Hi to all from downtown Bourke.

Since my last post, we have left the moonscape that is called White Cliffs.  The 90 k drive into Wilcannia was pretty hectic.  The number of kangaroos on the road has trebled since a couple of days earlier and also heaps of cows on the road.  A roadside butcher shop could make a fortune out here. 

Unfortunately we had to stop in Wilcannia to top up with juice before heading to Cobar.  What a scary place that is.  All of the shops and houses that we saw had bars on the windows and the only people I saw in the street, apart from tourists at the servo were of the indigenous variety.  Deb got out of the car for a smoke when we stopped in the line for fuel and I would say, within 10 seconds she had an indigenous companion standing just behind her.  It was a really uncomfortable situation, although, probably, he only wanted to bott a cigarette.  The town had a very spooky feeling about it. 

Thank god it didn't take long to top up with fuel and back on the road again.  (should write a song about that).  Most of the way to Cobar, 260 k's, was a fairly straight road.  They have had so much rain in the area lately, that the shoulders of the roads are closed.  You can see where vehicles get off the bitumen surface and they go down 3 or 4 inches straight away.  You could not possibly pull over if you needed to stop.  After about 20 k's of this the shoulders are a bit more stable.  Just as well too.  Not long after this there were 2 huge wide loads coming towards us and they took up the whole road.  They had the escort vehicles with them and they were ushering everyone off the road.  I don't know what would have happened a few k's back when you couldn't get off the road.  Don't want to think about it really. 

Arrived in Cobar and it seemed like a lovely little town.  The caravan park was fairly huge, and we were staying here for 2 days.  Strolled up the street the next morning and visited the info centre.  Across the road was  really good little park, with lots of mining memorabilia and statues.  It was really well set up.  So many of these country towns are steeped in mining history and they all take pride in showcasing their history.

We then headed up to a lookout that overlooked a big open cut.  The mine was probably about 100 metres deep and it is an operational gold mine.  There are only about 20 trucks that come out of the mine every week loaded with ore. We must have been lucky as whilst we were there, 2 huge trucks with their hoppers loaded came out of the mine tunnel.  The ore is almost gravel size, as there are huge crushers underneath the earth to crush the rock before it reaches the surface.  It would be awesome to be able to go into one of these tunnels to see just how big the operation underground is.

Next it was into the shopping area to check out the attractions.  Of course the standout was the huge beercan on the porch of the hotel.  It is the BIGGEST beer can in Australia.  See, I told you I was going to take photos of everything BIG.

After our time in Cobar we were off, heading to Bourke.  I have to confess, I thought that Bourke was a big town.  As we drove into the city??? I was amazed at how quiet the streets were.  Not to get all of our surprises at once, we headed to the caravan park to set up.  We were going to book in for 5 days but thankfully we changed that to 3 days.  The management at the caravan park were really friendly and it is only about 500 metres from the town centre????  I must admit I was a bit taken aback when I saw the sign on the fence at the rear of our van.  Electric Fence.  How awesome. 

After setting up we took a tour into town.  To say I was amazed would be an understatement.  I know it was Saturday, but the only shop open was the bakery.  Most of the other shops in the main street had the windows either barred up or else had steel shutters protecting their windows.  The only people I saw in the street were of the local indigenous variety.  We took a bit of a drive around the housing area and it was fairly obvious we were out of our league and should head back to the relative safety of the caravan park.  It is one of those places that does not feel safe.  The whole town just felt like it was simmering, waiting to explode. 

Next we checked out the info centre and got a list of the local attractions.  A very short list, as the main attraction, the ferry ride down the Darling River was out of action.  Bought a cool stubby holder at the info centre, more to prove that we were in Bourke and escaped safely, then back to the caravan park.

The following day we headed back to the info centre where we were going to attend one of the main attractions of Bourke.  'The Outback Show'.  There were probably about 60 or 70 people at the show, which consisted of the main man showing us how to yolk up a bullock team, how to put a harness on the Clydesdale, how to talk to a camel and as a bonus, give us a few lessons in bush poetry.  The show wasn't actually that bad, he was a likeable sort of bloke that told a few jokes and also a bit of a history lesson on the area.  Not what I expected but not too bad.  Also got to see some cotton plants at the info centre.  So its true, cotton really does grow on trees.   Pretty cool really. 

 

Being a Sunday, everything was closed, except the Bakery, so we tried out a coffee.  Must support these local towns???.  The coffee wasn't too bad, although we didn't have very high expectations.  Then, as nothing else was open it was back to the park.  It wasn't bad on Sunday night as the owners of the park put on a sausage sizzle for dinner.  It was a good chance to chat to other tourists, all of whom were just as excited as us about this 'oasis of the outback', Bourke. 

Up bright and early Monday, yeh, forced to get up by those squawking mongrel crows that have set up camp just outside our van.   I used to like the sound of their birdcall but no longer.  After breakfast I went for a stroll, yes, outside the electric safety fence, whilst Deb was having breakfast and doing girly things. 

I was gone for a while, as I walked almost into the town centre.  The only drawback was the constant snarling of the savage dogs, that I think are compulsory here, in the front yards.  It was only a matter of time before one escaped, so it was back to the safety compound.  I must have been here too long, as when I got back Deb remarked, I thought you had gone walkabout.  How time flies when you are in the land of the dreamtime. 

Took Deb out, passed the safety zone, for a tour and a walk of the city centre.  Of course it is school holidays and there were plenty of people around.  I must say that if you take out the tourists, there was nothing to keep this town alive.  The biggest building are all relating to Government Services.  The Police Station and courthouse would take number one position, closely followed by all of the indigenous services. 

Took a trip out to check out the local cemetery.  Number 2 of local attractions.  Out there you will find the grave of Fred Hollows.  I also took photos of the gravesites of a couple of policemen
killed in the line of duty way back in history.  Then it was time for a really exciting moment.  It was nearly 1200 and at that time the huge Crossley engine in the town is cranked up.  Yes, I know, so much excitement in one morning cant be good for the heart.  Had a coffee and checked out the engine.  It is a huge diesel engine that was used in 1928 to generate power in Sydney.  All jokes aside, it is fantastically preserved and ticks over like a clock.  Quite impressive if you are that way inclined.

After all of that excitement it was to a truck wash bay to use the high pressure hose to get that horrible dried red mud off from under the guards of the jeep.  Almost stuck like cement.  Then to get some final groceries before heading to Cunnamulla tomorrow. 

The most exciting part of the day:  Muffins put on by management of the park at 4.30.  Awesome.

Speak soon. 

Barry and Deb. 


         


 

Hi to all

Since our last entry we have left Broken Hill and we are now in a tiny little place called White Cliffs.  More of that later though.

On our second last day in Broken Hill we went to check out a famous local landmark called Bells Milkbar.  It is supposedly a step back in time to the way it used to be.  I will concede that they do sell milk shakes and spiders but that is the limit to their blast from the past.  Maybe a bit of retro (old) furniture but no 50's to 60's atmosphere that was promised.  And also their coffee was horrible.

Never to be put off our travels, it was off to a place called Whites Mineral Art Gallery.  This was a really good place to visit.  The artist, Mr White I presume, makes all of his artworks out of the different minerals that have been mined in Broken Hill.  He is able to concoct fantastic art pieces out of these minerals.  In the dark and under candlelight some of the minerals actually shine.  The photos really don't do justice to his work.

The next stop for your intrepid travellers was to the Royal Flying Doctor display at the airport.  First of all, you watch a 15 minute video, and then a short tour of the building, checking out the radio room.  A really big operation.  The flying doctor service is really incredible.  It is the largest organisation of its type in the world.  The Broken Hill office is the headquarters for a huge area which was 5 branch offices, including offices at Essendon Airport and also in Tasmania.

After the flying doctor it was off to show Deb the miners memorial.  Whilst we were there she had to sit in the naughty chair, giving her best scowl for good measure.  We jumped into the tractors for a bit of mining before heading to the supermarket for supplies.  Deb will be cooking some culinary delights in the slow cooker that will last us for our time in White Cliffs.

Deb with her rebellious look on her face.

Just doing our final checks before departing on the last morning and we are one indicator down.  As we pull off the indicator assembly to check the globe we see that it is L.E.D.s and not globes.  How crap.  Maybe modern technology is not always the best.  Anyway, not to be deterred we stopped at a caravan yard just down from the park and I must say, not the country hospitality you would hope for.  More or less, cant help you for a week.  Cant give advice to fix your problem either.  Awesome.  Did get a phone number off them for an auto elec and rang him.  Cant see you today, maybe tomorrow.  At least he did tell me what it could be, so we pulled out the plug and separated a couple of the pins and, how amazing, it actually works.  Now we are also qualified Auto electricians. 

We continued on to White Cliffs, about 290 k's away.  Most of the trip is really desolate.  Just made up of scrubby type plants, as well as bloody thousands of goats, emus and kangaroos.  Probably nothing else would live out there.

The last 90 k's from Wilcannia to White Cliffs was the toughest of the lot.  The road is fairly narrow and for the entire trip we had those pesky bloody kangaroos jumping on the road in front of us, as well as the ever present goats, and now, as an added bonus, lots of cattle on the roads.  There are no fences out here so the stock just wander where they like.  I was very happy to finally land in White Cliffs.

The township consists of a hotel, general store, caravan park, underground motel and tons of mineshafts from the opal diggers.  After setting up the van, in the rustic caravan park, we headed off on the heritage trail through the opal fields.  It is about 6 k's but felt like 20 k's, as, you guessed it, those pesky kangaroos all over the place.

Settled in for the night with out lifesaver, the hard drive, to watch a movie as there is no tv reception out here.  During the night there was an almighty thunderstorm with lots of rain.  Got up this morning and the park is really muddy, with that horrible sticky red clay/mud.  Decided to walk to check out an underground house this morning.  Most of the houses up here are either fully underground or partially underground.  The temperature here in the summer gets up around 50 C so living underground is a necessity.  The temperature stays around 22C at the most. 

The tour we did of the underground house was just bloody awesome.  The owners make a good living I think by doing these tours twice a day.  I will probably overload you with photos in an attempt to give you some idea of the house.  The owner says that the temperature ranges between 18 to 22C year round and rarely do they need to put on the air conditioner.  This is a huge house.  The first photo is the only part that is above ground, then you walk down a corridor into the underground section.  The walls are all rendered as the original stone facia is really crumbly.  The last photo is the beginning of his man cave still in the original state.  A really grouse house. 

 

Our next adventure was a bit of a drive around the town and to check out the underground motel.  The jeep really earned its money today as the roads were just so boggy and slushy with that horrible red mud.  We got ourselves a couple of bottles of water from the van and went looking for opal during the afternoon.  Both Deb and myself found little samples in rock, at least we think they are opal.  Nothing to make us millionaires though. 

We are now about to fire up the trusty hard drive again before our last night here.  We are off to Cobar tomorrow, a trip of about 350 k's.  Not looking forward to the first 90k's out of here though.  No phone or tv for the last couple of days so if the world has come to an end can you send me an email.  Thanks.   

By4now.   

Hi to all

Well we made it to Broken Hill after a drive of about 320 k's.  It was mostly made up of long straights with really very little traffic. 

The thing that amazed me about the trip was the amount of emus that we saw in the paddocks on the side of the road.  I have never seen them in the wild before so it was great.  As we got closer to Broken Hill I couldn't get over the number of wild goats on the side of the road.  There were literally hundreds of them.  Most of the trip there is no fencing on the roads so you cannot take your eyes of the road for even a second.  I was really glad when we saw the Broken Hill sign. 

From there we were going to stay for a couple of days in a little park at Silverton which was about 25 k's away.  The road out was full of dips and floodways and also just tons of goats and emus on the side of the road. 

Pulled into Penrose Park and it was more of a free camp in the bush than a caravan park.  Had been lots of rain over the last few days and lots of the park had surface water blocking off parts of it.    There are no water connections to your van and no drinking water in the park.  At least we had power.  Yeh sure.  The first hitch was that there was no power in the area between 8 and 4.30 for that day and the next 2 days.  Just great.  At least I can connect the tv up and watch the state of origin rugby game.  Yeh, you guessed it.  Very intermittent to no digital signal.  Just gets better by the minute.  And yes, of course its bloody freezing and no power for the heater.  Too tired to pack up and head into town so yes, you guessed it, toughen up princess. 

Stayed that night only and went into Broken Hill the next day.  After getting set up we headed into the town centre to visit the Information centre.  I was in heaven now.  A Gloria Jeans café in the Information centre.  Doesn't get any better than this. 

Armed with all of our info we headed off on foot to check out the town.  Probably the funniest moment of the trip came next.  We were walking down the main street and there were about 10 - 20 indigenous people walking towards us, and also on the other side of the road.  Deb grabbed my hand and said, " ITS A BIT OF SPOT THE AUSSIE AROUND HERE "  I just laughed and asked what do you think they are.  She then realised what she had said and tried to get out of it by saying she meant White Aussie.  Probably had to be there but it was very funny.

Lots of history in the town and from the main street you can see a miners memorial up on top of a hill overlooking the town.  It was starting to rain so we ducked into the Palace Hotel.  It is incredible this place.  It was the hotel in the movie Priscilla the Queen of the Desert.  Covering most of the walls and ceilings are murals.  Photos just don't do it justice as they all seem to run into each other. 

The following morning Deb went to an Art demonstration at the Caravan Park where she got to do her own painting on canvas.  Pretty good I think.  While she was there I was left to my own devices so I went and checked out a couple of art galleries and also went up to the miners memorial.  It is really incredible up there.  You can see all of Broken Hill from there.  The Miners memorial is set up much like the war memorial in Canberra.  The name of every miner that died is there as well as his cause of death.  The number that died of falling down the mine shaft is just incredible.  Obviously no Occ Health and Safety back then.

Drove back down and there is a huge slag heap probably over 50 metres high and a couple of hundred metres long.  When you look long and hard at the black slag, with all of the different shapes, you can almost make out human forms, and you can actually visualise their tortured faces in the rock face.  I know, I know, my imaginations is getting away from me again.

Well I can see their distorted faces in it. 

After Picasso (Deb) finished her class we went and checked out Pro Harts Gallery.  All I can say is bloody awesome.  He was such a talent.  Even the sculpture at the front of his house is awesome.  Got some great photos of some of his paintings.

Just a Deb Hart original

Next step on our history lesson was to the White Rocks historical site.  It was really incredible reading the story at this location.  It seems that on New Years Day 1915 there were 2 Turkish sympathisers of middle eastern origin living in the area that were dirty on the way that the Australians were treating the Turkish at Gallipoli.  They went out to Silverton with their ice cream cart and opened fire on the picnic train at Silverton.  4 people were killed and 7 injured in their attack and they escaped back towards Broken Hill.  They were caught up with at the White Rocks site and engaged in a gun battle with the local police, eventually one of them being killed and one critically injured and dying in hospital.  Incredible in the fact that it was the only recorded incident of an attack on the Australian People on Australian soil in the entire First World War.  An incredible history lesson or what.

Next day it was off to explore Silverton.  This is really a town straight out of the wild west.  There doesn't appear to be any actual houses in the town.  There is probably about 7 or 8 art galleries, a pub, a couple of museums and a church.  We went into the old Silverton Goal and museum.  It is full to the brim with history of Silverton and also of Broken Hill.

 

We then checked out a couple of Art Galleries and also the local pub.  The Silverton Hotel was used in the making of the film Mad Max 2 as well as another couple of movies since.  It really is your blast from the past hotel.  The day we were there it was incredibly busy with other tourists.

 

Our next stop was to the lookout for the Mundi Mundi Plains.  From this location you can allegedly see the curvature of the earth.  With my eyes I am lucky to see the curvature of Deb so I couldn't see it.  Took a couple of photos though as this is the spot where they made most of the scenes from Mad Max 2.  The countryside is just so barren and desert like.  You would think that nothing would live there, but of course, we came across emus, wild horses, camels and hundreds of goats out there.  Oh, and 4 donkeys. 

You could almost hear the Mad Max car in the distance.

Next on our cultural tour was a trip to the renowned Broken Hill Sculptures.  Being the huge art critic that I am we made out way out there to check them out.  There are probably about 10 sculptures there, of which I took some photos, but not all of them really impressed me. Some were just big pieces of rock.  Took all of our photos and then went for a walk along the flora trail.  Yes, almost got lost again.  Wasnt the most exciting flora trail around as the wildflowers are mostly dead about this time of year.  Checked out some aboriginal etchings but couldn't really make them out.  As we were leaving decided to go back up to the sculptures to try to get a photo as the sun was setting.  It was perfect timing as I got a great photo of one of them just as the sun was setting.  I think it was great anyway.

Great timing

       
 
After such a long day exploring and giving you all your history lessons it is time to relax and say good bye for now.

Barry and Deb.