Thargomindah - Eromanga

Today's goal was to get to the Eromanga Natural History Museum by 3pm. We decided to take a slightly longer road through Quilpie, as this was the first time we had travelled on that road. We didn't expect any dirt, but there was some. They were doing a long length of road works so next time there should be more tar. We decided to call into the small town of Toompine along the road, just for a look. The small locality, which is basically just a pub, hall and tennis court was a hive of activity when we arrived. About 50 caravans, campers and vehicles were all set up in rows to temporary power for a big weekend of something. That something happened to be a regional clay target shooting event. The regular sound of gunshots made it sound like the wild west. The pub there had a new young couple (and their baby) running the newly renovated pub/coffee shop. If you are ever driving through Toompine make sure you drop in.
Just before Quilpie we climbed the 14 meters up to the top of Baldy Top where we got a great view of the Quilpie Shire. Quilpie itself was pretty quiet on Easter Sunday. A quick visit to the local Catholic church showed a quite impressive opal incrusted alter and lecturn. They seemed to be mainly constructed from boulder opal. I'm not sure how much they would be worth but the church had better have pretty good insurance as they would be worth quite a few dollars.
We were going to stay at the caravan park in Eromanga but a last minute change was made to change to a free camping area next to the Eromanga community hall. Nice bathroom facilities and access to water made this a great choice for us.
We arrived at the newly renovated Natural History Museum exactly at 3:00 for our 3pm tour. The tour started in their new building. We last visited 6 years ago in 2017 and only the back shed existed. It was nice to see such a fancy, modern facility in the middle of the outback. It was mainly funded through state and federal tourism grants. Sadly, they are not able to get the same funding for their dinosaur research.Read more