Charleville, Queensland

Well we ended up staying in Cunnamulla for two nights, but really only because the petrol station was closed and we needed to fill up. It's very sad how these outback Aussie towns are only just holding on by the skin of their teeth. Then it doesn't help when the caravan park owners are actually rude to the travellers! We have actually been to Charleville once before about seven years ago, with my cousin Susan, my son Shane and his now wife Stacey. We liked it then so really wanted to come back and stay longer. We weren't sure where we would stay and just prior to heading off a fellow camper suggested we stay at "Evening Star Tourist Park". It is actually "Thurlby Station" and we have stayed at lots of cattle stations on our travels and always enjoyed them, so the decision was made where to stay. Within half an hour of arriving and setting up we knew we had made the right decision. The sites are all drive through, which makes arriving easy, the amenities blocks are spotless and the owners would have to be some of the friendliest we have ever met. Shane's extremely happy as they have a bar with $3.00 beers and happy hour (that goes on as long as there are people around) around the huge fire pit.

Evening Star Tourist Park

Just one of the attractions is sitting around the camp fire each night

Luckily Charleville with a population of around 3,550 is a fairly large town, but it is still facing the same woes as the smaller outback towns with lots of businesses closing and young people leaving to find work in bigger cities. When we were here last time we stayed at the historic Corones Hotel and were looking forward to seeing it again. But unfortunately it has gone into receivership and the owners just walked out leaving everything there.

Corones Hotel - unfortunately closed

Charleville still offers quite a few attractions for us visitors to see. But where we are staying is just a nice place to sit and watch the world go by. Today we decided to try our luck at a bit of fishing. We actually caught three Yellow Belly but that were all undersized and we threw them back.

Ward River

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. 

Hillston to Cobar

Our drive from Hillston to Cobar was fairly uneventful although I did kill my very first piece of wildlife!!! A silly bird flew into the windscreen very very hard and left some of it's body over the windscreen!! All was OK with the car although I think Shane nearly had a heart attack as he was having a snooze when it happened and woke with a huge fright. But alas the bird was a lot worse off. We did see quite a lot of other wildlife that I didn't kill. There was cattle and sheep. But also lots of Emu's and some with babies and heaps and heaps of goats. Cobar (which means Copper) is an old mining town with the discovery of Copper in 1870.

Over the years there have been many mines here opening, closing and opening again. These days (from what I can gather) there are only two sites remaining. Today we went and had a look at the open cut Peak Gold Mine which is 1400+ metres deep. Looking down into the hole the huge mine truck looked like a Tonka Toy!

We also went for a drive out to the Mt Grenfell Historic Site. The site consists of three main magnificent examples of Aboriginal paintings. Once again the area was full of heaps of goats.

Hillston - New South Wales

Beautiful scenery

Even though it was very cold last night, with winter PJ's, flannelette sheets, a heat pack and a good heater we were nice and toasty warm in Myrtle. We headed off about 10.30 to eventually get onto the Kidman Way. We thought we might stay at Griffith but on driving through it just didn't do anything for us, so we decided to drive on to Hillston for the night. As we drove it became obvious why Australia's colours are so often Green and Gold. Between the Golden Canola against to lush green paddocks. The beautiful golden wattle next to the green leaves and then there were kilometres of yellow and green daisies along the roadside. Why wouldn't our colours be Green and Gold. Most people would have heard the saying "This side of the Black Stump". In Australia there are lots of Black Stump locations with lots of different folklore. But today I heard to story of (supposedly) the original Black Stump folklore. Driving along the highway we saw a sign for the Black Stump Hotel. Now we both love dropping into some old historic hotels so we definitely weren't going to miss this one. This hotel also has the tallest bar in the Southern Hempisphere. To match this very tall bar they had some very tall stools to sit at. They actually had a little ladder at the front so you could climb up them. When Shane climbed up I just couldn't stop laughing as he swung his short legs in the breeze. Now for the folklore that was explained to me by the publican. This areas folklore attributes this black stump story to the husband of the unfortunate Barbara Blain, who was buried in the Gunbar Cemetery in 1886. Local legend has it that her husband, a bullocky, instructed her to make a fire while he found feed for his livestock. The day was hot, windy and dusty. When he returned he found his wife had burned to death. The story goes that when people sympathised with him he said "When I returned to the camp my wife was dead - she looked just like a black stump". So that is one piece of history I have learnt today. Tonight's definately not as cold as last night so should another good nights sleep, just wish my chest and head cold would leave me alone.

Tall Bar and very tall chairs

Black Stump Hotel

Shanes feet were a looong way off the ground

OK we're off.

Well we have hit the road on our Aussie Adventure Part 2. It's amazing no matter how organised you are on the morning you are leaving there still seems to be a million things to do and this morning was no exception. But we did still get away in the morning - albeit 11.57am. Even though my house isn't in the city it was nice to get out of the traffic and onto the open road. Driving up through the Shepparton area the beautiful yellow glow of the canola growing in all the paddocks was like we were swimming through a sea of yellow. We hadn't really planned on where we would stay for the night. So when we reached the little township of Finley we decided to check in at the Finley Lakeside Caravan Park. It's a really nice little park, really clean amenities and situated right on Lake Finley. For only $20 for a powered site we are happy.  We met some lovely people around the campfire and are now sitting cosy and warm in Myrtle. 

Fields of Canola

Myrtle all set up

Lake Finley

Nothing better than sitting by a fire

Preparation Time

Well the time has come for us to head off in our Jayco Swan Outback for our Aussie Adventure Part 2. Compared to Part 1 which was 12 months, this is a short trip at around 3 or 4 months. We will be leaving from Melbourne and heading north to who knows where. On our Aussie Adventure Part 1 we did Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Austrlalia. So this time we are concentrating on the eastern states, but then again who knows where we will end up. Travelling is certainly an amazing and enjoyable lifestyle but it is so hard to leave your family. Especially when your family consists or 4 little gems like Clare, O'Shea, Mikayla and Finn. But I know I will see them soon and thank goodness for FaceTime and Skype. I would love to have you come along for the ride and join in on our adventure (virtually anyway).

My Boys - O'Shea and Finn

My Girls - Rachel, Clare and Mikayla