We crosse
d
the border into Queensland on the 1st September and had an overnight
stop in Cloncurry. From there we went south through McKinlay. Here we
found the Walkabout Pub where some of the Crocodile Dundee movie was
film. Then it was down to Winton for a few days.
I went to the Waltzing Matilda Museum and saw a sound and light show on Banjo Paterson and the history of the song Waltzing Matilda. The museum also had a lot of old tools and machinery that was used on the outback stations in the past. One room was full of old dental and medical tools. Glad I wasn't around back then! We had 2 travelling Bush Poets, Susie and Mel, performing every night at the caravan park. They were really good. They had spent the tourist season at the park performing every night. The Age of the Dinosaur Laboratory was fascinating. We were shown the process of cleaning up the bones ready to be sent off to be analysed and identified. They have found quite a few dinosaur bones in central Queensland. Those found are from dinosaurs unique to Australia. There are several dig sights at the moment and public can pay to join a dig every July and August. You can also help at the lab to clean up the bones that are brought in. Lark Quarry is another spot nearby where they have preserved the footprints of a dinosaur stampede.
Next stop
was Longreach. Paj did what he's always wanted to do and had a "Behind
the scenes tour" of a 747 at the Qantas museum and had his photo taken
in the engine. We also visited the Stockman's Hall of Fame. A museum
recording the lives of many of the well known stockmen and women going
back to the first settlers in the country. They also did a show which
was quite informative. There was a working team of bullocks which were
brought out and put through their paces showing us how they pulled the
wagons etc. I now know why the wagons were so big. Those bullocks
are huge. I couldn't see over the top of them.
After exploring Longreach we moved on to the sapphire fields at Rubyvale. Paj and I fossicked for sapphires in both Sapphire and Rubyvale and managed to find a few small gem quality sapphires as well as quite a few that weren't gem quality. Those that aren't suitable for cutting are used in the production sanding discs and other products. Mining is strictly controlled and can only be done by hand. You must buy a fossicking license unless you do it through one of the commercial fossicking ventures. Large commercial mining here went into decline then in the 1970's Thailand started buying the sapphire and selling it on as Thai sapphire. Now the area is set aside as a public fossicking area and you can by a license and a claim or with a license you can fossick in 1 of the areas set aside for the public to have a go.
We moved on to Roma and decided that as the school holidays had started we were better to stay inland to avoid the holiday crowds so from there we went west to Charleville.
I
t had
been recommended that we stay at Evening star Tourist Park which is
about 10 ks out of town. It is a beautiful spot. and we ended up having
8 nights there as we didn't want to move on. It is on a working cattle
station. The owner runs tours of the station several times a week. The
sights are huge (8m x 20m) and all drive through. they have a big
campfire pit which they light every night so we had a few camp oven
meals. Charleville is full of things to do. We went to the Bilby
Experience which was interesting. They have a captive breeding programme
and the Bilbys are released into a cat and fox free compound down near
the NSW border. They used to inhabit 70 percent of the country but now
there is only a small pocket of about 800 of them left in the wild. The
Cosmos Centre and the Weather Station are 2 other interesting
attractions. While in Charleville we got friendly with Ernie Adams a
local who is part aboriginal. He makes didgeridoos and does aboriginal
paintings. Ernie gives talks at the caravan park about his work and has
quite a collection of artefacts that he has collected over the years. He
has a lot of stories to tell. We bought a didgeridoo off him and Heather
had a photo taken with it and Ernie standing by a Box tree which is what
he makes the Didgeridoos out of.
Stay tuned for Part 3 when we will be heading for the opal fields.
On the Road again 2011
Part Two - Outback Queensland
