Day 84 Jundah, Windorah

 Today has been a pretty cruisy and relaxed day. I am writing this as I sit by Cooper’s Creek, just outside of Windorah. The wind is blowing gently through the trees, trees that still show signs of the immense amounts of water that flowed through here, only a couple of months ago. Budgies flit and fly about, chirping and chattering to each other; whilst whistling Kites float in the thermal air flows above, occasionally whistling as they do. The creek water is flowing steadily and has apparently returned to its normal levels. Matt may drop in a line to see if he can grab a catch, or not. A pelican flies and lands with a splash as the momentum of flying perpetuates the Pelican, until the water slows it down, and then it paddles away.

Today was a chilly start in Longreach, and the warmer clothes have been pulled out from the  back of our drawers, dusted off and worn. We headed out and watched the scenery change to flat plains with golden dry grasses and a scattering of trees amongst the paddocks. There was the occasional burst of bright colours, as the wildflowers are appearing. In places you could see new fencing had been installed and the road had been patched up from the flood damage. Some fences had debris caught up in them, revealing how high the water reached. We climbed up a few ‘jump ups’ as they are referred to out here, in other words, a small, rocky mountain range. Up here you could see everything, it was a great place to appreciate the vastness of the area, especially if you had your glasses on (getting old😜) to see that far! We stopped for lunch by the Thomson River at Jundah, after a brief drive around town (didn’t take long, it’s not very big). Matt spied some budgies and we were finally able to film and photograph the tiny little colourful birds, so we can share with our niece who loves Budgies. Matt was also having a go at trying to photograph the whistling Kites, soaring above in circles, occasionally swooping down to the river. fun fact, this council area , the Barcoo shire, covers 61,974 square kilometres and has a population of 462. Today was about 320km of single lane bitumen road. The etiquette for the single lane is as follows.. if you’re bigger you get to stay on the road, caravans and cars have to move onto the dirt verge to let the large vehicles pass on the bitumen without throwing rocks. So usually I get to stay on the hard stuff but there are still plenty of road trains and large trucks on the road that I have to make way for ( in the video )

We are in the thick of the channel country now, and the channels are as green as they get due to the recent floods. Seeing the country at its best . 

We ventured on to Windorah and stopped in at the Visitors information Centre and checked out a couple of sites they had with museum displays. There was an old slab hut set up with items that would have been in there for a family living in it, back in its day. Matt found an old Austin A30, in mint condition, (more original than mint, it was rough but original)
no rust and original very old Queensland number plates. He reckons it never left town after being registered. On another site, was an old Cessna plane that had belonged to a member of the community that had used it for anything from rounding up cattle on properties to rescuing people in floods, or taking people to access urgent medical care. We did the obligatory lap around town and headed back out to where we have camped up for the night. Our big adventure is quickly disappearing, and I wonder how well we will readjust to normal life and work, after all this freedom to explore and relax and enjoy our beautiful country.

Day 83 QANTAS Founder Museum, Stockman’s Hall of Fame

 We got another sleep in, which was nice. We headed into town to do some groceries and a quick look at the op shop. We went out to the airport, and on the way Matt spied a tour coach with one of his former Coach Drivers driving it. Of all the places to run into someone you know! You could find the museum easily, someone parked a dirty big 747 out the front 😜. We headed into the museum and this time we happily accepted the mistaken seniors identity and took the cheaper price, so we could have more access and it meant seeing the big planes. There was an art exhibition on display there as well. The museum was very busy and could have done with more space, so people could walk around the displays more easily. I say this because at one of the visual displays, a screen on the wall playing a story, there were 2 seats right in front of the screen about 1m away from the screen on the wall, and the sound was directed so that you could only really hear it if you sat in those seats. So we sat in the seats and were watching the story being told, when a few seniors from a tour group started to walk past in front of us, that was until one lady, totally oblivious to us sitting in the seats and watching the screen, stood right in front of us and watched the screen, of course totally blocking our view. She stood there for a good couple of minutes, before walking away. Some people are really in their own little world and unaware of their surroundings. The story boards told of how the founders of Qantas came together after fighting in WW1 and the journey it was to get support and sponsors to make it all happen, yet alone buy planes suitable. There was a few replica items in the showroom, including a replica model of the first plane they flew, there were plane engines and a Model T Ford made as a replica for the one the founders had used to get around the top end of NT and QLD to mark out places for runways for an airplane race that was going to happen. They had barbie dolls dressed up in all the uniforms that staff had worn over the decades, depicting the fashion changes and colour choices. There was a joystick simulation to control a plane and for the kids to climb in and try to fly too. We then had the tour out to the planes in the original hangar and also outside under an awning. The oldest planes were in the hangar and outside were all the big ones, including the last remaining 747-200 jumbo jet in Australia. One thing our guide pointed out, which confirmed my suspicions about the claim to where and how Qantas began, yes there is indeed rivalry between Winton and Longreach on that.  ( the guides account is that the first meeting for Qantas was in Winton, and at that meeting they decided to move to longreach from that point)  We got to see the DC-3 which was Matt’s favourite due to the classic shape, a Catalina sea plane, a Constellation plane, which we got to walk through, a 707 that was once used by the Jackson 5 and was fitted out for the use of the rich and famous. John Travolta had flown this one apparently, and we got to walk through and see how the rich fly around in opulent luxury, and the main ticket item was the last 747-200 that was used to bring home those in the Bali bombings. We also got to walk through this and climb the stairs to the premium lounge, where the suite had been originally fitted out in ‘70’s and ‘80’s bright and gawdy colours and wood paneling. It was all very interesting and our guide was lots of fun. We could tell he wasn’t a QLDer as he spoke too fast😂! 

After lunch we headed across the road to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame. This was another fascinating museum full of history about droving in Australia, surviving the outback, the cameliers who brought goods to sell to the remote properties, and the hard slog it was to travel and survive our harsh weather and country in remote areas, so we can have wool and meat and food. You were given a headset to listen to as you walked along, and you could listen to some personal recounts of stories and adventures. They had a guy showing you how to make a whip, a display on the Royal Flying Doctors, and another on rodeos and country singers. Our brains were exploding by the end of it all. Just realised that I only took one photo in the Stockman’s hall of fame. Proof that guys can only do one thing at a time and cause I had headphones on, that one thing was listening.  There were a lot of words.  

We headed back to our camp site to rest our brains for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Super constellation walkthrough. 

Boeing 707 luxury plane walkthrough. 

Day 82 Winton Heavy Machinery and Truck Museum, Longreach

 Bonus sleep in this morning, as the museum didn’t open until 9am. We headed into Winton and Matt was in his happy place checking out old trucks. We almost got in as seniors again, but insisted on paying the full price. The museum had old, restored trucks of various brands, and sizes. Some including Mack, Atkinson, Commer, Dodge, International, Ford, Diamond T, Dennis, White, Leyland and more. Most were all beautifully restored. But Matt being Matt did find out the back in the yard, all the yet to be loved vehicles. Matt can see the potential in everything, and if we had a big block, I can see these trucks finding there way to our place. So probably a good thing we live on a suburban block! (Italics don’t work on emojis  😔)

Around the corner from the museum, was a music wall that had been created out of junk to make sounds like a drum kit and a swing set with various odd shapes you could bang on, to make music of sorts. We had a play but couldn’t quite make a decent sound. Cause it was all junk, good sounds come from good instruments.  Next we headed to a Boulder opal shop to see how they used Boulder opal in jewellery, very interesting the difference between Boulder opal and the normal black and white opal.

After fuelling up, we headed to Longreach. On the way a fire truck with lights on, drove past and about 50km down the road, a purple old Mazda T3500 mini bus converted into a camper had rolled. I was surprised to see a t3500 bus still running, as I drove one when I was 20 and driving trucks, and I have nothing good to say about those basket case vehicles.  It Coped ok with the rollover though I must say, roof was at a sideways tilt a bit but not caved in, and from what we heard on the CB people walked away from it,  Not sure what happened to cause it. We had also seen an ambulance come away from the scene, so not sure if anyone was injured badly. We eventually arrived in Longreach, took a leisurely stroll around the main street and checked out a few shops and Matt got himself a new shirt, we then returned to Bridget. We noticed the guy in his flashy new caravan, parked in front of us, seemed to be in a bother, so Matt went and offered him some help. Even though Matt couldn’t help the guy with the power issues he was having, he was able to give him advice on using solar and how much ability the caravan had to power, or not in this case, all the electrical equipment it was fitted out with. The guy had been driving solidly for 2 days and the batteries were not very charged, this was a brand new van with all the bells and whistles, powered by 240v which means he has a massive inverter to convert his 12v to 240v. Which he leaves on.  Tiny house batteries, and the solar was pumping in about half the power his fridge was using.  The caravan didn’t even have dust in it yet.  They were given no wiring diagrams or user manuals on the electrical equipment so I couldn’t really help him without knowing how it was wired, but it was pretty easy to see that the gear running off the batteries had the capacity to kill them within 10 hours.

These fancy new caravans are sold with just enough gear to get them off the showroom floor, but practically, they don’t cut it and are massively underpowered.  Buyer beware I guess. 

We headed back out of town and found a camp site in an Apex park by the Thomson River, and stopped here for the night. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll and explore down by the river, where a man had brought his pet cockatoo and it was talking to those that walked past them. There was someone else playing a recorder amongst one of the camp areas, and they were playing for a good hour or more. Pity the people around them, glad we were parked in a different location. We will do more tourist stuff tomorrow in Longreach.

Day 81 Winton, Dinosaur Stampede

 We spent more time chatting with Clipper Club friends Don and Sandy, before heading into Winton to do our washing. Unfortunately it took longer than we hoped for, as we had to wait for a washing machine, and then the dryers. But we made use of our time and walked around the Main Street and read some of the history boards and also talked with others who were waiting at the Laundromat, and all of them were travelling as well. I had a look through an open air cinema near the laundry that dates back to the 1890s which also doubled as a roller skating rink in the 30’s.  Current owner has done a great job restoring it and updating it and runs movies there most nights form all eras. The town centre / Main Street has a lot of art deco buildings  and has a lot of character . Also, there was a character called Arno who has passed on, but left a concrete wall around his property that would put most Greeks to shame . I don’t know how it’s still standing as it has 0 structural design, it’s just concrete and all the things his wife probably wanted him to chuck out. Generators, petrol tanks, ovens , vcrs, engine blocks, cylinder heads , motorbikes ,a massive air compressor, toasters .. you name it. I can hear his wife now, “when you gonna get rid of those old motorbikes  they don’t work , and what about those old engines …” thinking to himself … “If I encase them in concrete I’ll have them forever” and now the town has a massive concrete wall full of junk.  Looks interesting tho. 

We headed off after lunch, and went to the Lark Quarry Conservation Park, 110km down the road, and visited the museum on the Dinosaur Stampede. Here we got to do a scenic walk and enjoy the views of the area, where they have found footprints from dinosaurs. We then went on the tour and heard all about how they found the footprints and what they can ascertain from them. Apparently they also inspired a scene in the first Jurassic Park movie, where the little dinosaurs scatter and try to escape when the big T Rex came along and bent down and ate one. From what they can tell from the footprints, a bigger dinosaur came along and all the little ones ran away to escape being eaten. It was very interesting. They have enclosed the fossil footprints area to be protected and inside a building, to help it last longer.

We headed back to the free camp site and camped up in time for the sunset. 

Day 80 Mary Kathleen mine, Cloncurry, McKinlay and Winton

 A really cold night last night and the extra blanket was needed. So we didn’t rush out of bed this morning. We headed out to see the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine, down a very bumpy old asphalt road, with potholes everywhere. We drove as far as we could, but then walked the last kilometre to the mine. The mine is just the cuttings in the side of the hill, with a large pool of inviting teal waters at the bottom, almost tropical seaside colour. But swim at your own risk, in the uranium contaminated waters. You could see some yellow coloured rocks in the cuttings, and we do wonder if that was yellow cake. Some of the surrounding hills were natural, and others were formed from the old tailings from the mine.We returned to Bridget and Matt had to do some creative reversing to get her back down the rocky single lane road, but with all his natural abilities and skill, it was very easy for him. 

We were soon back onto the main road, and heading to Cloncurry, weaving through the rocky hills and ranges and it was really quite spectacular and scenic. Once in Cloncurry, Matt did his usual find the Main Street and drive through, grab as much attention as you can, and park up. He had spotted a bakery and had a hankering for a meat pie, (not sure about a hankering, as I’m not sure how to hanker appropriately, but I felt like having one)and found the steak and mushroom pie was really quite delicious. Check out the photo of the front yard of a house we walked past in the main street, Matt had been wondering why we weren’t getting barked at by the dog he had spotted…Cloncurry was a lovely town and looked loved and functional with a friendly community.

Cloncurry’s dogs are harmless

From there we drove on and found the landscape changed again back to very flat grassed plains and paddocks, that the floods and rains from a couple of months ago, had meant it was not desolate and bare. There were hardly any trees or bushes, which I think is a shame. We both noticed lots of feral cats roaming the sides of the roads. We drove to the next town of McKinlay which had the Walkabout Creek Pub, made famous in the movie Crocodile Dundee. Matt was taking photos of the pub, while the tourists at the pub were taking photos of Bridget. Though, I don’t think the area is known to have crocodiles locally.

One thought that crossed my vastly empty mind while crossing these huge expanses of land over the last couple of days, is how underpopulated it is.  The Barkly tablelands I’m sure are farmed, but look like they aren’t, and there are stretches that you can fit 2-3 Sydney geographical basins side by side between towns ie:2-300km with not a single residence. In fact the Tanami was larger distances, over 800km from halls creek to tilmouth well without a town on the road between them  there were a couple of gold mines but not publicly accessible. Even then tilmouth well was just a roadhouse that looked like it was derelict except for the cats, and it had 3 shelves of basic groceries as long as it fitted in a tin, and it was another 180 km to Alice Springs. There is so much in this country that the bulk of people in it don’t see .

We continued on until Winton, and drove through, and will explore there tomorrow, but we headed out to the free camp area at Long Waterhole. As we pulled in, we both spotted another Clipper! Being in the national club for Clippers, you kind of all know each other, and so we knew who this Clipper belonged to and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening around the fire chatting with Don and Sandy from Victoria, and their travelling companions Ken and Patsy. Don was one of our A Team champions, who gave up his time and energies and travelled to help us on our working bee weekends to dismantle and rebuild Bridget. But of all the places in Australia to meet up, what are the chances?! The heater is definitely on tonight, to take the edge of another cool evening, after another cloudless sky and pleasant day.

Day 79 Mt Isa, Mary Kathleen

 Despite the horns going off to scare away the bats from 6am, we managed to sleep in a bit. We could still see lots of bats in the trees when we got up, so not sure how effective the sirens are.🤔. But I guess there were less bats on the trees than what had been in the sky last night, so maybe something is working. We headed off and clocked up more kilometres today. We drove through the border and into Queensland and through the small town of Camooweal.  We had stopped by the road to take a few photos, as we drove through all these plain grassed paddocks, with no trees, and felt like it looked more like a desert than the Tanami did, and we can imagine that with no grass on, when they are in drought, it would be. Matt noticed that the surface of all the small rocks above ground, were all really smooth, but the part of the rock that sat under the dirt, was rough. Clearly, the rocks get wind blown and weathered. 

We stopped further down the road for Matt to have lunch, and then drove onto Mt Isa. We stopped here to get some windscreen chip repair resin, as a truck had thrown up a rock and chipped the left windscreen. So hopefully this will prevent the cracks spreading. We also drove up to the lookout to see out over Mt Isa and all the mines and power generators. Not a bad view. I get a Broken Hill vibe out of mount Isa probably because it’s dominated by the mine overseeing the township, but it feels a little Broken Hillish to me.  I don’t mind it. We had a couple also viewing from the lookout say they had been spotting us since we had been at El Questro. We have had so many people say they have been seeing us in their travels here or there, I guess we are easy to spot, unlike all the 4WD cars and their caravans.

We drove through some scenic rocky hills and a windy road, out of Mt Isa and stopped for the night 40km down the road at Mary Kathleen, an abandoned town created for the Mary Kathleen Uranium mine. The mine has long been closed down, but the town has been cleared out and only slabs remain. They have opened the area up for free camping, so it is a huge area. Cows are freely wandering around and there are no bats.We are parked up in the old open air cinema😜!  

The whole township of Mary Kathleen has been levelled but the streets and house slabs remain, so everyone gets a house block for example as a camping site. There are over 200 house blocks and then there’s the town centre  buildings that people can camp on too.  When I got out of the bus where we parked , there were drink can ring pulls in the gravel and dust everywhere, the old style ones that tore out of the can. I remember these from primary school and I’m pretty sure they stopped making them in the early 80’s. 

The thing that instantly took me back to primary school was that we used to break off the tab from the ring pull, then insert it side ways and flick the ring pull like a little frisbee. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has done that. Then we later discovered that we are parked up in the seating area for the open air cinema, which explains the stash of 45 year old ring pulls from people drinking while watching the first screening of Star Wars….

Day 78 Barkly Homestead

 We had an early start this morning, but got to enjoy some Major Mitchell cockatoos in the nearby trees at the campground. They are pink and white and have a gentle call alike the red black cockatoos. We headed back onto the Stuart Highway and drove past Karla Karla (Devils marbles) and were able to see how far the rock formations are spread out, as we were looking at them from a distance rather than close up like we had the first time. We stopped just short of Tennant Creek for a lunch break, and turned onto the Barkly Highway just after Tennant Creek, and started heading east towards Queensland. We pulled into the Barkly Homestead and roadhouse and filled up with fuel and booked a campsite for the night. As they are having a bat problem, and will have a siren going off tomorrow morning at 6am, we got the spot for free. A fair deal, though I might not think that it is at 6am!

We had a walk around and checked out the birds in an aviary that had been rescued, and looked at the small Indigenous art gallery they had. We returned to Bridget for a bit before returning to the roadhouse for dinner at the restaurant. We had a fair wait for dinner to be cooked, so we got to watch the sunset sky and tens of thousands of bats flying over in the sky. It was phenomenal, they just kept coming from everywhere. So yes they have a bat problem. We headed inside for Matt to enjoy some nice sirloin steak, chips and salad and a beer. We enjoyed our walk back to Bridget, and stars twinkling above in the clear night sky. Hoping Bridget isn’t covered in bat poo in the morning. Matt drove 525km today. We are knocking out these kilometres on this adventure.

So that’s over 2500 km in the last 6 days. Today travelling along the Barkly hwy we were crossing the Barkly Tablelands.  Once again disappointed as there were no tables visible anywhere in the bush, they must’ve all been out at a restaurant somewhere. 

If I lived on a tablelands somewhere , I’d dedicate a paddock to random tables that people could visit and maybe even contribute their own table to the attraction. Actually let’s not go to the tablelands, it is a silly place  

Barkly tablelands

Goannas made from chequerplate and signs and car parts. Barkly roadhouse