Parkes is a town in the Central West of New South Wales, which is famous for, well, a radio telescope, or as it is commonly known, The Dish, that was made into a film of the same name. However Louise and I found on our recent trip that there is much more to this town.
Parkes is about five hours drive from Sydney, simply drive over the Blue Mountains, past Bathurst, head towards Orange, and then take the turn off towards Parkes.
We stayed at the Station Parkes Hotel (pictured below).
Nice room, corrugated steel interior is a nice touch, in keeping with the outback feel of the hotel.
Parkes is of course also famous for the Elvis Festival, which occurs every year in the second week of January. It was started by a group of Elvis fans from the town, and just grew bigger every year; Countrylink even have a special train called the Elvis Express that takes fans from Sydney to Parkes.
Driving around town we came across an old hotel for sale called, appropriately,"Gracelands" (pictured below). It has seen better days, but strangely looks nothing like the real Gracelands (see our USA trip), the home of course of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee.
Now, coincidentally, Parkes like Memphis is an infrastructure hub. Memphis is positioned strategically, on the mighty Mississippi river, intersected by major highways, and with the busiest cargo airport in the world; we passed the headquarters of FedEx, and saw more jets on the tarmac than at Sydney airport.
Similarly, they call Parkes the crossroads of the nation, about 80% of Australia's population can be reached in under 12 hours. It has a strategic position on the Newell Highway, the main route from Melbourne to Queensland, and as a result, about 1400 trucks go through Parkes every day. Furthermore, it is situated on the East West train line to Perth. As a bonus it has an upgraded airport allowing for the potential of air freight. This has not been lost on some of Australia's biggest logistics companies who have bought land in the new business hub. Parkes, unlike other shrinking country towns, has a future, especially if, as is projected that Australia will double in population - that's going to mean alot of freight has to move, and it's going to move through Parkes.
Well, that's the future, but we found, to Louise's delight, that Parkes is also living in the past. Proudly sitting in the main street is a Pizza Hut restaurant, with, you will never guess, a buffet. Remember the all you can eat Pizza buffet, with the salad bar, and the self serve ice cream machine where you could make your own dessert. It's so very 1990's, but so is the price - $14.95 per person!
Don't think we have missed out on the The Dish. That's tomorrow.
About twenty minutes drive north of Parkes on the Newell Highway is the Parkes Observatory, aka The Dish. It's big. Sixty four metres high.
I know your asking why the *#$% is it in Parkes? The answer: Parkes was chosen because of it's low average wind speed, low radio interference, and proximity to Sydney.
This is me standing in front of The Dish display in the visitor centre (pictured above). If you have watched the film you will remember that The Dish was used to receive live, televised images of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
I would recommend the three 3D films that run consecutively for about twenty minutes.
There is a nice cafe out the back of the visitor centre.
So, there you have it. Parkes is a great little country town with a big future. It has everything; the Elvis Festival, the infrastructure, The Dish, even a Pizza Hut buffet restaurant. What more could you ask for?
Facts Sheet:
Station Parkes Motel
Station Motel Parkes - 82 Peak Hill Road (Newell Highway), Parkes, NSW 2870, Australia. Phone 02 6862 8444 - Fax 02 6862 8400
Parkes Observatory
20 Kilometres north of Parkes on the Newell Highway.
Open seven days.
