Longreach, Muttaburra and Winton

 After a most enjoyable few days at Lara Wetlands we packed up to head for Longreach. We drove back through Barcaldine so we could return to see the rest of The Workers Heritage Museum on our seven day ticket. Turned out a seven day ticket did not mean it was open for seven days and this was Sunday, the day it was closed. I am sure we will visit the area again in the future so will know next time. One of my reasons for writing this blog is so I can use it as a reference while travelling. We have visited so many places now it is hard to remember all of them so I just search the blog and can see if we have been before, where we stayed and whether we liked it. 

Off we drove along the Matilda Highway to Longreach, this was the furthest west we planned to go on this trip and we were really getting a sense of the remoteness and isolation of the towns the deeper into the outback we ventured. 

Longreach was a complete surprise to me, I'm not sure what I was expecting but we could have been in one of the smarter suburbs of Melbourne, although hotter and dustier, it had an IGA and Foodworks, several pubs and cafes and some very nice shops. Our Camps Atlas told us the Muddy Duck Caravan Park was the best place to stay, $45 a night with great reviews but, unfortunately, the huge mass of caravanners on their way to the Birdsville Bash were passing through Longreach at the same time as us. The Muddy Duck was full as were the other caravan parks in town even though they had poor reviews for packing everyone in so tightly they had to park their cars in the street! The only choice left was Apex Park, a big, flat area of dry earth with a distant toilet block at $5 a night. It was busy but OK for one night and as we set up a pair of Brolgas turned up and performed their courtship dance, I think it was courtship and not fighting, right beside us. What a treat! 

We were not bothered about visiting The Stockman's Hall of Fame, which many people come to Longreach for, but were very keen to go to the Qantas Founders Museum. After coffee in the beautiful garden of The Branch Cafe we checked out the car park and saw the caravan would fit so packed up and towed it to the museum so Harvey could wait for us in comfort. It can be difficult to know what to do with him because he obviously cannot be left in the car so, if it is convenient to have the caravan with us, it is a pretty good solution.

 The Qantas Founders Museum was excellent, well worth $35 each entry. The story was fascinating and accessible to young children and those who are not aircraft enthusiasts, we discovered free kennels for customer use too. 

An hour and twenty minutes along a very straight road brought us to Muttaburra. The town was a bit off the beaten track, so away from the Birdsville pilgrims, and famous for two things, being the centre of Queensland and the site of the discovery in 1963 of the Muttaburrasaurus.

 The council caravan park was full so we went to the overflow park which was much nicer and the same price, $20 in the donation box with a brand new shower block. There was a general store in town and a cafe which only opens in winter, they get no visitors in summer because it is too hot. The Muttaburrasaurus Interpretation Centre was just off the main street and fantastic. A wonderful stone building housed the story of the Muttaburrasaurus and its discovery on a farm in 1963. 

 It was thought there were no dinosaurs in Australia until fossilised remains were uncovered at Cape Patterson in Victoria in 1903. Central Queensland became an important location dinosaurwise after the Muttaburrasaurus was found and then Matilda the dinosaur was discovered near Winton in 2005. Since then there have been endless finds, partly because the soil and weather conditions in the area have proved to be highly conducive to the preservation of fossilised remains.

 The other interesting spot in Muttaburra was the Centre of Queensland Monument. Again, beautifully crafted out of local stone with a fascinating yearly rainfall dateline represented by posts of varying heights, a very visual way of making visitors understand how little rain these outback towns survive on most years. In the wet season (summer, but not every year) the rainwater rushes across the plains in channels and there are dips in the roads every couple of hundred metres where the floodways are. All roads have signs saying whether they are open or closed and little towns like Muttaburra get cut off, there is either not enough rain or too much, hardly ever just the right amount, it must be a hard life. 

A couple we got chatting to in the cafe persuaded us we should make the effort to strike north one last time and go to Winton. It was dirt road for one hour to Morella then bitumen from then on. The highway to Winton was packed with caravans and motorhomes in both directions which should have given us a clue about the availability of caravan parks when we arrived. Of course the were all full of Birdsville Bash travellers, goodness knows how many people must go to the festival but it did not look attractive from where we were. I enquired in the Waltzing Matilda Information Centre and was sent to the showground which had been opened for the overflow. There were hundreds of caravans there but still plenty of room at $30 powered, $20 unpowered with decent amenities but you need the car to get back into Winton.

 We explored the town and found we really liked it. There were several pubs all selling food and one with a daily live kelpie show! The owner's dog rounds up a handful of sheep, luckily it is free for customers because it wasn't much of a show. The place was full of people wearing maroon jerseys because it was the second match of the State of Origin series that night. We thought it would be fun to watch in a Queensland country town so stayed around and had an excellent pizza at the Australian Hotel. However, by the time the game kicked off, all the fans had disappeared. It was probably just as well because at half time New South Wales were winning 32-0 so we would not have been popular.

The Age of Dinosaurs was just back down the road so we set off the next day and popped Harvey in their free kennels while we went in (you do need to provide your own water bowl for the dog). It was really busy at 8.30am and apparently we should have booked but they managed to squeeze us on to a tour. It cost $73 each but was worth every penny with three guided sessions -The Walkabout, The Laboratory and The Collection. It was fabulous and looking out over the plains it was easy to imagine dinosaurs roaming there. The laboratory was full of volunteers dusting and chiselling lumps of rock to expose fossils, many of these people come to do this work every year for their annual holiday.

Winton was really delivering the goods and we found we were there at the time of the Outback Film Festival so booked to see a film at the old outdoor theatre in the High Street. The film was a bit ordinary but the setting was wonderful watching a movie under a blanket of stars. 

The only thing Winton did not pull out of the hat for us was a budgie, we were told they were all over the place in July but they are still giving us the slip. We took a detour on our journey out of Winton to take in Lark Quarry to see the Dinosaur Stampede which just amazing. Because of the soil conditions hundreds of dinosaur footprints of all different sizes have been preserved in the mud and were able to be lifted and positioned inside a purpose built visitor centre. Just incredible and well worth a visit.

Jericho, Barcaldine and Lara Wetlands

Kookaburra

  I am rather behind with my blog posts because quite a lot has been going on. I was involved with campaigning ahead of the council elections and I opened my garden for the Tilligerry Peninsula Garden Ramble, however, the letterboxing and panic gardening are now over so I can go back to reporting on our winter trip back in July and August. 

Sapphire had been a most enjoyable stop on our trip and we were a bit sad to be moving on. We stocked up with supplies at the excellent grocery store in Rubyvale and had a final coffee and strudel in Muggacinos before heading on our way. We knew which general direction we wanted to travel but had not decided on our next destination (nothing new there) so, when we came across a little place called Jericho, we decided to investigate. There were a couple of camping options but our preference was Redbank Park, a beautiful riverside spot $8 donation per night, 48 hour limit with toilets. 

Spotted Bowerbird

There was plenty of space right on the riverbank and as we set up a Spotted Bowerbird came to visit, another new one for the list. I apologise now, there are a lot of bird photos in this post as we had reached an extremely birdy part of our trip. 

Jericho was a small place with a Post Office at the railway station selling coffee where passengers could catch a train to Longreach but no return train for two days. There was also a very run down pub selling a limited selection of meals in the evenings. There were signs up saying 'I have to make a 120km round trip to buy vegetables so if you don't want them say so, don't just leave them on your plate!' 

The town is named Jericho because it sits on the banks of the Jordan River. The place was a very odd mix because it claimed to be home of the Crystal Trumpets and there was a sculpture commemorating biblical wars and then all the roads were named after scientists, we could not find a satisfactory explanation from anyone for this peculiar dichotomy. An open air theatre sat halfway along the main street and there was a film shown there on the third Saturday of every month for $15 but major sporting events were shown for free. 

Red Browed Pardelote

 The camping area got quite busy as the afternoon wore on and everyone sat around their little camp fires but, by the time we got up the next morning, almost all the other campers had left. The bird life was amazing and I was happy just to sit watching the Crows, Apostle Birds, Kookaburras, Peaceful Doves, Double Barred Finches, Spotted Bowerbirds and the ever present Willy Wagtails. There was an interesting walk along the river too but we left Harvey in the van because 1080 bait warning signs were everywhere and we did not want to take any risks. 

Apostle Birds

 After a second night we packed up and set off for Barcaldine, pronounced B-call-din, the road was long and straight so we played the roadside trivia put in place by the council to keep drivers awake. We expected Barcaldine to be an industrial hub for the surrounding area but it was a really pleasant, interesting town. The Tree of Knowledge was in the centre, this was where, after the Great Shearers Strike of 1891, a movement was formed which became the Australian Labor Party. The Workers Heritage Museum was also in Barcaldine $19 for a 7 day pass (not open Sundays) and dogs welcome. It was a very interesting place with plenty of information about the shearers strike, the formation of the Labor party and the roots of Australian democracy. 

 There were four caravan parks in Barcaldine but the showground looked nicer and was walking distance from everything in town so we stayed there, $36 power or not with brand spanking new toilets and showers. It was a very short walk across the road to the Witches Kitchen attached to the Union Hotel for dinner. What a surprise that was, it had been run by the same family for 67 years and was absolutely packed. The food was good and people seemed to be coming from far and wide for takeaways too, 67 years experience obviously paid off because they were incredibly quick and efficient too. 

Brown Tree Creeper

One night was enough to do the things we wanted in Barcaldine so we decided to check out a place we kept hearing other travellers mentioning, Lara Wetlands 30km south of Barcaldine. After 13km of dirt track off the road we arrived on the cattle farm that is Lara. 

Black Tailed Native Hen

The camping is all around a lake with waterbirds nesting along the banks and free to use kayaks and bikes, very rustic toilets and showers heated by fires, Lara sits on the artesian basin and there was a natural hot pool. $30 a night and a choice of two tours - the homestead $30, homestead and property $60. 

Darter

We chose to visit the homestead and really enjoyed it, the house was beautiful and the owner gave an interesting talk about the history of Lara and her reasons for buying it. The only downside was the place was absolutely heaving with campers and we discovered we had timed our trip to coincide with thousands of people travelling to the Birdsville Bash. Even then, Lara was big so we were not on top of each other and we would definitely stay there again at a quieter time. 

 There were various events while we were there, a billy tea and damper night, a dinner which was cooked entirely over fire in dozens of cast iron pots with entertainment by a truly awful singing couple who had a stage attached to the side of their caravan, they treated us to a 3 hour performance which was mainly Elvis and Johnny Cash but also contained a smattering of their own compositions. We are not too keen on organised events when camping so did not attend and Ian made his own billy tea at our camp, including the traditional swinging it over his head (what could possibly go wrong?) Unfortunately there was no getting away from the singers, they could still be heard from our camp on the other side of the lake. 

Mitchell, Carnarvon Gorge and Sapphire

 One week into our winter trip and we were still not much warmer than we had been at home but we were seeing some interesting places. Mitchell was a real find, a beautiful town with a fair sized public school, swimming pool with hot spa with fantastic cafe, some nice small shops and an excellent op shop. The whole town looked like it was cared for with nice little touches like mosaics in the pavements, bins with faces and public wifi but only 18°C at midday. We were killing time in Mitchell because we could not get booked into the caravan park at Carnarvon Gorge for a few days but we could not have picked a nicer place to stop, we will definitely visit again. 

 The time came for us to move on to Carnarvon Gorge and we got up and discovered it was only 4°C outside, a bit of a shock so we packed up quickly and headed off. We wanted to get away early as we needed to stop in Roma for supplies part way through the 4 hour drive north. After shopping we took the Carnarvon Highway out of Roma for 3 hours which was pretty but a bit dull, however we did see a road train towing 4 petrol tankers!

 We eventually reached Sandstone Park caravan park in Carnarvon Gorge, $39 a night with 360°views of the gorge and kennels to leave the dog in when visiting the national park.. The pitches were huge, no amenities blocks or showers but the site was liberally dotted with spotless portaloos. We thought it was essential to book a guided tour of the national park but the lady in the van next door told us this was not necessary and gave us some tips on which bits to visit. 

Next morning we popped Harvey into the kennels, $20 a day, and drove to the visitor centre where we picked up a map and set off. We decided to take our neighbour's advice and just visit two of the points of interest so we chose The Amphitheatre and The Moss Garden. Thank goodness we didn't attempt any more because it was a long, hot challenging walk with heaps of steps and multiple river crossings using stepping stones - a real test for the balance. It was worth the effort and I would recommend Carnarvon Gorge to anyone. 

The Amphitheatre was a huge rock formation entered via a staircase through a crack in the rock. Once inside we were surrounded by towering rock walls with a peep of the sky way above us, it was completely silent and cool and it was easy to see where the water had rushed through the rocks in the past to create the cavernous space we were standing in. 

After the hard work reaching the Amphitheatre we thought the Moss Garden would be a doddle. How wrong we were, the route in from the main track was littered with red faced walkers gasping for air, people who had fallen off the stepping stones into the water and others squabbling about whose idea it was to do this and pointing out they never wanted to see another step again as long as they lived. We pressed on up flight after flight of steps until eventually we reached The Moss Garden. It was beautiful, huge rocks covered in mosses and ferns with cool water trickling through them but the walk in was so hard it was quite difficult to put it out of your mind and enjoy the final destination. 

There was so much of the park still to see so the next day we popped Harvey in the kennels again, much to his disgust, and drove back to the park. We discovered it was possible to get a coffee in the Big 4 caravan park, which was different to where we were camped but very pleasant too. Back in the national park, we took an easy walk along the river banks and saw a platypus! My first one in the wild.

 Our next planned stop was to be Emerald where we had read that we could camp in the Botanic Gardens so we headed off and stopped for a coffee in Rollaston at the community volunteer coffee van. We carried on north to Emerald only to discover it was a huge, industrial town a bit like Slough. The lovely sounding Botanic Gardens camping area was a car park beside a roundabout opposite Coles supermarket. So we pressed on to Sapphire instead which was a wonderful, quirky place mainly inhabited by people trying their luck fossicking for sapphires. 

After one night in the free camp, we managed to get settled in Sapphire Caravan Park, a delightful terraced bushland park with charming stone buildings for the camp kitchen, BBQ area and amenities $37 powered, $30 unpowered. A band played every weekend and there was a fossicking area where guests had found some pretty big sapphires only recently. We set off and did some digging and came home with a bag of rocks we have convinced ourselves are riddled with sapphires and will make us our fortune when we eventually get around to cleaning them.

 We were now up at the Tropic of Capricorn and were finally able to put our shorts on before we ventured into Rubyvale, 5kms up the road. There is an area outside Rubyvale taken up with sapphire mining claims, lots of plots with old sapphire washing equipment and Keep Out signs, apparently the guns laws are quite relaxed here because most of the miners have gems on site. 

There was a big pub in Rubyvale but it was Drag Bingo night when we were there so we could not get a seat let alone anything to eat, I don't know where everyone came from, there certainly did not appear to be many people living around there. 

 All was not lost though, we bumped into some Brolgas, an Australian Bustard, a Striated Pardelote and a Grey Crowned Babbler while exploring, all firsts for me to tick off in my bird book. 

Nundle, Warialda, Surat, Thallon and Mitchell

  Winter had arrived in Lemon Tree Passage so it was time for us to head warmer climes for a few weeks. Ian and I had actually done a bit of planning for this trip, which is not like us, so we headed for Nundle Caravan Park. We don't use caravan parks much but wanted power to run our little heater as we have learned from previous trips that it gets a great deal colder when first heading north before reaching the warmth of Queensland. 

 This was the first time we had towed the van with our new car, we had also never towed with an automatic so why we chose the really hilly, bendy route through Stroud, where the signs were up for their annual Brick and Rolling Pin Throwing Championships, and around Gloucester Tops instead of going straight through Singleton I don't really know. We reached Nundle eventually and set up in The Fossickers Caravan Park $37 with power, water and spotless amenities. There were a few other vans and we gathered around a communal fire at wine/beer o'clock and shared the usual stories about where people had been and where they were heading. Although it was extremely cold, the park was very friendly and pleasant. Outside the camp kitchen a guitar was hanging near the big fire pit for the use of any guests who fancied a strum, fortunately nobody did during our stay. 

After a very cold night, we continued on our way. Our careful planning was tossed aside when we realised our next planned stop (Barraba) was not far enough and the one after that (Mungindi) was too far. Before our departure, a friend had told us about one of his favourite spots, Cranky Rock in Warialda, on looking at the map it was about the right distance so we headed there instead. Stopped for a coffee in Manilla at the Warm Conversations Manilla Folder Cafe which was great and in a charming little town.

 Passing through Bingara we noticed the beautiful Art Deco Peter's Cafe was open again after years of closure. The whole of this lovely little town looked like it was having a new lease of life after really struggling in the last drought. We pressed on to Warialda and Cranky Rock Nature Reserve $15 (cash only) with power, toilets and one shower. The vans were a little squashed together, in warmer weather I would probably choose to stay in the unpowered area because it was more spacious. The reserve was very pretty, lots of trees, chickens running around, a communal camp fire and a walk to the Cranky Rocks. They were amazing! Huge boulders balanced impossibly on top of one another, 

absolutely astonishing!

Warialda itself was a medium sized country town with an IGA supermarket, decent pharmacy, art gallery and the Big R2D2 so we had a bit of a look around after our two nights at Cranky Rock as we headed off to our next destination. Ditched our careful planning again as we were aiming to stop at Mungindi, a little town which straddles the New South Wales/Queensland border. We stopped there by the river last year and loved it but campers at Warialda told us there had been heavy rain and the river camps were very boggy. So, we turned to our trusty Camps 11 atlas and decided to spend a single night in Thallon, where we knew there was plenty of cheap camping. It was beginning to dawn on us that the weather was not warming up very quickly as we travelled ever northward. We were hot in Mungindi last year but there was a distinct nip in the air as we drove through this time although the sun came out by the time we reached Thallon. 

 The council have made a real effort to bring money into the tiny town. They have provided a huge area for caravans at only $10 a night (pay at the pub) with power and toilets. Beautiful painted silos overlooked the camping area and the town was dotted with attractive sculptures as well as being the home of The Big Wombat. A very successful wombat protection programme has been underway over the past few years in these parts and the number of wombats in the wild has increased considerably.

 The neighbouring van ran an incredibly loud generator all night so nobody in the vicinity got much sleep, they drove off early to much scowling and dark mutterings from our fellow campers. There is not much to do in Thallon so after a coffee in town we set off again. Only about a kilometre out of town we got a flat tyre on the van. Ian had fitted pressure sensors to the tyres which I had poo pooed as unnecessary but they did their job and alerted us straight away, just as well because I was driving and felt nothing. It was the first time we had ever had a flat on a caravan but it couldn't have happened in a better place. The road had wide flat areas on either side so we were able to pull well away from the other road users and everyone who passed stopped to offer help. Ian was up to the job though and changed the tyre with little fuss only needing the help of one fellow caravanner who had an air pump and we were back on our way in no time. Our route was taking us to Surat (actually on the original plan) but we diverted via St.George to buy a new tyre. That task accomplished, we reached Surat in the late afternoon. 

 Surat sits on the Ballone River and was an important staging post for the Cobb and Co stagecoach There is a fascinating Cobb and Co museum in the visitor information centre which also, thankfully, had free wifi as this part of the country is a Telstra black hole. I discovered later that was only because I have a cheap phone package, if you pay full Monty Telstra it is OK. The town is built quite high above the river because it floods regularly. There is a floating jetty because the water level can change so dramatically and the depth markers go to 10 metres, it is hard to imagine that level of flooding but it happens. Our chosen camp spot was Fisherman's Park donation camp, quite pleasant and a nice, easy walk into town but crowded. There were plenty of toilets at the camp and a great free shower behind the pub in town.

 We have been wanting to visit Carnarvon Gorge for some time and it was next on our list but we knew booking was essential so took advantage of the town wifi to make a reservation. There were no vacancies until the following Tuesday which left us with three days to kill, we had seen enough of Surat so checked the map and decided to try Mitchell. 

What a brilliant choice! There were a couple of different camps and we looked at the weir camp first but it was crowded so we chose Fisherman's Rest, a beautiful riverside donation camp, very quiet, probably because there was a dirt road in which puts some people off. Lots of bindis but there were plenty of prickle free areas if you checked properly, we didn't so Harvey ended up covered in them and we moved to a bindi free pitch the next morning.

 Mitchell is a splendid town with a hot springs spa, cafes, some decent shops, a fair sized public school and nice little touches like mosaics in the pavements, we will definitely come back again.. The birdlife at our camp was fantastic too and I saw my first Plum Headed Finch, the photo is not very clear but, take my word for it, that is a Plum Headed Finch.