Blogs from Birdsville, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 2

Leaving Townsville we head for Winton where we will meet our friends, we have traveled this road before and so it holds no surprises for us.Winton is to far in one day so we break our journey in Hughenden staying at the local racecourse carpark for a small fee.Reaching Winton the next day we are the first to arrive and strike a deal with the new owners of the caravan park to have two sites side by side, our friends are in a tent and will rely on us for power.We have not seen these friends for over two years but when they arrive it seems like we saw them only yesterday.Once settled into our park we head for the local pub and dinner,the Tattersalls Hotel was to become a favorite watering hole during our short ... read more

Day 58 Sean and I head out around 9:30 to check out the town and get some info on the desert, which is why we are here. And to my surprise its still closed due to flooding, dammit, all this way for nothing. The government site sadi it would be open in june but I guess not. It’s a big let down but we deal with it and make the best of a bad situation. We run back to camp and grab Jackie and head to the Working Museum, what a collection, everything from food tins to pumps that still work from the 1800's. The owners even gave a show of some of the working artifacts, like - a cardboard recordplayer for missionaries, water powered mixing bowl, and some WWI and 2 artifacts. It was a ... read more

On a warm winters evening on a bus bound for Birdsville, I met up with a gambler (90 something of them actually), and I asked of them advice....They said "You gotta know when ta....keep your money in your pocket out here! It's the only way you'll win". And so it began...my trip to Birdsville! From Brisbane, Shandell, Amber and myself along with ninety or so other punters set off on the outback adventure of the year. Travelling overnight and into the following day, we watched as 24 hours along with over 1600km of road passed us by before we arrived at the remote little outback settlement of Birdsville. With a population of just 66 and nestled between the Simpson and Sturt Stony desert, the Lonely Planet guidebook rightly describes this town as one of the most ... read more

It was a long dusty road to Birdsville. When we got there we looked around for a long time, but we finally found a campsite beside the river, under the windmill. We set up camp and drove out to Big Red. Big Red is a huge red sand dune at the start of the Simpson Desert. I climbed up it. There was like a platform of sand on the angle, when you got to the top, but you could go up a little mini hill to the side. I got up to the top of it - on my hands and knees, because I was very, very puffed. I was amazed at the beautiful view. After we got back to town - it was 36km’s out - we had tea at the famous Birdsville Hotel. In ... read more

The road out of Broken Hill was boring and bumpy on the way to Cameron’s Corner it was very outbacky. Cameron’s Corner is where 3 states meet - New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Then we hit the road again and headed to Innamincka. Had a look around and filled the car with fuel. I got a hat pin to add to my collection. Then we were on the road to Burke’s Grave. Burke’s Grave is where Burke died, he was a famous explorer together with his sidekick Wills. Wills died on the other side of town, but also on Cooper Creek. We then headed to the Dig Tree which is where Burke & Wills had set up camp to head North to the Gulf of Carpentaria. When they weren’t back by a certain date ... read more