Adventures with Tug’n Joey

Tuesday 27th July As we were unable to check in to Bowra Wlidlife Sanctuary until 2 we visited the bakery(again) and then spent some time sitting in the van catching up on our IT requirements, Michael with shed stuff, me with blogging. By midday we were ready to get moving so headed out to Bowra early.   Bowra  is a 14000hectare former pastoral property that is owned and managed by Australian Wildlife Conservancy. It has a  diverse habitat rich in birdlife and is a stronghold for many threatened and declining bird species. On arrival the wheels and underside of your vehicles have to be washed down so Michael took the opportunity to give the whole rig a bit of a rinse. While we were doing this one of the volunteers, Neil, came out to greet us and give us the run down on the place. He also showed us our site, facilities and told us the rules etc. Even though our facilities were all cleaned and the site was empty we weren’t allowed to move on to it …because it wasn’t 2 O’clo...

  Sunday 25th July  Before leaving Evening Star this morning we went for a stroll down to their shearing shed which had a number of interesting artefacts and some impressive doors. When Michael returned to hook up I had a short wander through the scrub and found a Brown Falcon waiting to pounce on something. As we weren’t going too far today we stopped in town for a coffee at the bakery and some Internet time. Even though we had only been 8km from town the connection was crap. Rural Queenslanders must find the Internet a frustrating nuisance! One of Michael’s pre-travel gadget purchases was a cb radio. It hasn’t had a lot of use but it has come in handy a couple of times when we have been warned of approaching wide loads. That extra bit of time has allowed plenty of time to pull over safely. We only had one stop today at Angellala Bridge.  At 9.50pm on the 5th of September 2014, Australian tr ansport history was made as a truck carrying 53 tonnes of ammonium nitrate caugh...

 Thursday 22nd July Overnight we ran out of gas, something Michael has been expecting to happen ever since we left home…not to worry we just switched over to the second tank. Our first stop today was in the small township of Blackall.it is known as the Arts Capital of the West and holds a Better in Blackall Festival in August. It has a very interesting welcome sign made up of a photo collage of local events/people/places. There is a Sculpture Trail around the town as well as some historic buildings and monuments. Sir Thomas Mitchell certainly got around out here. Supposedly everything west of Blackall was ‘beyond the black stump’ so of course they have a ‘black stump’. Although it was actually Sales day at the Blackall Saleyards we passed on that opportunity and instead went to the Historic Woolscour. It was opened in 1908 and was deemed a state of the art facility at the time. After years of neglect it has been revived by years of work by volunteers and some of the machinery is op...

Monday 19th July This morning we farewelled Libby and Eric as they turned their nose north for the long journey home. We have enjoyed sharing their company and creating more memories, vastly different from Singapore ones…although whisky was a common thread. I have especially appreciated someone to share my birding ventures and we will miss the delicious meals prepared by MasterChef Eric. We weren’t too far behind them but only for a short trip to Winton where Michael enjoyed his morning coffee before we explored some more of the town. From the back of the Waltzing Matilda Centre there is a Walkway of Honour, an installation to honour all Australians who have served in our forces. There are a number of interesting old buildings including the heritage-listed Corfield    and Fitzmaurice Store.  It seems that every pub in this part of the world has been burnt down at least once and the North Gregory Hotel is no exception. The current building is the 5th iteration and is renow...

Sunday 18th July After chatting to people along the way over the last few days Michael has had a change of heart with regard to the Birdsville leg of our trip. He doesn’t feel comfortable at the thought of all the dirt roads so there has been an adjustment to the return journey. Shock, horror, this means we will be retracing some of our steps but only from Winton to Barcaldine. He is feeling more relaxed with that decision. This morning we were booked in for the 9.30 Age of Dinosaurs Experience. We had    been a bit ambivalent about it but finally decided we are in Winton so you kinda should do it. The museum is actually about 23 kms from town on the top of a Jump-up, which is a bit like a mesa. As it turned out it is a perfect setting for the museum with huge Rocky outcrops, cliffs canyons and spectacular views. It’s not too hard to imagine dinosaurs wandering around this environment! The experience began with a visit to the Fossil Preparation Lab. Many of the people who were...

 Friday 16th July We had no plans for today apart from a booking to see the QANTAS Luminescent Longreach tonight so we decided on a trip out to Ilfracombe. Just outside the village at The Twelve Mile there is a great example of  pitching, thousands  upon thousands of naturally formed flagstones, carefully sorted and then meticulously placed together to form a leak-proof reservoir to retain water so precious to the existence of everything.   The stone-pitched overshot is thought to have been constructed in the 1890s. Essentially a watering stop and Cobb & Co change station, the 12 Mile was also the site of the Royal Mail Hotel which operated between 1893 and around 1916. Then it was back to town for lunch in the Wellshot Hotel, where we found some quirky bar stools, as well as a y display of pre-loved hats and coins adorning the ceiling. Libby and I visited the second hand shop while the boys had a quick look at part of the Machinery Mile before we returned to Lon...

  Thursday 15th July After a leisurely start to our morning, with our northern friends enjoying the much warmer weather, Libby and I took our binoculars out to the STP. Unsurprisingly there were no other tourists there and we spent a pleasant hour scouring the ponds for birdlife. We managed to find a few new species, including the Hoary-headed Grebe, bringing the current Bird count for this trip to 137, a very respectable tally. While we were out exploring the boys decided on some ‘town time’ and by the time we headed back they were ready for the morning coffee so we caught up in a very pleasant cafe. We were all operating at a slow pace today but after lunch we stirred ourselves to head out. This time the boys headed for the Qantas Founders Museum. It is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to telling the story of Qantas from its beginnings in Outback Queensland to the present day. The story of Qantas’s beginning is a tribute to the resilience and determination of the 4 origina...

Monday 12th July This part of our journey was something I had been looking forward to after recommendations from birding friends in Ballina. I had been reassured by Karen and Angus, the owners of Noonbah, that they had not had any recent rainfalls that impacted on the road quality. The first section on theThompson Development Road was tarred, although not very wide, then 57 km of dirt to the property. There was concern in the camp that the dirt section would be corrugated but it was with great relief we found the only corrugated bit was the last 200m to the house. There seemed to be a lot more roadkill along the tarred section and sadly we were witness to an emu bei ng collected by a passing van. The remaining emus seemed to be perplexed about what to do next. We were given a warm welcome by Angus and Karen with site options explained. We chose to go to the Vergemont area in the channel country. There were a few other campers but plenty of room so we found a spot near the water that ga...