Tibooburra and the Sturt National Park

Tibooburra, 332 km north of Broken Hill, and 54 km south of the Queensland border.   And on the edge of the Sturt National Park.   It is remote, but made less so by the excellent bitumen road that runs from Broken Hill to the Queensland border.   According to the signs, the NSW government plans to tarmac all their main country roads. 

Tibooburra is the indigenous name for the town, and it means 'plenty of boulders'.    The town is surrounded by 450 million year old granite tors, and when first settled in 1881 by Europeans it was called 'The Granite' or 'Granite Rush'.   People settled here as there was gold, so it became a gold mining town until the gold run out.   Luckily there was enough farming in the area to keep the town alive since then.

But it was a difficult place to live in, and diseases such as typhoid and cholera were endemic, and large numbers of the indigenous community died as well as European settlers.

Tibooburra is in the traditional lands of the Karenggapa peoples, although none of them live in the town.

Charles Sturt, in 1845, was one of the first Europeans to come to the area, and he, plus his fellow explorers, spent six months here.   They were looking for the inland sea, and found only desert.   Luckily there were small pockets of water around Tibooburra otherwise they would have perished.

As you can gather from the sign below the road is called the Silver City Highway, and even though it is a superb road, there are no bridges, just dips in the road where there are creek beds.   Any creek that is in flood will close the road.

The white car and caravan in stark contrast to the red soil.   Mind you the car is no longer white, more like a reddish white.  There is plenty of dirt on the carpets as well.   No mud though, thank goodness.

We are staying in the campsite in Tibooburra.   Our view of the granite tors in front of the caravan.  

We have had some lovely sunsets.

There is an emu that roams around the town, and camping ground.   A very bold emu.   I saw it attack a kelpie dog who thought it would be a good idea to chase the emu.   The kelpie did not look happy afterwards.   

Piper would also love to chase it, but I keep her on the lead when the emu is about.   She would also like to chase the numerous goats that roam the town.   Not to mention the two horses. 

The Family Hotel, which appears to be the main pub in town.   There is a smaller one across the road.  Both are well patronised.

The hotel is famous for its lewd paintings in the front bar, which were painted by Clifton Pugh, on one of his visits to Tibooburra.   I thought they may be a bit racy for this blog so took a photo of outback scene instead.  My apologies!

In order to celebrate Walter's birthday we decided to partake in the Sunday pizza night.   Unfortunately there was a problem when ordering and we waited 1 1/2 hours for the pizzas.   Many apologies later, and we were delivered our pizzas, in their boxes.    No plates or cutlery.   The wine also came in bottles, large or small!    All very casual up this way, apparently.   

However the pizzas were homemade and very delicious.   We took home enough for a meal the next day.

An interesting relic beside the camping ground, been here for a while I think.   What happened to the owner?   I looked in the window and there were old jars of food in there.   Fascinating.

Now this cameleer and camel are not real.   Such a great likeness.   The artist made them out of rigid metal and overlaid with wire mesh.  So clever.

The old courthouse is now a museum.

I was fascinated by the water containers that the camels carried on their backs.

The upturned boat, made by an artist, represents Sturt's despondency at not finding an inland sea.   A boat similar to the one here, was on a cart and pulled here by a team of horses.   Hard work.

The end of the Silver City Highway, a bitumen road, and the border of NSW and Queensland.   Queensland is on the other side of the gate.   We opened the gate, and shut it, of course,  and travelled a short distance on the other side, on gravel initially and then red sand.   

Interestingly, on the other side, there is only about 135 km of dirt/gravel road before the bitumen starts again.   The road is also passable when pulling an ordinary caravan.   We realised that if we took this route to northern Queensland it would be quicker then going via Bourke and Cobar.    

The road on the other side of the fence.

We drove 7 km into the Sturt National Park, and stopped for lunch at a camping ground.   We had to stay in the car as Piper was with us and dogs are not allowed in National Parks.   Piper is such a patient dog and did not complain about being in the car for three hours all up.

A very flash outback toilet.

We used the 4WD on the car on the tracks.   We were very impressed with the way the car handled the rough tracks, and especially the boggy parts.   It had rained here two days ago.

Piper contentedly lying in her bed and watching the world go by, and especially keeping an eye out for the emu.

Tomorrow we head back to Broken Hill, stopping at a deserted town called Milparinka, for coffee hopefully, and then the Packsaddle Roadhouse for lunch. 

I did suggest to Walter that we do a round trip to White Cliffs, Wilcannia and then to Broken Hill.   But he was definitely not keen, not after staying at the camping ground in White Cliffs.  Our caravan was at the bottom of a small hill, and it rained during the night, which meant all the water ran down the hill to our caravan.   How often does it rain out here?   Anyway the white dirt turned to sticky white mud which stuck to our shoes and then to the carpet in the car.   What a mess!   We never did visit the mines or see the underground motel there.   

Walter has now added White Cliffs to his places never to visit, places that have snow, beaches (he likes to look at them only) and I think he is about to add any place that does opal mining.