We stop for a view down the Bellinger as painted, nearly a hundred years ago, by Elioth Gruner, ‘last of the Australian Impressionists’.
The small village lived off timber and dairy and is smoking in the painting. The closest trees have been cut back again, subtracted for the scene. The wall of mountain has developed spines. The lost trees are lost, but there is more tree cover. The town, so much larger now, is hidden. Sections of the river have shattered into a million pieces.
