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.