North Queensland then West

This trip starts from home and does a near lap of Queensland. The furthest point is the Dig Tree, nearly to the South Australian border. Approximate duration, six months. Read more

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North Queensland then West Traveler
Bladensburg Homestead
August 23, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Bladensburg has quite a long history. Much of what is there now is not original, but still fairly old. The homestead is now the information displays and offices for Park staff.

When we visited 20 years ago there was more evidence of the place having been a working station only 10 or so years before. A lot of the stuff that was left behind is gone. Little remains of the contents of the buildings.

The meat house is probably not in its original place. I think it was nearer to the shearing sheds. The shearers quarters was over near the sheds. Most of the yards is in bad disrepair and deteriorating a lot over 20 years since our first visit.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Winton
August 24, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
We first visited Winton years ago for their outback festival. "You are crazy to go way out there. There's nothing there." our friends chided. We met a close friend who had done the trip by bus out thwre and had the best time ever. I won the Billy boiling competition and we laughed till we cried when they ran the dunny races.

Feats of strength, chopping contests of axe skill, loud music. It was a wonderful time to be remembered forever.

Winton has changed quite a bit in 20 years. The streets have been sculptured and many businesses now cater for the growing tourist trade as much as the traditional rural support.

Winton is still one of the places we enjoy visiting. The artesian bore water still stinks though.

If you ever waltz your Matilda out this way, be sure to drop in.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Maccsland Rest Area
August 26, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
We are nearly at Longreach. We decided to camp two nights before we stock up on Longreach and head Southwest.

An epic shopping trip to buy supplies for the next 3 weeks. We expect to be dining on tinned edgel and Campbell's soup by the time we return to Cunnamulla.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Longreach
August 26, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
A short stop at Longreach to top up the drinking water supply and shop for the next 3 weeks ahead.

There will be no shops for the next part of the trip. After shopping we had coffee and lunch before heading south to Stonehenge.

** Main Photo **

"I remember the various artworks at expo 88. It was a big deal and I had season tickets to visit any time during the 6 months it was running. Even with season tickets and over 60 visits, I did not see everything in detail. The street performers were memorable.

Rob. "

THE DROVERS JOHN UNDERWOOD

**Text from plaque **
"THE DROVERS", ALSO KNOWN AS "AROUND THE CAMP FIRE" IS ONE ARTWORK FROM A LARGER SERIES OF APPROXIMATELY 50 ARTWORKS TITLED "THE HUMAN FACTOR" THAT WERE COMMISSIONED FOR WORLD EXPO '88 IN BRISBANE, AN INTERNATIONAL SPECIALISED EXPOSITION HELD AS PART OF BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS IN 1988.

THE PIECE IS AN EARLY EXAMPLE OF CONTEMPORARY ACCESSIBLE PUBLIC ART AS OFFOSED TO FINE ART SCULPTURAL INSTALLATIONS. THESE RELATABLE, LIFELINE STATUES DELIGHTED MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO VISITED WORLD EXPO '88 AND SERVED AS A CONTRAST TO THE OTHER, MORE ABSTRACT PIECES COMMISSIONED FOR THE EVENT.

FOLLOWING EXPO THE DROVERS WERE PURCHASED BY THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT FOR AND DISPLAYED OUTSIDE THE PRIMARY INDUSTRIES BY THE TRIES BUILDING ON ANN STREET, BRISBANE. IT WAS FOLLOWING THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THAT SITE THAT THE PIECE WAS GIFTED TO LONGREACH REGIONAL COUNCIL FOR PERMANENT DISPLAY.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Stonehenge Address Book
August 26, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C
This is an interesting spot. It is very flat and covered in small pebbles. People collect nearby larger pepples and arrange their name on the ground. To easily see the thousands of names needs an aerial view.

The Stonehenge Address Book was a tradition started by o mail an of the past. Visitors are rncouraged to add an entry along the 1kmong section of the main highway just north of the town turnoff.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Stonehenge, Queensland
August 27, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C
The caravan park in Stonehenge is now managed by the pub across the road. They have decided that there will be nro charge to use the park but visitors can make a donation to the flying doctors.

We had a meal at the pub night and hopefully when people do that everything works out well.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Champion Minions
August 28, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
An eye catching display. Everyone likes minions but what the heck? Only one working? The other two have stubbies.
TravelerMost advertising is optical pollution, but that is excellent.
8/29/21Reply
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Welcome to Windorah
August 28, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Windorah is the last stop before you head off to Birdsville or Bedourie. Rest the night, fuel up, (your gonna need fuel) and take the long road west. This is a small town but it has very good camping in the caravan park. For the more adventurous there is miles of great camping spots along the Cooper River.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Windorah Solar Power Farm
August 29, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
A long time ago a bold plan to power Windorah fron the energy of the sun was hatched. The state of the art collectors were erected and set up. Each of the 5 mirrored reflectors could harvest enough energy to power at least 25 homes.

Some of the locals have suggested there have been problems but Ergon say it has been working with some downtime since installation. The system is said to save around 100,000 litres of diesel per year.

One issue has been keeping the mirrors free of dust to maintain maximum output for up to 300 days per year.Read more
TravelerThe dish is much easier and more aesthetic to photograph than the big rows of arrays.
9/2/21Reply
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Long Waterhole, Coopers Creek
August 29, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
The nature trail ran from just outside town to Coopers Creek. Along the way some of the trees were signed.

At the creek were many campers along each side.
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Windorah Art Garden
August 29, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
The Art garden was well worth a wander. The Emu was well done!
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Baldy Top
August 30, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
We rushed out towards Baldy Top to see if it would be a suitable vantage to view the sunset. When we arrived we realized that the time to climb would exceed the time to sunset. We will reschedule the climb since the sunset won't wait. We did find a place to soak in the final glow and take a few photos.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Bulloo River
August 31, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Another nice walk along a river. A lot of effort has been made to make it as interesting as possible. There are lots of signs with information on the area and the plants. The track is well marked and about 2k round trip.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Quilpie - Queensland
August 31, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
We decided to stop in Quilpie for 2 nights to give us a chance to have a look around.

A walk along the street, check out the museum and art and simply enjoy the sights.

We took a walk along the river, checked out the lake camping area and decided it would feature next trip and soaked away the outback dust in the caravan park spa.

One interesting visit was the church where the pulpit has been decorated with local boulder opal.

There are two small supermarkets here and several refuelling places.

The water here is deep artesian bore water, complete with Sulphur dioxide. It is safe to drink but quite smelly. It improves if boiled and left to stand.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Eromanga
September 1, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
We are at the furthest settlement in Australia from any ocean. Ironically, this area was all once part of the ocean.

The area is the largest oil and natural gas field in Australia. We are for the moment driving our car with diesel sourced below our current roads.

We walked the living history and will head out to the Natural History Museum tomorrow.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Eromanga Natural History Museum
September 2, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Dinosaurs (used to) rule. This was an interesting glimpse into the era of dinosaurs with some reveals as to why we believe some of the clues as to the formation of the world we know. Oddly Australia has been pivotal in piecing together our picture of the history of the earth.

The 20 minute introductory movie brings Cooper, the largest dinosaur found in Australia, to life and covers the billions of years since that first "big bang".

This new centre brings together literally thousands of hours of work following up the chance discovery of a baseball sized bone fragment by a fourteen year old lad around 2004.

The huge display bones were printed! The largest 3D printer in Australia uses recycled plastic to make a lifelike replicas of the bones based on the pieces that have been recovered. It takes weeks of printing to make each bone.

About 10% of a dinosaur sketeton is generally needed to identify its species but in the case of Cooper, our local hero, over 13% has been recovered. Even so it has taken 17 years to confirm earlier this year that Cooper is indeed the largest Australian dinosaur and belongs to a previously unknown species.

Elsewhere I read that fossilised skin provided great clues about the skin and texture of dinosaurs. I am guessing some artistic licence taken with the exact colouration.Read more
TravelerI hear that dinosaurs lived through a mass extension event that eliminated most types of Crocs who were the dominant species at the time. The event allowed the dinosaurs to develop and diversify and subsequently reign for millions of years. We know how that ends.
9/6/21Reply
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Wilson River Camping Area
September 2, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Also known as the Noccundra waterhole, this is a nice spot along the river where we can camp for a donation. Not far away is the Noccundra Pub where you can book in for a feed and visit the amenities block. All this camping goodness for a donation at the amenities.

This is quite a beautiful spot with ample water in the waterhole. I have taken a bucketful and added a small amount of alum. It was fully cleared in under 1/2 an hour so we have washing up water and when we come back, water to wash our clothes.

On the way here we had to use the windscreen wipers, 6 wipes of huge rain drops. While refuelling there were a few more drops. Now it is very windy with 50+ kph gusts. I won't be doing any aerial photos here. The poor little drone would be swept away and perhaps lost. Even the birds are absent. I have seen one brave little Willie Wagtail but I fear he too is clutching to a twig somewhere hoping it does not break.

Diesel was $1.88/l out here at the Noccundra hotel. Hardly surprising given the long distance it has to be transported. We needed to top up our tank to make the trip out to the Dig Tree and back. Nearly 500k with little reserve. I'm hoping we don't experience strong headwinds.

The mornings are still pleasently cool with just a bit of cloud. That made for a very nice sunrise over the waterhole this morning. Yesterday was another spectacular outback sunset. Last night another billion bright stars that gave enough light to see to walk.

The water in this waterhole is the typical Muddy colour. I decided to clarify 5 litres with a pinch of alum. It settled in about 30 minutes so I decided to see what would happen if I added a 8l to the muddy remains after I decanted the clear water, by morning I had another bucket of beautiful clear water. Conclusion? I had overdosed by a considerable amount, even though I had only used a pinch of powder.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Dig Tree - Cooper Creek
September 3, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
As I write this, we are being pelted by rain. A totally unexpected event in one of the driest parts of the country and probably out of season. Thunder and lightning effects for good measure.

There was predicted rain up to 5mm for Noccundra, but we are quite a way from there. The storm seemed to be brewing up earlier in the afternoon. We were still not expecting rain. Then just on sunset a few random drops. We still did not expect rain.

The wind then got intense, up a bit from frantic and gusty. Still not expecting rain. Next we thought we saw a flash of lightning. Must have been the new clock randomly flashing its night light.

Around 9:00pm some really heavy drops started pounding on the van. It was actual real rain. One hour later it is still raining and turning out to be quite a decent storm.

Rain has been falling moderately heavy now for 3 hours and seems like setting in. The dirt outside that I thought to be mostly sand is now soft gooey slush 3-4 cm deep so far. I nearly slipped when I went out earlier. We may not be able to move until everything dries out a bit.

***** Earlier today. ******
On the way here we stopped for a bearded dragon who did not want to get off the nice warm road. Not particularly scared of us but decided to scuttle for cover when tapped on his tail. We also saw two dingos that were not very worried about us either.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
More "Digging" the Tree
September 4, 2021 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 16 °C
I'm in a 60's mood. :). Digging stuff was so 60's.

The Burke and Wills expedition would include plenty of detail to fill several books. On this site there is quite a lot of information on many well presented signs.

Only one of the original blazes remains visible with another, the face blaze having been added as a tribute to Burke many years later. On another tree quite distant and not noted on any of the info there is evidence of another blaze. The inner core of the tree is gone so the detail no longer remains. It could have been there with other info originally.

Blazes grow over with time and can be lost due to tree damage, termites or bushfire. This can be quite quick over a few years, or if a mature tree was blazed may take many years.

Overall this is an interesting spot and a decent place to camp.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Waiting to Dry Out
September 4, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
As I said in our first post from here, it rained quite a bit last night. Unexpected for here and now. The ground is wet, muddy and slippery. To leave right now has a risk of bogging.

We had planned to stay for several days and brought ample water and food to cover that. We can manage a lot longer but I expect the rain to clear and then the ground will dry quickly.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
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The Cooper Yowie
September 5, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
The landscape here stimulates imagination. Imagine a yowie and you can see him. The morning sun plays the shadows and light to create art.

Gnarley trees with interesting shapes. Remnant puddles disappearing after the rain. Sunrise and sunset, a thousand pictures every day.Read more
Traveler That’s Old Mate.... what’s his name? ........ Woollybutt. !!
9/10/21Reply
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Return to the Noccundra Waterhole
September 9, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Our Dig Tree expedition was a great success. We returned with a little diesel left in the tank. About 50k till the light would come on. There was no driving around out there so lots of walking.

The Saturday night rain effectively held us in place until the road dried out. We had 50 plus millimetres at least so the road and flats got quite soft. Nice icky, sticky, ooey, gooey, black mud. The van tyres even sank in sank a couple of inches. Others campers rushing to leave did about 50,000 dollars of damage to the road. One large van ploughed about 10 kays of ruts and several others made them worse. The grader probably won't be in for six months after the real wet season.

The road had been closed but we had no idea. No phone, internet or visitors to tell us until after the fact. We of course had our satellite communicator and channel 1 UHF repeater is monitored. In an emergency we would not be alone. The nearby station would have come over to warn us if there had been a need.

We are now spending a last couple of nights with no communications and are almost ready to head back into the world of internet and see what has been happenning for the last week or so.

This last couple of nights here has been pleasent weather. Even the 500m walk to the toilets and showers near the hotel is no real effort in the cool weather. Today we walked over 10k including quite a distance along the Wilson River and its flood Plains.

We were surprised by this area. The river has waterholes and a surprising amount of birds. It was different to how we imagined.

To BEE, or not to BEE!
Yesterday I heard a lot of buzzing like bees. Looking down towards the sound I noticed what looked like bees tending burrow homes. Are these the native burrowing bees? There is no internet here to research so watch this space!

We are back in comms at Thargomindah but so far we are not certain about the bees. These ones are not actually ones we can find described so we may need to phone an expert.

Next day before we leave.
We did the walk to the amenities, a neat 1k round trip. Then a "short" walk along the river. This ended up near 2k each way but was totally rewarding.

Every walk in this area yields surprises. Lots of birds chattering along the river as we walked. At the place we are camped is a fairly steep mud bank lined by many gnarly trees. These keep the shape of the river with soil retaining root systems. As we ventured further along the terrain changes. The river channel has cut its way through weak conglomerate as it curves through pebbled woodlands.

It is so pleasent to walk in this area with the open spaces and light ground vegetation. After this trip I can imagine returning just for a longer stay in this amazing area.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Thargomindah Murals
September 11, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Street art is penetrating everywhere. Many public spaces are dressed up and with often spectacular results. One of the great pieces is actually in the council office. A nicely done Anzac tribute by a local in 3 pieces. There are many more pieces that are all excellent works.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Thargomindah Hydro Power Museum
September 11, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Thargomindah Hydro Power Plant

The first Hydro Power Plant in Australia, the third in the world. Today you can still the continuation of this passion with a huge infrastructure of solar panels everywhere. The artesian Hydro originally powered Street lights and then public places. Today there is a large amount of solar pathway lighting.

As part of the show, water is run to the pelton wheel and it all still turns the generator after decades of operation.

***** Text from info signs *****
The artesian water bore on this site was established on the 9th designed to show the of September 1893. This building and exhibition have been sources of energy used in the Bulloo Shire.

Thargomindah was the first town in Australia to produce hydro-electric power for street lighting.

Thargomindah's local sawmill owner, Mr Paterson, is thought to have owned the town's first electric lighting plant. By 1898, Paterson's plant was purchased by the Bulloo Divisional Board, and the pressure from the bore water was used to power the plant. It was Queensland's first municipally owned electric plant and continued to operate until it was replaced in 1951 with a generator driven by a diesel engine..

The power was carried to town by overhead wires, which were a breach of the Electric Light and Power Act of Qld (1896). due to the potential danger if they broke and fell. In 1898, Government Electrician John Hesketh reported to Cabinet that the "scheme would not be commercially viable if overhead conductors were not approved". This was accepted, and passed by Cabinet on 24 January 1899.Read more
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North Queensland then West Traveler
Thargomindah Old Hospital
September 11, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Today was a walk of historical importance. The old hospital is a well presented audio visual experience of many stories and memories of this very remote place. We ended with a ghost story. It's all very well done but does take a while to do the whole self tour.Read more
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