Woonona Mob "Zig Zag Oz": 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.