Does Spring make your heart sing?!
Does Spring make your heart sing?
Do Daffodils make you smile?
For me the answer is a resounding YES!
Once a year, over the second and third weekends in September, since 2003, the village of Rydal has a very special event featuring mass plantings of daffodils.
Why daffodils you may ask? It all comes back to the naming of the village in 1843. And for that story we have to time travel back to 1832, when Major Mitchell, the Surveyor General of New South Wales crossed Solitary Creek, and thought this would be a great spot for a village.
Rydal lies in the Solitary Creek Valley at over 1000 metres above sea level. With the arrival of the Europeans in the 1830’s, plans were drawn up for a new village to be named Solitary Creek. However, the name was changed to Rydal because Queen Victoria had appointed William Wordsworth as Poet Laureate and William lived in the village of Rydal in England.
And so it was was decreed that the new village be named Rydal .
One of Wordsworth’s most loved poems is all about the joy that daffodils bring.
By 1859, Rydal was the stopping point for one of Cobb and Co’s first coach runs in New South Wales. Once the Western Railway was built in 1868, Rydal became one of the busiest, most important and best known railway stations in New South Wales. This was where trains from Sydney terminated, and the village was a vibrant hub with eight hotels, five stores and five blacksmiths !
Until the introduction of motor coaches, people wishing to visit Jenolan Caves came to Rydal by train, then took a horse-drawn vehicle to the caves.
The gardens will be open on the weekends of the 10th-11th, and 17th-18th of September. There’s so much to enjoy – from gardens to music, heritage walks and even a sculpture exhibition. However, the star of the show are the daffodils, with over 100,000 flowers on display !
As an added bonus, what better way to get to Rydal than by train! Travel in beautifully restored 1930s compartment style carriages hauled by vintage diesel locomotives to Rydal and enjoy this unique Western Village experience.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
