Day 13,14 Farm Stay

After commencing our trip in the hot and dry north our final destination is the decidedly cool and moist town of Woolbrook in the New England region of NSW. A farm stay with family members delivers wonderful home cooked meals, the spinning of yarns, reminiscing, beautiful scenery, an hour or two of unskilled farm labouring and a chance to relax for a couple of days.

A visit to Woolbrook is like stepping into another era. Once a bustling town with shops, garages, churches, a brick works, railway station and so much hope. Today the village is a collection of quaint houses, a well used School of Arts hall, a public school, a new bridge, a free camping area by the picturesque river, a church which meets once a month and a strong sense of community. If Sydney prices are getting to much for you a nice three bedroom house in the village, set on half an acre is on sale for a mere $130,000. Five minutes away is a railway station that has a daily service to Sydney, twenty minutes away is the small but very lively town of Walcha and the big smoke, the towns of Armidale and Tamworth, are a little under an hour away.

Our hosts are the highlight. Shiena’s practical sensibilities, green thumb, sheep whispering skills and ability to cook, bake and sew make her a veritable agricultural powerhouse.  David’s ability to turn one man’s trash into another man’s mini milking shed, plus his ability to turn feral goats into domestic pets, makes an escape to the country look very appealing.

To top it off, a visit to a very talented local handyman and general mechanical genius sees a couple of Matilda’s maintenance problems fixed in under ten minutes.

Tomorrow we complete our return from the Never Never. After fourteen days on the road and a distance of over 5000km we are thankful to be heading home with Matilda still in tow.

Day 12 Entering the home state

The 200 km back road from Mitchell to St George is narrow but delivers us safely through irrigated farmlands to the town of St George. A family from our church hailed from this town and we had always imagined it to be somewhere in remote outback Queensland. In fact, it’s not really remote, compared to where we have come from, and is very civilised and surprisingly quaint. The bridge over the river doubles as the dam wall, providing water for irrigated cotton, wheat, grapes and much more.  A feature of St George is the stunning bauhinia trees, which are covered with pink, lilac and white flowers and line the streets on both sides. The people are friendly, the petrol is cheap but the wind is chilly.

From St George it is only about 100km to the rather unimpressive NSW border town of Mungindi, where the petrol is more expensive, the people less friendly and the wind still chilly.

Our day ends in the lovely town of Inverell where the petrol is cheaper again, the river picturesque, the Chinese restaurant unchanged since the gold rush era and the wind even more chilly. Walking along the river at dusk the feel is more European than outback. There are signs describing the wildlife that inhabits the river. Fortunately, our croc days are now behind us and we scour the river intently for any signs of a platypus.

Our journey south has reached its penultimate destination and all is good – except, did we mention that it is rather chilly.

Day 11 Martin Luther's cure for depression

Martin Luther, the famous sixteenth century German Reformer, once outlined his cure for depression, ‘noble acts and warm baths’.

Our first stop today is 100kms out of Longreach at the little town of Barcaldine, home of a very noble act. In 1891 a group of striking shearers met under a ghost gum in front of the railway station. The organisation that was formed on that day became the Australia Labor Party. The tree known as the Tree of Knowledge was living up until 2006 when it was poisoned with roundup by Andrew Bolt… only joking… by some unknown rascals. Now the original tree trunk and some of its remaining branches is surrounded by a grand wooden memorial sculpture. The accompanying plaque states that this famous meeting ‘spearheaded the many reforms which were to result in a vastly improved way of life for Australians generally’.

The next 500kms saw us passing through some very dry countryside, but also some lovely little towns, including Tambo, which boasts the prettiest library we have ever seen. We also had a glimpse of the ‘Outer Barcoo, where the churches are few’, a river made famous by Banjo Paterson, which is today completely dry. Sadly, along the A2 we passed more road kill than we have ever seen in almost forty years of driving. Cows, emus, lizards and thousands of kangaroos littered the sides of the roads. So sad.

Our day ended at the town of Mitchell on the banks of a flowing river, the first river we have seen containing water for almost 3000kms. Following Martin’s advice we immediately had a warm bath, or to be more precise, a swim at the Great Artesian Basin Spa fed from the Great Artesian Basin. The recently renovated public pool and spa featured a 38 degree natural spa which greeted us with warmth and relaxation and left us feeling rejuvenated.

No depression here, especially after dinner of porterhouse steak with veggies and rice cooked in the caravan park’s camp kitchen. A feast,for less than $10.  

Day 10 Unsung heros

If you tried to mark the centre Queensland on a map you would probably land on Longreach. Similarly if you drew a line on a map from Rockhampton to Alice Springs, at the mid point, you would also find Longreach. While thinking about maps, if you labelled the Tropic of Capricorn on a map, it would also go through Longreach. Longreach is further from Brisbane, than Brisbane is from Sydney. It is a remote town literally in the centre of the outback, with a population of only 3000 people and can’t even support a Woolworths supermarket, yet Longreach boasts two very impressive tourist attractions.

The Stockman’s Hall of Fame is a tribute to the unsung hero’s who opened up the vast areas of inland Australia. The exhibits focus on social history telling the stories of individual people and the lives they led in these remote parts. Drovers who travelled for years moving stock from place to place, Aboriginal Australians who excelled as stockmen, pioneering women who did much more than keep house and even adventurous clergymen are celebrated in a museum with words, pictures, videos and interactive displays. After two or three hours at this remarkable museum we had only just scratched the surface. Sadly we missed the Outback Stockman’s Show as it isn’t held on a Monday.

Just across the road is another national treasure, the Qantas Founder’s Museum. Having just driven the very long distance from Darwin to Longreach we appreciated the need for a Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service. The museum celebrates the three young men who, upon returning from air service in WW1, scraped together enough capital to buy a plane or two. From those very humble beginnings grew an airline company and The Flying Kangaroo became the national icon that it is today. As we walked through the original 1920’s corrugated iron shed we could hear the roar of planes taking off. It was not a museum sound effect, but the real thing, as the runway of the Longreach Airport is right next door. To cap it off the museum has the only 747 Jumbo Jet on display in the world… Qantas, of course. Amazing!

Australian’s today often think we are doing it tough. A visit to Longreach is a tribute to those who have pioneered our country, both indigenous and European. Maybe we should stop whinging, work a little harder and remember the real unsung heros, who against extraordinary odds carved modern Australia out of the scrub. 

  

Day 9. Mean lean cows.

After the long straight roads we have travelled in the last few days, this morning we were surprised by the windy road through the rocky mineral rich hills, south of Mt Isa. Soon, however, we reached the open farmland and it became apparent the devastation caused by four years of drought. For hundreds of kilometres we passed empty parched paddocks, withered trees, mini dust storms and isolated groups of sad lean cows. All were the visible signs of a region weary from drought.

Having said that we were amused at a road sign warning of the dangers of stray cattle. The sign actually looked like a cow eating a car, these poor cows in western Queensland must be really hungry.

Yet, despite the obvious desperate state of the region, we were impressed by the proud history and the sense of hope that the people seem to have. In Cloncurry they commemorate the Presbyterian Minister John Flynn who believed there was a better way to provide medical support to the local area and went on to set up the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

In Winton we were surprised to read that Lyndon B. Johnson (who became the 36th US President) had survived an air crash near the town in 1942, and had recuperated at the North Gregory Hotel. It was in this same hotel that Waltzing Matilda was first performed in 1895. Banjo Patterson and Christina Mcpherson had written it in nearby in Dagworth. Winton was also the venue of the first board meeting of Qantas held in 1921. Finally, this same small town, now describes itself as the Dinosaur Capital of Australia following a range of remarkable fossil discoveries.

By mid afternoon we arrived in Longreach and set up Matilda after her long drive down, the appropriately named, Matilda Highway. While enjoying a cup of tea we were surprised when our little van started to rock and shake. Around us tents were flapping furiously and canvas was tearing. It was over in less than a minute and we realised a willy willy of swirling dust had hit us and was making its way though the campground. It was but a tiny reminder of the harsh realities faced by those trying to survive in Outback Queensland.

Day 8 Chilling @ The Isa

Back in the sixties and early seventies we used to do a subject at school called Social Studies. In those days there was this (now outdated) idea that it was important to teach kids a whole lot of facts about Australia, in the hope that one day they might find them useful. Homework included learning  the names of the rivers in NSW or locating the kauri forests in WA on a map or labelling the major industries in Queensland. Today as we drive into Mt Isa our Effective Social Studies textbook comes to life. Mt Isa is Queensland’s most important mining town and one of the most productive single mines in the world, producing lead, silver, cooper and zinc.

Approaching town, Glencoe’s huge Mt Isa Mine, is on our right. The impressive 274m chimney stack is the visual centrepiece of a huge open cut and underground mine. Mining is rarely pretty, but its hard not to be impressed with the size of this mine. The original town of Mt Isa is located directly across the street from the mine, the newer part  is just across the Leichhardt River. The river is dammed upstream to provide the town’s water supply so most of the time the river is as dry as the Todd (in Alice Springs).

After a week in remote NT we are excited by the prospect of replenishing our dwindling food supplies. After a quick drive around the town and the mine we turn up to the local Woolies at 5.01pm on a Saturday afternoon to face a devastating reality, we are in Queensland and Woolies and Coles close at 5.00pm and won’t reopen until Monday. Fortunately, a local corner store sells us some sausages, frozen vegies, microwave rice and a chocolate Bavarian pie. Once again we are eating like kings.

Tonight the temperature will drop to 13 degrees, so we really are…chilling @ ‘The Isa’.

Day 7 Leaving the tropical north

Today’s 830km road trip began at 8am at Mataranka.

Our first stop was the Daly Waters Pub. The iconic hotel, is the oldest in the NT and was recently featured in the Australian movie, The Last Cab to Darwin. Without spoiling the plot, the movie tells of a road trip from Broken Hill to Darwin undertaken by a cab driver, played by Michael Caton. The story has a serious message about life, death and what really counts. It is genuinely funny and very Australian.

The Daly Waters Pub, even at 10am, is a classic. Business cards, photos, licences, photographs and memorabilia of all description cover every flat space, including the bar. Hats, number plates, road signs, flags, singlets, navy rank slides and much, much more mean that this place is something of a museum with contributions from the many who have travelled the Stuart Highway over the years. Outside, the beer garden is also filled with quintessential Aussie kitsch. In the movie, the cabbie is assisted by an attractive, young, English barmaid. Sure enough, behind the bar today is a charming young Pom, no doubt backpacking her way around Australia.

Just short of Tennant Creek we arrive at the Three Ways Roadhouse where we do a 90 degree wheelover (navy speak for lefthand turn). From there to the Queensland border is 400kms of nothing. Nothing…except for the expansive Barkly Tableland and the Barkly Homestead (a roadhouse and campground). We enjoy utilising a drive-through caravan site with power pole, tap and a square metre of astro turf. Strangely, it reminds us of how we used to drive up beside the speaker pole at the drive-in movies, when we were teenagers. It’s a pleasant 28 degrees with a cool breeze blowing, so we are very happy to bunker down in Matilda for a delicious meal of chicken mornay and vegetables cooked on our ancient butane stove.

Sometimes a road trip is hard to beat!