Quilpie, Outback Queensland

If you are in Quilpie you are in the Aussie Outback! This little town on the edge of the Channel country has seen a lot of history, and known a lot of hardship. Right now, the area is in the grip of drought, again, and whilst it is bad here, it is much worse a bit further north around Winton & Longreach, where they haven't had any rain for 4 years. Hard to imagine, that as we sit at home and turn the tap on at will, there are kids out here who are starting school and have never seen rain!!

Main street Quilpie

You may have read a classic Australian book called Kings in Grass Castles, by Mary Durack. It was made into a movie as well. Well, that story is set around Quilpie, and traces the history of the pioneering Durack Family, led by Patrick Durack, and his quest to establish a strong pastoral industry in the harsh interior of Australia's north. Along with the Costello & Tully families, they settled on huge tracts of land. There was much marriage between the families, and many descendants still own the land today. The Durack Family property, Thylungra Station, still exists today, but is no longer in the Durack Family. Today the property is a mere 700,000 acres, a far cry from the 2,500 square miles it covered at its peak!!! Patrick (Patsy) Durack, in 1879, embarked on what is still the longest cattle drive in history, 3000 miles from Thylungra Station to the Kimberley Region. They started with over 7,000 cattle and arrived three years later with just over 3,000. Two drovers committed suicide along the way, such was the hardship. It is just the most incredible story. The Durack family homestead still stands in the Kimberley today, not far from the Ord River Dam, and most of the old property is now covered by Lake Argyle.

The old Quilpie Pub

The small town of Quilpie is very nice, situated on the Bulloo River. Whilst it is a rural town, it also has an Opal Mining history, and even today there are active mines searching for what is known as Border Opal. But it is livestock that keeps the town running. A local told me that the town has more trucks per head of population that anywhere else in Australia, such is the need for livestock transport. There are Road Trains galore! Ironically, the town came into existence because of the Railway. It is the end of the line, and a new town was built, dooming the nearby little towns like Toompine & Adavale. It is a tidy little town with a population of 650 very friendly people. The caravan park is The Channel Country Tourist Park & Spas, and it is very nice with very friendly & helpful managers. The Spas, are artesian spas. The town water is obviously bore water, but due to the extreme depth of the bore, over 3,000 feet, the water comes out hot, so hot, it is piped into the homes as hot water! Here, you don't have a hot water heater, you need a hot water cooler!  

Town mural section featuring Amy Johnson

An interesting little story about Quilpie, concerns the Aviator Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. Having reached Darwin, she set off for Sydney. Now in those days with no GPS, the pilots followed roads and railways for direction. Her plan was to stop at Charleville for fuel. In theory this would be easy to find, as it was the end of the railway line. WRONG!!! Should have gotten a map update Amy!!! The railway now ends at Quilpie!! So the town got a few extra minutes of fame as part of this amazing flight.

On the Quilpie Outback Mail Run

The main reason we have come to Quilpie is to learn a about the history of the area, and to do that, we are taking The Outback Mail Run, a unique trip, where the mail man literally delivers the mail to the outlying properties, twice a week. They use a small 4WD bus to take paying tourists like us along for the day. They not only deliver the mail, but groceries and other supplies as well. Overall, there are 15 stations, but only around 12 are still lived at. The trip is a full day, and we will cover over 400 kilometres, mostly on gravel roads and tracks, some of which are private roads linking the stations.

One of our stops on the Mail run

We were up bright & early to meet Dave the mailman at 6.40am! There are seven passengers in our group, six tourists like us, and a local lady, a retired farmer who wants to relive some of her past. Attached to our bus is a huge trailer with two big bags of feed to be dropped off at Budgerygar Station. We made stops in town to collect the mail, some newspapers and some groceries, and we were on our way. We were very quickly off the bitumen and onto the dirt. The land is very dry with little grass or vegetation. It is fascinating to learn that the cattle eat the Mulga scrub. It is excellent feed. We had wondered what all the bushes were, neatly trimmed underneath. It is the Mulga the the cattle have eaten up as far as they can reach! The farmers use tractors and chains to bend the trees over to let the cattle feed when it gets desperate. Water comes from bores. These are some of the deepest in Australia, drilling up to 1600 metres to reach the artesian basin. They dig big dams around their properties, usually at corners where the huge paddocks meet, and using poly pipe, pump water, sometimes tens of kilometres, to fill the dams.

Dave delivers the mail

We dropped of mail at stations called  Nickavilla, Como, Gunnadora, Maybe, Milroy & Goombie, before arriving at Alaric Station for morning Smoko. The old homestead at Alaric is now a Vietnam Veterans Retreat. It was saved from being pulled down by a Vietnam veteran who used to visit the area to shoot & fish. Now veterans from all over Australia can stay in the old home, or bring their caravan or swag, and share the friendship of their fellow veterans.  We enjoyed a cuppa with the manager Allan and a couple of guests as well as some of Margaret's (Trinidad Station) fruit cake, as we wandered around this quirky place, with an outside dunny and some amazing memorabilia!

At the Vietnam Veteran's Retreat Alaric Station

Departing Alaric, we travelled through opal country, home to the Hayricks Opal Mine, then on over the Mitchell Grass Plains to Canaway Downs. The Mitchell grass, is excellent feed. It grows about waist high in a good season, but now is just short dry tufts as far as the eye can see. There are kangaroos and emus galore! We get to see some great action of these animals in full flight, which is a majestic sight. They are mostly in small groups up to ten or fifteen, but Dave told us that they have been in plague proportions, with as many as 2 to 3,000 in a paddock! We pass along a closed section of road, that once was the Cobb & Co Coach route between "Jack in the Rocks" & Windorah.

Outback Dunny at Alaric Station

Our lunch stop is at Trinidad Station, but before that we travel on to Budgerygar Station to drop off the trailer. Seems funny, just unhooking it and leaving it next to the mail box! It will be collected, empty, on the next mail run. I should mention the motley collection of mailboxes. These are not what you and I know as a letter box. We have seen old drums, refrigerators, freezers and metal bins of all shapes & sizes. They need to be big to take a lot more than letters! Normally, Margaret, the 82 year old owner of Trinidad Station would join us for lunch, but she is away for a few days. So, she has left the place open for us to help ourselves!!! Dave knows the drill and showed us where everything was! We sat outside in the lovely shaded garden, and ate out packed lunch of meats and salads with a cuppa. Margaret's daughter arrived. She lives on another home on the property. It was fascinating to talk to her. Only a young mum, she educates her kids using the Distance education System, where classes are beamed into the homestead by satellite from Charleville or Longreach. She talks about the struggles of farming and raising a family in such difficult country without a hint of pity or regret. City kids think meat comes from Woolworth's. If only they could see what people go through to get it there!!

Lunch at Trinidad Station

After lunch we head for Araluen Station. We crossed a cattle grid that forms part of the Dog Fence, the longest man made structure on earth. Stretching from the coast in Southern Western Australia, it crosses through South Australia, the north west corner of New South Wales, and into Queensland, it is 5400 kilometres long, and designed to keep the dingos out. It is still maintained by Government contractors, a team working out of Quilpie. We have now crossed the fence in all 4 states! A little further on we visited the scene of a fairly recent air crash in which the pilot died, but 8 passengers survived. It is incredible that the wreckage was just left here in the bush! Story is that the pilot was on his last flight with the company because he was unhappy with the companies safety attitude! Ironically, as he came into land, he forgot to put the landing gear down, and the planes engines dug in and the plane catapulted into the scrub!! Dead due to his own error, and lucky not to take 8 others with him!!

The scene of the plane crash

Last stop was the famous Thylungra Station of Durack family fame, now owned by the Scott Family. They now run cattle and have a lot of horses due to their interest and involvement with Polocrosse. We stopped by the old and huge shearing shed, used as recently as 2008. At its peak, 100,000 sheep were shorn in this shed in one year!! Now it only contains memories and an old Ford Station Wagon! We wandered around for a while in that huge old shearing shed, before heading on to our last stop at Kyabra Creek. It was here that Patsy Durack first met up with the local indigenous people, the Buntamurra People. Patsy would enter into a long term friendship with one of these people, a guy he called Pumpkin, and who travelled with him on the cattle drive to the Kimberley. Pumpkin is buried at Argyle Station in the Kimberley. We sat by the old billabong and enjoyed a beer from Dave's cooler, and talked about what a fantastic day we had, understanding first hand what our pioneers have done for this country and what they are still doing today. This was a truly memorable day. I sat up front with Dave all the way back to Quilpie, sharing some great yarns. He has seen much of Australia himself, and like us has much more to see and do. He plans to move on at the end of the year after three years doing "the run".

The Dog Fence

Next morning, we headed east towards Charleville. We stopped for coffee and an incredible Vanilla Slice. We had no specific plan of where to stop. We are having trouble with our satellite Dish, and have made an appointment to have it looked at near Brisbane, so we are just working our way there. That night, we found a lovely free camp just outside Mitchell, at the Neil Turner Weir. We put the van right along the bank of the weir, got out the chairs and a cold beverage, and sat down to watch the sunset. The water came alive with all kinds of birds. We were especially happy to see a Spoonbill wading along the edge just below our spot. There were cormorants and pelicans and all kinds of ducks and water fowl, and even a couple of Magpie Geese. The sunset was spectacular, and gave way to one of those huge Outback starry skies.

The Weir on the Balonne River at St George

In the morning, we enjoyed breakfast by the weir watching the morning bird life, which was very similar to the evening before! We were now heading for St George. Carolyn keeps telling me we are never going to live at a place called St George, but I haven't given up! Along the way we say a strange sculpture in a park and stopped for a look. It looked like a Ned Kelly sculpture, but we knew that was a long way from home, and it turned out to be the location of the arrest of Queensland's last Bushranger! I think it said in 1903, but it was hard to read. We made it into St George which is a lovely country town on the banks of the Balonne River. The bridge that you cross on the way to town is also a weir, that creates a large lake. The area along the river is lovely and the river is a favourite with inland fishermen. We stayed three nights at the Kamarooka Caravan Park, which was quite nice, but small and crowded and they were doing some ground works. In addition to the weir right in town, there are a number of other dams and weirs. There is a lot of irrigated agriculture around St George, with huge areas dedicated to wheat and also cotton. There is a cotton gin at St George. We found an excellent gourmet cafe in town, called Deli Cate.

Inside the bar at Nindigully Pub

On the Saturday, we decided to head out of town to the quite famous Nindigully Pub. This is another of the iconic bush pubs, that claims to be Queensland's oldest continually licensed pub. You can camp along the river near the pub, and there were a lot of people doing just that when we got there. It was very dirty & dusty in the campground. The pub is especially famous for its Road Train Burger. This monster costs $50.00 and can feed 1 to 4 people!! You can take the One man Challenge which is the burger plus chips and onion rings. If you complete the whole lot solo, you win "nothing but the satisfaction of completing the challenge!!!!" Our lunch date was a fizzer as the chef was on strike!! In fact, our lunch was a disaster!! It took an hour and a half to deliver our lunch of a regular burger and a Caesar Salad. Carolyn's Caesar salad was a bowl of green leaves of various origins, 4 croutons, a chicken breast cut in half and a blob of mayonnaise. It was inedible!! All the patrons were going crazy. This was Nindigully Pub's worst day, but they didn't really seem to care!!

Carolyn with Gunsynd

Our last stop on the way to Brisbane was Goondiwindi, only 200kms away. This really is a lovely country town. Larger than St George, it has a nice feel to it. Again it is a town rich from irrigated agriculture, and it is of course home to that famous race horse, Gunsynd, "The Goondwindi Grey". We stayed at the Top Tourist Caravan Park out of town, which was very nice. We had a large site down the back near the Billabong. The town seems very progressive and proud. Lots of lovely café choices and shops, and everyone seemed so friendly. We only had a couple of days, but will definitely be back to spend a bit more time.

The Bushranger Sculpture

We were on the road early to head for Brisbane. The guy fixing our satellite had told us to stay at Samford Showgrounds on the Northern outskirts of Brisbane. We have never been in this part of Brisbane before, and it was only thanks to our Sat Nav that we found it! It really is a lovely hidden gem if you are travelling near Brisbane. Samford Village is very trendy with all the services and a fantastic café scene. There are lots of small acreages around, and you are only 20 kms from Brisbane CBD. Our journey here had one big mishap. We did our windscreen big time. A car travelling the opposite direction threw a huge rock at us. The noise was like an explosion, we thought we'd been shot at. Glass exploded from the back of the fracture all over the dash board and us! So as well as the satellite we are also doing the windscreen!! We couldn't believe how good Youi was with our claim. Within ten minutes of it happening we were booked in to get the new screen put in, and with only a $50 excess to pay. Glad we took the windscreen option on our policy!!

Ouch! New Windscreen!

The Samford Showgrounds themselves are just lovely. Huge expanses of lush grass. The manager, Paul, is so helpful and obliging. It is best to book ahead, as they do have a number of events at the showgrounds, but at $20.00 per night for a full powered site, it is fantastic value, and only a five minute drive into Samford Village. The Kookaburras were at our site within seconds. Carolyn had the mince meat out and we were surrounded. Talk about tame. They would take the meat out of your hand. They were so tame, that as I was reclining in my chair absorbed in my book, one came and landed on my leg!!! Thomas the satellite guy, came and fixed the satellite, and updated our software. He was so efficient, and we got the new windscreen put in by O'Brien's. To finish off the trifecta, the handle on our caravan door broke, but I found a replacement handle close by, and after a lot of cursing and frustration, finally got the new handle on. I had heard how tricky they were to replace, but having fitted so many security door handles I thought it would be a simple task. Well, next time should be simple.

The tame Kookaburra at Samford Showground

From Samford we headed up to Maleny for a weekend with Lynne & Paul. We watched the footy and enjoyed the scene that Maleny offers. Carolyn got her puppy fix with Kenzo, and we had a lovely time. Maleny Showground is another cheap gem, at $15.00 per night, and the place was very busy. They have a three night limit, but some looked like they had been there a bit longer than that! Sunday morning we enjoyed a late breakfast in town with Lynne, while Paul slaved away at his job in the local Pharmacy! We dropped him in a coffee on the way back to the car. It was then back to the caravan for the short trip down the mountain to Coolum Beach. We arrived and the place was packed with the school holiday crowd. Thankfully, only our first week will be this packed!! We dodged the 200 bikes and scooters as we weaved our way to our site, and set up for two whole months of R&R at the beach.

Back O ' Bourke

The road to Walgett

Made it to Bourke

Back down the highway we went to Walgett. The road was lined with that yellow weed making a spectacular show. Nothing had changed in Walgett, no reason to stop other than a coffee at the little gift shop, so we turned right and headed for Bourke, where we expected to find a town, well, much the same as Walgett! For so many years there has been so much Aboriginal strife in Bourke, including a riot back in the '70's, when the cops were barricaded in their Police Station waiting for reinforcements to arrive!! Since starting our travels, we had read some good reports from caravanners about Bourke, so it was time to see for ourselves.

Lovely Kidman's Camp

The Old Bourke Bridge

We decided to stay a little out of Bourke, around 5kms north, at a place called Kidman's Camp. It gets excellent reviews from all who stay, and we can understand why. It is situated on the Darling River, which is just a short walk away. We were allocated a huge grassy site, and quickly settled in. We are pretty quick at it these days! Every night, the caravan park would fill up, mostly with travellers on their way south after their winter migration. We studied all of the tourist information we were given on checking in, and were just amazed at how much history there was in the region, and how much there was to do. Our three day stay was looking like five!! We headed into town to pick up a few supplies at the IGA Supermarket. The security guard inside the door, indicated that all still may not be rosy with the local indigenous folks, who were sitting around in the car park and streets in large numbers. With security roaming the aisles, we ventured into the Liquor Store section of the shop, where security went to a whole new level!! All the stock was laid out as normal, but between you and the stock was a floor to ceiling wall of glass!! At one end of the wall is a two way trap door through which the purchases are passed when the money has changed hands!!! Never seen anything like it!!

Pelicans on the Darling River

Crossley Steam Engine

On our first full day we walked down to the Darling River to take a cruise on the PV Jandra, a replica paddle boat, built by a local, several years ago. There is an incredible amount of Paddle Steamer history in Bourke. Back in the late 1800's they plied there trade, carrying mostly wool, down the river to the Murray & beyond. The Darling is a muddy old river but is flowing at present. Hard to imagine this is Bourke's water supply!! The weir at Bourke, and the adjoining Lock, were the first to be built on any Australian inland River. I was amazed to learn, that at their peak, there were over 300 Paddle Steamers working on the Darling & Murray rivers. We spent a lazy hour & a half cruising down a section of the river, with two real characters as Captain & First Mate. There were only 6 of us on the morning cruise, so we got very personalised treatment. Lined by huge Red River gums full of dead branches from past floods, we were surprised to see how many pelicans were on the river, with the Captain remarking that only a couple of weeks earlier there had been hundreds!

Little Birdy Cafe

The PV Jandra

After the cruise we headed into town to see the Wharf Precinct, and to sample a coffee at Little Birdy, the cafe that the crew had told us was the best coffee in town. It was excellent, as were the cakes and cookies they made. We also noted a sign advising that they were having their first Tapas night of the season, with live music, the next night. We decided to give it a go, and put our names on the list. After coffee, we were in time to watch the daily starting of the Crossley Steam Engines, that happens every day at noon, down at the town wharf. There are two engines, magnificently restored and converted to diesel. There was quite a crowd, as many of the male Grey Nomad brigade are into mechanical things. Our Captain & First Mate had changed uniforms and were now in overalls ready to fire up the engines! Both these attractions are run by the Bourke Council. With a huge puff of black smoke, the engines were up & running. Before choosing an outside table at Little Birdy, it would pay to check the wind direction!! Fascinating that these engines started life in the Sydney Power House generating electricity, before heading up the coast to Coffs Harbour to work at the Allowrie Butter Factory, before their final working life was pumping water at a Narromine farm. It is great to see such heritage preserved by passionate people.

John Murray's tribute to Bourke

The Old Post Office

We wandered around town, marvelling at the old buildings, some of which are very grand indeed. The Courthouse, the Post Office and old Police Station are really good examples of Colonial architecture. We drove out to the site of the weir and first lock on the Darling River. The river is running quite well, and there were a few fishermen, at the bottom of the weir trying their luck for Yellow Belly. The locals rave about it, but I reckon that's because they haven't tasted real fish from the ocean. To me, it doesn't matter how you clean it or catch it, it just tastes muddy!! Given that the Darling is brown, little wonder why!!

Fred Hollows Grave

Old riverside buildings

It may surprise you to learn, that the great man Fred Hollows, has his final resting place in Bourke Cemetery. We all know of his incredible work, restoring sight to hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people world wide. His work started with the Australian Aboriginal people, and he fell in love with the Outback and its people. He was a special man, and requested Bourke to be his final home. So here, under the shade of a Coolibah Tree, in the middle of Bourke Cemetery, is Fred's grave. The monument is a huge granite boulder carved to reflect his work. It is very well done.

Tapas at Little Birdy Cafe

The Darling River

Our Tapas Night rolled around. We bumped into another couple we had enjoyed morning coffee with at the Hebel General Store, a week or so earlier. Ian & Robyn are a lovely couple, and like us, enjoyed the night immensely. The food was very good. Simple, tasty food that was delicious. The venue, candlelit out under the stars, under the warm glow of heaters that kept the chill at bay, was very romantic. The couple who provided the music were extremely good, singing a style of slow country blues that was just perfect for the occasion. The guy, who played acoustic guitar, had a withered arm with tiny fingers that plucked the guitar with amazing effect, and the girl had a haunting voice you could listen to for hours, and we did! It is incredible how many talented people are out there. They go by the name of Tangle Weeds.

The Outback Show

Talking Horses

The Back O' Bourke Exhibition Centre, which also houses the Visitor Centre is excellent, and every day except Monday, they put on an Outback Show. It is very well done. The guy who does the show is a bush larrikin of the highest order. He arrives riding a camel, with another young camel in tow. He recounts the history of the camel in Australia, and the persecution the early Afghan Cameleers received. It is a serious message done in a light hearted way, with him talking to his camel!! I kid you not, this camel talked in his ear and the guy answered every question the camel asked!!! While all this was happening, the young camel was playing soccer with  huge ball, and then painted a painting holding the brush in his mouth! We got a display of sheep dog handling with a couple of beautifully trained kelpies. There was a lot of audience participation, especially with his horse, that could do almost anything. The prize was a year's supply of "Back O 'Bourke Baked Beans Bubble Bath"!! To finish the show, he hooked up a real Bullock Team comprising six bullocks, and had them load a log onto an old dray. It was a fantastic show. This passionate young man wants to keep the history of the Bourke region alive, and his unique show is a great way to do it.

Camels that paint

Camels that talk

We didn't get to do the Poetry On a Plate Show, that happens at Kidman's Camp, but this was a personal choice. We understand it is an excellent show, but we have done a number of such shows throughout our Outback Travels. We didn't travel far from town, and based on the information we received, there is a lot to see in the surrounding region, so we will have to keep Bourke on our radar for a future visit.

Emus everywhere.

Not a lot at Eulo!

Next morning, we headed north towards Cunnamulla. About halfway, we crossed the border into Southern Queensland. It wasn't a pleasant drive, as we experienced some of the worst road kill we have ever encountered. The road was littered with dead kangaroos, emus and pigs. We were constantly weaving a path around them, and the smell coming through the vents was horrible. The old crows and hawks were so fat they could hardly fly! This section of road is flat open plains, and the animals have been feasting, following better than average winter rains. We were seeing lots of live kangaroos & emus as well. Thankfully, the closer we got to Cunnamulla the less we saw. We stopped in Cunnamulla for lunch. It was a pleasant surprise to us, being a nicely kept town. The main attraction in town is The Cunnamulla Fella. This is a famous country song, written by Stan Coster & sung by Slim Dusty (and others). It is about a typical Australian bushman. There is a wonderful Bronze statue in the middle of town depicting the Cunnamulla Fella.

Giant Prehistoric Wombat

Never argue with a Road Train!

We continued on about 70 kms to the tiny Outback Town of Eulo, population 50 people & 1500 Lizards, where you can camp out the back, and enjoy the hospitality of this old bush pub, with the grand name of The Eulo Queen Hotel. We found a spot and even got power and water, which surprised us. It was Saturday night and the Footy Finals were on. We decided to watch the games at the pub, as dinner tonight was BBQ. We had a great night with a small crowd watching the footy. Almost every local in town came in for the BBQ, but went home to watch the footy. We found another couple of blokes from Kogarah, and almost got the Dragons home, but alas another season is over. We drowned our sorrows watching the Broncos V Cowboys, and enjoying our BBQ dinner. There isn't much else to do in Eulo. We had missed the Lizard Races. It is an opal mining town, but then after Lightning Ridge it is quite a let down! They have found quite a lot of fossils around the area, and we took a photo of the giant wombat like creature that roamed the bush millions of years ago, and then it was time to hit the road.

Pub Without a Town

Outback humour!

We were headed for Quilpie, another small outback town. The road was one of the developmental roads with a single lane of bitumen. Thankfully we only met one road train along the way. We stopped to offer assistance to a fellow caravanner who had a flat tyre on his 4WD, but they were OK, so on we went, reaching our lunch spot of Toompine. Now this is an interesting stop. Toompine is known as "The Pub Without a Town", as that is all that is now left!! It had been a town, but when the railway line was extended to Quilpie, a new town was built at Quilpie, and everyone left!! The pub though, has continued to operate, and is currently under new ownership! Good luck to them!! We had a good Aussie Hamburger and a beer and continued on our way. There was a lot of history and a lot of characters who had made it to Toompine over the years, and we added our names to the visitor book.

We eventually made it into Quilpie. I think along the way in 250 kilometres, we passed one road train, two cars, a truck towing a hot dog stand trailer to God knows where, and saw dozens of emus, kangaroos, goats and a few cattle & sheep. This really is the Outback. You see signs to properties that are 40, 50 or even 100's of kilometres along a dusty road. It is red earth, white earth and Mulga scrub, and incredibly dry, yet some people call it home and make a living from this unforgiving land.

Lightning Ridge

Don't really know why we haven't been here before. It was on our list from the beginning, but for various reasons we never quite made it. But this time, we are on our way! In Gulargambone we hooked up in steady rain, and icy winds and were quickly heading north to Walgett then on to Lightning Ridge. The wind was howling & hitting us front on, so the old girl was struggling a bit (the car not Carol!). It is incredible what a strong headwind can do to 6.5 tonnes of rolling car & caravan. So we pottered along, and slowly the rain stopped & the sky ahead on the horizon was turning blue. About halfway to Walgett, a couple in a Ute carrying a slide on camper, started to overtake us, and as they drew alongside were frantically gesticulating for us to pull over. This usually means something is amiss with your caravan. We stopped, as did they, and we immediately saw our problem. The wind was still blowing a gale, and somehow, it had popped the clip that holds the awning to the side of the van when travelling, & gotten into the end of our awning and was starting to unravel it. It was too high up for me to see in the side mirror, but if it had gone on much longer we definitely would have heard and felt it, rip the awning off the side of our caravan! The wind was too strong for us to work on the awning, so I turned the caravan around so the awning was on the protected side, and we managed to release the awning and pull it all the way out, inspect it to see there was no tear in the fabric, and roll it back into position, and resecure it properly. We were so thankful to this couple, and didn't even get their names. They were on their way to Clermont in Queensland to go gold prospecting, and we hope they strike it rich!!

We made it into Walgett, and by now the wind had gone & the sun was shining. We were seeing Walgett at its best, which is an ugly sight indeed. This is a town that caravanners avoid. The main street is lined with abandoned shops and rubbish. There are so many security screens and shutters, it is almost impossible to tell if a shop is open or not!! There were young Aboriginal kids everywhere, eating junk food and soft drinks. We were going to have lunch, but one look at the only cafe we could find was enough to have us rethink. At the end of the street, we found a small gift shop, that just looked like it had opened in town, and was serving coffee and some snacks. The young girl running the shop was lovely, and she made us a surprisingly good coffee with a couple of slices of quiche, so it all turned out OK. We hope she makes a go of it. She had some nice things in the shop. Just not sure who would be buying them.

It was only another 77 kms up the road to Lightning Ridge. Most of the way, the road was lined with yellow bush that resembles canola. It makes a real show, and sometimes stretches into the trees as far as you can see. We arrived and were immediately taken by how green it was. The other opal mining areas we had visited in South Australia, namely Cooper Pedy & Andamooka, were like the surface of the moon with mile after mile of mounds of white dirt & dust. There wasn't a tree or green grass in sight at either place. Here, was completely the opposite. The town itself was larger than we had expected and had a good variety of shops and services. More on that later. We found our caravan park, aptly named The Opal Caravan Park, and checked in. The girl on reception told me that if I didn't have a booking we would have been turned away! There are four caravan parks in town, and this one has the best reputation. It is quite new, and the facilities are excellent. There are trees, but no grass. All the sites are gravel and very large. We found our site, unpacked and settled in to go through the pile of tourist information given to us at check in.

First off the rank was the famous Car Door Tours. These are self drive tours that take you all over Lightning Ridge and are the perfect introduction to town. You get to see everything of note, and can choose which paid exhibits you think will be worthwhile  to see in more detail. They are called the car door tours, because the guide posts for each tour are old car doors painted and numbered for each attraction! Quite ingenious really. There are four tours, Red, Blue, Green & Yellow. You call in at the Visitor Information Centre, hand over $1, and get your Car Door Tour Fact Sheet, Your Lightning Ridge Mud Map, and off you go!! As you start the drive, you really get into the quirky nature of "The Ridge". God knows how many misfits, dropouts & fugitives live in this town. We were told that everyone uses an assumed name, and you don't ask questions about their past! The majority of the towns people still live in camps on their opal fields, so the homes are shanty's, built from old caravans, corrugated iron, old drums, bottles, cans and anything else they can find! We did all four tours, seeing such wonderful sights as Amigo's Castle, a replica castle built by a homesick Italian miner so he could be reminded of home! Then there was the Astronomer's Monument a weird concrete monument, where when we stopped to take a photo, some old crone stuck her head out the door, yelling at us that we had to pay to take photos. We gave her the middle finger wave and moved on to door no.6! From Lunatic Hill we could view the open cut mine from which they took millions of dollars in opal, and at 3-Mile was the giant excavation where an amazing new Opal & Fossil Centre is to be built. Based on the model we saw it will be an incredible thing. We also came across an old church building made of corrugated iron. Turned out to be quite new, having been built for some C Grade movie set we have never heard of! We thoroughly enjoyed all the Car Door Tours.

Town itself was interesting, with many Opal shops selling the local Black Opal. We think the Black Opal is by far the most beautiful, with the rich & intense colours. Prices range enormously, with the most expensive thing we saw valued at a whopping $42,000!! It was a lovely piece with fiery red flashes in it, which was the reason for its value. Apparently the red is very rare. Artist John Murray has a great gallery. This guy does quirky, almost caricature like paintings of the Aussie Outback, often using those cheeky creatures like galahs & emus, as subjects, as well as topical themes like caravanners! We added a small piece to our collection of caravan art. There is also a hot artesian bath in town, which is just outside our caravan park. It is open 24 hours a day and entry is free. The water is around 36 - 38 degrees. An early morning visit is interesting, as you will hear many languages spoken, such is the multi cultural nature of the local population. The other huge thing in town is the swimming centre. It boasts a full size, Indoor, Olympic Diving Pool, as well as an Olympic 50m Pool and water park for the kids. The dive centre is one of only nine in NSW, and you have to wonder why????? The Variety Store is like a shopping centre!! You name it, they sell it! It is floor to ceiling stock, where you can find a Barbie Doll alongside a shovel and the engine oil!! There is a large Bowling Club, which we didn't attend, as so many travellers had warned us off the restaurant. Instead, we had a cold drink & a feed at three of the craziest pubs in the outback! Read on........

About 60 kms west of town is the Grawin Opal Fields. The drive out was through wide open farm land where we saw the biggest herd of goats we have ever seen. It is incredible how much goat meat we export from Australia. Grawin is a bit like inter marrying the casts of Deliverance & The Beverley Hillbillies!!! You can only begin to imagine the desperadoes that call this place home. Our first stop in Grawin was at "The Club in the Scrub". Being a legitimate Club with its own 18 hole golf course, we duly signed the book and stepped back a hundred years. It is a ramshackle old place made up of a collection of tin sheds, and wooden posts and beams holding up corrugated iron. It is a working club, and the members play golf every Wednesday & Sunday. The memorabilia hanging from the roof & on the walls is fantastic. The drinks come in cans or bottles to save water & washing up. Ladies drink through a straw! We enjoyed a cold beer & some interesting banter from the locals who all seem to have a beard 2 feet long!

From the club, we took a short drive up to "The Sheepyard". On the way up, we passed three beat up old cars, none of which had number plates! At the roundabout near the entrance to the pub, the sign said "Cars with Brakes Give Way!!!!!!". Now this place has undergone a major renovation, with new corrugated iron roof & walls, as well as a train carriage which serves as the kitchen and dining room. It is also a bit of a general store. Out the back is the "Bra Tree", displaying a few of its namesakes. Judging by what was on display, the Sheepyard is home to some big breasted women!!! We declined a beer at The Sheepyard, and resumed our pub crawl to stop number three.

"The Glengarry Hilton" is quite a famous Outback Pub. It is also a collection of corrugated iron sheds held up by iron bark posts. The kitchen, which has been churning out good tucker for years, is a 40ft Shipping container!! There was a good crowd in for lunch, and it appeared there was a staff shortage, as Grumpy & Grumpyher were cooking, serving & doing everything else as well. We shared a Works Burger & Chips, which took almost an hour to come, but was worth the wait. The dialogue among the patrons made the time fly. To the credit of the staff, they produced good meals for everyone, and no one went thirsty!! We had a great day visiting these iconic pubs & clubs of the Australian Outback.

When we got back to Lightning Ridge mid afternoon, we headed out to "The Chambers of the Black Hand". Forget the comic book name, this is an incredible place. It is one of those moments when just as you think you've seen it all, something very special comes along. This is a mine that is 100 years old and no longer producing opal. Seventeen years ago, the owner decided to do a few sculptures in the walls of the mine. Today, you get kitted out with a hard hat, and descend 100 steps into the mine, to view hundreds of sculptures from giant Buddhas to dinosaurs, to lions, animals from all continents, mythical creatures, Chinese Warriors and so much more. You find super heroes and local characters, politicians and princes & queens, movie stars & Elvis. We walked around for quite a while admiring the skill of the work. It was a most amazing experience. Down in the mine, is Lightning Ridges only underground opal shop as well.

Back at the caravan park, Happy Hour was around the campfire, as entertainment was being provided by way of a local couple who went by the names of Willie (not Nelson) & Joey. Willie, wearing his big black cowboy hat, confessed to being 73, and played great guitar, told some good yarns and lots of jokes & one liners. His wife Joey accompanied him, & sang some songs as well. It was a great couple of hours. Half way through they took a break & Willie came over for chat. He is a real live Aussie bush boy, with skin like leather and a larrikin sense of humour. There were lots of notes sung off key, but not one person cared, as Willie & Joey were having a go, and we were being entertained big time, around the campfire under a huge outback sky just full of stars.

On our last day, we took in the early morning markets at the Visitor Centre. It was a better market than we had expected, and we picked up some delicious home cooked goodies. We then headed up the road around 80kms to the Queensland border and the tiny village of Hebel. Today, the town has only a couple of things of note. The first is the Hebel Hotel, which started life as a Cobb & Co Stage Coach House. It is incredible to think that at its peak, Cobb & Co was using 6,000 horses a day moving people around the Australian outback. It is a quaint old building, still serving cold beer and good food. Across the road is the Hebel General Store, where the current owners have made a reputation that ensures everyone passing by, stops for a coffee & cake or a meal. We did coffee & cake, and the Blackberry Meringue Tarts, were fantastic. The owner does all her own cooking, and she is very good at it!! We sat at a long table with a number of fellow caravan travellers comparing trips and schedules, all the while gathering information for future trips. It was then back to Lightning Ridge for an afternoon of cleaning. The caravan has a carwash bay, and cleaning of cars & caravans is allowed, and boy do ours need it after the rain, the dust and a billion bugs!

We have enjoyed our time in Lightning Ridge. It was very different to what we had expected!