We need a break!

 

After over 1800 kilometres in five days, plus sight seeing, lots of dog walking whenever we stop, setting and packing up it was definitely time to stop and catch our breath. We have been doing the "miles" as there are big distances between places in Western Queensland. So it was so good to stop for two nights in Cobar. The weather was lousy; very windy and cold. Cobar seems a nice town with a good shopping centre including an excellent quilt shop that attracted my attention. It has an economy based on mining.

But despite the huge distances the days went quickly, it was not boring as there was a lot to see. You notice the little things out here.

1. Like the way the vegetation changes and geography changes; the river crossing with names remembered from primary school lessons like Barcoo, Darling, Warrego, Thompson and hundreds of other creeks and flood plains. It must be amazing when they fill up. Everything was dry and only a few had water in them.

2. Numerous animals are on the side of the road including beef of all sizes and colours, kangaroos, sheep, horses, foxes and camels.  Unfortunately there is a lot of road kill, mostly kangaroos who obviously cop it from the road trains.

3. Birds. Squadrons of black kites, square tailed kites and whistling kites, squawking galahs and cockatoos, the black and white birds such as magpies, starlings, mud larks and crows, gorgeous grey bustards (bush turkeys) who are very hard to see ahead on the bitumen and  majestic wedge tailed eagles.

4. Vehicles. Lots of road trains and semi trailers, caravans and RV in all sizes and ages, a tractor, and a bloke travelling around Australia on a tractor towing a decorated horse float.

 
5. Stations, or just names with intriguing roads heading off to some unknown destination.

6. The artesian basin with its hot water that comes up a thousand metres or more from deep within the earth. It's hot (58C plus) and in places smelly. They need to cool it before they use it.
In Tambo they didn't even have hot water systems in the caravan park. But it really dried out my skin and hair. Not a good look ...straw instead of hair.

Western Queensland

 

 

Another cold night, this time in Wyandra (frost and about 1C); but from I learnt from the previous freezing night at Tambo where I didn't sleep well and put extra blankets on the bed. We are doing the miles, just rolling along through very dry country. 

However we have discovered lots of interesting things in these isolated communities and dealt with a variety of interesting and helpful people.

Tambo 

1. It is the oldest town in Western Queensland. It had a lot of well preserved buildings including an old court house ( now a library), and the post office. We visited both trying to do some business. 

2. We drove out over the Barcoo river to the site of the only Qantas plane crash where a DC 9 stalled when landing and then on to a fabulous 150 year old racetrack.

3. Met slightly wacky Ken and Joyce who are driving a tractor through Australia raising money for charity. He used to drive camel teams. 

4, Saw the famous Tambo Teddies in a shop; gorgeous and handmade out of Australian sheepskins. The idea revitalised a town and helped develop tourism.

5. Learnt that a lot of these Western Queensland towns have a large common surrounding the township where locals can keep stock for a very small fee. 

Winton to Ilfracombe to Tambo

 

 

 

We left Winton (not fully exploring things, probably the dinosaur connections would have been great but too hard with Rifter) with plans of getting to Barcaldine but that didn't happen. Winton was very busy with a film festival.

Drove to Longreach,

quite a big town, and famous for the Stockman Hall of Fame  and also the location of the first commercial flight to Winton in 1921. Need a full day in each museum and we decided it was too hard to give them the time they deserved.

 

Travelling from Winton to Balcaldine we are on the grey nomad big lap road and so we see variations of vans being towed by variations of retirees; bikes on the back, plastic fantastic kayaks on the roof ( had to mention the plastic just in case you think we fit the demographic touring description.. But think we're just part of the great grey cubby-towing brigade...maybe not so grey though). There are the campers covered in red dust, the super clean caravan park only rigs with everything on board including two TVs so he can watch footy, she can watch reality shows ( true!.,) and everything in between. But most people are friendly, relaxed and have interesting tales to tell. Camped next to a friendly farmer from Victoria who had just sold up everything and had been on the road a month ( he'd already had an emergency flying doctor flight to Brisbane from somewhere outback with a mini stroke) and talked with a couple who had ridden push bikes from Port Augusta to Karumba ( a mere ?? thousands of kilometres.

GRAPHIC description warning.

This road is a straight double-width bitumen of grizzly carnage. I have NEVER seen so many dead roos on the sides ( and centre) of the road. It's like a horror movie, nasty. All sizes, colours and varying stages of decomposition, splattered and smeared! It's an indication of how many road trains are on the road. Big reason not to travel after about four.  Luckily we have been able to dodge the live and dead ones we've seen. Not like an oncoming van who drove straight over a carcass, guts spraying out the back. That'll be ripe in a few days.

About  kilometres out of Longreach we came to Ilfracombe. And there we stopped totally distracted by the "Machinery Mile" display along the edge of the Lansborough highway. It was full of ...well machinery, all old, lots horse drawn and of course fascinating...especially for mechanically minded blokes AKA Greg.

There also was an old hall with Light Horse display, a historic home with rooms set up and a building full of bottles.

Too late to keep travelling so we got the last spot in the caravan park. Owners Cathy and Jessie (locals) host a very entertaining "happy hour..actually two" and talk about the area, it's history, their story and also recite bush poems and tell very funny jokes. Great fun.

The next morning Cathy took us on a tour of the Langenbaker House; fascinating snapshot of outback living. The house was moved to Ilfracombe on the back of a cart in 1890 and was occupied and barely changed until the last family member died there in1991. Power was connected, a septic tank build (after shire regulations required it) but neither the new bath or toilet were ever connected up. Everything was left in the home... Clothes, piano, beds etc. Only perishable items were removed. Harry (who owned and worked a horse drawn wagon) and Mary-Anne raised 11 children in the house. Amazing and the photos can tell the story. Mary-Anne lived a hard life and died aged 91.  She recorded the birth of all her children on the back of the wardrobe and after the 11th wrote "I got a bit tired at the last"

Also learnt that the town was set up to service  huge sheep stations setup in the 1890s including  "Wellshot" which was the largest with over 40 000 sheep.

Lunch at Barcaldine with more outback history including the " tree of knowledge". It was (someone finally poisoned it, and it's now preserved under a striking timber structure that is lit at night) a meeting place for shearers during the 1891 Shearers Strike and now folk law says it was the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party.

In Blackall we stopped at the "black stump", the second on the trip- this one was a survey point 

and then we took a tour of the Wool scouring shed,  originally wood fire-steam driven. Very interesting. It was a pet friendly place and Rifter loved all the wool shed smells. Now off to find a place to park up.