Salisbury is not so much a place as a location and Salisbury Road passes straight through it with little recognition of its existance. There is a fork in the road at the end. One fork goes into the Barringotn Tops National Park and the other towards the Barrington Guest House and the Barringotn Wilderness Cottages. The address is 2940 Salisbury Road which I think indicates that it is 29.40km from the start of the road. There is not much along the way.

The Barrington Guest House was just down the hill from our cottage, not more than 50m away. I say was, because six weeks ago to the day it burnt down. The place was totally destroyed and all that remains is a pile of charred beams and rusted corrugated iron. A tractor arrived today to start tidying up the ruins. The noise echoes throughout the valley, so our quiet holiday in the wilderness is now like having a holiday on a building site.

The fire was supposedly accidental, caused by faulty wiring, but the caretaker of the Wilderness Cottages (who looks like the caretakere unmasked at the end of a Scooby Doo cartoon) has his doubts. The fire occured when there was no-one staying in the house and only an old coupled staying in an adjacent building. The morning of the day of the fire, a group of emus which normally roamed the grounds were supposed herded into the tennis courts. Allegedly many of the antiques decorating the house had been removed in previous weeks. It is said that the Guest House had not been making money and had gone into receivership. The insurance is apparently not enough to rebuild, so it seems that this landmark of the region is gone forever.