Falling for Grenfell’s Signs
Oh
Grenfell
! You were the place that nagged at the heart of Australian poet, Henry Lawson, his birthplace. To read the monument to his birth just outside this centre of this NSW country town, you get the sense that Lawson felt a little guilty about his departure from the town. His poem,
Said Grenfell To My Spirit
, opens with the town itself berating him for his disloyalty -
Said Grenfell to my spirit, “You’ve been writing very free Of the charms of other places, and you don’t remember me.”
4 hours out of Sydney, this historic gold town has known a few celebrity ex-pats (notably the bushranger, Ben Hall) and surrounded by flowering canola blossoms and rambling Patterson’s Curse, it’s probably no prettier than it is in springtime. But it wasn’t the history, the view or the pub that caught my eye on a recent exploration of the town. It was Grenfell’s lovely typography.
I was struck by the many painted signs, some old some new, and wondered if perhaps Grenfell was also home to a typographic talent, yet uncovered? Whoever the one or many sign-writers are, their legacy adds a particular flair to this town of 2200 people.
After gold was discovered in the area by a shepherd in the 1860’s, the town boomed as miners flocked to the area to get their piece of shiny. By the 1870’s it was producing the most gold of any town in NSW.
The Weddin Mountains fringe the village, and in them are caves and hideouts of bushrangers from these boom times. The locals will tell you, in that traditional country Australia, laconic style, that there’s gold in the caves still – bushranger loot – stashed away right before they were shot by police or dragged off to the lock-up, a hundred-year-old secret.
Apprently it’s hard to get to, though, on account of the mini-avalanches that have resulted in the entranes being blocked by fallen rocks.
So, there are hills in which to hunt your fortune. But if you prefer a more leisurely exploration, try sign-watching and enjoy Grenfell’s typography treasures.
