Currently camped in Mudgee with heavy rain keeping us inside for a few hours nothing like you guys in Queensland have been copping though. We took a trip out to Hillend yesterday and was pretty disappointed in how the place has changed since they sealed the roads in from Soffala and Mudgee. Seems to be more people tourist buses etc. but the small curio shops, general store etc. have now closed, the museum in the old hospital has also gone and the parks and wildlife have replaced it with a small display in a shed that they have built near the Royal Hotel. I asked a park ranger why they had closed everything and he said 'decision was made by someone sitting in Sydney' I also asked him what they have done with all the exhibits they had like the Cobb & coaches etc and he said that they just stuck them in a shed somewhere. Over the years we have been out to Hillend a number of times and loved It yesterday we were a bit disappointed with the changes - I would be interested in what other people think. Hillend is still a lovely place and the Royal is always good for a meal out the back in the beer garden but for us without those little shops and the hospital museum to browse through it has lost a little bit of it's character.