“IF you could somehow drain the colour from what you are looking at as you stand in Wollombi’s main street, you would create a picture of the past.

In this village about a half-hour drive south-west of Cessnock, the patina of history covers just about every surface, from the rough-hewn timber slab walls of the 1850s barn to the honeyed sandstone of the former telegraph office, from the rusting iron roofs to the general store’s weatherboard skin, tattooed with fading signs.”