On my first visit I saw the Hermit’s Cave where Valerio Ricetti retreated from a society that had left him disillusioned. Not much remains of his solitary settlement but a cave that smells faintly of urine and a view of acres of citrus as well as encroaching suburbia.
The next time I saw Scenic Hill was from the air. A myriad of reddish dirt tracks cut through dark, sparse bushland.
More recently I’ve begun to drive up the Hill a few times a week to my new workplace at Pioneer Park Museum. After driving much of the way between Leeton and Griffith at 100 kilometres an hour, the winding roads through Griffith feel sluggish at 50.
While the distance between the last house on the Hill and the Park near the top is short, it’s not uncommon to see a kangaroo.
After parking my car under a Grey Box tree, I walk through the large iron gates and past the various historic and recreated buildings I can see more Box and Cyprus Pine. My arrival at 8am means I am usually alone in the car park. It allows me to remain in my own thoughts but also to look around and appreciate the landscape.
At present the rains of a wet winter and a wetter than usual spring have given the understory of weeds below these native trees a similar shade of green to the kikuya grass on the lawn outside Myall Park Hall, where many local festive occasions are celebrated — including the popular salami festival.
Last Monday there was a beautiful mist hanging in the trees, either low cloud or evaporation as the sun beamed onto the soaked Box bark. The rains this week revealed new stones in the unsealed road around the Park, as well as shifting red dirt down them toward drainage points.
