Our detour from Roma, QLD took us to St George QLD for two nights for no reason other than it was:
- in the general direction that we needed to go (south)
- somewhat clear of flooding and
- a reasonable distance to travel.
As it turned out, while we got some rain, the local Balonne River Weir had been opened to release floodwater that created a fishing frenzy! The locals were lined up along the banks of the river down from the cascading waters to catch yellow-belly Perch. After watching for a bit and getting some tips from a local indigenous bloke, we rushed back to our camp site and grabbed our fishing gear, then stopped at the local IGA to grab a tray of peeled prawns and spent the afternoon by the river. That evening we feasted on large fillets of crumbed, shallow fried perch and had leftover fillets that went into the caravan freezer for another night. Good stuff! (Sooz: The locals really had the knack for these fish. Some people seemed to just cast their lines in, and bang, they’d have a fish. Took Leigh a bit longer, and, well I had ZERO success. I just kept getting snagged, including in the trees lining the banks of the river. LOL!)
When a road is classified as a highway, it should not be less than (a seemingly) 5 metres in width, have no centre lines and carry Road Trains that force you to veer off the road to let them by or face certain violent death. Such is the excuse for a highway called the Balonne Hwy in western Queensland. We had a rather unsettling experience while on the side of the road on this remote 300km stretch between St George and Cunnamulla.
We decided that it was time for a cup of tea. We pulled off the road onto a section of flat red dirt and next to a scraggy tree to offer some shade. It was rather hot. There was absolutely nothing or nobody around. We were both inside the van getting the tea and fruitcake ready when we heard a male voice just outside the caravan door : “Excuse me”. I thought ‘what the heck….we are in the middle of nowhere, where has this person appeared from?’ I went to the screen door and there was a really rough looking unkempt type in his late twenties in a dirty singlet and jeans. “Can you tell me where the nearest fuel is?” Now that’s a fair enough question, but he then said ‘we are from South Australia and want to get to Queensland”. I didn’t say it, but I was thinking, ‘mate, you are in Queensland and have been for minimum of 200 km, and you look really suspect’.
It all seemed very odd, but the really unsettling part was that he kept one hand behind his back. So what the hell was he hiding or holding?? And who was the ‘we’ as in ‘we are from South Aust.’ etc. Alarm bells were ringing everywhere! As I was speaking to him through the screen door I glanced to the far left and there was a car with two very scruffy women. OK I thought, that might mean everything is on the level, but then again it may not – he has not yet asked me to step outside but his hand is still hidden behind his back. WTF? Is this a Wolf Creek moment? I yelled to the women to ask them what the problem was and the response was that they only had ‘2 bars of fuel left’. So as it turned out they were low in fuel and I hastily advised that the closest small town was about some 75km away but I couldn’t confirm that there was fuel for sale there. They then left and I drew a breath.
I guess you have to expect that sort of thing, but I wish the frigging media didn’t glorify the remote outback Alfred Hitchcock terror thing!! It did not help my state of mind at that moment.
So we made it to Cunnamulla (Sooz: safe and in one piece), a really remote outpost some 750km west of Brisbane as the crow flies. While in Cunnamalla, we learned that the film crew from the ABC TV series ‘Backroads’ was in town. I will be interested to see what they produce for viewing because other than a rather excellent (Sooz: “eccentric”) ‘experience centre’, plus the café that advertises on billboards in a 100 km radius about their ‘famous camel burgers’ (but had run out of camel meat when I wanted one), there is not much there. (Sooz: Don’t forget the “Cunnamulla Fella” – a statue dedicated to a bush character in a song! Only in Australia.) The weir on the Warrego river was spilling which was a good sight and all due to the amount of rain that had fallen in the region recently, and it was water that was on its way to the Darling and then Murray river system.
The nice lady at the caravan park we stayed at did kindly squeeze us in with the permanent residents – an assortment of 150 billion flies, mosquitos and other annoying bugs that swarmed around the van night & day. And I have decided that we either have an unknown secret hole somewhere in the van that provides easy access for the bugs, or the screens on the windows are totally inadequate. A couple of nights in Cunnamulla was enough and we continued south over the QLD/NSW border towards Bourke.
Dog fence The Dingo or Dog fence has long been a fascination of mine and over the last couple of weeks we have crossed it on a number of occasions. It’s nothing remarkable to look at but what I didn’t know is that it sounds a high-pitched alarm when you pass through the gap that the road passes through. I have yet to learn why the alarm sounds – its got me scratching my head. There is a 50km section of the Mitchell Highway where this fence runs parallel to the road, just 10 metres or so to the side.
I have to learn about the alarm thing….. (Sooz: The Dingo or Dog Fence was built originally in the 1880s to keep dingos out of the South Eastern parts of Australia where sheep farming was the most important industry. It is one of the longest structures in the world, stretching more than 5,600km across three states. It was partially successful, in that it has minimised dingos in the south east, however, the environmental impacts are now quite controversial.)
Bourke was surrounded by water from the flooding Darling River but the Mitchell Hwy that got us there was above water. The caravan park we stayed at had a protective levee bank and the water was about 2 metres below the point of washing us away. (Sooz: It was a great caravan park with TWO good swimming pools that we had to ourselves. I never worked out why no one else was swimming.) It was a treat to see a legendary river that seems to be dry more often than not, in flood. The news footage from two years ago of puddles of water where a river should be and pools of dead fish was hard to imagine given what was presented now. Now, it was 5km across in parts and flowing vigorously.
We enjoyed experiencing the legend that is the Back o’ Bourke and the town plays on this theme, but to be brutally honest, like several other normally dry & dusty outposts, Bourke seems to be only just hanging on. There are a few too many boarded up shops and run-down or abandoned buildings & houses to give you a sense that everything is going OK. It’s sad, but that’s how we saw it. I hope I have it wrong coz it has a rich history as a main port for sheep transfer and supplies for the vast NSW inland and was once booming. Once.
Cobar, on the edge of the outback, threw up a bonus in that our arrival there happened to coincide with their annual Grey Mardis Gras. That’s GREY mardis gras. Basically, it’s a bunch of grey nomads who get together annually and try to pretend that they are still groovers. The street parade on Saturday afternoon was a bit low key, but the Saturday night bash at the local footy ground was a hoot. It was a music event with some good performers including an Elvis impersonator and a Johnny Cash copy-cat and three ladies who sang classic 60’s songs from the Dianna Ross era. Loved it. Met a lovely couple from Burrill Lake NSW who we sat with and who introduced us to their caravanning club members that they tour with a couple of times a year.
The weather has turned for the worst again and we needed to change plans, again. A big shout out to Neville & Robyn who we met at Emu Park near Yeppoon a couple of months earlier and hoped to see in their home town of Mildura. Nature has dictated that we will not be able to see them and then get to where we need to be afterwards without incurring all sorts of problems negotiating floods and closed roads. Thus we are going to head east.
Dubbo was thus the next stop. The Western Plains Zoo is a high quality experience at a very reasonable cost. (Sooz: The Zoo runs important breeding programs for endangered wildlife. The part of the zoo that visitors see, is not even half the land. Most of the land is used for the breeding program, so there are more animals on the “back paddocks” than on display.)
We copped a dose of belting rain and high winds one wild night while camped at a working cattle station outside of the town and at 2am we were awake due to the weather and Sooz was nervous that the van would be blown over. I can’t blame her as the thing was being severely buffeted.
We watched the Melbourne Cup at a pub in town and made the compulsory donation to the bookmakers.
Sooz: The final town on this leg of the journey saw us spend a few nights in Young. Young is the Cherry Capital of Australia and we were looking forward to picking cherries, having cherry pie and seeing how else we could enjoy such a delightful fruit. Unfortunately, all the rains have caused the Cherry season to be late, so we hit town a few weeks before the start of the season. No pick your own orchards were open yet, and it was even difficult to find cherries in any form. Leigh did manage to get some Cherry Jam. In typical Leigh fashion, he started chatting with a bloke, who happened to be both the cherry farmer and a chef who made all sorts of jams, pies, fudge, toppings, etc. Leigh got a tour of the kitchen and was sent home with fresh strawberry topping for ice-cream— so fresh it was still warm in the bottle!
Kamarooka Tourist Park, St George QLD 6/10
Cunnamulla Tourist Park QLD 4/10: Sooz 3/10
Kidmans Camp, Nth Bourke NSW 6.5/10; Sooz 7.5/10
Cobar caravan park NSW 5.5/10
Hows The Serenity working cattle station, Dubbo. 3.5/10: Sooz 5/10
Westview caravan park, Dubbo NSW 5.5/10
Young Tourist caravan park 6/10
You sound guilty about not having offered John Jarratt a tall glass of cool refreshing water Leigh ……….. hand behind his back the whole time ………. Yeah Nah ……. totally suss!