Winton to Hughenden

Bladesnburg National Park near Winton 20-26 April 2011

‘Twas brillig and the slithy Toves ….  Well it wasn’t actually a Tove, but a Black-headed Python.  ‘Twas also hot – hot enough to boil a monkey’s bum Your Majesty.

We had just reached the Bough Waterhole (which was to become our camp for the next 6 nights), put on the cossies (yes, we were still wearing them at that stage), and about to plunge into the Nana-strength-milk-tea waters of this fine murky waterhole, when Jenny goes strangely quiet.  That, itself, was strange enough, but two metres of slinking, fat, slowly slithering, stripy snake just on the edge of our path into the water sort of made us think again about how pressing the need for a swim really was.  Sense prevailed, the snake slunk off, and we all took the plunge.  The resulting fine swim sealed the deal and convinced us that this spot could well keep us entertained for a few good days.  (We later found out it was a python, rather than a Tiger Snake, but it kept us on our toes for a couple of days.  This was snake no. 5 so far for the trip.  What is going on here …. We seem to be attracting them somehow.)

We had never heard of this place before, and it was another one of those times when you glance at the map, wonder what a certain place is like, and for want of more pressing alternatives, you head there.  It was a good move.  Bladensburg NP is quite similar to Sturt NP, but in its own Qld sort of way.  It was a typical, early pastoral station from the late 1800s, home also to gibber deserts, low-rise jump ups, giving way to mulga scrub and Spinifex grasslands.  Qld Parks has had it since 1995, and the original old homestead survives and houses the park info centre, ranger station etc. It was a bit drier than the country to the east and south, but still in good nick, and great to drive through, including the bare, stony-bottomed creeks dotted with a range of waterholes, fine views from the edge of the mesas, and the strangely beautiful Scrammy Gorge. It’s named after one of the old station workers, Scrammy Jack – ‘scrammy’ being an Old English word for left-handed – who led a bit of a hermit’s life out on this eastern end of the property.

It was so good to stop in the one place for a few days again.  Maeve and Ellen befriended a pair of similarly-aged Townsville brothers from the next camp – Aidan and Jesse – and they spent as much time in the water as out.  The young lads donated their catch of 2 dozen live yabbies to our pot – as despite the zeal with which they caught them, neither they nor their parents ate them.  So, after several hours of the kids entertaining themselves with yabby races,  Jenny fired up the boiling pots and mastered the gentle art of her first yabby feast.  Russ found the secret ingredients for the magic 5 Islands (no, not 1000 Island) Sauce  - I’d give you the recipe, but then I’d have to kill you.  Yums all round were heard, including from Jesse, much to his own surprise.

One day we ventured out the other side of Winton to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs display.  A decade or so ago, they found a couple of new dinosaur finds on this property, that has now been donated to the dinosaur cause.  Apart from George our young, overacting guide, it was brilliant to see and feel these massive bones over 95 million years old.  Did you know that the way to see if the dark rock your holding is actually fossilised bone or just, well, dark rock, you need to lick it?  The more porous structure of the old bone sucks up moisture like anything, and if your tongue sticks to it, then it’s probably dinosaur, not rock.  Matilda, Banjo and Clancy were the names given to the 3 main reconstructed characters, of which they only have partial skeletons, but which they otherwise complete for displays with the presumed other bits.  Clancy was a wee thing at around 2 metres, but Matilda came in at a beefy 6 metres or more.  The end result of our trip was confirmation from Maeve that her future as a palaeontologist was a dead cert.  It seems that this dinosaur/fossil business has taken quite a hold in this part of the country, with about four other major excavations within a 200 km radius, including the well known Muttaburrasaurus.  Then a bit closer to the Gulf is the famous Riversleigh site – chockers with not dinosaurs, but more recent fossilised giant marsupials etc etc…. Let’s hope we get there in a month or so.  

The Easter bilby somehow heard where we were, and kindly left a fine array of chocolate things (only a couple of which arrived slightly worse for wear).  Jenny, being the chocolate specialist, was delighted at the quality of the bilby’s offerings – now the camp fridges have more chocolate than meat in them.  We sort of expected a deluge of locals at our camping spot, given Easter and all, but instead it was all out-of-towners.  Were it not for the 30 bird watchers from Townsville that chose to also share our space (and did I mention, early bloody morning starts for 5 days) it would have been only us and a handful of other travellers.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed the holiday weekend immensely.  We learned that bird watchers don’t swim, and we had the waterhole largely to ourselves.  We also sort of got into a bit of the bird watching mania – it’s hard not to when there’s so many around.  I think most popular is still the cheeky Apostle Birds, but also loved the Red-winged Parrots, Brolgas, upside-down Noisy Miners and White-plumed Honeyeaters.  Beware! We may return as fully-fledged “twitchers” – gods forbid.

Now that we’re at Hughenden, we’re going to check out Porcupine Gorge NP up the road, then it’s heading for the coast, and getting back into a bit of salt-water happening – Cairns, etc.

We trust that you all had a lovely Easter, and that the bilby too shared her bounty with you.  Sorry that it got a bit damp for you Sydney-folk.  I’d blame Barry if I were you.  See you next post.

Looking up into the Tree of Knowledge, Barcaldine

Our Easter camp, with waterhole

Looking out from a Mesa over Winton & Surrounds

Rock Star Maeve at Winton's outdoor Musical Fence

The Woonona Mob.

Barcaldine, Longreach to Winton

We camped by the fantastic Lloyd Jones weir out of Barcaldine. We were lucky that the town picture theatre had two sessions that week, Friday and Sunday night. Sunday night was "Rango", so we went along with all the local families and sat in the old theatre, with canvas sling chairs. Girls loved it!  They even had an interval. We also visited the Tree of Knowledge memorial, dedicated to the beginning of the Union movement in Australia. It is an impressive sculpture that dominates the streetscape of Barcaldine. The tree itself was poisoned a few years ago, and the wooden sculpture around the tree is impressive, both visually, especially at night and aurally, when the wind blows. On to Longreach where we did the tourist thing and visited the Stockmans Hall of Fame. The best part was the live show with horses, dogs, sheep and a bullock team. Russ was excited by the QANTAS exhibition and being allowed so close to a 747. We are now camped at Bladensburg National Park, just out of Winton. It's a continuation of the gibber country, with Jump ups. Luckily there is a waterhole, as it is very hot during the day. Tomorrow we will visit the Dinosaur museum and see the fossilised bones and footprints of a stampede found just out of Winton. Maeve & Ellie will get to be palaeontologists for the day! Hope everyone has an eggsalent easter. We believe Bilby's live in the national Park, so are hoping one of them brings us some eggs.

Carnarvon Gorge 14 Aril 2011

Our first water hole!

Rock paintings at Carnarvon

One of many creek rock hoppings!

Moss Garden, Carnarvon Gorge

Russ blog entry for 14 April 2011

It’s about Day 5 without internet access, and the stress is starting to show…..

Thursday 14 April 2011 and we find ourselves on the sandy banks of Carnarvon Creek as it carves its way – as it has for millennia of millennia – into the sweet sandstones of central Queensland.  The result is Carnarvon Gorge – a place we spied on the map; then we went “We wonder what that’s like?”, and then we headed a tad more eastward then planned to find out.  Good move!  This place is brilliant, and if you ever find yourselves in this neck of the woods, you’d be crackers to miss it.  Towering sandstone cliffs loom down on crystal clear shallow sandy creek beds. A wide gorge winds more than 30 clicks upstream, breaks into wee side gorges that hide rainforest pockets, art galleries of hand stencils, rock etchings and the stories from the old folk, and cool slot canyons where the mercury drops about 10 points and you swear you could just live there forever and soak up the calm (well at least until the next horde of school kids come in for their turn).

This is our fifth day here, and next step will be the western end (Salvator Rosa) of the same Carnarvon NP – a short 300 km trip away; a bit less water, and out of the gorge country, but promising a slightly less crowded few days on the banks of another sandy creek.

We found ourselves here after a great week in Corner Country.  We swung back east to Bourke, camped for a few days on a slightly less flooded Darling River – ie compared to our Wilcannia visit – and headed north via Cunnamulla to Charleville.  It was fascinating to watch the landscape constantly change as we headed north.  The gibber deserts of Tibooburra gave way to the Wanaaring mulga scrubs. Bourke picked up brigalow scrub that followed us all the way up into Charleville.  Then as we picked our way north-east-ish on a backroad north of Mitchell (home of the world’s best apple turnovers, as voted by experts) cypress and bimble box woodlands suddenly gave way to the central Queensland sandstone belt and you find fan palms, tall white gums and remnant rainforest species.

Yesterday, we set off at a cracking pace for a (record) 13km walk up the main gorge and its various sideshows. Predictably, the young ones coped brilliantly.  There were two sets of flooded shoes courtesy of wet creek crossings (Jenny and Ellen), no blisters to speak of, and no sooner back home than the young’ns start planning tomorrow’s walk.  The wisdom of the elders (or the weariness of the elders, more like it) prevailed and today is a quiet day mucking around the Takarakka campground.  Tomorrow we will don the walking boots again, climb up one of the bluffs and then hit the road westwards on Saturday (just in time to escape the influx expected as Queensland school holidays start). Pictures to come later due to satelite time difficulties!

Bourke

Salt pan between Tibooburra and Bourke

On  the wharf in Bourke with Darling River

Catching yabbies

Night falling at Mays Bend

Driving for over 400km's from Tibooburra to Bourke on red sand roads, through the flood plains of the Paroo was wonderful. So much bird life. We've seen flocks of Budgies, Cockatiels, Major Mitchell Cockatoos, Red tailed Black Cockatoos, herons, ibis, swamp hens, coots, and even seagulls. Water everywhere. We even had our first water crossing. We camped beside the flooded Darling River again in a lovely spot called Mays Bend. Just out of Bourke on some crown land, surrounded by huge old River Red Gums. The flood marks in the trees showed the water was atleast 4m above where we camped, and we were another 4m above the river! There are dead fish and yabbies everywhere along the banks of the river and lying around in dried up billabongs. We are talking a hundred or more! They must have been caught in the flood waters, washed up or died when the water receded. Thankfully they weren't overly smelly. Mostly small Perch and a couple of huge Carp. The girls met an old fellow who showed them how to catch yabbies in the billabong. They even caught one! Russ played on the river edge, channelling Tom Sawyer, and tried to build a raft. I made pikelets. Very idealic. The old wharf in town showed how high the flood peak had been. The wharf would have to be around 12m above the river, and the flood mark was probably around 8m. Maeve spotted a Brown Snake just under the wharf. Bourke is a lovely little town. We are now in Cunnamulla, and Russ and the girls are swimming in the Warrego River with some local kids. We are on our way to Charleville.

Tibooburra and Cameron's Corner

In "Jump-up" Country

When Parkies meet.

Sunset over The Granites

At Pinaro Lake

Russ walking on water at Lake Pinaro

The Corner

Playing on a clay pan

Eagle with kill

Eagle in flight

We have had a lovely time at Tibooburra. Naomi, Phil, Clancy and Dave Crust joined us for two days. Lots of laughter at the pub when we met up with some of the Parks people from here.The girls had fun catching small frogs, which are also in plague proportion, in the back of the pub. Had a lovely day out at the Jump-up country, even managing to find some fossils. Visited Olive Downs, an historic sheep/cattle station, which will be open to the public to stay in soon. Today we drove out to Cameron's Corner, about 130km's North-West. It is where the three states meet, NSW, South Australia and QLD. Driving through the desert, you see beautiful sand dunes, clay pans and grassy plains. There were lots of emus and wedge tail eagles. The eagles are huge. We were able to see Pinaro Lake with water in it. It is the first time in 30 years that it has had water in it. This is where Sturt carved a tree to guide his party to where the depot was. At the corner we had to open the Dingo fence, which is one of the longest man made objects in the world. It was originally designed to keep rabbits out, but failed. It is now used to keep dingos out of NSW and QLD. We said goodbye to our friends, and watched them drive off into QLD, on their way to the Northern Territory. Many roads are still closed out here due to the water which continues to make its way down from QLD. We have had to change our plans accordingly. The plagues of insects continue to annoy and amaze us. Last night there was a plague of small brown beetles. We even found a snake, possibly a Stimpsons python, sleeping in the bushes. Tomorrow we are off to Bourke, before heading up into QLD and hopefully Carnarvon Gorge.The days are now very hot and the nights beautifully mild.

Corner Country

Emu's at Mt Wood station

Working The Whim, that Russ helped build in 1981...and it still works! (It's for drawing water from a bore).

The Family Hotel, Tibooburra

Looking north towards the Jump-up country, see the Mesa?

The Granites

Ranger Russell

Orb spider just for Camilla

Well we made it to Tibooburra, population 85, 320km north west of Broken Hill. We are camped at Sturt National Park, surrounded by the amazing red earth and orange brown granite boulders. There is only one other couple in the campground, so it is very peaceful. Russ has been playing Ranger Russell and taking us on walks. The camp ground is very basic, with drop toilets and untreated water for washing. Our solar shower has been getting a work out, and so far is very successful. (Don't worry, I won't be posting those photos...but if you see me after the show...). For those who do not know, a solar shower is a black water bag, that you lay in the sun until warm, and then hang it from a tree. We have solar panels for our light supply and have no need for mains power. We have 160 litres of fresh water in our jerry cans, so we are completely self sufficient. Russ has met up with people he worked with 30 years ago, when he was a young ranger, and has been having a yarn with them at the pub. We have toured some of the sites that he helped renovate or build. A couple of nights at one of the two pubs in town , and the girls are getting good at playing pool. The Family Hotel, built in 1883, has been visited by many famous artists, whose works are drawn and painted on the internal walls of the pub. Artists include Russell Drysdale and Clifton Pugh. We went for a drive today out to Mt Wood homestead, where the current head ranger lives. It's about 30 kms out of town, and is on an old sheep property. The homestead is open to the public, and you can stay there. We went through the historic shearing shed and the girls were able to play with orphaned joeys that the ranger is caring for. She currently has about 9 joeys. They are four different species, Eastern grey, Western grey, reds and Euros (wallaroos). Dexter, the 11 month old western grey who followed us around like a puppy, and is learning to spar, and Berry, the 5 month old who the girls carried around in her "pouch". This would have to be a highlight for the girls so far. Driving through the Gibber plains was beautiful. These are plains of stones, part of the Sturt Stoney Desert. The Gibber is formed when the Mesa's from the Jump-up country erode. The plains are currently very green with salt bush and native grasses. The Sturt Stoney Desert covers approx 200,000 hectares. Back at camp....and  we are again having to deal with mice.