Advertisement
Published: December 7th 2006
Blog8 Christmas Greetings to all our readers.
And so we arrive in Blackall on the Matilda Highway, this town was discovered by Major Thomas Mitchell in 1846.
Mitchell was appointed surveyor- General of New South Wales in 1828 , he did not conceal his jealousy and annoyance that Sturt was chosen to command expeditions to solve the river problems. He was keen to attain fame himself as an explorer , fragments of streams found by one explorer after another and marked in thin disconnected streaks were becoming linked up, he was instructed to find out whether the Darling was the same river as Sturt had found flowing into the Murray. His jealousy made him hope Sturt was wrong , but before he reached the point he realised that indeed the one did flow into the other , the problem was solved but he didn’t return to Sydney , he crossed over the river , all around him the explorer saw a magnificent stretch of fresh country, he threw up his hands in rapture, Moses had never entered the promised land he Thomas Mitchell held a perfect paradise rolling in green and golden glory he wrote ‘’ as I stood the first intruder on the sublime solitude of these verdant plains, as yet untouched by flocks and herds. I felt conscious of being the harbinger of mighty changes there, for our steps would soon be followed by the men and the animals for which it seemed to have been prepared.’ into this ‘’Eden’’ he believed to be the first , so was quite shocked to discover on his homeward route he glimpsed Portland harbour , a brig lying at anchor, and saw what he thought was grey rocks proved on closer examination , to be a cluster of comfortable huts on the shore., for in 1834 nearly 2 years before he appeared on the scene the Henty brothers had taken up living there with no authority, with flocks , herds , poultry, and a whaling ship, also fruit trees and vines were growing. This was not a lucky man. But in 1846 he did discover Blackall , this was a big sheep rearing area.
Jack Howe born in 1861 ,settled in Blackall in the 1880’s and married local dressmaker Victoria Short , they had 10 children six boys and four girls , in 1892 Jack became famous for shearing 321 sheep in 7 hours and 40 minutes at alice downs station near Blackall with blade shears, . A record that has never been broken . He ended his shearing career in 1900 and became a local publican and agent for ford cars, he died in 1920 aged 59 years. His coffin was carried in an open wagonette hearse drawn by two horses, he was buried in Blackall cemetery .
Another famous son of Blackall was Roy Dunne , in 1905 he set the world record for jumping a goat over three feet six inches . A photograph of Roy Dunne on ‘’Nugget is on his grave..
As with many of these towns the population is very small now , there are very few sheep as there is no grazing for them , there has been no rain for 7 years There was a lack of flies here , and I missed them , I asked a local over a cold drink , and apparently , there are few flies because of the frogs , I remarked that they didn’t seem to make much noise , usually when there were frogs about the noise in the evenings can be deafening , ‘’ ah, well that would be because we have a lot of snakes, in fact there was a brown on in the bar just the other day ‘’. They then confirm what they have said by saying ‘’yeh that would be it ‘’.
The next day we headed for Charleville , we were heading south at a pace because the weather is unbearably hot, low 40’s in the day and high 30’s at night. We had to stop at a level crossing just on the outskirts of the town and guess who was behind us ? The honeymooners, we called them the kids, we would often say ‘’I wonder how the kids are’’ and there they were behind us , we pulled over and after a brief discussion decided we would find a site together to catch up
We now found out their names Craig and Andrea , they had headed for Burketown but didn’t stop as there was very little to see , and as it was only lunch time they had a drink and pushed on to Lawn Hill, when they arrived it wasn’t at all like the brochure , ‘waterfalls and swimming holes ‘ the camp site was mud , and so they left and headed for mount Isa , booked in for three days to get over the 700 kilometre drive , They had visited the swagman , passed through Blackall , and here we were. We had a pleasant evening catching up , and were going to book in to the cosmo show the next evening, (this was looking through telescopes at the stars ) but being cynical by now of what to expect we decided we would go have a look in the morning before making a commitment,. It looked alright and we all booked for that evening . The weather was still unbearably hot ,with no relief by having a cold shower as the water in the cold tap was hotter than the hot water in the hot tap. They used artesian water straight from the bore , and it was hot. Dave and I decided to go to the local swimming pool , when we arrived it was full of children from the cattle and sheep stations having a get together, and a bit of a gala , the lady said it was ok we could join them as the races were over , it was lovely, and refreshing. We returned to the campsite refreshed but it wasn’t long before we were hot again , the owner asked if we would like a sprinkler to sit under, this was great . The evening was good , Craig and Andrea had discovered they were going to be parents , so we all went out to dinner to celebrate the conception of Billy Bob , Craig had decided if the baby was a boy he would call him William Robert, that was until Andrea realised it would be shortened to Billy Bob . It will always be Billy Bob to us. From dinner we went to the Cosmos show , the man knew his stuff , we saw red stars , twin stars , that orbited around each other , blue stars , shooting stars , satellites , and had a good look at the crescent moon. I can’t describe the sky’s out here they are big and unpolluted .
We later discussed where we would be heading , all were heading south, them back towards Melbourne , as their trip was coming to an end ,us just out of the heat , it was low 40’s during the day and high 30’s at night. Craig and Andrea had gone by the time we got ready but left their address and a book of campsites , wishing us safe travels from the Kids and Billy Bob , they hoped to see us when we were in Melbourne . ( They are a super couple )
We put a lot of kilometres behind us that next day heading for the Murray river , we thought we would stop 50 kilometres south of Burke , we had been told by several travellers not to stay in Burke as it was iffy, we reached the Gundabooka national park only to discover the site had to be booked in Bourke which was a 100 kilometre round trip , we decided to plough on for Cobar , a copper mining town another 160 kilometres south. The next morning we continued south heading for Grffith ,this was a town that had been designed by Walter Burley Griffith , an American architect who is better known for designing Canberra , it was a very neat town big wide roads , with trees down the middle and seating areas in the shade of the trees and lots of roundabouts. Here we stayed by a lake ,all around were citrus groves , we bought oranges , just 2 dollars for 20 , and had freshly squeezed orange juice for days , it was lovely and cool , here we met a chap called Arthur who hadn’t spoken to anyone for 4 days , and he and Dave talked into the night , he also was an engineer. Finally we reached the Murray at Tocumwal , you can camp anywhere along by the river on the Victoria side , we found a spot and jumped into the river , it was very relaxing , in the morning we were looking at the big red river gums and low and behold we saw a Koala, deep joy , we were beginning to think we would never see them in the wild , on closer examination we saw more some with babies on their backs .
From here we decided to follow the river to Echuca , the town was founded in 1853 by an ex convict, who established ferry crossings across the Murray , he built an hotel in 1858 and watched the town grow into the biggest inland port in Australia , The wharf was almost a mile long and lined with shops and hotels , here a lot of the old paddle steamers are being restored , once over 800 plied their trade, we took a trip on the Arbuthnot , built in 1923 one of the last ones built, it had been used to transport timber from a sawmill at Koondrooks further up the river , we went to the saw mill which was established in the late 1870’s which is still running today. After leaving Echuca , and before arriving at the saw mill , we had a little diversion , we saw a sign to a waterwheel museum , at Ganawarra , that sounds interesting we thought and not out of the way, we knew we had made a mistake when we pulled up outside , there was a barn surrounded by all sorts of junk , old farming implements extremely rusty , a plastic swan , we didn’t retreat quick enough , an old lady came out , a big welcoming smile on her face , come in , come in, I’ll open up for you , our hearts sunk as we smiled and jumped out of the van , she swung back the doors of this big barn and inside was a lifetimes collection of one family , nothing had ever been discarded , there were glass bottles, this is were it all started she declared , she followed us around pointing out anything we may have skimmed over , ‘’did you notice the wedding dress , here’s a picture of me in it on our wedding day’’, look I bet you haven’t seen one of these for a long time ?’’ it was a mincer, ‘’they were good for making your own mince, ‘’’’ and I bet you’ve never seen one of these, in fact we hadn’t it was a small box a piece of string hung out of either side with a small glass bead on each end, ok she had our attention , we were intrigued , she opened the lid , inside was a razorblade , and top and bottom were small abrasive stones and when you pulled the string the blade oscillated and sharpened itself. We edged towards the door , just as her husband approached , he also had a barn , he collected old stationary engines and was waiting for a bit from England to complete it. We asked why it was called the waterwheel museum , we hadn’t seen one waterwheel , yes she admitted , the name was a little confusing , but the barn was on the site of where the water inspectors went out to check farmers irrigation meters to see how much water they were taking from the Murray. We said we were running late and had to make tracks , he drew a map in the mud showing us a shortcut to the sawmill , we beat a hasty retreat. Our next stop was Swan Hill , this was were Major Mitchell stood and declared he had found Eden , and was so named because the black swans on the lake disturbed his sleep , we camped by the lake near Euston , Swan Hill is a big town very busy and much like any big town ,from here we went north to Wentworth , this is where the River Darling joins the River Murray , at the campsite where we stayed was the Sturt tree , this is where he tied up the whaling boat .
Sturt had left Sydney on November 3rd and found the banks of the Murrumbidgee river near Yass on November 23rd. There it was rapidly flowing from the snowy mountains to the east, he followed it until it shallowed and turned into reed beds , he decided to leave his cattle and stores, put together a whale boat, the planks and parts he had carried with him and set out to explore the river.( I cant believe the things the early explorers carried, having said that we are amazed at how many trucks we see with boats on the back of even in the outback , it must be an Australian thing.) He selected 7 of his party to accompany him , on the morning of January 7th 1830 started a remarkable journey to prove the junction of the Murrumbidgee and the Darling and the Murray, and went on to trace the course of the waterway to the sea. After a dangerous and exciting journey of a week the boat shot out of the Murrumbidgee into a broad and noble river with such a force that the explorers were ‘’carried nearly to the bank opposite the mouth while they gazed in silent wonder upon the large channel they had entered ‘’ Sturt gave the great river the name of sir George Murray, who happened to be secretary of state for war and the colonies for a few months between1828-1830. He had ceased to be a minister by the time news reached England that his name had been used to name this great river system. When questioned about the river late in 1830, Sir George Murray did not know who Sturt was or where the river was. And so here we were camped by the Sturt tree. Here we had a thunder storm it lasted all of half an hour the lightening was spectacular . After the storm a family of possums came over to the van looking for something to eat we told the wandering wombats (Margaret and Bob , from New Zealand )who were next door and they fed them bread, this was ok till they ran out ,the possums climbed into our van, David removed them with his toe. The next morning we went just 6 klm to the red sand dunes , the sun was wrong the dunes were pink but non the less impressive..
From here we went to Mungo National Park .this is the site of massive dried lake beds and there is evidence of aboriginal occupation dating back 60,000 years. Here is a big sand dune in the shape of the crescent moon , the sands move 3 meters a year revealing more of the history preserved beneath the sands. We climbed to the top of the dune the view was spectacular.
After this we must have had a brain storm we again headed north to Menindee, on a dirt road, the first part had the biggest corrugations we had ever seen the last 60 kilometres were fine, we were now drifting back into the footsteps of Bryson, Burke and Wills having left Melbourne heading for the Gulf of Carpentaria, After covering 800 miles with their unwieldy caravan stopped at Menindee and booked into the Maidens hotel ,( I’m sorry I can’t get my head round this , they had been travelling for 4 months arrive 800 miles later and book into an hotel, these were explorers. However here they rearranged there supplies, before their next big stop at Innamicka where they left the caravan and four of them went on alone .Judging from the town I would think it was the last time they had , had a bit of a rush on. Bryson was lucky , he was able to visit the original hotel, this has since burnt down and been replaced, we still went in for a drink. We then visited the grave yard where one of the camel minders was buried. We camped just outside the town on the much depleted Darling river.( the drought worsens).
Studying the map that evening we realised we were within reach of Broken hill this is a big mining town for silver , lead and zinc, it is also where Bryson had left the train to spend a few days in the outback. Here at Broken Hill he had visited Mario’s Palace Hotel where every blank space had been filled with a painting by an aborigine, Gordon Waye, it is also where some scenes from the film Priscilla queen of the dessert were filmed, looking up through the stairwell to the ceiling above Mario painted a copy of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.. The hotel also has the longest veranda in the state. It was impressive .
From here we drifted on to Silverton , this is where the first mining started , before it was found in larger amounts just down the road at Broken Hill. This is mostly a ghost town but it is here that many film crews are drawn ,this is where the pub that is featured in the castle main XXX adverts . It also appears in Mad Max and many other films, it looks like it is in the middle of nowhere, and really I suppose it is .It’s getting hot again, and I suppose most sensible people would be heading south , but we are so near White Cliffs, this is opal mining country ,it’s here where you get the white milky opal . This is where you see the most spectacular sunsets this is where I am writing this and where we shall be staying for the next few days then we really will head south.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0899s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Linda
non-member comment
What a winter!!!
Hi there, It's wet and windy as hell here and dark by 4...also need car lights on going to work in the morning....can't imagine how wonderful it is there. How are you going to come back here??? Keep the blog going.....gossip here is that you have a book in you fizz. Miss you.