Outback Queensland
It's been a while since the last blog entry. There is a bit missing when we stayed in Sydney at Easter, headed north to Mullumbimby for a couple of weeks, and then turned west once we hit Queensland.
In southern Queensland we visited the Girraween National Park where they have some cool rounded volcanic hills. I climbed this one.
Goondiwindi Show
We also stopped in at Goodiwindi just in time for their annual show. They had all the usual stuff such as rose competitions where almost everyone wins a prize.
(1) Line up on your horse and watch the others for 30-45 minutes. Preferred headwear is an Akubra but helmets are permitted.
(2) Enter the pen and select the calf you want to chase from the dozen or so running around. You have a fixed amount of time to get it standing in front of the gate on the left. If the judge (sitting on the other side of the pen on his horse) thinks you are out of time he cracks his whip and your time is up. (This accounts for about 20% of competitors; $30 for 2 minutes in a pen with a dozen recalcitrant calves!)
(3) Once you have the calf standing still, by themselves, in front of the gate, you yell for the gates to be opened and then chase the beast into the arena.
(6) Chase the beast through a pair of traffic cones on the far side of the arena to finish the course. About 5% of the starters achieve this. (No photos.)
(7) Wait until the end of the day for the results, which are based on a combination of time and success. (Everyone who gets out of the pen gets at least one point; there are no points for arriving but failing the first step.)
The blokes who seemed to be having the most fun were the non-competitors who chased the recalcitrant calf into the pen on the far side of the arena. (Except for one that jumped the fence and headed for the amusment rides.) I have no idea who won because it was all a bit same-same after a while and I went to get a beef burger.
Charlotte Plains
A couple of days after the show we ended up at Charlotte Plains Station near Cunnamulla. This is a 70,000 acre sheep station that has a significant sideline in tourism based around their hot artesian bore that feeds into very photogenic bathtubs. We were going to camp for night or two but instead stayed to help out for 2 1/2 weeks while as they were short staffed. We did a combination of cleaning, cooking for visiting tourist groups, maintenance and helping out.
It was an awesome experience seeing an outback station first hand and gaining some understanding of how it works and the challenges they face. The station owner is 73-year-old Robyn - she grew up there, spent 30ish years on a cattle property further north with her husband, and moved back to run Charlotte Plains when her parents died. At the moment they are rebuilding the stock after 8 years of drought and currently have 1500 sheep (normally 8000) plus 100 cattle. They are switching from wool to meat sheep and tourism seems to have kept them going for the last 5+ years. The station is very green at the moment - 18 months ago it was scattered trees and dust but now there is a lot of rough and prickly ground cover that sheep apparently eat.
At the artesian bore the water hits the surface, under pressure, at about 42 deg. Their bore used to run at about 1.5 mega-litres a day and was channelled across the property in drains to provide water for the stock. Over the last couple of decades, bores across Queensland have been capped to preserve the resource and theirs now runs at a much smaller amount and is piped to water troughs. Some is still available to make the old borehead look cool and supply endless hot water for the old cast-iron bathtubs they have installed along the remaining bore drain.
At the bore:
Our camping spot with a visit from: 8 cattle (including a bull); 4 Merino (wooly) ewes; 1 dorper (meat) ewe; 1 goat. Some are hand-reared and have a bit of an identity crisis and didn't want to hang around with their own type. I called them "The Collective" as they weren't a herd, flock or mob.
Cleaning / clearing out
Trying out more new bathtubs at sunset
Adam's 22nd birthday - chocolate cake cooked in the camp oven and singing from two lovely couples who were passing through for a couple of nights
Greg Grainger was filming for his Travel Oz TV program and decided to interview me about the camper. It may or may not make the final cut.
The food chain - from the paddock
To the fridge for a few days
And onto the bbq
While at Cunnamulla we went to a country music festival at Eulo for a day with Robyn. It was excellent, helped by the music being quite varied and not just Slim Dusty-style twangy guitar music. Well worth the 120km each way drive.
After Charlotte Plains
After leaving Cunnamulla we headed a bit further west to Thargomindah where they had a sheep quick-shears competition / music event. We're now heading north-ish and have been the Qantas museum and Stockman's Hall of Fame (both of which were excellent) in Longreach and then to Winton where we went to the over-priced Waltzing Matilda Centre (not recommended) and the Age of Dinosaurs museum (highly recommended).
Finals of the quick-shear competition
Cool photo from the Stockman's Hall of Fame
Nice update; I've been wondering how you were going. I hope you still make it to Cape York as planned.
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