Chapter 3 - Queensland

Chapter 3 - Queensland


Day 8 - Tuesday 20 June 2017                 >> Home Page & Intro

It had been declared a rest day so we started slowly. Egg for breakfast and a leisurely start.  I did however have time to sneak out earlier for a sunrise photo – but not one of my better ones.

Cunnamulla sunrise

We drove to the other side of town and visited the “Cunnamulla Bushlands”, a 2 km walking track that illustrates six of the eco systems that are found in this area.  Each area features plants and soils typical of the different eco systems. 

Cunnamulla Bushlands -Featuring 6 Different Eco Systems

We then visited the information centre (again), gathered more brochures, then found the only coffee shop in Cunnamulla.  After some shopping and strolling we headed home for a restful day - but not before we took a photo of the Cunnamulla Fella – made famous by the Slim Dusty song.

Cunnamulla Fella

Windcheaters were quickly discarded as the temperature quickly rose into the high teens - before lunch. Beanies were replaced with hats.

Later in the day we re-joined the happy hour camp fire and I was privileged to talk to a Yorkshire couple (Cliff and Mary who have been in Australia for 38 years.  They spend 6 months per year in Melbourne and 6 months on the road in their miniature caravan.  They are both in their 80’s and are marvellous people.  They both love cricket and we had an immediate topic for lots of conversation and “stirring”. We had a great two hours together.

Mary claimed to be a great grand-daughter of one of the English cricketers who was a part of the team that created the "Ashes" legend, so many years ago. 

Day 9 - Wednesday 21 June 2017 - Cunnamulla to Quilpie

A 3000 kg Diprotodon

We meandered out of Cunnamulla about 8:30 and headed north and north west on roads that we have never been on before. 

Our first stop was Eulo (population about 100) whose main claim to fame is being the principal home of the Diprotodon dinosaur. It was apparently around 3000 kg and sort of a wombat on steroids.

We moved on to the opal mining town of Yowah (85 and some dogs).  This was a town sort of similar to other Australian opal towns – remote, rocky, eclectic, dry.  We moved on.

Yowah - Opal Mining Town

We stopped for lunch at the Toompine pub (well the carpark anyway) and was amused at a couple of signs. There is nothing at Toompine apart from the pub.

Toompine pub

The countryside had turned distinctly outback and rocky. We crossed many cattle grids and flood plains – obviously not in flood. The live stock was mainly emu, with a few kangaroo and sheep and cattle to break the monotony – but not many.

We arrived at Quilpie around 2:30 and were advised to check out Lake Houdraman for camping options.  The lake is on private land and the “free camp” site cost us $10 per night.

It was a great spot to relax and get out my gas bottle BBQ to cook a stew and have dinner by the “fire”. Another couple (Colin and Judy) wandered over and chewed our ears over a glass or two.  Life is OK at times.  Colin is a lawn bowler and he agreed to maybe pair up if we meet at Maroochydore - as long as I was a decent bowler. I presented my credentials.

Our camp-site at Lake Houdraman, Quilpie

Stew in Campoven on Top of Gas Bottle BBQ

We sat by the fire until it died down then hit the sack with our respective books.

Day 10 - Thursday 22 June 2017 - Quilpie 

The sun rose about 7:25 and I was there with chair and camera. A couple of spoonbills let me get close enough for a photo. 

A Couple of Mates Looking for Breakfast

 It was chilly but a lovely morning.  The early birds provided musical accompaniment to Shirley’s snoring.

Sunrise Over Lake Houdraman

I turned on the gas heater so that Shirley would wake to a warmer environment than I had.  Once she opened her eyes and sat up I cooked her breakfast of bacon and eggs.

After a slow start we headed in to Quilpie, which is the end of the railway line from the east.

We first visited St Finbarr's Catholic Church which has opal inlays in the main alter, the baptismal font and the lectern.  It was amazing.  It is a lovely modern church, where mass is only conducted on the fourth Sunday of each month.

St Finbarr's Opal Alter

We then headed to Baldy's Tabletop lookout which is a "jump up" that has few trees. The view from the top was pretty impressive.

View from Baldy Tabletop Lookout. Note our car in picture.

 

Gidgee Tree

It also has a sister “tabletop” which has significantly more trees.

I also took a photo of a Gidgee tree, to acknowledge how good this wood is for a heat and cooking fire.  The wood is so hard that locals use a diamond tipped chain saw to cut it.  This tree is mature, but lives in an area usually devoid of water. It is probably about 7-8 metres in height and has a trunk about 250 mm wide.

We then headed in to town and visited a number of museums and galleries that illustrated local history.  Quilpie is a very remote town and its history reflects that.

We found a coffee shop (Gallery Café) that sold superb coffee and then moved on.

We wandered back to the caravan and pondered the magnificent views, trying to work out how to get a good photo of the (often present) magnificent birds.

Eventually we succumbed to the pressure of relaxation and read books and did Sudoku.  Around 4:30 we lit the fire and heated our pea n ham soup for dinner.  It was accompanied by fire-toasted-bread.

Although the following photo is not a great photo is does give a good representation of the colours of the Outback sunsets, which have to be seen to be believed.

Outback Sunset

We were both fascinated by the stars during the night.  We were in an area that had no light except for the stars.  No moon, no campfires, no caravan lighting, no public lighting.  If you have not been to central Australia in the dark then you have not seen stars in the way that they should be seen.  At one time Shirley and I were one metre from each other and could not see each other.  Touch is a wonderful thing!

Day 11 – Friday 23 June 2017 - Quilpie to Windorah

We left our wonderful lakeside camp spot and headed in to Quilpie (population 654) where we knew that there were free showers.  Not that we are misers, but we had not showered for two days.  They were hot and magnificent.  We felt good.

We drove the 100 or so km to Eromanga (population 85) which has three main calls to fame:

-        Firstly, they are the town in Australia who are the most distant from any ocean.  So we must have been in the middle of Australia somewhere.  All coastal points are over 1000 km away.
 

-        Secondly, they are one of the primary (but low key) oil producing areas of Australia, and
 

-        They are the location of one of the major dinosaur finds of Australia.  Shirley and I actually got to touch and pick up a dinosaur bone.  Cool, eh?  Their major (local) dinosaur – a Titanosaur - had a length of over 35 metres and a height of 6.5 metres.  They were too big to forage in the forests, so they just stripped the edges of the forest.

We visited the dinosaur work place and had a tour of the workings. It is fascinating how they go about finding, recovering and preserving of dinosaur parts.  These people live a long way from anywhere, in hot and dry conditions, and have to be very patient with what they do. Amazing.

A Titanosaur Zig Saw Puzzle

The Titanosaur Bone that we held - about half a house brick

We were in a dry and very baron part of Australia.  Rocks seem to dominate.  There were places that seemed to have few emu or kangaroo. However I did manage to get a photo of one of my favourite birds - the Wedged Tailed Eagle - trying to enjoy his lunch.

Wedged Tailed Eagle and Friend (partly hidden crow)

We departed Eromanga then headed first north east then north west to Windorah (population 80).  This was a road that had old and new parts – read thin and wide parts.  Much of this area of the world can be flooded at times.

We stopped somewhere and gleaned some Gidgee wood that was asking to be gathered and fed into a fire.

Around 12 km short of Windorah we reached Coopers Creek.  Coopers Creek is a waterway that can be very docile, a raging river, or a water supply that can create inland Australian seas.  We camped on the banks of the docile creek for the night.  It was a lovely spot and was enhanced by our intimate campfire. Left over stew was the menu for dinner.

Camped on the Bank of Coopers Creek

Our campfire at the above site

Day 12 – Saturday 24 June 2017 - Windorah to Longreach

We enjoyed our mildest night since leaving Melbourne. We broke camp about 8:15 and headed into Windorah, which has two claims to fame.  Firstly it has a solar farm of five 13.7 metre dishes to supply day time electricity to the town.  This is an experimental town by Ergon Energy.  Secondly it has some majestic buildings. I have provided a couple of photos of the above features of Windorah.

Solar Farm for Town Electricity Generation

Majestic Local Home

I also took a liking to the following sign, aimed at travellers heading to Birdsville.

 

We stopped and took a photo of the “Natives Well”, which is a natural hole in the rock that usually contains water.  In days gone by the local indigenous people knew that they could get water from the well.  It is probably about 700 mm wide.

Natives Well

 

In due course we moved on and drove through some very stony country, soon arriving at Jundah (population 85).  We did not dwell here and moved on to Stonehenge (population 30). Stonehenge is the Defence Department’s site for the “over the horizon radar” that helps to protect our coastline. 

Many of the roads that we have been travelling on are single lane bitumen with significant passing room on both sides.  This allows vehicles to get right OFF the road as a road train appears.  None of us want road trains in the dirt spewing dust and stones from their 50 or so wheels.



Narrow Bitumen but lots of width for passing

Stonehenge also boasts its “stone address book” where numerous travellers have written their name using some of the many available rocks.  Shirley joined the list of famous people with the artwork shown below.  The rocks are about the size of a fist – give or take.

Shirley - Forever in Stone

Not long after leaving a Kelly name in rock we moved from red rocky plains and hills to grey  flatter plains, with trees few and far between.  The rock, soil and vegetation had changed significantly.  At this stage we were around 90 km out of Longreach.  As we moved closer to Longreach the quality of the farm land appeared to gradually improve.  However we saw very few sheep or cattle, and very few kangaroos and emus.  The lack of kangaroos and emus meant zero road kills and hence no birds of prey. 

New Travel Game - Spot the Tree

Around 2pm we arrived in Longreach and camp was soon established.  Then a good shower and clean clothes were the order of the day.

Over the past two days we have driven around 650 km through areas that we had not seen previously.  The roads were mostly good, although often narrow.  As an indication of the volume of traffic only ONE car overtook us in those two days and we never caught or overtook any vehicles.  Perhaps 30 to 40 vehicles passed us going the other way.  Many of those vehicles were grey nomads, like ourselves.  Luckily only a few were road trains.

Around 5pm we moved to the camp kitchen/restaurant for some entertainment from Graham Rodger – a noted country singer (whom we also saw/heard in this area some years ago).  It was an enjoyable 90 minutes which we enjoyed with our new neighbours Gene and Ken.  Graham has won a number of Golden Guitar awards.

Day 13 – Sunday 25 June 2017 - Longreach

I was up and in to the laundry at 6:50 am to start catching up on washing.  By 8 am two loads were on the clothes line as Shirley appeared. We had breakfast together as we planned the day of shopping for our upcoming venture into the serious Outback (read Birdsville).

Longreach is billed as the “Capital of the Outback”. Like good grey nomads we injected some funds in to the local community, such as $66 for accommodation, $140 for food, $194 for diesel and $101 for pre-dinner and dinner refreshments. 

If you think that seems a lot please remember that we are about to move into the Diamantina Shire which covers 95,000 square km and contains a mere 300 people.  So we had to build up our stocks. However, the population will probably soon swell to a number greater than 10 times that number - for the Birdsville Big Red Bash. 

Brolgas

I also had to fork out $3.50 for a battery for the water tank level gauge.  It is the first time we have replaced that battery in 10 years.  Not bad.

We enjoyed the brolgas who casually walked around the park.

It was a quiet afternoon before we joined forces with Gene and Ken and had a pleasant happy hour. Far too soon it was time for dinner and going inside as the temperature dropped to a frigid 20 degrees.

Day 14 – Monday 26 June 2017 - Longreach to Winton

We departed Longreach about 8:15 and had a casual 180 km drive to Winton.  As the Tropic of Capricorn passes through Longreach, our departure meant that we were in the tropics.

At our coffee stop a Willy Wag Tail put on a show for us.

Willy Wag Tail

Winton is the home of "Waltzing Matilda" and where the Qantas company had its first meeting.

Continuing the "cultural" theme of our trip Winton had scheduled a Film Festival for the week, celebrating "Women in Film". The town was really buzzing.  Even part of the main street was blocked off.

We got a caravan site about 100 metres from the start of the main street, so we strolled the town until it got too hot.

It is interesting to note that Winton's entire water supply comes from bores, and enters our world at about 83 degrees C.  Pretty warm. The local claim is that it is as good as any water if you let it stand and allow the sulphur  to dissipate.

After lunch we used the car for transport and visited a few local sites.

Arno is a local character and the following two photos of "Arno's Wall" demonstrate that.  The photos represent about 80% of one side of his house block.  Anything and everything is in the wall.  [My apologies for the poor quality photos. It is hard to take a photo of a 100 metre fence.]





Two Sections of Arno's Wall

Shirley had to return to the Musical Fence to give me another musical recital.  She has not improved in six years.  The musical instruments are made from various things metal.

Shirley Making Music

Continuing my idea of showing interesting signs, I present the following two signs - from the walls of the Tattslotto Hotel.

There were a couple of famous Aussie actors in town and we watched them as they strolled past.  The feature film tonight is "Red Dog" - which we have seen before and have the DVD at home.  So in we stayed for the evening.

Apparently it was about 28 degrees at 4pm.

Tomorrow we start the 740 km drive south west to Birdsville - culminating in the Big Red Bash musical festival at the Big Red sand dune (three days).  We have never been on any part of that road so we are really looking forward to it.  We plan to take six days for the journey - so we are not in a rush.
 

So far we have travelled 3112 km in 14 days, a daily average of 222 km.  We probably have at least twice that to travel before we get home.

 

This posting is complete (except for maybe some minor edits).
Last updated at 8 pm Tuesday 27 June.

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