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Blogs from Boulia, Queensland, Australia, Oceania
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7. Longreach, west to Boulia, 1 May 2011
Published: May 5th 2011Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Boulia
May 3rd 2011
27 April 2011. Longreach Golf Club. Pattie won 2 up. After 5 rounds she's now 2 up. The golf course has "sand greens", which are actually oiled sand, and they have a rake to smooth the hopeful path of your putt. Course was flat as and not a lot of grass. Later we took a sunset helicopter flight over Longreach Flat as! Next day we went through the School of the Air which has about 120 pupils schooled by parents on remote locations. After year 7 most go to boarding school. We bought 2 books for the library and put the grandchildren’s names and addresses in them Something may develop. Contacted Coromal about repairs. They could only suggest someone in Cairns or Darwin. One is 1,000km in the wrong direction and we won't be in the ... read more
August 30th 2010
We are back in Kerikeri for a couple of weeks, on-route to Dunedin. Well, the couple of days work at the station turned into 8, 12-hr days of grading, checking water lines, mustering, drafting, loading, de-horning, castrating and fire-branding cattle, and a continuous stream of meals to prepare and laundry to assist with, along with joining an evening kangaroo/wild pig hunt with Kim the roo shooter. The largest paddock required a chopper to assist with the muster. Sadly, the weather cut our visit short by a day or two as 10mm of rain turned the 20km trip to the bitumen into a slidey glug of red mud. Murray had the grader on the back of the road train, but the truck wouldn't budge. Our trustworthy landcruiser proved its worth and we threw it into four wheel ... read more
August 27th 2010
To 26 August 2010 Well, lots has happened since our last blog. Dad flew down from Kerikeri to visit us, staying a week. We had a lovely time together with David, Christine and the girls, and taking him for a drive into Central Otago, visiting the Chinese Garden and having a guided tour by David around the University, and watching the girls play soccer. Wayne took Dad and I up on the container crane which was one of the highlights of his trip. Dave finished work at Taieri Gorge Railway in the first week of August, and I did my Unit Standard assessment at the Polytech. After searching and finding several Bushy Campers in Australia for sale on the internet, we whittled the list down to four to look at in Sydney. On the spur of ... read more
November 7th 2008
Off to Mt Isa again! This time for Rehersals for the Rock Pop Mime Competition between all the schools. Clancy and all the kids from school of the air did a great performance called 'Destination unknown'. Clancy was an alien. We picked Donette, Kim ,Lil, and Tessa up from the airport and set off back to Westward Ho. Quite a contrast for them in comparison to Manjimup. We had a great week with them here and then all drove to Longreach to finally visit the Stockmens Hall of fame. We were all a tad disappointed in it, especially Kris and he was expecting to see a large photo of himself displayed in the main foyer. Sadly we said goodbye to the Edwards family in Longreach and we made the long drive back. Next into Boulia for ... read more
July 22nd 2008
What a great weekend! We had Jess and Jake with us too, which made it even better. We camped at the race grounds along with 5000 others people, everyone had campfires and it was a great atmosphere. I worked in the bar for a few hours and then we got into the swing of the races. We had a few wins on the camels we backed- Loose Lips, Howlin Gale, and the Cup winner Ole Reggie Boy! Jake was very brave and was talked into entering the camel tagging competition. They put a wild camel in a yard, give you a piece of gaffa tape. You run into the yard stick the tape on the camel, run back to touch the fence then back in and retrieve your tape off the wild camel. The one with ... read more
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July 13th 2008
Time is going by quickly and already it is the middle of July. We have visited Coorabulka Station for a school of the air activity day. Coorabulka is 120kms west of us and Unbelivable the manager worked with Kris 25 years ago. Jim and Fiona and thier 3 kids stayed with us at Westward Ho for a few days on thier way through to Willeroo Stn in N.T. Last weekend we went on a fishing trip to the Diamentina for a couple of days, a beautiful spot about 2 hours from Westward Ho. We caught soooooo many fish, Yellow bellies, great eating. Even Kris caught some!! Jake is here with us for the school hols, and we are picking Jess up in Mt Isa on Wednesday. The Boulia camel races are on next weekend. Jake and ... read more
April 18th 2008
We have settled in here at Westward Ho. The girls have started school of the air, Mt Isa this week and have grasped the concept really well, not sure if the home tutor gets it all yet. The weather is still sunny, dry and dusty with beautiful sunsets and sunrises. Speaking of sunrise, we are all up at daylight tomorrow to muster Dribbling Bore paddock. The girls are keen motorbike riders now and will be joining the muster tomorrow. They have been mustering in the plane and enjoy the dare devil ride of buzzing cattle out from under the trees, ducking up and down. We had a trip to Mt Isa to meet the kids on air teachers and stock up on major essentials such as beer and wine. I have started fitball and yogalates in ... read more
April 9th 2008
We went to the Qantas museum in Longreach Where we got to go in an old 60-70s plane there was first class and your alLowed to smoke Yuk!!!!! it is one of the first planes named after bunbUry.We left longreach to go to Winton.There we went to the Waltzing Matilda center and saw some dinosawr bones they dug up there in Winton (a whole body no missing peices).We left winton and headed straight to Boulia.Now we are working so much with the cows, shifting them, yarding them putting them on trucks.I got to nuRse a baby cow for 2 hours in the back of a ute cause it had no mum it made my back sore.It is hot here but in the after noons there is a bit of a breeze. Clancy Westward Ho Station is ... read more
Outstanding views in the Outback!
Published: August 6th 2007Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Boulia
June 8th 2007
G'day! Although I was a bit anxious about being back on my own again I was so excited about this part of the trip - I finally got to go to the Ozzie Outback! I'd organised a 3 day bus trip with Desert Venturer tours down through the Outback to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory as I figured it would be just my luck to end up in some Wolf Creek/Deliverance combined nightmare so I played it safe and booked the tour. I set off at 6.30am on Saturday morning and spent most of my first experience of the Outback snoozing on the bus! When I did manage to peel my eyes open I took in the views of the Great Dividing Ranges which run from Queensland right down to Victoria. We drove through the ... read more
Birdsville to Bedourie to Boulia and home
Published: June 5th 2007Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Boulia
June 5th 2007
Birdsville is most famous for its once a year Birdsville Races held on the first weekend of September. The normally small town of 120 swells to 5000, as people fly, bus, drive and ride in for two days of races. The airfield opposite the pub fills with up to 200 planes and people camp out under the wings, and all descend on the pub for food and drink. The pub was first built in 1884, and despite fires and floods its original walls still remain. The first hotel, The Royal, is also still standing albeit a shell of its former past Another attraction is Birdsville's proximity to The Simpson Desert and Big Red, which is a huge sandhill attracting four wheel drive maniacs keen to try out their skills. It is the first and highest ... read more
