The 10 of us – Donna, Kim, Anne, Lyndal, Lisa, Deb, Jan, Carol, Vicki and Wendy set off from Marrar at 8.00am in two cars driven by Carol and Wendy.
First stop was Young for a coffee break at Country Providore Cafe. With lots of chat and enjoyment at seeing the countryside looking so magnificent with flowering yellow canola crops and cereal crops, we ventured on to Cowra. A quick stop at the Cowra Information Centre to see the POW theatre. This is the story of the 1944 Cowra Breakout. More than 1000 Japanese prisoners tried to escape and 370 did manage to escape, all were captured in the following days. 230 prisoners died and four Australian soldiers were killed. Italians were also held prisoners in the POW camp in a separate area to the Japanese.
Then we headed to the Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre. Walking around the garden was a pure delight! It is beautifully maintained and we enjoyed looking up plant names to identify over 124 species. Lunch was at the cafe in the gardens, very relaxing and good food!
Next stop was Canowindra to the Age of Fishes Museum. 360 million years ago was the Devonian Period or the “Age of Fishes” where all animals lived in the water and not on land. A chance find in 1956 near Canowindra where road works unearthed these millions of years old fossils. A major excavation went ahead in 1993 to uncover these fossils and a museum was built to house the fossils. 
Then we headed to the shops – The Trading Post and Saffi. Another coffee and off to book into the Guest House and B & B, the Old Vic Inn. Great accommodation and we were lucky to have five members of the NSW Women in Agriculture group join us for dinner in the restaurant.
Next morning we headed to Manildra. We were booked in for a tour at the Manildra Flour Mill. The mill is the largest flour mill in Australia and the tenth largest in the world. It is privately owned and there are 3 mills operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week with 12 hour shifts. It employs 180 people and is completely computerised. A lot of their milling wheat is sourced from northern and central NSW. We were taken through all the stages of the milling process including the lab testing where falling numbers and protein and bran testing are done. Then we saw the end product and whether it is White Wings flour, Coles or Woollies flour, it is all the same flour except just the packaging is different. We also saw the packaging shed.
From there we had a wonder around Manildra and had lunch and then headed to the MSM Milling Canola Crushing Mill. This is a private venture between brothers Bob and Peter MacSmith and Dick Honan (Manildra Mill). Greg Lynch, a chemical engineer, took us for an informative tour. Firstly he explained on the computer the processes of the crushing of the canola seed to the end product, oil and meal and there is no waste at all, it is a very high tech plant. All the oil produced is used for blending eg. margarine products. The meal is sold to feedlots. Then we actually went through the mill to see how it all happens. Very high temperatures are used to extract the oil from the seed and at one stage the temperature is 240oC. We then had a look at the Manildra Packaging Shed next door which is a joint venture with MSM Milling and a Vietnamese fellow. The plant makes their own 20 litre drums and then the oil is packaged into them. Some oil is packaged this way and some is transported in tankers.
From there we headed back to Canowindra, a bit more shopping and a coffee. Anne asked about the “sister” group and we all decided for her to go ahead to give them our group details and keep the communication lines open between the two groups. The next meeting is on the 20th October and is “gardens”! Marilyn’s (thanks Marilyn) is the first and then Wendy’s and morning tea there and then onto Carol’s. It was decided to bring the planning meeting forward to Thursday 3rd November, hope that suits everyone and start thinking of ideas! We had a wonderful trip and thank you for your company.
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