St George, Queensland

We are now in St George, Queensland, and already we are feeling more relaxed in the warm weather.   It will be 21 degrees tomorrow, with an overnight temperature of 3 degrees.    This is considerably better than the temperatures we have been experiencing at night.

St George, has a minor link with St George, the 3rd Century Roman soldier, Christian martyr and Church of England patron saint of England, who actually never visited England, but hey ho.  

The town of St George in Queensland was given its name by the explorer. Major Thomas Mitchell, who led an expedition into the area.   He crossed a natural bridge on the Balonne River on St Georges Day so named the bridge St George, and the town that grew here kept the same name.     

The Balonne River.    And yes it eventually finds its way to the Darling River too, after splitting into other smaller rivers and travelling through marshlands.

We have travelled 600 km north, 400 hundred yesterday and 200 hundred today.  The road (Castlereagh Highway) was mostly good,  although there were some rough patches caused by flooding plus from the heavy trucks that also use the road.     The area appears to be free from wild goats, which limited our conversation somewhat.   Sadly there were many dead kangaroos on the side of the road.

The temperature on the last night in Dubbo dropped to minus 3 degrees.    The frost was thick on the ground.   I took a photo of the frost on the grass but you will have to enlarge it to actually see the frost.   It was very cold!

Yesterday we drove from Dubbo to Lightning Ridge.  We were aiming to stop in Walgett, but the council run camping ground had no electric hookup.  Plenty of water though.    As we need electricity to run our heating systems we decided that keeping warm was more important.    This was a pity as the camping area was beautiful, with plenty of trees and a lovely pond in the centre.

Walgett used to be known as a very poor town, with heaps of problems.   During the Covid Epidemic the town was always on the news due to its problems with infection.     However, on driving through the town yesterday it looked just like any other town in outback Australia. 

So we drove another 70 km to Lightning Ridge, the home of the black opal.    And plenty of other opals too.    A mining town.    There were cars and people everywhere, apparently it was an opal festival, and I guess people came from everywhere in Australia to attend it.    The camping ground was packed so we were lucky to get a spot, at $64 a night.

We visited Lightning Ridge four years ago, when there were a lot less people here.   There is a very deep and hot artesian pool there, which we stood in for a while.   We only managed the shallow end, and kept our upper body above the water.    A little scary.

I also bought a sun hat for $80 which shocked Walter, price wise.    The hat is still going strong, so definitely worth the money.

I think we bought some small opals for presents here.

Our little caravan beside the very large one beside us.    The sites are all drive through and large.   As I am hopeless at reversing the caravan, I am always appreciative of drive through sites.

                                         

There was plenty of green space around the camping area, which suited Piper.   On closer inspection of the 'grass' I realized the 'grass' were young burrs.   These of course will brown once spring arrives and be thoroughly unpleasant to walk on.

Once we crossed over the border into Queensland we stopped at a small settlement called Hebel which was once a Cobb and Co staging post.    Now there are two main buildings, a cafe, which is the Hebel store (built in 1897) and a hotel (built in 1894), with plenty of people stopping to have coffee at the cafe or something more substantial at the hotel.   There were cars and caravans parked everywhere.    Such a popular spot, with hardly anything else around for kilometres.

The Hebel Hotel     

I thought it would be a good idea to take a photograph of our car and caravan.   

The next stop, a lunch stop, was Dirranbandi, once on the edge of good grazing land in Queensland.   At least that was so when we lived in Brisbane in the late 1960s.    However, with fiddling around with the different offshoots of the Balonne River, and no doubt draining the swamps, farmers have built a couple of huge dams.   Well these were the ones we could see from the road.    We could also see two giant cotton growing areas which use massive amounts of water.    Cotton growing has become the big thing is outback areas with access to water, great for the growers and for the politicians, but hard on the environment, due to high water usage and the pollutants that are the end result.  

On a more positive note, the little settlement of Dirranbandi was a very pleasant stop for lunch.    There was a lovely park which was developed around the old railway station and yards.  

The war memorial with its display of soldiers on horseback, all made of steel.    Country towns place great importance on their war memorials.   

The old railway shed.

The railway line which was once the end of the line, and part of the mail train service.  Passenger services stopped in 1993 and the freight service stopped in 2010.     No more trains on this line.

The railway station.,

And now for a few days at St George.

Dubbo - the centre of many main roads

Dubbo is home to the Taronga Western Plains Zoo, has a really lovely botanical garden, an old gaol, and the lovely Macquarie River (Wambuul).     It became a city in 1966.

It is also the centre of many main roads, which means it is the centre of much traffic including the B-Doubles travelling through to their various destinations.

The Mscquarie River is part of the Macquarie-Barwon catchment within the Murray-Darling basin, and is one of the largest rivers in New South Wales.

The camping ground is beside a lovely park, with a cycling/walking path alongside the river.   Every morning there has been a heavy frost covering the grass.   

Yesterday we drove fifty kilometres to the Wellingron Caves, but unfortunately the tour was booked out, so we did not visit the caves.  Luckily we had visited the caves in Naracoorte which is in the Limestone Coast Region so we knew approximately what they would look like inside.

However, we popped into the display area, which was informative and we had quite a bit of fun playing with the interactive display.   

The caves were formed after the sea evaporated and the limestone dried out causing cracks and holes.   This type of landscape is called karst.

The landscape of Wellington Caves Reserve holds evidence of 400 million years of evolutionary history.  There were many fossils found in the caves, initially sent to Britain but now kept in Australia.

The area is also the home of the local  'Binjang mob' of the Wiradjuri people, and they have their stories about how the area was formed and developed.

The skeleton of an ancient animal.   The interactive board is curved around the edge of the room.

The creatures in the sea that once covered the area.

The original emu.

A large animal, which moves when you wave your hand in front of it.

The outline of the kangaroo on this animal.    The original kangaroo., without a tail.

We also carried out a few minor repairs to the caravan and did a big and expensive shop to carry us through for the next week.   Prices are certainly more expensive here than in Aldinga.   The groceries came to $160, and the only really expensive item was a $10 pack of fresh pasta.    I was also shocked with the price of diesel which cost $142 to fill the tank, I forgot how much per litre it was, but remember Walter whistling at the price.   The joys of travelling.

The main street of Dubbo.   It was fairly empty of people but full of cars.   In fact Dubbo is full of vehicles, with clogged roads, and intersections.    We were not impressed with the amount of traffic.   And only two pedestrian crossings on the main street, plus cyclists used the footpaths.  I only lasted ten minutes with Piper before I went back to the car.   Walter persisted for longer, although he was looking for a hairdresser.  

There are two shopping malls on the main street, owned and run by Woolworths and Coles.   Most people shop in the 'strip shops' on one of the main road that lead out of the city.    All the big stores and malls are along this road, which is the same with most country towns and cities. 

                                         

However, the beautiful parks that run along the river are definitely beautiful and relaxing.

Walter came out of hospital on Monday, looking relaxed and thinner, and very impressed with the standard of care at Dubbo Hospital.

Tomorrow we are travelling back up north, first stop Walgett, on the Darling River.

Cobar - a mining town

Cobar is a mining town.   

Copper was discovered in the 1870s and Cobar was known as the Great Cobar Copper Mine and was Australia's leading producer of copper.   After World War I copper fell in popularity as a mineral and the population fell from thousands of people to a few hundred.    The economy now is based on base metals and gold mining with a population of around 4100 people.    It is also a prosperous town. 

We had visited Cobar two years ago so did not intend to do any of the touristy things on this trip.   This was just as well as Walter ended up in hospital on the first night.   Nothing drastic, for Walter anyway.   His bowel started bleeding badly so I took him to the local hospital to be checked out.  Now I know this sounds alarming, but for Walter, who takes blood thinners, it can occur, and has done a few times in the past   Polyps grow and bleed, badly.   For Walter, anyway.    After two nights, he was sent to Dubbo by air ambulance, to be thoroughly monitored, although he was feeling well.    He was put on a liquid (non alcoholic) diet which fixed the problem.   All in all he has had a lovely few days of rest, in what appears to me, five star accommodation (hospital style).      

Both hospitals are fairly new, and the one in Cobar has a ward of large single rooms with bathrooms.  However there is no doctor based there, just very well trained and experienced nurses.   All consultations are made using tele health.    That was interesting to watch.

So instead of heading towards Burke, and the Darling River, I drove the three hundred kilometres down to Dubbo, a town we have driven through but never visited, so a new experience.  

But back to Cobar.    The nights were extremely cold, with frozen grass and thick frost on the windscreen.   However the days were sunny and warm, and I spent both afternoons sitting in the sunshine.    Plus catching up on the washing and getting rid of some of the dirt (white, brown and red) from inside the caravan.    We had a lovely spot beside the ablution block.

New South Wales love their reverse angle parking for cars.   A pain to get into but a joy to drive away from afterwards.     This is the main street of Cobar, which has lovely gift shops and camping shops plus three cafes.   The Barrier Highway runs through the main street but it does not appear to be a problem, unlike the Sturt Highway lower down.

                                         

The Royal Hotel with its beautiful iron lace work running around the top verandah. 

A group of shops on the main street.

The mining museum on the other side of the road, with the Miners' Memorial behind me.

The very large RV park on the edge of the town.

Now Dubbo has a river also, called the Macquarie River (the Waradjuri name for it is Wambuul).   This river runs into marshes which then drains into the Darling River.   And of course the Darling runs into the Murray River.   All adds up.   Mind you the cotton farms that I passed on the way here would siphon a fair bit of it off. 

Wilcannia on the Darling River

Not quite an English town!   But it started off as a very wealthy and smart European town.   It was officially proclaimed in June 1866, and served the massive Mount Murchison pastoral run.   During the 1880s and 1890s it was New South Wales' third largest Port (after Sydney and Morpeth), handling vast amounts of wool and wheat via the Darling River paddle steamers.  The population reached 3,000 residents with 13 hotels, diverse cultural groups including Afghan cameleers and Chinese gardeners.

After the railway lines were built, and the river trade ceased, the town gradually faded away.    The main Broken Hill railway line bypassed the town as it was built further south, as this was the shortest distance between Broken Hill and Sydney.   Unlike Burke, there was not a direct line from Sydney to Wilcannia.

There was a drought in 1902 that meant the Darling River did not flow for 364 days.    Shearing gangs used Wilcannia as a base for many years, but more recently the main employer of local residents is now the Central Darling Shire.     The current population is roughly 735 people.

Sadly Wilcannia also became known as the town on the Great Barrier Highway where no one stopped, except to buy fuel at a heavily barricaded service station.    The stories of people being verbally abused and threatened when they stopped to look at houses was wide spread.  However it was also an area of poor health, poverty and crime.    

The original inhabitants are the Barkindji (meaning people of the river).   The Barkindji people lived in groups that ran the length of the Darling River from Bourke to Wentworth.   This was their homeland for thousands of years before European settlers moved here.

We have visited Wilcannia three times in the past four years and have seen great improvements.     There is a new supermarket, without bars on the windows.    There are more buildings being occupied with self help groups and activities.    There is a fantastic cafe/takeaway on the main street.   When we were here two years ago it was beginning to grow in popularity, with passing travellers, workers and the local community.    They also support the TAFE and there are always young people learning how to serve and make coffee.   Yesterday I had to wait nearly half an hour for coffee as the queue was very long.  

The new building below is now an Aboriginal Centre.   Again, no bars on the windows.

The Post Office and residence.

The office for the Central Darling Shire Council.  The buildings here are truly magnificent.   

The council run camping ground is on the other side of the river, and is a very pleasant spot, concrete hard standings, plus plenty of green grass.   Piper approves of this place.    It is also a short walk over the bridge into the town.

The council must  have received some federal funding as they have built this impressive amenities block, one of the best I have come across.   There is also a free washing machine.    They have installed electronic locks on the door, which made me feel a little nervous in case they permanently locked on me.   The number for the lock is provided when you book in online, and pay the $37 per night.

The old amenities block, now closed, which still looks okay, compared to some camping grounds we have stayed in.

An even older amenities block!

The 260 km drive from Wilcannia to Cobar was very pleasant, although parts of the road had huge potholes due to the heavy rain in recent months.    The countryside was just gorgeous, and so green, and from the car it appeared almost like a green carpet.

There were thousands of goats, which have taken over the outback.   Fascinating.   Not many end up on the road as road kill, too canny I think.   I so remember the dead goat (not such a canny one) I once ran over, when I ignored Walter's instructions to go around it, between Cunnamulla and Bourke.  I had to spend time cleaning the car and caravan afterwards.    

The trip from Menindee Lakes to Broken Hill, and then onto Wilcannia went relatively smoothly except for starting late due to trying to book Wilcannia online, unsuccessfully, and me learning how to pump the caravan tyres up at the service station, equally unsuccessfully.  Then Piper developed diarrhea, luckily not in the car, due I think to our stress over the booking and tyre pumping up.   Or it was the campsite in Menindee that she did not like!   But she is okay now that goodness.

We are now in Cobar, such an interesting town.

The Darling River Run

The Darling River Run is a road trip along the Darling River. which has many historical towns, Aboriginal cultural heritage sites, natural scenery and plenty of wildlife, although some not native, e.g. the goats.

Most of the roads are unsealed, which means they require 4 wheeled drive vehicles to navigate them.   However, there is still plenty to see for people like us who need to stay on sealed roads (our caravan, not the car).

The Darling River can be started at either end, and for us it began at Wentworth where the Darling River meets the Murray River.    The order of the towns and settlements after Wentworth are Pooncarrie, Menindee, Wilcannia, Tilpa, Louth, Bourke and Brewarrina, where the Barwon and Darling Rivers meet.

There is plenty of controversy about the use of the Darling River, as with the Murray River, and all the other rivers that join the Murray on its way from the mountains in New South Wales to the sea in South Australia.    Overusing the water in the rivers, greed, poor decisions, too many authorities, droughts and many other practices have all played their part in potentially destroying our river system.   Of course, those of us that live in South Australia see the end result as the Murray River meets the sea not far from where we live.

We are currently in Menindee, on the edge of one of their lakes.    The place of magnificent sunsets.

But more about Menindee later.   After leaving Wentworth, where we spent a week way back in April 2023, we drove to Pooncarie, where we stopped for lunch.   A small settlement now, but once a thriving river Port.    Last time we ate a most delicious lunch at a cafe by the Darling River.    Yesterday we did not even catch a glimpse of the river from the main road.

I notice that many towns around here have showers in their public toilets blocks for the people who are free camping.    No staying here overnight though.   However, a very good service.

The Pooncarie Hotel.

The road between Pooncarie is now fully sealed (2023) for the entire 123 km.   A beautiful road, and hardly any traffic.   The mist also lifted and we drove in brilliant sunshine.  The countryside was very green after the recent rain.

We arrived in Menindee at 3 p.m. and booked into the closest camping ground to the town.   There are plenty of free campsites here but only two camping grounds, and both of them in need of much love and attention.   We have stayed in worse places though.

Not much green grass here, although we have found a couple of patches for Piper's toilet spots.   She is not an outback dog.

The soil here is a brown colour, but outback soil can come in various shades, white, red, black and variations in between.   The main similarity is that the dust manages to get into the tiniest of holes in the car and caravan, and that the dust turns to glue when wet.   

We were very happy with our site here, as it overlooks Menindee Lake.    The current owners are making good progress with renovations, including new power points, a huge camp kitchen, new water tanks, new washing machines, and a new security gate.    There is no drinking water here though, but we have our boxes of spring water so not a problem.   We have learnt over the years that it is best to carry bought drinking water, as bore water is pretty awful even with a filter on the tap, and the constant changing of water systems does not do the stomach any good.    

They have had some heavy rain here by the look of the huge ruts in the road at the front entrance.   I am not looking forward to driving the caravan over them on the way out tomorrow.

I thought I saw mice skins by our caravan this morning.   There must have been a mice plague and the mice have been poisoned.   

But no, the '/skins' were the husks from the seeds on the tree below.  I pointed them out to Walter, but he could not see the similarity.   No imagination!

The population of Menindee is currently about 530 people.   A town struggling to survive, although people from Broken Hill come here to use the lakes for boating and fishing.    That is when there is no blue-green algae.    However before 2002 there were 3000 people living here, and it was a thriving centre for a fruit growing industry.    Due to the hot dry climate and a good water supply they grew citrus fruits and table grapes, all of which ripened months before any other area.   

Then the Millennium drought (2002+) hit the area.    This drought went on the years, as it did in South Australia, and destroyed the fruit growing industry.     The lakes and rivers dried up so irrigating orchards and vineyards was no longer viable.    A typical story of trying to tame the outback terrain. 

The Post Office was one of the few magnificent buildings in the town.

                                             

Originally there were many natural shallow lakes here, which were fed by the Darling River when it flooded, and then dried out when there was little water in the river.    When Broken Hill was first settled the water for the mines came from the Menindee Lakes, with the help of trains on the new Sydney to Broken Hill railway line.   That is, the water was loaded onto wagons behind the train.

There is now a huge water pipe connecting the lakes to Broken Hill (100 km away) so the lakes are the main water source for the city.

But of course it did not end there, the Federal (or State Government) decided to put a large weir (plus smaller weirs) on the river to divert the water into more little lakes.   This of course messed up the whole natural watercourse and caused no end of problems, including rapid evaporation of water from the new lakes as they were too shallow.  Plus the interference did nothing for this part of the Darling River.  Also the water in the new lakes spread across sacred Aboriginal sites.  

One of the smaller weirs on the river, which has a road running over it.    This weir is in the Kinchega National Park.    We were only able to drive a short distance into the park as dogs are not allowed in National Parks in Australia.    This national park  was once a sheet station and is seen as a very positive asset to the area.    The small part that we saw was very impressive.

We then drove around the edge of Pamamaroo Lake which had some free camping areas, all very picturesque.    The main weir on the Darling River is on the edge of this lake.   We were travelling in the opposite direction so did not visit the weir.    The dirt road was covered in corrugations.   A bit of a bumpy ride although our car managed it very well.

Six emus ran across the road in front of us.   By the time I stopped the car, got my camera out, I could only see one on the hill side.   

The old railway station, which is still used  to connect to other towns, although I am not sure if a bus company stops here, rather than a train.   The Indian Pacific (Perth to Sydney) travels on this line, plus goods trains.

And tonight another red sunset.

Tomorrow we will drive to the edge of Broken Hill, destination Wilcania.