Charleville to Mitchell

Monday, 8 September 2014

 

Bottle tree

Caravan park sign

Even the police use Jayco's

Camp kitchen

Keeping warm

Bushwalking

Still looking for birds

Didn't quite make it

Beautiful butterful

Find the ant on the bottlebrush

Happy hour around the camp fire

Happy campers

As the sun set in the west ...

... the moon rose in the east.

Last night’s storm had disappeared and the skies were clear this morning – for a while!  As the morning wore on and we drove further south towards Charleville, the clouds started to build up, but the thermometer stayed about the 20 degree mark.  Time to find the long pants!

The country today definitely had a very green tinge to it, following the heavy rains in the last few weeks.  Green bush also means less roadkill, as the kangaroos don’t need to come to the road edges for food.  We saw quite a few emus today as well.

We are staying at the Evening Star Caravan Park, with is on the Thurlby Station, about 10 kms from Charleville.  It really is a lovely park, well maintained and clean, with extremely large, gravelled drive-thru sites.  A walking path has been cleared through the scrub so that guests can have an easy half hour walk.  As the tourist season has now officially concluded, we had to amuse ourselves around the campfire tonight.  I have come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter how much one takes notice of which way the wind is blowing (and where all the smokers are sitting), one will always be enveloped in wood smoke.

After visiting the police station this afternoon and enquiring about road conditions if travelling west to Quilpie and then south to Cunnamulla, we still were undecided about which direction to head when we leave here.  However, we discovered at the campfire that the Birdsville Races were held last weekend and Quilpie will be over-run by people returning from Birdsville.  We have now decided to head east to Mitchell, Miles, Goondiwindi and towns further south.

 

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Mulga scrub

Camels on a cattle station

Original dam

Is it dead?  No, just sleeping like a baby.

Instruction in water management

Turkey nest

Flower of the arsenic tree

Someone isn't paying attention

Flood plains

Spot the kangaroo!

A beautiful, clear, sunny and windy day.  We were fortunate that a tour of Thurlby Station had been organised for today, specifically at the request of an American family.  Five minutes after the tour was due to commence, a phone call was received to say the family wouldn’t be undertaking the tour after all.  Therefore, the four remaining passengers set off in the mini bus with Neil, for a very interesting and informative tour of the 33,000 acre cattle station.  We started in the 5,000 acre mulga scrub paddock, with its brilliant red dirt – and two camels, along with numerous cows.  A stop at the breeders’ waterhold/paddock had Neil quickly checking on a small calf which was breathing rapidly and not moving.  Poor little fellow was just sound asleep and didn’t appreciate being woken up!  We continued on through the mulga, with a stop at a turkey nest (a fancy name for a bore water hole) and learnt that windmills are no longer used because of OH&S issues; all water is raised to the surface using diesel pumps nowadays.  Then it was on to another waterhole on top of an escarpment, with a view across the station to the west.  The distant black soil flood plains were quite green following the heavy rain during the last month.  Down the escarpment to the gibber plain – and lots of kangaroos sharing the new grass with the cows and calves.  (This was when my camera battery decided to go flat.)  We stopped at the stock yards for smoko and being after 1.00 pm, the fruit cake and biscuits didn’t last long.  We were all rather thankful that the Americans were no-shows!  We then walked through the stock yards (some with less enthusiasm than others!!!) to stand in the dirt, and the cow poo, and the bits of horn that had recently been cut of the calves, and the dust, listen to the recently weaned calves bellow, and wee, and poo, while Neil explained how the yards worked etc.  Very enthralling.  Our return to the caravan park was over the still slightly soggy black dirt flood plains; we even saw some emus as well as many, many more kangaroos.  The Americans really missed out!  Then it was back into the mulga and red dirt before arriving back about 2.30 pm.

It really was very interesting, probably more so for the couple of farm boys on the bus.  It also really brought home how bad the drought is in this part of the country.

We were very pleased to receive a message in the early evening that our grandson, Michael, was doing well after four and a half hours of surgery on his foot.

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Kerosene tin hut

Road bridge over the Maranoa River - the 2012 flood was a good metre above the bridge

River wildlife

Maranoa River

We said a fond farewell to the Evening Star this morning and turned east towards Mitchell, just over two hours away.  The road was good, the wind was at our backs (fuel consumption was fantastic today), the sun was shining and the temperature quickly rose to 28 degrees.

We had a short stop at Morven, with a quick look at some of the historic displays which lined the road – the kerosene tin hut in particular.  During the Depression, many dwellings were made from flattened out kerosene tins, but very few remain today.  There was some roadkill today, but not as bad as we have seen – the countryside was quite green today.  We did have to make a quick detour around a shingleback lizard which seemed intent on either committing suicide or getting to the other side of the road.

We arrived at the Major Mitchell Caravan Park well before lunch.  This is a very nice park on the banks of the Maranoa River, which actually has water in it.  Adam directed us into position right at the front of a very long site and remained chatting for some time.  After he left, we reversed to the back of the site so that our cords and hoses could connect with the appropriate outlets.  We are directly across the river from the town’s artesian spa and with Adam’s promise that Les would look like Hugh Jackman after 30 minutes of soaking, we promptly headed across the bridge after lunch.  Adam was wrong.

Stormy Tambo

Sunday, 7 September 2014

 

Roadside cafe

Bore water memorial

Tree of Knowledge

Inside frame

Hanging wood

Barcaldine War Memorial, in the middle of a street junction

Thunderstorm building up

Mighty Barcoo River, sans water

Happy Fathers’ Day.

Some very happy people here yesterday afternoon – Cat is still wearing his scarf!  Two games to go …

We learnt this afternoon that there had been a catastrophic fertiliser explosion just south of Charlieville and not only had the road been utterly destroyed, but road and train bridges as well.  With our intended route south now destroyed, we will need to rethink our itinerary after leaving Charlieville.  We have decided to wait until we talk to the police about road conditions and then make the decision.  It was incredible that no one was killed in the explosion, although the truck driver was critically injured.

We have discovered a negative to the Ilfracombe Caravan Park – it is next door to the Wellshot Hotel, which has live music on Saturday nights!  After listening to the noise and having decided sleep was impossible, it was a relief at 12.10am when the plug was literally pulled in mid-sentence/tune/noise/whatever.  However, being only a very small town, everyone walked home.

The sun rose today in a clear sky, following a couple of light showers overnight; I think the rain evaporated before hitting the ground.  The temperature was a very pleasant 24 degrees when we hit the road once again, following the Tropic of Capricorn to Barcaldine.  The down side was the extremely strong head wind, with the fuel consumption above 24 litres per 100 kilometres.

We had a short stop at Barcaldine to look at the Tree of Knowledge, the birthplace of the ALP.  Unfortunately, the original tree was destroyed a few years ago and an artistic creation has taken its place.  This “tree” is like a huge wooden wind chime, and was certainly making music in today’s wind.

With the sky darkening and looking very threatening (the forecast thunderstorms building up) and the temperature dropping, we headed south towards Blackall, our intended overnight stop.  However, we were there well before lunch, so decided to continue to Tambo.  While in Blackall, we pulled into the side of the road for a short break and realised we were outside the local bowls club.  Even more amazingly, we actually knew two of the people who were playing, having played with them at home before they moved to Bargara.  We had lunch in a large camping area before continuing along a very wet road towards Tambo.  As we approached, the rain started and the thunder commenced as we were moving onto our site.  We are at the Mill Motel and Caravan Park, which is a very nice overnight stop, with blue metal roads and green grass.  It is a bit expensive, but we were given a souvenir stubby holder.  Just after we finished setting up, the thunderstorm hit with a vengeance; one lightning strike must have been very close, because our firmly locked windows even rattled and the van shook.

We saw a variety of wildlife today – live kangaroos (I think the dark skies had them confused), an eagle, emus and a number of bustards.  Unfortunately, I still don’t have a photo of them because someone wont stop so I can use the camera.  He mutters about possible traffic behind us, but they probably want to take a photo as well!

Longreach

Saturday, 6 September 2014

The Ringer

Australian Stockmen's Hall of Fame

Planes at Qantas Founders' Museum

Road to Lily Lagoon

Lily Lagoon

Black winged stilt (has hot pink legs!)

Qantas still calls Longreach "Home"

Late yesterday afternoon, this caravan park lived up to its reputation for Happy Hours.  These are conducted in a special shed, where the owners not only provide the nibbles, but also the entertainment.  Their son (about 10 years old) entertained us with a few bush poems before being excused, then it was his mother’s turn.  It wasn’t long before she had us all in stitches, especially with her poem on the arriving and departing antics of caravanners – something we could all relate to!  This caravan park at Ilfracombe is a real gem.

This morning, with the sky beginning to look a bit stormy, we headed back to Longreach, first calling into the Stockman’s Hall of Fame for a few photos and then crossing the road to the Qantas Founders’ Museum.  As we have previously enjoyed both these attractions, we didn’t feel it necessary to revisit the museum displays, but simply did our bit for the Longreach economy in the gift shop.  (There may be a souvenir for some family members!)  With the temperature rising to 29 degrees, we headed out to Lily Lagoon.  While there weren’t any lilies on the lagoon, there were a number of free campers tucked away among the scrubby trees on the bank.  Then it was back to Longreach for some supplies before returning to Ilfracombe and preparing for the big footy match this afternoon.

Ilfracombe

Friday, 5 September 2014

 

Dust storm approaching

Emu departing

Thompson River

Caravan park exit

Meg

Museum

The menu

The cook?

An outhouse, with sheep and dog

A mile of machinery

Boys just have to play

Part of a gun and bottle collection

General store display

A machine thingy - and very blue sky

Enjoying a shady verandah

Ilfracombe General Store

First building in Ilfracombe

Another cold night has been followed by a glorious day – very hot and very little humidity.

We left Winton this morning for the 200 km drive to Ilfracombe, via Longreach.  The road was much improved on yesterday’s effort and there was a bit more traffic, including roadtrains and four very wide loads which necessitated us pulling off the road and stopping.  Very happy kites and crows on this section of road, I don’t think we have seen such concentrated roadkill before.  We were also lucky enough to see a bustard, which strolled across the road in front of us (no, the camera was not on my knee!), as well as a number of emus.  When we were about half way to Longreach, we noticed what looked to be a red cloud above the horizon; this turned out to be a dust storm which we only caught the edge of, luckily.  We crossed the Thompson River at Longreach, and were surprised to see a proper river with water – and pelicans.  A further 28 kms brought us to Ilfracombe, for a two night stopover.

The caravan park is again typical outback, being gravel, but is well set out with wide roadways and good sized sites.  The lady (owner/manager?) was very friendly and allowed us to select a site and get set up before even thinking about payment.  Backed on to site, opened windows, hatches, connected electricity, water, unhitched, jacks down, awning extended, television antennae raised – then DISASTER!  No television reception –the footy finals start this weekend and Sydney are playing tomorrow afternoon.  Back to talk to the nice lady and discovered we were parked in an area that did not receive television.  Himself thought seriously for five seconds and decided he wanted to move.  The nice lady showed us some more sites and promised we would definitely get reception on any of them, so packed up, rehitched and moved site.  While we were setting up, Meg came to visit, bringing a large seed pod in the hope someone would play with her.  We later saw her conning a lady outside the pub, as well.

We decided to treat ourselves to lunch, after all the unhitching, hitching and unhitching, so walked to the general store and café (only café in Ilfracombe, actually) and enjoyed a nice sandwich before continuing our walk and doing the sights.  We were astonished at the number of historic buildings with displays – all free admission – and a complete mile of old farm machinery along one side of the highway.  The Wellshot Museum was very interesting and informative about the development of the wool industry and then the town and was a good starting point for the other buildings.  It is amazing what a locality of approximately 400 people can do for their community.