Outback Loop

Travel the Min Min Way.

From Winton we decided to go way out back. We took the long way to get to Mt. Isa, travelling along the Min Min ByWay. The Min Min relates to a mysterious light that has been sighted many times, in and around the town of Boulia. More on that later!

The road is one of the "developmental" roads, a single strip of bitumen, with wider "passing opportunities" spaced along the road. The idea is that as you approach another vehicle, each puts two wheels in the dirt, slows down and then resumes the bitumen. The exception is if the vehicle is a road train! Then you get off the road altogether and leave him on the bitumen. The last thing you want is a hundred wheels chucking rocks at you! 

Landscape along
the Min Min ByWay

Carolyn got behind the
bar at Middleton pub

The drive itself is across a landscape that changes from gibber desert, to spinifex grasslands and small hilly regions that look like a scene from old westerns. It is ruggedly beautiful, with the browns and reds of the earth, the green and vivid white of the gum trees and that magnificent blue, cloudless sky. Along the route, which was originally a stage coach and mail run, we come across the last inhabited outpost, the Middleton Pub. It is a run down old weatherboard house, with a wide verandah. You step inside the front door, turn right into the publican's lounge room, or left into the public bar. Definitely Out back Chic is the decor, complete with dust, cobwebs and plain old dirt. We ordered drinks, and joined the other patrons, four adults, three dogs, one calf and one pig out on the verandah. You can see why people die of thirst out here. They charge $29.50 for a six pack!

Parked at Cawnpor Lookout

A wedge tailed eagle flies off.

Further down the road, we climbed up to Cawnpor Lookout. Situated in a cutting, in country where we expected Gary Cooper or John Wayne to pop out from behind a rock, the short climb to the lookout gave us a wonderful view of the surrounding country. All along the way, the sky is full of hundreds of Hawks or Kites, soaring on the breeze, and searching for prey or carrion. The road kill provides a feast for many, and we come across the magnificent wedge tailed eagles, joining in the feast. As you drive towards the destruction, the crows and hawks leave, but the eagles stand their ground until you are almost upon them. They are such magnificent creatures.

Boulia's Windmill and
Bore water supply

Here come the galahs!

We arrive at the small town of Boulia, and drive in through the gate of a surprisingly green and grassy caravan park. The manager is very friendly, and walks us down beside the river to a large grassy site. We decide to stay for three nights. Boulia's big event of the year is the Annual Camel Races, which all happened a couple of weeks back, so it is reasonably quiet at the park, though each evening there are about 20 to 25 vans and camper trailers staying mostly overnight. Most are small off road rigs, as Boulia is where many of the iconic desert tracks, start or end. Each evening, right on sunset, we are treated to an amazing spectacle. Thousands of pink and grey galahs, fly low over the caravan park, on route to their night resting place. There is wave after wave of these happy, chattering little guys. It almost blacks out the sky. Truly unbelievable. Sunday we head up town to visit the Min Min Encounter Centre. It is a real surprise. First it has a very nice cafe, and a self guided tour through the centre was a treat. You pay your money and then go on a Movie World like, animated tour through a number of rooms, where people dressed in their clothes of the period, retell their story of an encounter with the Min Min lights. Fact or fiction, who cares, it was  lot of fun. Back at camp that night we spent a few hours talking to our neighbours for the night, Holger and Lynn. They convinced us that we were so close, we should not miss Birdsville.

On the road to Birdsville.

The dusty road to Birdsville.

So, we checked the map, 388kms. Decided to leave the caravan behind, phoned the Birdsville Pub and booked a room for the night, and headed off next morning, down the Eyre Developmental Road. The road as far as Bedourie, was excellent. The countryside was mostly flat gibber plains. You wonder how the cattle that graze this land get a feed. As we crossed into the Diamatina Shire, we came across a new lookout perched on a hill beside the road. We stopped for a cup of tea and a bikkie, and were just swamped by the quiet and emptiness of this vast landscape. You can only be full of admiration for the people who came to this area to seek a living. There are stops all along the way, telling of long abandoned homesteads, and tragic stories of families beaten by drought. Today there are just monstrous cattle stations, the largest in this area is Marion Downs, which covers over a million hectares. In Europe they'd call it a country!

The iconic Birdsville Pub.

Welcome sign.

What a surprise is Birdsville! It is one of those places that I've always wanted to visit. My vision, was a pub in the middle of nowhere. In fact it is an entire town, in the middle of nowhere! And, there are lots of people. The caravan park is a dust bowl, and given that half the road from Bedourie was dirt, we were glad not to have pulled the caravan here and back. There is a geothermal power station, so there is plenty of water. The billabong behind the caravan park is full of bird life, and the town oval is almost lush and green!

Delicious camel pie!

Sturt's Desert Pea.

There are two things you must do at Birdsville. A beer at the pub, and a camel pie at the bakery. It didn't take long to accomplish both! Actually, the Bakery is excellent, and a very popular spot in town. The big event in town is the annual Birdsville races. The town swells to around 8,000 people, which is hard to comprehend. This event is held in early September, so planning is well underway. The bakery has already baked and frozen 3,800 camel pies, plus countless other flavours, and the cases of beer are arriving by the truck load!

First beer at the Pub.

We took a drive out to the race track, which is just a dust bowl.

Heading to the Birdsville Billabong.

They are busily erecting the extra loos needed for the big crowd. A drive down along the Diamantina River to see the Burke and Wills Tree, reveals all the stalls, scattered among the trees, for the trainers to keep their horses for the race meeting. The river has plenty of water, so it is an ideal spot. The Burke & Wills tree, marks a known camp site of this legendary couple of explorers who made the first crossing of Australia from South to North, sadly perishing on the return journey, a few hundred kilometres south of here. We headed back into town to check in at the pub. There is a fairly new and modern Motel built out the back of the pub, and we get a nice clean room. That night, we headed back into the pub, for a few drinks and a pretty good feed. We couldn't believe how many people there were in the pub, and the huge outdoor area. There were at least two coaches in town, and dozens of camper trailers, and 4WD's laden with camping gear. Lots of urban cowboys and girls dressed like a local, that is until you meet a local, and realise how fake they look.

Taking on Big Red.

The famous Birdsville Track.

Next morning we take a visit to the bakery for breakfast. Carolyn wouldn't let me have camel pie for breakfast, so we settled for raisin toast, which was going well until I told Carolyn they weren't raisins, but flies!! Revenge is sweet!! After breakfast and a beating, we headed out to Big Red. This is the name of the first big red sand dune west of town in the Simpson Desert. There is a great sport out here which involves racing your car up and over Big Red. We didn't make it, but it was fun trying. We turned tail for Boulia, late morning. We were

Road kill???

really glad we had taken the time to come to Birdsville. It was one of those places on the

Now that's a big backyard!

Bucket List. A true icon of the Aussie Bush. Heading back we stopped a number of times to check out the wedge tailed eagles. I never tire of watching these magnificent creatures. The whoosh of the wings as they take flight is something you can never forget, nor is the ferocious glare in their eye. There is other gob smacking scenery along the route as well, such as the private road sign covered in shoes and boots, and then our favourite was the outdoor garden setting, just sitting in the middle of nowhere! we lunched at Bedourie Roadhouse, one of those hamburgers you can't pick up, but is delicious, and make it back to Boulia in time for Happy Hour.

Camped at Camooweal Billabong.

The Camooweal Solution!

We spent that night in Boulia, and next morning headed for Mt. Isa, continuing along the Min Min ByWay through Dajarra. The scenery is again dry and gibber desert, but tending to scrubby bush as you get closer to Mt. Isa. We only stop here for one night to top up our supplies.  We haven't seen a real supermarket for over a week, and need to top up our groceries and fresh fruit and veg and meat. Mission accomplished we head for Camooweal. We will be going over old ground between here and the Three Ways in the Northern Territory, so decide to get there as quickly as we can, and free camp along the way. First night, we camped at Camooweal Billabong, down below the big bridge along the very dry river bed. It is a lovely spot, and we have a lot of other campers around us, enjoying the bush camp under one of those amazing night skies. Whilst refuelling at Camooweal we think we might have stumbled on to something to do with Kevin's new Boat people policy. There were all these trucks loaded with tanks and other armoured vehicles. Where were they going???

Galahs looking for shade &
water at Barkly Homestead. 

At 41 Mile Bore campground.

In the morning we crossed the border into the Northern Territory and headed for our next night stop at a place called 41 Mile Bore, which is as the name might suggest, 41 miles west of the Three Ways. We passed through Barkly Homestead, but only stopped for Fuel, which was 205.90 cents per litre! You city folk haven't got it too bad eh? This camp site also got pretty busy as the afternoon drew on, and by nightfall we were surrounded by about 30 caravans. Carolyn cooked up a lovely big piece of corned beef with baked veggies for dinner, a nice bottle of wine, and we sat back to watch Friday Night football on the TV. God it's tough out here in the bush!!

John at the Daly Waters Pub.

Cheers to the Daly Waters Pub.

Next day we were away early, as we had a long drive, headed up the Stuart Highway to another icon of the Aussie bush, the Daly Waters Pub. Coffee at the Threeways Roadhouse, then on up the highway through Renner Springs, Elliot, where we stopped for a lunch of cold corned beef sandwiches, then through Newcastle Waters and Dunmarra, before reaching Daly Waters around 3.00pm. The caravan park was already pretty full, but they put us in with all the other large vans, all lined up in a row. It was dusty, and not a blade of grass in sight, but hay, we are here for the pub and the tucker.

The boys cook up the beef & barra.

When you set foot inside the pub and your eyes adjust to the

Entertainment was great.

light, you just don't know where to look. Hanging from the ceiling, and arranged in orderly groups, are piles and piles of hats and caps, singlets, ladies bras, money, stubby holders, number plates. You name it and its hanging on a wall or the roof! Bloody amazing! The famous dinner is the Beef & Barra BBQ. You order what you want, all beef, all barra , or a bit of each, they give you a time, and when that time arrives they call out your name, you collect your meal, and then load it up at the salad bar. Carolyn ordered barra, which they had to confess was now threadfin salmon because they'd run out of barra, and I ordered the combo. We got a 7.00pm time slot.

Inside the main bar of the Pub.

Meanwhile we settled into the beer garden where we were

Even the birds get served at the bar!

entertained from 4.30pm by a pretty good country singer. Happy hour, with cheap drinks continued until 5.30pm, and at 5.25pm there was almost a frenzy as people loaded up with as many beers as they could carry before the bell sounded! At 700pm our names were called, we collected dinner and it was excellent! The main entertainment started around the same time, and this guy, "Chilli", gave us a fantastic couple of hours of songs, yarns and bush poetry. It was all patriotic and great fun. The story he gave about the safety demonstration on board his recent first flight had everyone with tears running down their cheeks. "If we crash in the most crocodile and shark infested sea in the world, there is no way I'm blowing a bloody whistle to seek attention!" What a fantastic night we had. We met some lovely people and the best possible night.

Daly Waters Pub, another Aussie icon kicked off the bucket list!