Lineside Liaisons #18 The Risk

The Risk, the riskiest train watching location in New South Wales.

Believe it or not, this was once a station. In fact, this was once a small village located off the Summerland Way in the far north of New South Wales known as The Risk. Google Maps still has it marked as a locality. In fact, Google Maps still has the Old Risk Road marked as a road. Another fact; it isn't! It's a muddied two-tyre cow track that crosses an electric cattle grid on its way to a solitary farmhouse. I almost got our sedan bogged while taking this photo, and our party of four stranded more than 6 km from the nearest town of Wiangaree, and we won't mention the wheel alignment our car needed after crossing the old timber bridge that was missing a plank after recent flooding. Ah, the places writers find themselves stuck in search of inspiration. It turned out the drive was all the inspiration I needed for the Australian bush poem The Old Risk Road that accompanies the above photo in my book Last Train to Grafton. I do hope you at least enjoy the photo. Its gone down as the most expensive photo I have ever taken!