after a month-long visit), my mum has moved into the assisted-living hostel that is part of the retirement village in Port Macquarie that’s been her home since 2013 – first with dad and then, after his passing in 2019, on her own.

As well as spending time with mum/grandma/great-grandma, my family also enjoyed time at the beach and a visit to Billabong Zoo, “Port Macquarie Koala and Wildlife Park.”

Above: Four generations are pictured in this photo – my mum, her eldest son Chris (my brother), Chris’s eldest son Ryan and third son Mitch, and Ryan’s two sons Ramy and Jake.