To the Tropic of Capricorn

13/7/2018 Friday It was a cool 3*C again when R & R woke at 7:00am to the “Wuuck. Wuuck.” of crows.  They set about breakfast and tidying up so that they could get their photos of all the interesting things about Augathella:  the giant meat ant sculpture, the Kenniff tree where the brothers would hide their horses for a quick escape from the hotel, the sign about the 1880 Brisbane Ladies song which features the Queensland drovers heading for Augathella, the mural on the wall of Buchans Garage where the glass windows are the stencilled bales on a wool truck, the metal sculptures including a pair of dancing brolgas in the main street and the Smiley connection.  The 2008 mural of Smiley was painted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the movie based on the stories written by Moore (Neville) Ramond, from Augathella, about his childhood friend, Didy Creevey (Smiley).  The theme song from the movie was a popular hit with its line “Every Dad would be glad, if he had, a lad, called Smiley.”  Shortly after 9:00am, R & R went back to the camper to put it down and then headed for Tambo 115kms north on the Landsborough Hwy.  Again, the road surface was better than most and the countryside was unremarkable in that it was much like the day before.  There were sections of well wooded station country and others where it was poorer and some where it was obvious that sections were being allowed to recover or encouraged (by ploughing) to regenerate with trees and grasses.  About half way a series of signs warned of driver fatigue and as a way of grabbing attention they asked a trivia question about Artesian Water, first giving clues then the answer.  RA saw a pair of brolga as the Ute whizzed by them.  About 15kms south of Tambo there was a sign advising that You Are Now Entering the Lake Eyre Basin – Cooper Catchment. RA had commented to RL that although he may not have been aware, they had actually been travelling downhill (since Ivanhoe Hill 476m about 20kms south of Tambo) for quite some time, from about 470m down toward 400m along the Barcoo River which Tambo sit alongside.  The Barcoo (like the Warrego) begins near the Carnarvon Ranges but it joins the Cooper lower down, finally ending up draining into the bottom end of Lake Eyre.  (The Diamantina River which starts somewhere near Cloncurry, much further up, ends up draining into the top of Lake Eyre).  In that lower area, there were fewer trees but the grasses were prolific despite the dryness.  R & R saw two men on horseback droving a large herd of cattle along the fence line to the west. Though there had been signs warning of sheep and cattle, R & R never saw sheep until the outskirts of Tambo.  They were to find out why later.  At 11:00am, RL pulled into the recreation reserve at the Tambo Dam.  It was lovely sitting in the shade having coffee and a snack and watching all the birds.  There in the grasses at the far end of the dam were another pair of brolga.  Within half an hour, R & R were downtown heading for the information centre but they were side tracked by a row of open buildings containing a variety of historical memorabilia. Here RL immediately engaged the minder in conversation about the hotels in town.  R & R were curious to find out if there was a Tambo Star Hotel as referred to in Slim Dusty’s song “Last Thing to Learn”.  Despite living in Tambo for 50+ years she had no idea but immediately went to a local history textbook and they all read through the chapter on hotels.  Transpires there were many of them, changing hands and names, but no reference to Star.  There was a street named Star Street.  Fortunately, her husband arrived but he had no idea about a Star Hotel adding that Stan Coster who wrote some of Slim’s songs had lived and worked in an out station near Tambo for a while.  R & R popped into all of the buildings and one display was about sheep and the wool industry.  Sheep and wool featured heavily in the area until a time when numbers dropped dramatically caused by wild dogs.  Recently they had set up a cluster, which is a co-operative to protect their sheep by surrounding the perimeter of their properties with a dog proof fence.  Finally, R & R made it to the information centre before taking in all the other points of interest in Tambo which was established in 1863.  Tambo Teddies was an open workshop and sales outlet for exclusive wool teddy bears.  There was one called Rumleigh Roger for $110!  Tempting.  Art work, mostly pencil of horses and women or bright almost stylised paintings of birds, by Sandy McLean were displayed in the Grassland Gallery.  The Royal Carrangarra Hotel claimed to be the oldest hotel in western Queensland. The Wild and Wooly Tambo Truck was installed in 2015 to highlight the significance of wool in the area.  R & R drove to the site of the first Qantas air crash, killing all three people on board, in 1927 in Australia on the claypan on the eastern side of the Barcoo River.  The region east of Tambo is known as the Upper Barcoo; while the area east of Blackall (Isisford) is part of the Outer Barcoo.  The poem by Banjo Patterson “A Bush Christening” refers to the Outer Barcoo where churches are few …” It becoming later in the day, R & R returned to the Tambo Dam to have lunch, this time enjoying the kites circling silently and swooping down to the water in search of prey.  As they left Tambo about 2:00pm, they saw many horses in paddocks and gathering at the showgrounds for the Rodeo to be held on the weekend. A little further out RL spotted another pair of brolga. The journey north 25kms to the Tambo North Rest Area did not take long and they were soon setting up early for a quiet afternoon.  When they arrived, they were the third campers there; after a couple of hours during which they had been reading, writing, sorting photos and looking at maps, there were another three.  R & R went for a quick walk up and back along the highway before contemplating dinner.  As Optus had no service in the area all day, they were not able to connect with anyone or to check the emails or current weather.  Not to worry … RA believed the feel of her nose would be accurate at telling the temperature in the morning.

14/7/2018 Saturday.  R & R woke at 7:00am and RA knew it was about 3*C (maybe even as warm as 4*C) by how cold her nose felt.  They read a little before tidying up and packing down and adding one of the 20lt cans of fuel.  It was shortly after 9:00am when they headed for Blackall a further 77kms north west on the Landsborough Highway.  As they left a large herd of magnificent Braham were all gathering at the water trough and the dam near the camping area.  There were also a couple of emus and kangaroos feeding nearby.  The country side was undulating and open Mitchell grassed downs with the ranges a faint blue line on the eastern horizon. Mt Enniskillen (451m) stood as a solitary hill on the western side of the road just before RL drove past the Cluster wild dog barrier fence.  Again, they were provoked to avoid fatigue with a trivia question about the Black Stump.  The clue was “To be west of it, means to be beyond it.”  R & R had seen many kites over the preceding days and even an eagle or two and then they saw a falcon.  Again, the level above sea was dropping about 40m from Blackall (325m) to the township on the Barcoo River (280m) and again R & R saw serious efforts to employ land care techniques to improve the environment and revitalise the industry relying on it.  Just after 10:00am R & R were at the information centre at Blackall which features the Big Ram and many very newly restored buildings, comprehensively filled with historical information and memorabilia.  It really was most impressive.  R & R were grateful to a guy there as he helped RA to load her credit on the Telstra dongle to use on the laptop as the phone was hopeless.  R & R walked up and down the main street in the sunshine and popped into IGA and an op shop before returning to the Ute for a cup of coffee.  At 12:10pm, RA was paying up for a site in the caravan park and it took nearly an hour to set everything up and put the wash in before lunch. RL was desperate to send an email message to S, their youngest son, to wish him a happy birthday, so they did that as soon as they were able.  They also sent a bulk email to the children and a couple of the siblings just to let them know that reception may be intermittent for a while.  R & R had the wash hung by 2:00pm and went for a walk through the nearby memorial gardens which featured a statue of Edgar Towner who was a recipient of the WWI VC & MC awards.  The sculpture by William Eicholtz portrays, not a soldier with a gun, but a young man with his uniform in hand as a symbol for all who took up the call to defend their country.  When R & R returned to the camper they spent quite some time reading magazines they had borrowed from the laundry before having showers.  The interesting thing about the water in Blackall is that it is all artesian.  The washing machines are set to hot and there would never be a problem of too many campers using up all the hot water.  Pure and clean, from the Great Artesian Basin, the water is hot from the taps.  It has a slight sulphur smell when hot; when cooled it is perfect for drinking.  The water temperature is about 20*C when it comes out of the tap but it gets warmer the longer it runs.  In order not burn grass as it is being watered, sprinklers are on stands.  Again, RL lazed around while RA did the diary for the day, as they intended to go to 6:00pm Mass at St Patrick’s which meant a late dinner and not much time or energy left after that.  Mass turned out to be a Communion Service and everyone was very welcoming.  When R & R got back they had dinner as quickly as possible.  Fortunately, it was only after dinner that power to the camper became intermittent.  Turns out too many people were using heaters and it was overloaded … it certainly was not R & R using a heater.

15/7/2018 Sunday The caravan park with its watered gardens proved a delightful environment for all manner of birds chirping as day broke.  R & R could hear them, and chooks, when they got out at 7:00am.  After breakfast they read through another draft before heading for the showers about 9:00am.  Shortly after 10:00am, R & R were driving away from the caravan park to take a look at all the points of interest in Blackall that they had missed the day before.  Blackall has its Black Stump which was a stump used for surveying and it is generally considered that country west of Blackall is “beyond the black stump”.  RL was very keen to photograph the statue of Jack Howe.  He was Australia’s most famous shearer.  In 1892, he shore with the blade shears (“Click go the sheers boys. Click, click, click.”) 321 sheep in 7 hours and 40 minutes.  Later that year, he shore a record 237 sheep with the new mechanical shears, a record that was not broken for 58 years. RL headed north towards Barcaldine about 107kms at 10:30am and RA played a couple of chapters from “The Potato Factory”.  The road was not too bad though there was quite a lot of road kill.  The verge was more or less fenced in sections and the vegetation was more or less sparce.  The Queensland Bluebush was stunted through lack of rain and it was obvious where there was low lying flood ways or creeks by the density and type of vegetation.  RL pulled into Douglas Ponds a free camping facility with toilet and picnic tables but it was dry. And again, there was a fatigue question posted on billboards.  The closer they got to Barcaldine, the better the vegetation looked and there were a couple of grand farms on red soil.  About 9kms south of Barcaldine, RL pulled into a Botanical Park walk trail that they had seen in the brochure. It being midday and 21*C, they were not inclined to go on the trail.  As they stopped the phone went ting indicating that they had come into reception.  It had a message dated Friday pm from J, “Are you up for a chat?”  RL drove the last few kilometres, past road works, into Barcaldine where they stopped under a tree and rang J back while enjoying a cup. Nearly an hour later R & R popped into the information centre before taking a walk around town.  While Blackall boasts it had the first meeting of the first shearers union that later became the Australian Labour Party, (Blackall had the first ordinary meeting on Dec 9th 1890 of the General Exclusive of the ALF to draw up the rules that would govern the running of the new Labour Party.) Barcladine claims that its Tree of Knowledge was the gathering place for the shearers in the 1891 shearers strike and where the formation of the labour movement and the Australian Labour Party has its roots.  The Tree of Knowledge certainly is an impressive installation in such a remote location.  The preserved stump of the tree is surrounded by a façade, 18m high, made of timber and inside suspended from above there are more than 3449 timbers representing the leaves and canopy of the tree.  From outside, the façade hides the awe-inspiring magnitude of the canopy that could only be felt by being inside and underneath.  Barcaldine had several heritage listed buildings, where R & R saw the Masonic Lodge, the War Memorial Clock and the Radio Theatre with its unusual pink and purple façade.  About 1:30pm G, RL’s brother rang and they all chatted for a while, the conversation being disturbed by a train pulling in and children playing on the xylophone seat installation.  Being hungry by 2:30pm, R & R drove to Lagoon Park where they sat to eat lunch.  It was a disappointment as there was nowhere to park, no shade and no water or wildlife.  R & R rang S, their son. By then they were well and truly ready to refuel before heading out of town. Fortunately, the service station was offering a 4c/l discount for RACQ members and was willing to accept RA’s WA RAC card.  At 3:50, RL was heading north towards Longreach to a rest area called Dartmouth, 63kms away.  The rail ran east of the road and the country side was flat, bare and open.  Queensland Bush could be seen but as only tiny bushes at ground level and at other places the tumble weed was the only flora left uneaten by cattle.  As the sun was lowering in the sky, there was an occasional glint of gold on the roof of a far-off building and a ribbon of gold on the rail track.  A big treat for the day was coming upon an electric fence taped area with a truck nearby, followed by a massive herd (RL guessed about 300) of cattle.  With them several horses grazed freely, while the herd was being managed by at least three men on horseback with walkies talkies.  A woman drove up in a truck to speak with one of them as R & R passed.  A few minutes later at 4:40pm, R & R set up camp at the Dartmouth Rest Area.  They made and received several calls throughout the afternoon and evening including H and S, their daughters and R and S, RL’s siblings.  Together they finished checking a draft which RA posted after dinner.  R & R both read through the information about the next town called Ilfracombe just a few kilometres away though they did wonder about the value of having expectations.  Sometimes it is better to have no expectations … it allows you to be pleasantly surprised!

16/7/2018 Monday R & R woke shortly after 7:00am to a pleasant 7*C with three bustards (plains turkey or wild turkey) in the grasses near the two horse/donkey cross and two cattle that had been there when they arrived the evening before.  The truckie who had pulled in just after dark was preparing to leave as RA finished her diary.  About 9:00am R & R had coffee before tidying up and packing down.  They were on their way from Dartmouth Rest Area 17kms north west on the Landsborough Highway to Ilfracoombe within the hour.  Ilfracoombe had many historic buildings, including a lock up and an authentic boundary riders hut, neatly presented as museums and about a kilometre of old machinery and implements all neatly presented on the strip between the highway and the railway.  It was a wide ranging and comprehensive display of early trucks, motors, graders, ploughs and other equipment, all neatly painted and labelled.  It took R & R the best part of two hours to look at it all and take photos of things that interested them.  They learnt that Mitchell was purported to have invented the water cooler bag by waxing cloth with mutton fat to make it water proof, that Jack Howe and his wife created the collarless short sleeved shearer’s shirt, early fridges were made using charcoal filled wooded panels lined with tin and then watered filled twice a week to keep them cool, right up to the 1950s people in the outback carried little rectangular boxes, either wood or tin, containing waxed matches for fire lighting and that there are four types of Mitchell grass which grow particularly well in the deep cracking, self-mulching clays soils even under harsh conditions because  they have a long and a short rooting system. There were collections of bottle, guns and memorabilia of the Light Horse Battalion.  All the exhibitions had been donated and up keep was maintained by the local community so R & R felt it appropriate to make a donation.  Ilfracoombe was another town that claimed a wool scouring facility, as did Blackall.  The Blackall Wool Scour, Australia’s last remaining steam driven wool washing plant, functioned until 1978.  Although the facility at Blackall has daily tours because the machinery still works, all of these facilities have closed down, fallen into disrepair or vanished as a result in the decline in the number of sheep.  RL was impressed at the sheer quantity of wool that was produced at Wellshot Station (Ilfracoombe) in the past.  In 1892, 425,000 sheep were shorn at the one property in the one season – a world record.  Before heading for Longreach, R & R had a cup of coffee and a banana and arranged for a service on the Ute.  As R & R drove into Longreach and looked for a parallel space big enough to park the Ute and camper they noticed that all the street names were birds and recalled that all the names in Barcaldine and Blackall were flora based.  Having found a spot, R & R walked to the information centre and enquired about the fee for camping at Apex Park about 4.5kms out of town.  It being only $3/night, they paid for two nights as it would be much more convenient when getting the Ute serviced.  They popped into the op shop that would close at 2:00pm before going to Apex Park.  By 2:00pm, R & R had set up the camper and were enjoying lunch.  Both of them were relieved when RL attempted to turn on the fridge.  It was working as it should.  The evening before, it had not wanted to relight after the bottle had run out and was switched over.  They were not excited at the thought of having to get a someone to look at it. It was a fabulous 23*C with a gentle breeze and they did not resist the temptation to have a cat nap while the opportunity presented itself.  R & R had a very quiet afternoon, reading maps, checking the phone and going for a walk to look at the Thomson River, which joins the Cooper and ends up in Lake Eyre.  About 5:00pm, RA did her diary and RL read a while before dinner.  RA rang her sister, J, just to catch up on how she and her family were going, after which RL left a message for his brother, J.  R & R enjoyed dinner and because RA had done the diary, she was able to just sit and read a book.  The book was called “Murder and Redemption” by Noel Mealey and was about a policeman and several murders related to drug smuggling in WA’s north west.  RL had already read it … but he was giving away nothing!

17/7/2018 Tuesday.  For some reason R & R woke earlier than usual at about 6:30anm to a cool nosed 3*C.  It didn’t matter because they were keen to be back in Longreach shortly after 8:00am to get a gas bottle refilled at Mitre 10 and then to do some shopping.  They returned with the gas and food which they sorted out before having a coffee. R & R then headed back downtown to take the Ute to its service just before 11:00am.  R & R were packed and ready for a day on their feet and had a list of places to go and things to see and do.  They walked the Longreach, Capital of the Outback, 2.5km Botanic Walk starting at the civic centre with the Tropic of Capricorn sign and the sculptured tree.  It was the best part of an hour before they reached the Qantas Founders Museum and the Stockman’s Hall of Fame.  They had a look around and took a few photos before having lunch in the gardens and walking back.  As they passed through the central business district they popped into Kinnon and Co’s Station Store which was like an old-fashioned outback emporium.  RA needed some cash so they stopped at the ATM on the way to the Arts and Crafts Centre.  It was just before 2:00pm and they had to wait for it to open.  It was a lovely break to sit at a table under the shade of the verandah and rest their weary feet.  R & R went upstairs when it opened to see the art and craft for sale and to see the memorabilia of the St John Ambulance which is also housed upstairs.  R & R found a list of medical terms (Irish) and their definitions that might interest their son, J. The building itself was originally at St John’s treatment rooms downstairs and a residence for ambulance person and family upstairs.  It has an interesting exterior in that it looks like brick and stone work but is actually pressed tin.  For these reasons the building had been heritage listed.   R & R though that, it nearing 3:00pm, the Ute might be ready so they headed back to the service centre.  There they waited well over an hour.  Finally, the four chairs in the waiting room became available and they were able to sit and read magazines a while.  When the Ute was ready, R & R were surprised at the cost.  Besides the standard service which takes about 1.5 hours, RL had asked for a few smaller jobs to be done as well: greasing the suspension, adjusting the headlights, adapting the spot connections and a new air cleaner, which all added another 2 hours to the total time and cost.  Anyway, it all could have been worse like the two couples ahead of R & R: one had a faulty transmission and the other brake failure.  R & R were pleased to have the Ute back just before 5:00pm and headed for the CWA shower facility, where for a gold coin donation, having a shower was a nice way to end a long day.  When they got back to the camper coffee was first on the list and then they rang S as they had not spoken to her for a couple of days.  After dinner RL read and RA did the diary quickly … so she could get back to her book.