4. Longreach Q - Winton Q - Hughenden Q - Charters Towers Q

We have fallen in love again with the Australian Outback.  The big sky country with stunning sunsets, awesome clear starry nights and beautiful sunrises.  Not to mention the fantastic bush poets we have heard at some of the parks we have stayed. No-one is in a rush and we love talking with the locals.  We have enjoyed many a yarn around a camp fire under the stars with fellow travellers – the list goes on and on! What a marvelous country this is and how blessed are we to be living here and able to travel around and enjoy it.

Winton-Hughenden-Richmond is Dinosaur country and we saw huge dinosaur bones at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs at Winton.  A local farmer had sent some strange “rock” for testing in the late 1990’s and discovered that they were dinosaur bones. Many volunteers came forward to dig and clean up many shattered bones.  Most of these bones are like 3-D jigsaw puzzles.

George made a very interesting and entertaining guide.  Here are the bones discovered so far for Diamantinasauras Matildae, a new category named after the property name Diamantina station on which the bones were found.  Naturally, the anticipated discussion about possible ages & whether a river could form such a vast flood plain occurred gently & in private.

Arno’s Wall in Winton shows how to build efficiently whilst cleaning up the backyard junk in a way that enables you to keep an eye on it!

Each sunset we have seen at Winton has been spectacular.  Tonight was no exception.  Afterwards we enjoyed bush poetry & yarns by Mel & Suzie, two excellent performers.  Mel’s rendition of Rolfolfo the Dolfog was very, very funny and had the audience in continual stitches.

You’ve seen the sunset and now here’s the sunrise. 

Here is Rhonda belting (literally) out a tune at the Musical Fence at Winton

This is the almost complete skeleton of Muttaburrasaurus in Hughenden Q - no prizes for guessing that it was found near Muttaburra Qld.

Porcupine Gorge National Park is 63k from Hughenden and is often referred to as Australia’s Little Grand Canyon.  It was spectacular.

11k further up the road, we discovered the Pyramid.

We’re guessing that this rock structure helped name the Pyramid in Porcupine Gorge.  The walk down wasn’t too bad . . . . . the 1.2k vertical(ish) walk back up was much more trying!  The effort was worth it though with beautiful scenes greeting us wherever we looked. Also, Rhonda was in bed & asleep by 8:30pm that night.

Here’s Rhonda in Hughenden Q with an artist’s impression of what Mutt might have looked like with skin & bones.  The Hotel Grand in the background must have been impressive in its day!

On to Charters Towers for our third visit.  Each time we are impressed by the beautiful architecture of the period, represented in the dozens of buildings which have been very well preserved.  This one is City Hall.

and the Telegraph Office

and the Royal Private Hotel.

Spen was fascinated with this single skin (the inside wall) construction with the studs painted & exposed.  Would save on external wall sheeting or bricks I guess.

May God watch over you until we meet again. 

Best wishes from Spencer & Rhonda.

3. Nardoo Station (near Cunnamulla Qld) – Longreach Qld

How’s this for a giant Bilby?  It does look a bit piggy from this angle (that would be the one on the post!).  We visited the Bilby Centre at Charleville Q and saw these neat little marsupials from the bandicoot family.  They are around the size of a small cat and have large, translucent, rabbit-like ears and black & white tails.  Rhonda thinks they are really cute.  We saw 2 females which proved impossible to photograph in the low red light, particularly as they didn’t stop running around.

We stopped for lunch at the beautiful lakeside rest stop in Tambo Q, along with about 10 other caravans, all doing the same thing.  Fortunately, the area was big enough for us all. 

The road was a little bumpy between Tambo and Barcaldine and Rhonda ‘had fun’ re-stacking the crockery shelves, etc., after we arrived. 

We found the site of the original Black Stump in Blackall Q and are now in the area once considered to be “Beyond the Black Stump” ie. west of Blackall.  A petrified tree stump now marks the spot.  Comfortable cars, air conditioning and bitumen roads sure make this trip easier.

The Tree of Knowledge died in 2006 and so we checked out the $5m wooden structure built around the original tree as a memorial.  An impressive, huge scale construction which also acts like a wooden wind chime in heavy winds.

We arrived in Longreach in time to join Scott, Belinda and friends from their church for a surprise camp birthday dinner for Terry at Starlight’s Lookout, about 60k from Longreach.  We enjoyed good company, good food and marvelous views from this solitary hill in vast, open country. 

Scott borrowed a trailbike for Spen then took us to the bike track on the common outside Longreach.  He was delighted when Rhonda agreed to a (gentle) double around the track – duly captured on video of course! 

Scott had a hoot and handles jumps with ease.  Spen on the other hand rode much more slowly and was dubbed ‘Spencer the Safe’ because he needs all limbs to remain in working order for the rest of the holiday.

On the good news front - Toby & Neo (S&B’s dog) seem to be getting on well and Spen re-connected two clearance lights on the caravan after a repairer cut the cable accidentally.

 

2. Molong NSW – Nyngan NSW – Nardoo Station (near Cunnamulla Qld)

There really is a Mulga Creek Pub!  We enjoyed a great morning tea here. 

There were also surprising numbers of emus loitering by the roadside after Nyngan.  They really are dumb! They move away from the road as you approach and occasionally, one will turn and run back into the side of the caravan - as Rhonda discovered not far past here.  Thankfully no significant damage & the van still looks good with a little gaffa-tape.

How’s this for a sunset?  We stayed 2 great nights on Nardoo Cattle Station, a very interesting, working 110k acre property. 

Rhonda gained a little extra height to capture some drafting action.  We were serenaded on our first night by the cattle mustered that day and penned ready for trucking out the next day.  The peace & quiet on the second night was also good.

This was one special & enjoyable cattle-farm style spa hot tub.  Even Toby seemed to like Rhonda enjoying the spa.

1. Cherrybrook NSW to Molong NSW

Ready to roll – Spen checks that Scott’s surfboard will stay attached until Longreach.

Are we there yet???

We really enjoyed catching up with Penny in Molong, dinner with Penny & Tristan and breakfast with Penny.  We talked heaps.  We also discovered that a heater plus a kettle will trip a 4-plug powerboard – not a good discovery in cold, cold Molong after bedtime.