Sunday 15th May
The road from QUILPIE to CHARLEVILLE was pretty good and we could see a gradual improvement as we headed east. An estimation of the road kill was about 30 kangaroos, 3 pigs, and one emu. Perhaps Emus don’t come out at night. For most of the time we drove through heavy Mulga Scrub but we could see quite a few head of cattle grazing amongst it. We were also starting to get more traffic. Once we get to CHARLEVILLE we will head north again, after our detour from BOURKE east to BRISBANE, than west out to CAMERON CORNER , then back east again to the road north at CHARLEVILLE.
We got to CHARLEVILLE, and Nancy took us straight to our motor camp. Christel went and checked in and then, guess what? Out comes the owner and says, “OK just follow me and I’ll show you where we want you”. ‘Oh No’, here we go again. But, Allah Be Praised, this guy knew his onions. Right hand down hard, bring her back, that’s good, straighten up, keep coming, left hand down a little, keep her coming, OK that’ll do you. I jumped out and kissed him.
After setting up camp we watched as both the owner and his wife repeated the same performance with every other van that arrived, and they had them backed in to some very tight places. These guys were good.
When we booked in, they told us they were doing a camp oven dinner that night consisting of Camp Oven Stew, Mashed Spuds and Damper, followed by Apple Pie and Custard, and rounded off with Billy Tea, and for $15 each we could join them. It sounded good so we signed up. What a great night. We joined about 20 other campers around the campfire watching our tea cooking in big Camp Ovens, and sipping on a few beers.
When they pulled the damper out it looked to be cooked to perfection. It was about 40cm in diameter and about 150cm high. Unfortunately it didn’t taste as good as it looked and certainly wasn’t a patch on the damper that Christel makes.
Never mind the stew and spuds and pudding were excellent. Our first real Camp Oven Meal and we are now looking forward to more in the future.
Monday 16th May
This morning at 9.15am we presented ourselves at the CHARLEVILLE Branch of the SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION. In other words the School of the Air. Part of the introduction included showing us a map with pins locating the various cattle stations where the students were. The CHARLEVILLE branch covers an area of 400,000 sq km, that’s nearly twice the size of New Zealand, and has 185 students, who are serviced by 25 teaching staff. The students all get together three or four times a year for sporting and cultural activities, and an annual school camp. Some students have to travel two or three days each way, to attend these events.
After the introduction we went into one of the teacher’s studios which is just like a radio station studio, and sat in on a lesson for about half an hour. The lesson we caught was a maths lesson for year one kids. It was fascinating watching the extra lengths the teacher had to go to, to communicate with 6 and 7 year old children she could hear but not see. Her class consisted of 5 or 6 kids who were all on the air at the same time. Whenever she asked a question each child had to identify themselves by their name before they could answer, and when she asked them to do a particular task they would come in with, Amy’s done it, Stewart’s done it, etc, We all found this a particularly well worth visit.
We also visited the Royal Flying Doctors Base, drove out to the airport, and had a wander through a park that displayed Australian Native Scrub Trees, which Cameron found to be Very Boring.
Tuesday 17th May
Last night we discovered the electric water heater for the caravan wasn’t working, and it appears we may have a burnt out switch, which doesn’t sound much except that this switch is part of a console that includes the gas heating and water supply for the heater, so replacing it is going to be a major exercise. I spent an hour running around CHARLEVILLE this morning looking for an electrician who may have been able to help, without any luck. We’ll have to try again when we get to LONGREACH in a couple of days time.
Our destination today is BLACKALL, 314 km north, where we intend to spend one night before travelling on to LONGREACH. The road was now 2 lane but with a very bumpy surface. We started meeting lots of cattle truck Road Trains, but because we were on a 2 lane road they were no problem.
We stopped for lunch at a road side rest area just south of TAMBO. This rest area was also used by Road Trains and Cameron went over and spoke to the driver of one who was also having his lunch. Next thing he was sitting in the cab and was allowed to give a short blast on the air horn. He came back beaming from ear to ear and full of enthusiasm about the sleeping cab, the chilly bin and DVD beside the driver, how far they could go on one tank full, how many litres of fuel they can carry etc. He also told us that when he grows up he is going to buy one and fit it out just like that one.
We got to BLACKALL at about 1.30pm and set up camp. From pamphlets we obtained, we knew BLACKALL was famous for its Steam Driven Wool Scour, its Jackie Howe Statue, and for being the town that has the ‘Black Stump’. Hands up all of you who don’t know what the Black Stump is. Yes I thought so, most of you. Here’s a history lesson for you then.
For generations, people have referred to anyone living somewhere in the outback, as ‘living out beyond the Black Stump’. Or in general when referring to the outback it was described as ‘out past the Black Stump’. I had always thought the term Black Stump was just a figure of speech. I too was enlightened. The Black Stump actually exists, or to be more accurate, did exist, and BLACKALL is the place where it was. Here’s how it came about.
When the early surveyors got to BLACKALL after surveying their way across country from BRISBANE, they needed to accurately fix their position using the stars. To do this they had a special, extremely accurate theodolite, which was quite heavy and needed to be mounted on a very solid base. They decided that a large nearby tree stump which happened to be black, would make the ideal base for their theodolite so they could do their observations.
Once they had accurately fixed their position using the stars, they could guarantee all their survey work between BRISBANE and BLACKALL. Beyond BLACKALL, or ‘Beyond the Black Stump’, the country was unknown. Hence the term, and hear endeth the lesson.
To find out the ‘Black Stump’ actually existed was news to me, and naturally I was anxious to see it. We drove out to the site only to find the ‘Black Stump’ was not longer black, but just an ordinary looking tree stump. From the information board we discovered the original ‘Black Stump’ had been burnt down many years ago, but the existing stump had been placed in exactly the same spot. So there we are. Although it no longer exists, it apparently once did. Interesting isn’t it.
After our visit to the black now brown Black Stump we visited the Jackie Howe Memorial Statue.
Howe was a shearer during the 1880’s and 1890’s. In 1892 using blade shears he sheared a World Record 321 sheep during a normal working day. This record for blade shearing still stands today. Later the same year he also set a World Record for machine shearing. Unusually, his tally for machine shearing was actually lower than his blade tally. Beat that Sid.
We were too late to catch a tour of the Wool Scour, so decided to do that in the morning before we headed off for LONGREACH. After that it was back to camp. We have been spending a lot of our evenings playing cards. First of all it was Stop the Bus. Then we taught Cameron Coon Can, which he cottoned on to very quickly, and for the last couple of weeks, that’s all we have played. We were starting to get sick of endless games of Coon Can, so decided to see if he could pick up Euchre. Again he was very quick to pick it up, so now we have three games to play.
Tomorrow we will drive the 230 odd km to LONGREACH, stopping off at the small town of ILFRACOMBE on the way to view their Machinery Display.
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