The conversion of main country highways into freeways means that it is now possible to drive long distances through populated rural areas and not see a town or township. Country towns of historic and economic importance are bypassed and reduced to exit signs. This is a pity, because country towns are as much a part of the countryside as the plains and paddocks around them. If you don’t see them you only get half an idea of what the country as a whole looks like. The towns are the places where the aspiration and endeavour of generations who have wrenched…