Home again

On the road home and it was good to suddenly see green fields, seemed to lift one's spirits but together with that came traffic, traffic lights and freeways.  Still a small price to pay for the final leg back to Kingcliff and we were home by 2.30pm.  However, the wattle is starting to sprout and it is a beautiful yellow with an awesome perfume.  No more dead roos.

Dave and Val stayed until Sat. lunchtime visiting their son on the Gold Coast and on Thurs. afternoon I did most of our washing and got it dry, then Friday we did 4 loads, which inc. Dave and Val's and the dog beds etc. so my poor w./machine didn't know what happened to it.  Thankfully the weather is wonderful, late winter running into spring in a couple of weeks.

Misty is waiting to have her coat off and be groomed whiile Jake has pretty much slept since we have been home.  Must say i feel like that myself another week and we will start to feel normal again. 

We must have travelled 3500km in the month and probably really needed 6 weeks instead of four to do that.

Anyway, that's it until the next time...............

Great to wake up this morning and be warm

What a great feeling to have woken up this morning and not feel cold, to be able to put a pair of shorts on straight away.  Last brekkie on the road.

Dalby is the service centre town for the crop growing area of the Darling Downs and as you drive along the road there are huge silos situated on properties and also in Dalby itself - there is also a lot of cotton grown here and paddocks were full of cotton bales.

As I look around the c/van park this morning you see that most of the park is given over to workers vans and cabins and not a lot of available spces for the general traveller, so we were lucky to get into here.  There is also a 'whole village' built at the back of the van park which is full of porta cbins and rec area - all for the mine workers which means the traveller is being shunted aside and this is happening around the couuntry. 

In Port Headland, Dampier, in WA you cann ot get into the parks because they have all been taken by mine workers  - and the mines are not building the necessary or putting up the necessary buildings - catch 22 situation as there were so many travelling on the roads - grey nomads - of course.

Lessons learnt

We have all learnt a few lessons:-

Don't judge a book by its cover - appearances don't matter in the outback, unlike in the city.  The 'jo blow' next to you may own a station and property - as does the garbo. man in Blackall, he has 10 properties and a station outback which he has managers for and runs his garbage business in Blackall because that is what he enjoys doing.

Have a great respect for the road trains - which can get to 50 metres long and when they overtake you at 100km an hour you let them go because it can be intimidating having these long things filled with any cargo keep on passing you.

Don't get too upset at the amount of dead roos on the road - I hated seeing them but that is all the distraction there is on the long, flat, mind numbing roads with nothing else to look at because the countryside is so boring.  You start to count them but there is one very couple of metres at some points on some parts of the road.  Once we got to the Darling Downs and parts of the Western Downs they all but disappeared.

Every c/van park we have been to and free sites as well have been TOTALLY DOG FRIENDLY and a lot of people are travelling with at least two dogs and one lady in Bowen had 5.  These parks seem to have dogs of their own too.

It is just the ignorant councils on the Tweed, Gold and Sunshine coasts that need to get their acts together, stop being so arrogant and start thinking of the travelling ' grey nomads' which bring a lot of 'dosh' to each of their regions.  A couple of outgoing c/van parks who will stick their fingers up at the councils would get so much business from the doggie travellers they wouldn't need anyone else.

However, to travel around Australia - NO WAY.

Dalby c/van park showers

Left Mitchell this morning at 9am (pretty cool last night) after collecting lots of firewood yesterday for a lovely fire last evening, the most terrible road today, going nearly 400km today to Dalby 80km short of Toowoomba.  Long day in the car driving for 6 hrs with stops for coffee and lunch, arrived at Dalby and Pioneer c/van park about 3.30pm.

Great to have power and the most remarkable showers we have ever had or seen in any c/van park, motel,hotel anywhere in the world.  You could literally put 6 camp chairs and people in each shower, still have space and have a wonderful 'happy hour' in there, they are so big - not that we did of course.  But it was so wonderful to have a lovely hot shower even though we had one at the spa yesterday in Mitchell.

The reason for this of course is that the c/van parks cater for a lot of road workers, major road works all along the Warrego hwy. from the floods of 2011 and 2012 and also the mines which are decimating this country. Coal Seam gas here in this region.  170 miners live here in cabins in this c/van park - away from the main c/van areas but there are all these portables popping up all over the central part of Qld.

Only another 300 to get back to Kingscliff now and that will be done and dusted by tomorrow afternoon, will stop at Toowoomba for coffee and then lunch somewhere and so ends 28 days on the road for us, Dave, Val, Misty, Jake, and Dana.

Mitchell - Spa ........and hot chips

We are staying at Nathan Burdon Weir a wonderful free site just 1.5km north of Mitchell - which is 400km east of Blackall (last stop) and is either the gateway to or from the outback. We were just going to overnight but it is such a lovely place we decided to have 2 nights and leg it home in three days.  We are camped by the river Maranoa which runs into the weir.

This morning there was another real frost, so at we had egg, bacon and tomato for brekkie and then took the doggies for a 6km (return) walk along the river bank enabling them to have a good swim and run, saw a 'roo in the bush not far from the path - luckily the dogs didn't.

 At midday we decided to go into Mitchell  to the spa - wow, it as been open only three weeks because in Feb this year the town was devastated by floods and the spa and swim pool were wrecked so they have built this wonderfulnew spa centre with one of the spas at 38 degrees andthe other one is just cold water at 16 degrees today.  There was free tea and coffee and water available - and guess what, there were only 'the grey nomads' in there.  We had a bowl of hot chips each  (4) for lunch and it felt so good.  So that's the showers now until we get back to Kingy.

The spa draws its water from the Great Artesian Basin so there is no problem with the hot water again.  The Great Artesia Basin stretches for 1,711,000 sq kms across the lower central Qld.  Some distance and is at a depth of 3 kms down.  Obviously bores have to be put down to draw this great swell of water - Julia and the govt. haven't realised this yet or I am sure they would have taxed it..........  It feels so good to have a nice relaxing time before we do the last 700km back and the dogs have had a good swim and run.

Frost and swimming - Blackall

Frost this morning and then swimming this afternoon in a 50metre  outdoor pool with the water temp. of 28 degrees - wonderful and a blue sky overhead - in fact the air temp. was cooler than the water temp.  The spa was well used by all us 'grey nomads' from the c/van park and that was 37 degrees.

Oh then  a free 'happy hour' where all the beer and wine and nibbles were supplied for 2 hours  at the caravan park - how good does it get - superb.

David had a great run this morning and the dogs had great swim again and good run in large open park areas, they will be sorry to move on - and so will we.

We have to cover about 1100km in four days so it will be a bit of a 'belter' to be back in Kingscliff by Thurs.

Have to say we have truly enjoyed our stay here in Blackall, it has been wonderful.  We expect to free camp the next three days.

Damper and Golden syrup - Blackall

Ah!  Blackall  --- we nearly missed this little gem, only someone talking to us at Longreach said we would be impressed with the town and they were right

It is so pretty,  full of trees, trees down  the central reservations of the streets, huge wide streets, loads of green areas, a 50metre heated swim pool and a lovely spa at 38 degrees. Houses,,  on big 1/4 acre blocks - as life used to be, so peaceful and special - and country.

 Therefore David was delighted to see a real 'frost' this morning when we took the dogs for a walk about 8am, but no matter, we will be swimming this afternoon.  Temps here in the winter range from 6 to 28 degrees c. and in the summer it gets up to 40 degrees.......

Blackall c/van park is a gem, very friendly and a wonderful roast  beef meal with roast spuds and 4 veg. cooked in the camp oven over an open camp fire most evenings from May to August.  The meat was so tender and then -  hot damper to die for plus lashings of golden syrup and butter  - that was so good and to finish tea from a billy can.  That was after 'happy hour' as well........ so hard.

Blackall's water is supplied from 3 artesian bores and bursts to the surface at a hot 58 degrees celcius and is pure, uncontaminated drinking water.  It comes from the Great Artesian Basin. The water flows from the basin under its own pressure and bores are usually drilled to a depth of 800m.  There are no hot water cylinders in Blackall as it is more important to have a means of cooling water.  The only  c/van park where the laundery has had hot water to go into the w/mc's rather than cold water.

Blackall was explored in 1846 by Thomas Mitchell, sits on the Barcoo rver and is on the Matilda hwy.  Has a current pop. of 1500 but quite an interesting history.  In 1875 had a pop of 45, 2 hotels, courthouse and a lockup - sort o speaks for itself really.  In 1892 boasted 272 tents, 127 tin houses, 385 wooden houses 4 brick homes and 19 drays.

In 1931 became a shire and the pop. rose to 3291 in 1964.  Amagamation came again in 2008 when Blackall amagalmated with Tampo Shire Ccl and became the Blackall-Tampo regional ccl.

This whole area is really nice and would come back here again and love to stay longer.

Stockmans Hall of Fame - Longreach

This morning went to the Stockman Hall of Fame which is a testament to the pioneers and also the stockmen and the station hands who ran this country and its sheep and cattle from the start of white civilisation. From the aborigines thru to the cattle dogs and the stock there was incredible footage and things to do.  There is a stockman show every morning which epitomises the work of the horses, dogs, man and even the bullock teams which tore out the pathways and roads of this country.  The guy who did the show was a great entertainer and he had three horses, a camel, 3 dogs and a team of 8 bullocks so with his poetry and yarns made for a good morning.

Was interested in the RFDS - Royal Flying Doctor Service which began in 1928 by John Flynn, with 1 aircraft leased from QANTAS with pilot and flying from 1 base in Cloncurry , Qld.  The Flying Doctor Service  now operates more than 60 aircraft flying from 21 bases in the country.  John Flynn conceived the idea in WW1 but had no aircraft to do the job so  the DH50A was chosen for the job.  The service now reaches over 7,000,000 sq. miles of the Australian continent serving 275,000 patients a year , one every 2 mins. on average.  RFD now has 8 bases and 20 aircraft in QLD.

It was the present queen's visit to the Broken Hill Base in 1954 which gave the FDS the  right to become the RFDS and it did in 1955.

In 1926 it was pedal power which connected the outback with the RFDS but today every call can make contact with a doctor in 30 secs. and an aircraft despatched within 45minutes.

* *  *  * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matilda Ann Waugh:  was the inspiration for the song Waltzing Matilda by Banjo Patterson.  At 8 yrs old she would sit on his knee and he would play her favourite songs which were mainly waltzes and he made a promise to her and her family that he would write a song for her especially.  At 21 she became post mistress of Boonoo Boonoo Post Office which was on her father's property, he was a butcher.  She married Gordon Waugh and had 6 children
and ended up on a station in outback Qld where her husband was a head stockman.

QANTAS Founders Museum

Witon was the birth place of QANTAS (Queensland and Northern Territories Aeriel Services) in 1921  moved to Logreach for its operational  purposes where Australia's first purpose built airstrip and the first QANTAS hangar was built and still exists today as a showplace for museum artefacts.  The museum is funded entirely by donations and sponsorships and is a purely voluntary organisation, a beautiful cafe attached with a wonderful outside area - reasonably priced as well, a welcome respite.

In the main musuem and galleries there are many film shows and interactive displays and the history of the 4 men who returned home after WW1 wondering what they were going to do with all of them having been flying in the war. Henry Fysh, Ginty Mcguiness, Kennedy (the first investor) and Walker.  These inspirational men wanted to tie the outback together where distances were so immense and so began what we now know today as QANTAS - I am sure they would turn in their grave if they could see what Alan Joyce is doing to the company they founded.  He is destroying a once mighty airline and I bet he is not taking a paycut as the founders had to do when the airline got into trouble near its beginning, Henry Fysh had to take a 12 1/2%pay cut as did all staff and directors - no golden handshakes in those days!!!!!!!!

You can tour the Boeing 707 'City of Canberra' which was the first registered Qantas jet aircraft..in Aust. and was discovered languishing in England at Southend airport so a team was sent to renovate, repair and bring it back to Aust. which was done and of course it now lives here happily in Longreach. and  wing walk is available on the wings of the 747 - only place in the world where one can do this.

 The original DC3 is here as is DH50 Iris the first aircraft used by the company that became the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service).  DH61 built in 1930 by Qantas and used on the Darwin sector of the London mail service.

Very interesting, we spent 4 hours there and really didn't finish but the dogs needed walking and you do get info'ed out.

Longreach School of Air

A short ride from Winton to Longreach - just 184kms - yeah - more road kill on the long boring, flat road, the countryside is boring too so the only distraction is - roadkill roos. 

Neverthe less, we are based at the Longreach Tourist c/van park, a small intimate park, very busy, still lot of travellers on the road, but the mgr/owner here Shane is so friendly and that seems to attract like.  Every morning at 10 and again at 4 the bell goes for communal coffee and tea with biscuits for anyone who wants to join him.  Of course he has the 'gift of the gab' and will natter non-stop.  Weds evening, our first night, there was a lovely campfire and a couple of the travellers had their guitars so out they came and we had a good campfire sing song, all Aussies songs of the outback.

David and I went to the LDSOE (Long Distance School of Education) - School of Air, here in Longreach.  This is one of 7 in Qld and covers an area of 402,712 sq kms - 3 times the size of England, twice the size of Victoria and 2 1/2 times the size of NZ.   Imagne a classroom thaT SIZE AND A PLAYGROUND AS BIG AS YOU WANT IT TO BE.

 We were treated to a lesson air with one of the teachers in the studio - of which there are 7.  She was teaching a prep. class (4-6) of which there are 6 in her class.  Since the intro. of computers and cameras the area covered has increased and every home in the long distance prog. has a hire comp. from the school. There are 24 teachers in the school based in Longreach, on a 3 yr. contract and a teacher's classroom could well be larger than 1000km across.

We  were then taken around the school where diff. projects were displayed - they do a curriculum the same as a land school but have a lot more hands on projects relating to their surroundings.  The materials required for the year are delivered to each family at the beg. of the year and that will last them through.  The school is so bright and has access to facilities and materials that any land school would be envious of.  They have constant access to an IT guy to keep the comps. up to scratch.  Each teacher will visit their students at least once a year as well,obviously travelling hundreds of kms. in many cases to spend two days.

The shool goes through to Yr 12 but Yrs. 10,11,12 usually are off to boarding school and those still in the prog. total 16 only  for this year - imagine.  Each yr. group from prep thru comes into the school here at Longreach for a week at lesast once in the year and there are sleeping facs. for 50 because the siblings all come as well.

I think out of everything I have seen this is by far the thing that has impressed me the most.

Winton

Dana and an inquisitive friendly visitor

 We arrived in Winton on Monday and it was 28 degrees,  we free camped in the carpark of the Winton Hotel - Jo the landlady, was very generous in allowing us to do so and we had free access to showers and toilets.  We spent a very pleasant evening with her, her husband Kevin and staff having a meal there.

Our outlook was over farmland as you can see and the neighbours were pretty friendly as well.  The dogs are certainly geting some experiences and seem to be settling into their side well - as it is now hot and dusty there is no water for swimming. We had a 250km drive to Winton along a very straight boring road and the only interruptions was the constant roadkill - every few metres was a 'roo carcas or a fresh one - rather depressing really.

Misty and Jake with their friends

Footprints in the street

We are also still in the heart of dinosaur country and they have a novel way of keeping their bins in one place, most businesses have these bin covers and their are huge footprints all over.  It is also the home of Banjo Patterson and Australia's best export - Waltzing Matilda.

Banjo Patterson and the words to Waltzing matilda.

The Matilda Centre is a wonderful museum a testament to a song and its writer.Not only that it is a testament to life in the Winton Shire from the pioneers, especially the women who worked trying to keep the stations going and raise a family often of 7-10 children - and we moan today.....

There are also many other things to look at including Arno's wall which was built by Arno, a German immigrant and instead of having a museum he has put everything into concrete in a long wall arund his old house - a hoarder, I think.  There is literally everything from machinery, toilets, kitchen sinks, old motor bikes, you think of it is there.

Tuesday evening we went to the caravan park and listened to two lady bush poets, 'friends' they were but boy were they good, theyn told bush stories, sang songs and recited poetry, some of which was very risque,  but we 'g.n's' loved it - a laugh a minute.

So Weds morning we bade farewell to Jo and her team from the Winton and headed 184kms s/west to Longreach.

Hughenden

Arrived in Hughenden at the c/van park about 1pm but even then it was hot 28 degrees - and it is winter.  Not used to this dry heat anymore.  Hughenden has a pop of 2191 and has the unique position of being in the heart of dinosaur country.  History for this area goes back hundreds of years with ;prehistoric history of over 100mil. years.  It is situated on the edge of a vast pre historic inland sea, once home to many terrestrial dinosaurs as well as martine reptiles making ths area well known as "Dinosaur Country" The first fossil ever to be found was in  1865 on a property west of Hughenden and so the discovery of a greater past was made.

Being an outback town, everywhere closes Sat. lunchtime until Mon morning, except the 2 pubs owned by the same family and the local food store. We are 250 km from Charters and 219km from Winton the s/west.  Why the hell anyone wants to live here I don't know, it gets so hot.  However, the streets are wide, the grass brown, plenty of parks and things for the kids.

The water, a life saver in the dry river

Sunday afternoon in Hughenden

Friends who joined us for lunch at the c/van park



.

Jake and his mate "Mutt"  (the muttasaurus)

Federation Rotunda



The river is a dry river but we were lucky because it had rained here in the last month which gave access to a water flow on one side of the river - the dogs went mad when they saw the water especially as it was clear - and he kites (like hawks) hovered as they saw Misty running around and they got closer and lower.  We put her back on her lead and David picked her up and put under his shirt.  They would have had her in minutes.

The Federation Rotunda is made frm 20' windmills brought in from a local property dated 1912 and 1916 The windmills were originally used to pump water for stock.

There is a very good dinosaur museum with interactive talks and explanations regarding the dinosaurs fossils found in this area.

Porcupine Goge Nat. P:ark is termed Austeralia's little Grand Canyon and is aprox. 1 hr drive from Hughenden.  This is one of 3 nat parks in the Flinders Shire



Just as the sun was going down

 This was taken at sunset on top of Mt. Walker just out of Hughenden, lastr night, where there are viewing points at six different lookout points giving 360 degree views..  It is 478m above sea level, and 152m above Hughenden.  Named by the explorer William Landsborough.

The lights of the township light up in a sea of black wilderness.

Mutt and his mates



Brekkie in the carpark

Colombia Poppet Head mine shaft reconstruction

Fri night saw us just 3km out of town on a free site which was a huge carpark for c/vans and campers but there were only three of us rigs there, it only had cold water but had wonderful big grass area for the dogs looking over paddocks.  Thought it would be busy with truck noise and the railway but have to say that 'the silence was deafening', was wonderful.

This was the shaft (reconstruction) which let the miners go down the shaft to mine the ore.  This was the other end of the c/van park where we were.

We also witnessed the wonderful rising of the full moon from the horizon up into the sky,  just as we set our table on the asphalt with a cloth and had bangrs andmash for tea with beer - great. The moon was just like a huge red ball and then in the morning we had brekkie on the park balcony sitting watching the sun rise. The dogs had the freedom to run as well -and then the drive - 250km through to Hughenden in the outback in central Qld.

Charters Towers

Magnificent Post office

City Hall

Standing inside the ornate entrance to the old city hall

Mt Alma hospital (original) now private house, beautiful lace work around the balconies

Left Fletcher Creek Fri am and drove only 40km into Charters Towers an old gold mining town which saw its wealth and population soar in the gold rush years of the late 1800's. Its wealth was based on the discovery of underground reef of gold in 1871.  At its height the pop. of Towers was 29,500 with 67 pubs and 29 crushing mills - the pop. today is 13,500 and of course most of the pubs have gone along with the mills but  the beautifully renovated heritage buildings remain and its a pretty country Aust. town . Have also a wonderful 600 theatre which has been completely overhauled and has the most amazing acoustics.

C.T stands on an interesting junction in the Aust. landscape.  Here the Gt. Dividing range is the headwatersof some ofthe country's biggest river systems.  Waterways originating here drain sth. west to Lake Eyre; north to theGulf or east along the Burdekin river system to the Gt. Barrier Reef. 

Home to the Gudjal and Gudjala tribes. It is on the Overlanders Trail running from Townsville to Tenant Creek in the N Territory.

Fletcher Creek

Ok we'll drink more - give us time

this is the pyrotecxhnic maniac, Val had to havce her campfire was a good one though

Weds am headed to Charters Towers and ended up at a wonderful free site 40km north of Towers (local speak) called Fletcher Creek which is at the edge of the Dalrymple nat. Park and right down by the creek which runs into the Burdekin river ( one of the largest river systems in Qld).  There were rigs of all shapes and sizes right along the side of the creek and in the central area - all grassed. Weren't that many there , probably about 40 rigs altogether, at the start of the winter when the Victorians head north there can be as many as 200 rigs placed along the river and also going way into the bushland towards the park, so we got off light.  Only toilets, cold showers, tap water lots of mitchell grass and nothing else - but it is wonderful.  Had cold shower Friday morning, although the water is not really cold, more lukewarm.
 The sunsets were superb, the weather hot and the dogs loved the freedom and the swims in the creek.  We had no power but our own gas (stoves) so wonderful to have a cooked brekkie of egg, bacon, toms. and mushrooms the next morning and then we just walked, read and relaxed along with all the other 'greys' and at 4pm out came the wine and beer. Fletcher Creek and the nat. park is all open woodland and is the spiritual home of the Gudjal and Gudjala tribes (although we didn't see any).....  however, we did wonder why this sign was erected and were we in line of fire if we didn't get the wine out on time.......

Oh dear, this couple were too late and that is all that is left of them, 2 chairs and their wine bottle - no dingoes here.....

amazing sunsets while still with sun

as the sun was going down

 The sunsets were fantastic and as there was a new moon this week its rising through the trees was superb, we had great views for the two nights, it created almost full daylight even at 3am.

Val had to go an scrounge wood for her fire the two nights, and people are very reluctant to let you near their wood pile - it is like gold in these parts.  She would have cut down a tree if we had had an axe........ and when they leave camp they take the wood with them much to her dismay.  There are little campfires everywhere all contained within their brick surrounds.  Could get used to living that life for a few weeks, we were settling into it even after 2 days - you can stay there for up to 30 days in one hit and a lot of the longtime stayers have their own solar panels and are completely self-contained with everything that moves and squeaks. Towers is only 30 mins down the road for your supplies.

T/ville rock pool

lunchtime at T'ville c/van park

Ann, Dave and Val (David taking pix)

The rock pool at one end of the 2.5km walkway - The Strand

Looking towards Magnetic Island from bbq area at rock pools

The rock pool is on the 2.5km -The Strand.  It is a natural sea rock-pool built because the water is too cold to go into in the winter (26 degrees) and in the summer it is impossible because of the stingers in the sea -  so you can't win.......  However this area is magnificent with free bbq's and grassed areas.