June's Jottings: Through Western Queensland

I must show you this photo before we leave Barkly Homestead - bear in mind you are in the middle of the Barkly Plains which is kind of desert like conditions, and, not your average sight in the morning, when we woke to find this parked at the rear of the caravan/camping area, and yes, the couple slept 'aboard' for the night!

Yay!! We are finally back in our home state, and have to say, we are relieved to be here. It was interesting to note when we came through the border entry facility just how different it was to when we headed west into the Northern Territory some 8 (?) weeks ago. Then we just drove through, no checks of border passes etc, but a board that said to keep your pass handy if required.

Now, there is a 'pop up' border check point for those heading from Queensland into the Territory, and a long line of caravans as well as trucks etc.

Our first stop is for fuel at the roadhouse at Camooweal, where we spotted a sign welcoming us to Queensland and reminding us to put our watches forward by half an hour, although for the life of me, I do not understand what the 5 years part is supposed to mean.

After taking on fuel and a cuppa, it was then onto Mt Isa. It was here that we encounted again the mines right at the end of the main street of Mount Isa.

After Mount Isa, and it's lovely sunrise,

it was onto Cloncurry, where we understand the Royal Flying Doctor Service was begun.

From here, we turned south and pulled into McKinley, where quite a bit of the film 'Crocodile Dundee' was filmed, and this is the famous pub as seen in the movie.

Sadly with Covid and the lack of travellers/patrons, the pub has been forced to cut it's hours each day. The traffic along this highway as you can imagine is not all that much, so me being me, stood in the middle of the road, out the front of the pub, and took the following photo!!

Just a bit further to go for our nights stop at the Blue Heeler Pub at Kynuna. We have stayed here before and yet again, decided to have a yummy pub meal. Can't get much better than that.

I also have to mention a quirky thing about this place - they have the Kynuna Surf Club, AND they have their own surf boat - no kidding!

Fom here we continued south along some very unimpressive scenery and not so good roads, with plenty of tumble weed caught in the fences. If you had had a smoothie for breakfast, by now it would be a milkshake that was not sitting so well in the stomach.

next whistle stop was Winton, where a lovely new Info/Waltzing Matilda Centre was built after the previous one was burnt down some years previous. The Waltzing Matilda Centre celebrates the writing of one of Australia's favourite songs 'Waltzing Matilda' written by Banjo Patterson in the last 19th century. It is believed he had the inspiration for it at the Combo Waterhole half way between Kynuna and Winton.

Another qwerky feature in Winton is their sidewalk rubbish bins - they are encased in dinosaur feet.

From Winton it was on to Longreach for our next nights stay. It is a contentious issue as whether it was Winton or Longreach where our national carrier QANTAS was born, however Winton claims it as the 'birthplace where the idea of the airline was decided on, whereas Longreach (I believe) is where the first planes took to the air. Longreach has a museum here that houses quite a number of planes from through the years. An interesting fact regarding the jumbo that is parked here, is that it was flown in, had just one go at landing and basically no fuel left in it's tanks. In other words it was there to stay and there was no way it was taking off again. Quite an incredible sight, considering it is right beside the highway.

It was in Longreach that, yet again, and for the last time this trip, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. Yep, that makes 4 times we have crossed it this trip.

After Longreach, we continued on to Barcaldine, which is apparently the birthplace of the Labour Party, and they also had the 'Tree of Knowledge' however some years ago, it 'mysteriously' was poisoned, and they now have preserved part of the trunk and created a beautiful wooden sculpture that chimes with the wind.

It was then onto Blackall, which again is another spot of contention regarding the place of the 'black stump', however there are a couple of other places that also claim to have the 'black stump' their backyards. The next place we stopped for the night was Tambo - I love this little town, it is the birthplace of Tambo Teddies, which was the inspiration of a couple of farmer's wives who began making teddies from the fleece of sheep many years ago when the bottom dropped out of the wool market, and they came up with this idea to supplement their incomes.