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This is Minmi Junction, where the Richmond Vale railway branches off the Hexham to Minmi railway. Both lines are abandoned. The Hexham to Minmi railway was initially built in 1856, mainly to service coal mines in the area around Minmi. The line was last used in 1924. The branch line to Richmond Vale was constructed in ~1904. The section of this line west of Stockrington has not been used since the early 1970s, however the section from Stockrington and Hexham was used up until 1987 to service coal mines. This is the only section of either line that still has rails in place.
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There are no kangaroos in Austria. We're talking about Australia, the world's smallest continent. That being cleared up, let's dive right in! Australia is a sovereign state under the Commonwealth of Nations, which is in turn overseen by Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. The continent was first sighted and charted by the Dutch in 1606. Captain James Cook of Britain came along in the next century to claim it for Britain and name it "New South Wales." Shortly thereafter it was declared to be a penal colony full of nothing but criminals and convicts, giving it the crap reputation you may have heard at your last cocktail party. This rumor ignores 40,000 years of pre-European human history, especially the Aboriginal concept of Dreamtime, an interesting explanation of physical and spiritual reality. The two biggest cities in Australia are Sydney and Melbourne. Sydney is more for business, Melbourne for arts. But that's painting in very broad strokes. Take a whirl around the panoramas to see for yourself! Text by Steve Smith.
