No Way Nymagee

Perhaps Nymagee was once a welcoming town. According to Wikipedia, Nymagee was originally a copper mining town and in its peak supported a population of over 2200, half of those being Chinese migrants. However, when the mine closed in 1917 most of the towns residents moved out.

Last week, Nigel had the day off so it was the perfect opportunity to check out Nymagee, which is 100 km ‘down the road’. I’d heard that they held an annual goat race and I imagined a quirky, fun, welcoming community.

The flat tyre was probably an omen of things to come and, on a cold and very windy morning I stood helpless while Bowie snuggled on the back seat and hero Nige changed the tyre with never a word of complaint. That’s my man!! Tyre changed, we decided to venture on our slightly less merry way – with no spare – and arrived in Nymagee around lunch time.

With expectations of a grand country pub lunch, we discovered that the lunch menu consisted of heated pies. Worse still, there was not a glass of Bubbly to be found! But the worst was yet to come when we spied a sign posted on the wall of the pub – No Dogs allowed. According to said sign, not only were furry friends not allowed in the pub or beer garden but they were banned from the footpath as well and had to remain “on or in the vehicle”. So while Nige stood and drank a beer, Bowie and I walked around (what was once) the town, taking photos and making sure to steer clear of the pub.

In protest, I decided to forego “lunch” and we left as soon as Nige had finished his beer and collected his pie. Sorry Nymagee but there’s no way we’ll be returning if I have anything to do with it. As it turned out, foregoing the pie was quite serendipitous because it arrived with paper towel stuck to the bottom and it was pretty much impossible to remove. Yuk!

PS the best house in town was clearly the police residence and if you’re wondering why on earth they’d need a police station in Nymagee, I’d surmise that it’s more to do with the occurrence of rural crime than shop-lifting and random breath tests!