Charleville

---

Charleville is the heart of the mulga lands on the banks of the WaregoRiver. The timber of the mulga tree is extremely poisonous and if you happen to get a splinter but fail to remove all of that splinter you are guaranteed to get blood poisoning. Mental note to self – be extremely careful as to what timber you pick up for campfires!



The Mitchell Highway(also known as the Matilda Way) brought us north from Wyandra. We pulled into a bush camp just outside of Charleville township. It is run by CMCA (Campervan & Motorhome Club of Australia). As members it cost us $6/night. We have booked in for 2 nights, but having been to the Tourist Info Centre to gather brochures etc we may extend that to 3 nights so that we can enjoy a few more of the local attractions in the next day or so. We shall wait and see.



We have booked for 2 tours for Wednesday – a Bilby experience and a tag along tour of the “Top Secret WWII” airforce base.



Happy hour tonight started at 4:30 (!!) around the fire pit. At 5pm we were joined by a guest speaker – the President of the local Men’s Shed who was also one of the first responders to the 2014 Angellala Bridge Explosion. He had put together a basic diorama to recreate the events of that dreadful event in September 2014. The explosion involved a single truck laden with 52.8 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (one of the components mining companies use in their detonations). The explosion was equivalent to 10-15 tonnes of TNT and measured 2.1 on the Richter scale and was felt by the people of Charleville 30kms away. Miraculously 8 people were injured but there were no fatalities.



no photos today!

---