Flora and fauna

Barcaldine is wool country and it was here in the 1891 during The Great Shearers Strike that the workers trade union movement began with the pastoralists wanting “Work Place Agreements” and the shearers were thrown into jail for their refusal. If Tony Abbott has his way ...

Meetings were held in the shade of an old ghost gum that became known as “The Tree of Knowledge”, wouldn’t you know it some idiot went and poisoned the tree - a monument now stands in place of the original. The monument is quite beautiful.

Today the circus is coming to town, this a rare event and we have decided to stay an extra night to have a look. Should be interesting as the circus is of the old style with performing animals including lions, horses, camels, alpacas, dogs, miniture(sic) donkeys, plus tight wire act, hula hoop girl, silk act, clowns and double wheel of death. Should be quite a show and a contrast to our usual early night!

Not lost - just beyond the black stump

Getting into hot water

I mentioned the Great Artesian Basin before, it was an important topic in my geography lessons at school - a great natural resource - and here in Blackall that’s so true.

The residents don’t have hot water services, they use the heated water just as it comes out of the ground. We had our first swim of this trip in the local aquatic centre which has a soothing artesian spa and a heated 50 metre pool. We just about had the place to ourselves - wonderful. You will also be pleased to know that many bores are being capped to stop wastage.

And all of this happens “beyond the black stump” - the original is here in Blackall and was used for surveying purposes when outback Queensland was originally being mapped.

Blackall

Since my last post we have been travelling north through the towns of Cunnamulla, Charleville, Augathella and tonight finds us in Blackall. There are artesian springs here and we plan to stay for a while and soak the arthritic old bones in the thermal pools. In fact the town water supply comes from the Great Artesian Basin and comes out at 58 degrees celsius so it needs cooling down before it can be used. There have been storms in this area and many roads have been washed away, unusual for this time of the year, but the countryside is green and sparkling and today is sunny with blue skies.

This is beef country, the towns have wide streets big enough to turn a bullock team around in, with a pub on every corner and we encounter huge road trains loaded with cattle headed for ...

Bourke

It is now nearly a week since we left Adelaide and we have mostly stayed only one night in each place since we left home. We are now in Bourke and have been here 2 days. We are slowly settling into a new routine. The town of Bourke - made famous by Banjo Patterson and for the term “Back o’ Bourke” - is on the Darling River flood plain and was once an important inland port. Today we cruised the river on a paddle boat, not much water in the river at present but there have been 2 floods this year and the first one raised the river 36 metres - it is difficult to imagine but you can see debris caught high up in trees and high water marks. Pity more of it didn’t find its way further south!

Departure Day

Departure Day Sunday 16th May arrived and found us in a last minute frenzy of packing. We set out later than planned, in fact it was early afternoon, and we thought we had everything but the kitchen sink - however L’s keys to the van got left behind on the front verandah! Luckily we had a spare set so the panic when we arrived at Loxton wasn’t necessary and we were able to have a scratch meal of cheese and biscuits with olives from our tree which Joylene and Errol had prepared. A visit to the Loxton locksmith the next morning and all was well!

Day 2

The Loxton caravan park is on the banks of the Murray and Monday morning found us strolling along enjoying the beautiful morning and bird life. Then it was on to Mildura heading for Hay. We realized that we were going to pass through the town of Euston where Kerry, the daughter of L’s friends Tom and Sue is headmistress of the local school. A few phone calls later found us in the classroom with the year 3s - we ended up camping in Kerry’s back yard and having a bbq tea with her.

Tuesday night finds us in Goolgowi.

The day before

Boxes everywhere, lists galore, tomorrow is departure day and we plan to reach Mildura. Listening to the weather forecast for that area this morning I heard their minimum was zero - it's a good thing we have bedsocks, plus some red wine to warm from the outside in!

Getting Ready

We have named our van "Alice" and our first outing was to Booleroo Centre to spend Easter on the farm with L's sister and her family. We had a fantastic time but more importantly, for this trip, we were able to learn some more about this mode of travel. We experienced a powerful thunderstorm, lightning right overhead and then rain bucketing down. We were snug in our cozy bed so at least we know that that roof doesn't leak. The learning process continues.