The wind had become quite cold and spiteful by the time we packed up the following morning, then we drove into town to find we had rather misjudged the place last night, thinking it was a depressed little place. Far from it, there was plenty going on. Our first stop was the Aboriginal Cultural Centre which sits on the river where the famous fish traps are situated. The tour was $25 each and dogs were allowed, it was worth every penny. Bradley took us through the Cultural Centre giving the group talks and showing us interesting artefacts and pictures. He was keen to stress that reference material, online and otherwise always states that Aboriginal people were hunter gatherers as though they no longer exist. Bradley wanted us to recognise the truthful version that indigenous Australians are hunter gatherers and much more besides - farmers, engineers, teachers, doctors etc both in the past and today.
Outside he led us to the incredible fish trap. As the fish swim upstream they are caught in the trap and the removal of a couple of rocks here and there drives them in to a holding pen where they can easily be harvested. Archeologists say the traps are between 5,000 and 10,000 years old but, again Bradley was interesting on this point. He said it is not the way of Aboriginal people to make claims of being older, bigger, better etc. just that they are there. The fish traps have survived many floods which washed away bridges and they are still in use today. This was such a good tour I would not hesitate to do it again if I was back in the town.
Brewarrina was not done with us yet, the Bald Archies finalists were on display in the visitor centre, free and brilliant. Ian put a bid on a small painting of Erin Patterson (the mushroom lady) but we have to wait until November to find out if he was successful. We headed off to Carinda, driving through Walgett, which is much nicer than people would lead you to believe. Carinda has been on my list of top places to visit ever since I arrived in Australia because David Bowie filmed the Let's Dance video there. The criteria the production team had to meet was to find an outback pub on a crossroads where all the roads were dirt and the Carinda Hotel fitted the bill. It would not now as a bitumen road runs there from Walgett and there is even a crossing by the pub. The crossing is obviously quite new as the regulars were complaining that they could no longer park directly outside the pub entrance but had to walk 5 metres from their cars now.....outback problems.
There is a cut out David Bowie playing against the wall where he was in the video and the menu features Thin White Chook burgers. The Let's Dance Festival takes place in Carinda every October and, although we can't make it this year, I will definitely be back for that at some point.
We stayed in the Carinda Primitive Camping Area which was a donation camp with toilets and hot showers, only a few minutes walk from the pub and plenty of room for the hoardes I'm sure must descend on the town for the festival.
The dirt road out of Carinda is only a tiny bit quicker than taking the bitumen road the long way round, back to Walgett then on to Gilgandra so, with a bit of rain forecast we took this sensible option. The Socceroos were playing Paraguay in the World Cup at noon so we planned to stop in a pub in whatever town we were passing through to watch the match. We played the first half on my phone as there were no towns but then screeched into Coonamble in time to see the second half. I ran in to a pub to see if they were screening the match but they did not know what I was talking about even when I pointed out this was the National Team Playing In The World Cup blank faces all round! We the phoned the Bowling Club who did have the match on their big screen so we set Harvey up in the caravan outside and got seated in time for the second half. The club was busy but only one other man was watching the match!
The Socceroos held Paraguay to a draw so we were happy as we set off again for Gilgandra, our last stop before home, passing through Gulargambone where there are some fabulous metal sculptures of galahs, neither of us can remember much about Gulargambone, so scarred were we by the footie experience. We parked up behind Gilgandra Sporties and went for a drink as one always must when using free facilities. Gilgandra is a really nice place, there is camping beside the visitor centre too where they have a good cafe and very well stocked community garden. The museum was opposite us too where they have the biggest collection of old farm equipment and other old stuff in general I have ever seen and, believe me after all this travelling around outback towns, I've seen a few.
