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Published: September 29th 2011
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They're off!
although there seemed to be some confusion as to which direction to go in! On Wednesday 28th September Graham was up before the alarm went off doing some of the quieter preparations for the day’s journey. We get annoyed when the early birds pack up noisily without regard for the people sleeping in so Graham makes sure he leaves the noisy things until last. Today we are heading for Charleville which, much to the amusement of our neice’s lad in Tewkesbury, is pronounced CHAR-LEE-VILLE. It must be great to have a town named after you. It was to be a journey of 316 kilometers – the longest one we’ve had since early August. There are a couple of very small towns between Blackall and Charleville but the caravan parks are more like roadhouses so we decided to reach Charleville in one day. After about 120 kilometers we hit the small town of Tambo and it was an ideal time and place for a break. Even though just a small town, they too had a very pleasant park with picnic facilities and toilets so it was a perfect stopping place. Traffic had been very light although the roads were not perfect. Nevertheless we made excellent time and we were soon back on the road heading for
another small town – Augathella where we planned to stop for lunch.
Before we reached Augathella we had to negotiate several stretches of controlled road-works which slowed us down a bit but it was about lunch-time when we eventually approached the town. Unlike Tambo which you drive right through, Augathella is just off the main road so we suspect most people by-pass it. But we were looking for somewhere to have our picnic lunch so we turned off into the main (possibly the only) street. In our information guide to this part of Queensland, the information for Augathella boasted “Shopping is a breeze – there are no queues”!! We hardly saw any people but there was a motel, a cinema(!) and a shop or two. It must have seen better days but, once again, they had a splendid small park which was ideal for travellers like us. We noticed some information boards which normally promote the major successes of a town – famous people, contributions to industry, farming, politics etc. These notices had two main subjects. Firstly, the area is famous for Meat Ants – according to the notice they are so voracious they can strip a carcass in
no time at all, which probably explains why most of the road kill we saw (and there has been lots in this area) is often just bones! To promote this theme, they have a huge sculptured Meat Ant in copper and bronze as the main feature of their park. Secondly, to further endorse the theme, Augathella once boasted a very successful Rugby League team (it’s hard to imagine there being enough menfolk in the town to raise a team!) - this was the other main subject of the notices. They must have won a significant trophy in their day – the photographs showed a team from the 1970s – and, unsurprisingly, they were nicknamed The Meat Ants. Their team song was also shown in full and included the fantastic lines – “Oompah, oompah, do we bite? Augathella Augathella Red and White”. The mind boggles - but once again, we were entertained and amused and very impressed by the efforts of a small town to promote itself and Augathella will certainly be remembered by us for its novelty value.
The third and last leg of today’s journey brought us to Charleville and we were due a bit of a break
The Mighty Red Ants Anthem
Bobba Dilla, Billa Walla, Wish Bang Wop, Augathella Augathella, Keep on Top, Ompa Ompa do we bite! Augathella Augathella, Red and White, Augathella yeah, Meat Ants! so we checked into the Bailey Bar Caravan Park for three nights. It’s one of the country parks that promote entertainment throughout the peak period. The park owners had decided that tonight was to be the last night of that period – there would be a camp oven meal followed by yabbie racing!! We were easily persuaded to take part and paid our $20 each which included our own yabbie in the race. We were expertly guided onto our caravan block by Julian, the park owner, and we set up the caravan taking note of the weather forecast which, according to the locals, would include an inch of rain overnight. As it has been so blisteringly hot of late, we thought that, at least, the rain would freshen things up a bit. We nipped into the town for an hour for a bit of shopping and to check out the two main attractions of the town – the night sky and bilbies. We booked into the Cosmos Viewing for Friday night so as to give the current cloudy weather time to clear through. The bilby attraction is also a night-time event (they’re nocturnal), and as we’d already booked a camp
oven meal for tonight, we chose Thursday night for the bilbies. This would leave the daytime for unwinding and relaxing.
Plenty of people had booked for the meal and just before 6:00pm they all began to congregate around the camp fire. So armed with our table and chairs, dishes, plates cutlery and drinks, we found a space under the huge, open-sided gazebo, next to a couple from Adelaide. Many people were setting up outside but with spots of rain already falling we didn’t want to find ourselves stuck without cover. Julian, a brilliant compere, amusingly explained how the evening would proceed. Meanwhile, the “racing yabbies” were all in a big plastic bowl filled with water. There were 27 in all and most already had numbers on their backs. But first, we were invited up to the kitchen area with our plates which were duly loaded with mashed potato, veggies and a casserole mixture – it was brilliant. Later, with Julian still being the amusing host, we collected our apple crumble and custard – another excellent serving. After most people had finished, the allocation of the yabbies took place. As we had purchased two meal tickets we were able to
select a free yabby between us which was called Just Bait – number 12. The one chosen before ours was called Boiling Point which might have been more appropriate for The Kettles. There were three yabbies which weren’t numbered – they had letters on their backs. They were to be auctioned off and Julian then took on the guise of the auctioneer – once again he was brilliantly funny. He explained that all the proceeds from tonight’s event, apart from prize money, would be donated to The Royal Flying Doctor Service of which his father had been a grateful customer a few years ago. People willingly and generously entered into the spirit of the event and eventually a considerable sum was raised which was excellent. The arena was then cleared and a large circular racing mat was laid on the ground. The yabbies were placed in a circular “box” in the very centre and when all of them appeared to be settled, the box was lifted and the race was on. The winner would be the first yabby to clear the black line at the edge of the mat. Most of them hardly moved at all but about five of
them made a great effort to “escape” and number 12 – Just Bait – was one of them. There was much cheering and hollering going on – the atmosphere was brilliant. We tried our best to encourage ‘Just Bait’ to ‘get a wriggle on’ but eventually one of the auctioned yabbies won with ours finishing third. There was only one prize – quite a substantial sum of money – which was won by the couple next to us who were from Adelaide. They generously gave $100 of their prize money back to the RFDS and a really good evening finished with mugs of billy tea. By now the rain was falling quite heavily and lightening could be seen in the distance. We had already showered so it was just a matter of settling in for the night and hoping the rain wouldn’t be too bad.
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Jodie Groves
non-member comment
Hi there Pootling Possums, Thanks again for the fantastic blogs, I am one of those people that have thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of your entries, so congratulations on such a wonderful effort (and the strength to continue to write them!) I have enjoyed reading them all, but especially the last few blogs as it brings back such wonderful memories of two holidays we took a couple of years ago. We went to the same places and just loved the atmosphere and everything those outback towns had to offer. We too loved Charleville and funnily enough our yabbie was of the same name as yours! Hoping you enjoy the cosmos centre, we were amazed at what it offered and what we saw, it was definitly worth the money in our opinion, so it will be interesting to read about your experiences. We also enjoyed the Bilby show. Sorry if I have waffled on a bit, but thanks again for such interesting and informative blogs. Safe travels Jodie