We chose to stay at Bellingen showgrounds. The town is part of the Gondwana Rainforests and not far from Dorrigo and the Waterfall Way. The waterfalls were on our list of things to see. Our idea was to leave our van at Bellingen and just have a day trip to the falls.   We had been advised not to take our van as the roads to the falls were windy and narrow.

On our first day at Bellingen we had a look around the town. Most of the buildings tell a story of an age gone by.

We ventured into “The Commercial Emporium.” It was lovely inside. Not fancy but it still had what looked like the original cast iron ceilings and walls. The building didn’t look like it had been touched since it had been built. It still ran as a commercial building with a lot of smaller type shops filling the two floors.

We took a walk though the local park to find a sculpture to honour David Helfgott.

David Helfgott is a concert pianist. He won the “ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition” 6 time and the London “Dannreuther Prize for best Concerto Performance” for his performance of Rachmaninov’s Third. I really don’t know what that means as I am not into concert music that much but I know about David. When he was in London he started to show signs of a Schizoaffective disorder and had a break down. He came back to Australia and settled in Perth (1970). After treatment he started to play again and worked in a local wine bar. In 1996 the film “Shine” was made of his life reflecting on his brilliant as a pianist, his breakdown and his recovery. The story is sad but quite inspirational.