Abbotsford Convent

For this weeks adventure I went to the very beautiful Abbotsford Convent. The site consists of 11 buildings; the Convent, Convent Annexe, St Euphrasia, Providence, Rosina, St Mary's, Mercator, Magdalen Laundries, Sacred Heart, Industrial School and St Anne's. 

Founded by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in 1863, the Abbotsford Convent operated for more than 100 years through the social traumas caused by gold rush and bust,the Great Depression and two world wars. Over the period of a century, thousands of girls and women were placed in the care at the convent, with many residing in the convent's Sacred Heart Building, and labouring in the onsite Magdalen Laundries. 

One of the two woodfired ovens built in 1901 and still in use today.
This one is now used for mainly heating and the other is used for all the bakeries daily food. 

While the convent had a positive impact for some women - many of whom were destitute and had nowhere else to go - and although the convent provided critically needed shelter, food and education in the absence of state care, the convent was also a place of hardship and ordeal for some of the women, as was often the experience of those in institutional care. 

Built in 1901, the Sisters Convent is sited on what was Abbotsford House, a former gentleman's farmlet. The Convent building was where most of the Sisters, novices (nuns in training) and postulants (women commencing life as nuns) lived.

Funds for the Convent building came from a raffle held at the Royal Exhibition Buildings, with the prizes donated by Catholic families and businesses. The raffle raised over $5 million in today's dollar equivalent. 

At it's peak, the Convent housed up to 150 Sisters and was one of the largest Catholic complexes in Australia, and by 1901 was the largest charitable institution operation in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Today many of the buildings are now home to over 100 arts and crafts practitioners, the Convent Bakery, Health and Wellbeing businesses and also spaces that can be rented out for functions. 

On Thursday 31 August 2017, the Abbotsford Convent joined iconic landmarks including the Royal Exhibition Buildings, Sydney Opera House and the Melbourne Cricket Ground in achieving the country's highest level of recognition. 

The National Heritage listing states the Convent's Laundries and asylum buildings are an important record for those Australians and their families known as the Forgotten Australians. The listing also states the harm of institutionalization and the trauma experienced by many residents is acknowledged as part of the Convents heritage. 

As I walked around theses beautiful gardens gazing at the amazing buildings it was nice to think that there was somewhere that was there to help women, but also very sad to think of all those who suffered.

Blackbutt, Queensland

Well it certainly wasn't a very long distance to get to this destination - 61km. Why would we only travel this far, because we wanted to. We did stop off at the little town of Yaraman for a pretty yummy brunch of scones, jam and cream.

Mmmmm Yummy Brunch

The township we are in for 3 nights is called Blackbutt named after the Eucalyptus Pilularis Tree or Blackbutt Tree. The town was established back around the early 1800's when farms were established in the area. A population growth happened in the late 19th century when as with many Australian towns gold was discovered. Blackbutt now has a population of just over 1000 and to me has a little bit of an alternative feel to it with a few shops selling crystals, incense product and art. I have been looking for a small lamp for in Myrtle and I found this little salt lamp that has a tiny LED lamp in it that changes colours. For those out there interested in tennis this is where the Aussie tennis legend Roy Emerson was born.

The Hotel Radnor was built around 1908 - 1912 and was initially was named "The Grand". According to stories the hotel was renamed "Hotel Radnor" after the owner's dog that was killed in 1935.

 The main street is quite pretty with a couple of great old buildings framed by some glorious flowers.

We are staying at the Blackbutt showgrounds which we thought would be quiet but a Motorhome club are having a few day getaway here, but they have been pretty quiet. We are finding showgrounds are a great place to stay being a bit cheaper than caravan parks and usually have old but really clean amenities. Have any travellers out there stayed in any Showgrounds? If so, I'd love to hear about them.

Croydon, Queensland

Croydon is now a small township in the middle of the base of the Gulf of Carpentaria but in its heyday it was the fourth largest town in Queensland and was a bustling town surrounded by gold hysteria. These days it is a town like so many other outback towns trying to survive the drought and modern times. But fortunately a number of heritage buildings have been kept and this gives travellers a glimpse of what Croydon was like in the 1800's.

The Club Hotel, built in 1887 is now the last of 36 hotels that were here in the gold rush days. 

The Croydon General Store is the longest continually running store in Queensland and also claims to be the oldest store in Australia. It was built in 1887 and now houses a lot of local memorabilia and artifices as well as groceries, tyres, fuel and souvenirs. 

The Croydon Court House was needed after the initial gold strike in 1885. The court house played an important role in the life of early Croydon. This is where disputes over mining claims were heard. Today it has been set up so visitors can sit in the gallery and listen to a recreation of poor Betty getting two months for swearing and she left for goal with a Chinese boss who also got two months for supplying his workers with opium. 

The Iguana Consols Mining Museum is an area containing various mining equipment now rusting but still very impressive. There is also the shell of the original Bing Chew family home. I love the way they built the low veranda to keep the house cooler. 

Historic Village Herberton

This amazing historic village owes it's existence firstly to Herberton's pioneers  and then also to the people who have collected old buildings, hundreds of artefacts from the past, many many old cars tractors, bottles, records and so much more.

Back to school in the 1800's, early 1900's

I have been to historic villages before, such as Sovereign Hill in Ballarat but this one has literally thousands upon thousands of pieces of history collected from the area. I was also totally amazed in the organization of everything and how clean everything was.

Day's Garage held so many beautiful vehicles

A funeral wagon

This toy store had so many amazing toys

 All the buildings, except Tin Pannikin Pub dates from Herberton's foundation years in the 1880's and almost all the buildings are as they were originally constructed.

Everything was so clean

The products in the pharmacy were mind blowing

Charters Towers, Queensland

Tomorrow we leave Charters Towers after two nights here. Even though it is a big country town with a population of around 9000 and built on Gold and Cattle it has started giving me a bit of a tropical feel as it is only 90 minutes from the east coast of Australia. Back in 1871 from a chance discovery of gold by a young Aboriginal horse boy Jupiter Mosman and the proclamation of a goldfield in 1872 Charters Towers was born. Back in the bustling golden days this town was the second largest in Queensland, consisting of 11 crushing mills, 65 hotels and one of the first regional towns to have the Stock Exchange in Australia.

There are some stunning Queenslanders in town. 

Dotted around the towers Hill lookout are lots of air raid shelters

As in the other mining towns we have visited such as Kalgoorlie/Boulder, it is evident of the past wealth in the town by the stunning buildings.

Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame - Longreach

Longreach for me is the true Outback Australia although it is talked about in the tourist brochures as being the gateway to the Outback. It is quite a big town and doesn't have the dying town feel even though it has been in a severe drought for about the past 5 years. Driving around the area it's fairly obvious there is a drought, everywhere is so so dry. Rivers and creeks are just full of dust instead of water. Longreach's river the Thompson River only has an 18km stretch of water left. 

Yes there is a drought here

The Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame was one of the reasons we wanted to visit Longreach. This amazing attraction pays tribute to Australia's pioneering legends, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and outlines our Outback history. It includes some amazing artifices, electronic displays, films and photography. We paid a little extra to see an Outback show that included outback horsemanship, the way dogs work the sheep and general outback stuff. I would really recommend the Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame as it really gives us city slickers a glimpse into what the early Aussies had to go through to get this country it is as we know it today.

Lara Wetlands

We decided to stay at Lara for a night, that turned into three at the Lara Wetlands Bush Camp. It was absolutely beautiful, our camp was right on the water, we had our own fire each night and there was a hot Artesian Thermal Pool to have a soak in. The sites didn't have any power but there was toilets and showers and that's all you really need. Our first night was sheer bliss. After eating dinner beside our glowing campfire I settled into bed listening to the many noises of nature. In the morning I awoke as the sun came over the treetops to an orchestra of amazing sounds of nature. After mediating I sat and had breakfast with the Native Bees gathering pollen from the grasses. Two baby magpies came right up to my feet. Bright green parrots with the most vivid orange/red beneath their wings, blue parrots with a multitude of colours under their wings , various ducks, swans, birds that seemed to walk on water with their skinny little legs and then to top it of a big eagle flew over my head.

A beautiful sunset over the Lara Wetlands

Our very own nightly fire

The Artesian Thermal pool

Our next day was just another day in paradise. Our early morning was spent soaking in the Artesian Thermal Pool. It was pretty warm we you first got in, probably in the mid 40c's. That afternoon we decided to drive the 23km into Barcaldine to get a few supplies and have a look around. I have wanted to go to Barcaldine for awhile after hearing about the "Tree of Knowledge". The Tree of Knowledge was a Ghost Gum (Eucalyptus Papuana) which grew outside the railway station in Barcaldine for around 180 years and is celebrates as being the central meeting place for the Shearer's Strike during the upheaval in 1891. It is also believed that in 1891 the base of this historic tree was the location of the formation of the Australian Labour Party. Unfortunately it was poisoned in 2006 by an unknown culprit. After preservation it was placed under an award winning timber structure.  

Looking up inside this amazing structure

The Tree of Knowledge structure is very imposing

When we got back to Myrtle we both had a Nana nap. The evening was once again spent by our fire listening to nature bid the day farewell. 

Time off Line

I'll be first to admit I am a little addicted to my technology. I love my iPad, iPod, iPhone and my laptop. I check out Facebook and my emails numerous time during the day. I have thought several times it might a good idea to see if I can have some time away from technology, but never got around to do it. That's until the past few days, we have been staying where there was no internet connection and where we were staying had no electricity. So I had my phone off to conserve the batteries. So now I'm doing a bit of catch up on my Aussie Adventure updates.

Charleville 

One of the attraction we wanted to see in Charleville was the Cosmos Centre. We have been here before - around seven years ago - and enjoyed it so much we just knew we wanted to visit again. They have four extremely powerful telescopes that we are able to look through into the world above. We were lucky enough to see the moon so close that we cold see all the craters. It was absolutely magnificent. we also saw the double star - Albireo, the group of stars called M6 which is 20 light years away, the second largest globular cluster called Tucana 47 and another highlight was seeing Saturn so close you could see it's rings and some of it's 60 moons. 

From Charleville we headed for Blackall where we stayed a night in a free camp on the Barcoo River, which was more a creek than a river.

Blackall is another tiny town just hanging on, but it has several intestine pieces of art throughout the town. 

The Eagle and Nest: Richard Moffat made this Wedge Tail Eagle and it's nest from of old rusty railway dog spikes, timber, bolts and various other waste pieces of scrap metal. The artists says "The nest is a home and a place to raise a family, which is another representation of what Balckall feels like to me". We set up our camp just beside our Eagle, so it was like he was looking over us. 

Lifespan: Frederick White made Lifespan predominately from recycled bore casing. This piece of artwork represents life in general; paths that sometimes converge or momentarily cross over, then towards the end of life, like the beginning, level out to a new time for experiencing. 

RolyPoly: The RolyPoly is another form of creativity by the artist Richard Moffat. His concept about this was all about having fun. I think he got the feel when he created this art mainly from old fencing wire. 

Jack Howe: Jack Howe became famous in 1892, for shearing 321 sheep with hand blade shears in 7 hours and 40 minutes at Alice Downs Station. A record that has never been broken. 

 One very historic attraction in Blackall is the "Blackall Woolscour" was recommended to us to visit. The Blackall Woolscour is a historic wool washing plant which operated on steam from 1908 to 1978. It is believed to be the only complete operation of its kind left in Australia, with the original steam machinery still in place. It was well worth staying in Blackall to see this amazing building and machinery. 

I have never been this close to a Billy Goat!!
He walked right over to me. 

Bourke to Cunnamulla

We ended up having a couple of nights in Bourke. I liked the town a lot more than I thought I would. Bourke is situated on the Darling River which along with the Murray River is the two major river in Australia. I was very surprised to see just how muddy this river is, like an upside down river.

Darling River - Bourke

Bourke has a very interesting old cemetery with some interesting subscriptions on some of the old graves. The bush ranger "Captain Starlight" is laid to rest there. Also one of Australia's most loved and influential people "Fred Hollows" is also laid to rest there too. Fred Hollows was actually a New Zealander and his first visit Bourke was in 1971 when he was Chair of the Division of Ophthalmology at the University of New South Wales. From the first time he set foot in Bourke, he fell in love with the town and its people. Fred was buried with his glasses, a bottle of whiskey, letters from his children, sawdust from his workshop, his pipe and a tin of tobacco. Throughout his life he did so much for so many people and their eyesight. What an amazing man he was. 

Fred Hollows Grave

This morning we headed off not really knowing where we would stay tonight. When we hit the New South Wales - Queensland border we came across the historic (very old) Tattersalls Hotel. More interesting than the hotel was Mary the 91 year old publican. She was such a character with lots of stories. She loved the horse racing, so her and Shane had a lot to talk about. She also had an interesting story about Fred Hollows too. Many years ago he visited the hotel and she sat in her kitchen and had a bowl of her homemade veggie soup. She said he was a "pretty rough bloke. Tough and he swore like a trouper". As we were leaving she said to Shane "I wish you could stay longer and we could talk racing all day". She was such a personality to meet along the way. 

Tattersalls Hotel - NSW / Queensland Border

So now here we are for the night in Cunnamulla, Queensland. Today has been the best weather so far 27c. We have also had our first Queensland sunset tonight , which was pretty nice. 

Our first Queensland Sunset

We thought we might stay two nights but will probably head off tomorrow as the people who are running this caravan would have to be the two rudest caravan park managers I have ever come across.