4th October 2015 - From Miles to Chinchilla, Wondai, Murgon, Kilkivan, Gympie and then south on the Bruce to Cooroy

Our last day on the road - good to be home but also sad that yet another trip has come to a close.  We packed up for the last time and headed east again making for Chinchilla and then on to Wondai, Murgon, Kilkivan, Gympie to Cooroy.  Very pretty country which was green - quite a change after the brown of the Outback.

Hotel Cecil - Wondai

Home

A beautiful Sunset

Lovely to be home but our trip to The Kimberleys was definately the best yet - fantastic!!!  Would love to do it again one day!


For those that our interested, the stats for our trip are listed below.....

DETAILS OF THE TRIP TO THE KIMBERLEYS – AUG/OCT 2015

TOTAL RETURN DISTANCE – 11,600km

TOTAL DIESEL COST   -   $2,566.65             (in remote areas fuel cost are much higher)

TOTAL COST OF PARKS ETC - $1,062.80   (incl some free camping)

TOTAL COST OF ABOVE - $3629.45

3rd October 2015 from Blackall via Tambo, Augathella, Morven, Mungallala, Mitchell and Roma to Miles

We were up early and went for a walk to see a bit more of Blackall.  There is plenty of history associated with this town which we found fascinating.  As we walked along the main street, we stopped to talk to one of the locals.  She was a mine of information and told us a lot about the town.  Like many of the outback country towns that we had visited, Blackall is suffering from the effects of the drought on farming families together with a lack of opportunities for young people who leave to find work in the cities.

John "Jackie" Howe - the Champion Shearer

John Howe - known to mates as Jackie Howe, was born about 1861.  He was a champion sheep shearer and once shore 321 sheep in a record time of 7 hours and 40mins at Alice Downs Station, near Blackall.  He was a strong trade unionist and was active in the shearers strikes of 1891 and l894.

Beyond The Black Stump - Blackall

The history of the Black Stump

The Black Stump

Curious Neighbours

The rustic camp kitchen at the caravan park

The Dunny

Thankfully, there was a more up-to-date facilities block at the caravan park!












We then departed from Blackall and headed east passing through several small country towns.  What impressed us about all these small communities was the pride and care that the locals took in caring for their towns. The old buildings were beautifully preserved and represented the history of these outback centres.

Tambo Post Office

Tambo Shire Hall

The Old Tambo Post Office

Historical Court House now a Public Library

Colourful wild flowers beside the highway

Gradually leaving the drought behind

School of Art Hotel - Roma

Our Campsite by the highway at Miles 

Our last night on the road was spent at Miles - a freebie next to the highway along with several other caravaners and campers.  We had to cross the "highway" to the toilet!  We met some more lovely people and had a pleasant evening discussing the current rugby with some fellow travellers from NSW who were heading west into the Outback.  The traditional arguments ensued about Queensland vs New South Wales' rugby skills!!  The two guys also discussed their skills using the Baby Webber!

2nd October 2015 - McKinlay to Winton, Barcaldine & Blackall

Hitting the road again, we took a daylight photo of the Walkabout Creek Hotel and headed towards Winton - the home of Waltzing Matilda.

Walkabout Creek Hotel - as in movie Crocodile Dundee

The vast drought-stricken Queensland Outback 

We stopped for a while to walk through Winton, the home of the Waltzing Matilda Centre which was destroyed by fire on the night of 18 June 2015. It was such a tragedy many historical artifacts were lost in the fire.  These cannot be replaced.  The centre was reopened in 2016.

Banjo Patterson who wrote Waltzing Matilda - Winton

The Matilda Centre which had been destroyed by fire

The main street in Winton

We then travelled on through Longreach to Barcaldine - having spent some time in these towns on a previous trip we did not stop this time but both are of tremendous interest to travellers with Longreach being the home of the Stockman's Hall of Fame and also the Qantas Museum.  At Barcaldine, we turned south to Blackall.  We had just set-up camp for the night when we heard trip, trap, trip, trap and through the caravan park trotted a little pony and trap.  What a surprise! It was the last thing we expected.  So cute!

A pony & trap in a Blackall Caravan Park

Bougainvillea

We had a walk from the caravan park into town - there were some unusual old buildings.

An unusual building

An Old Colonial Queenslander Home

The park by the Council Offices

1st October 2015 - Barkly Homestead to Walkabout Creek Hotel at McKinlay - Queensland

Breakfast, collect dry washing off the line, pack up and hit the road.  We crossed the border back into Queensland at Camooweal.

I think Tezza is happy to be back in Queensland

Cloncurry Visitor Centre

We then travelled along the same road that we had travelled up through Mt Isa and Cloncurry and then turned south onto the Matilda Highway (Landsborough Highway)  and stopped for the night at McKinlay where we camped behind the Walkabout Creek Hotel which was featured in the move "Crocodile Dundee".  There were 3 or 4 caravans there and a few worse-for-wear patrons wandering around trying to find their way home in the middle of the night! The facilities there were very good - much better than we expected..

Walkabout Creek Hotel -  Crocodile Dundee movie

30th September 2015 - Mataranka via Daly Waters & Dunmarra Roadhouse to the Barkly Homestead.

We left Bitter Springs early as we wanted to explore The Elsey Cemetery and original site of the Gunn homestead which turned out to be fascinating.

The Elsey Cemetery & National Reserve

The graves of the "Unknown"

These men were all mentioned in the story  - "We of the Never Never"

John McLennan - The Sanguine Scott of the Never Never

Lee Ken - Chinese Cook died at Elsey Station

Henry Ventlia Peckham - "The Fizzer" - the Postman (postie)

He drowned attempting to cross a flooded river to get an urgent medical request through for a seriously ill woman at Victoria Downs Station.

Bett Bett the Aboriginal girl in We of the Never Never

Aeneas Gunn - The Maluka  

Jeannie Gunn - The Little Missus as she was called by all at Elsey Statiion

Next we drove a little further down the road to the site where the Elsey Station homestead had stood many years before.  One can imagine how Jeannie Gunn felt when arriving from the city of Melbourne to live in such a remote place.

The site of the original homestead

We left Mataranka and drove south along the Stuart Highway turning off to visit the well-know small community of Daly Waters.  There is a pub and a service station and not much else! Daly Waters Airfield was a refuelling stop for early Qantas flights to Singapore and also an airforce base during WWII.

The Daly Waters Pub 

Daly Waters Servo

We stopped for lunch at the Dunmarra Roadhouse - a very busy place with many road-trains and other travellers stopping for fuel & food.  Dunmarra Roadhouse is famous for its great pies so we had to sample some for lunch and they more than lived up to their reputation - delicious!  While there we met some Australian soldiers having lunch at the next table - we were surprised to hear one with a Welsh accent and had a chat to him.  He had recently emigrated.

Dunmarra Roadhouse - Road-Trains carrying cattle to northern ports

                                                                                            Dunmarra Wayside Inn

Miles of long straight road - the Stuart Highway

We travelled south along the Stuart Highway to the Three-Ways where we turned east onto the Barkly Highway to the Barkly Homestead where we camped for the night.  A long day of driving! (695kms)  It was great to set up camp and relax.  We camped next to the camp kitchen where we cooked a quick meal.  We also managed to catch up with our washing which dried overnight in the warm night air.

29th September 2015 - Bitter Springs & Mataranka

Heading south again after a couple of days at Edith Falls, we drove to Bitter Springs & Mataranka - the home of the true story written by Jeanie Gunn and the subsequent movie - "We of the Never Never". We booked into the caravan park at Bitter Springs where the manager gave us a copy of the famous local story.

Campsite at Bitter Springs

Bitter Springs 

Bitter Springs Thermal Pools

The Bitter Springs thermal pools/creek are quite fast-flowing and the caravan parks hires out the foam noodles so that guest can float down the creek exiting near the bridge.  There are steps down into the water so there is easy access to the springs.

Steps into the Thermal Pools

Bitter Springs Thermal Pools

In the afternoon we drove to the Mataranka to discover the story of Jeannie Gunn.  She was from Melbourne where she met & married her husband, Aeneas.  She travelled with him when he took up a position as manager at Elsey Station, Mataranka.  She was the first white woman to settle in the area in 1902.  She wrote the book We of the Never, Never which was the story of her experience settling in such a remote aboriginal area and the stockmen and transient travellers that she met.  It was later made into a movie of the same name.

There are several statues in the park showing the various people in the above story.

Aeneas & Jeannie Gunn

Bett Bett - the little aboriginal girl who she befriended

Terry inspecting the statue of  Bett Bett

Cheon - their Chinese cook

Linnie admiring the statue of Cheon the Chinese cook

The replica of the Gunn's homestead that was built for the movie

Terry taking a dip at the Mataranka Thermal Pool