Home via Broken Hill

 

We arrived home last Saturday. We have seen some amazingly beautiful country, the drought has well and truly broken.

 

We stripped all the tread off a tyre right down to the wire on our way from Tucson Station to Longreach. It made a terrible noise but it remained inflated. I walked down the road and collected the two largest bits of tread for this photo.

 

 

These three very stately Brolgas were walking sedately through Longreach Caravan Park the morning we departed.

 

 

 

We drove south-west from Longreach on the most westerly bitumen roads we could find. I wanted to experience the channel country. The land is so flat the rivers break into multiple channels which join together and run several kilometres wide at flood time. We drove to Jundah and Windorah, two tiny towns without mobile phone coverage. Jundah is on the Thomson River. Look at the tree roots, they are scoured out in flood time but they still stand. Like most channel country rivers, it was barely flowing, it becomes a chain of lagoons when it stops.

 

 

Windorah is the last town on the bitumen for easterners travelling to Birdsville. The road to Birdsville was closed and there was quite a bank-up of travellers wanting to get to the races. We celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary, and were fortunate to get a seat at the pub for dinner. They thought they might run out of food.

 

This is not the famous "Big Red" on the Birdsville Track. This one is just west of Windorah, it is quite a big sandhill and it is red.

 

The Thomson and Barcoo rivers both flow into Coopers Creek, which is one of the three main feeders into Lake Eyre. Windorah is on Coopers Creek. It was flowing as you can see if you look closely below the stone barrage. This was a strategic spot for food and attracted lots of Pelicans, Cormorants, Egrets, Herons, etc.

 

 

 

We drove from Windorah to Quilpie. These guys weren't sure if they wanted us to get through. One guarded the left flank, one the right and the rest looked as though they were stopping us from barging through the centre.

 

 

 

Just out of Quilpie there was a lake with another lot of water birds. I was fascinated watching the Egret and the Pelican land. The Egret landed successfully on the small stick

 

 

Just after this photo you could see quite a wake, just like a water skier.

 

 

 

Now here's something not many people know about. Eromanga has Australia's smallest and only inland oil Refinery. They take in oil from surrounding oil fields (Jackson is the largest and best known but there are several other small fields) and produce 100,000 litres of diesel per day, sold through the outback.

 

 

 

We camped the night at Noccundra, on the Wilson River (which also flows into Cooper Creek). Noccundra is on the last bit of bitumen before heading to Tibooburra and to Innamincka. We sat by the river and watched a continuous procession of water birds flying or floating back and forward. There were hundreds of Pelicans, thousands of Cormorants, etc. These guys were practicing their formation flying.

 

 

Then to Thargomindah, the third town in the world to have electric street lights (after London and Paris). Theirs was generated from the artesian bore that still runs today and still supplies water to the town.

 

 

Cunnamulla is due north of Bourke, the first town you come to if you drive into Qld, or in our case the last town before leaving. We had previously met Paul and Nicky Webster, a couple with a young family who have a vision to help the young families of the town with a youth and family drop-in centre, where mothers can learn child rearing skills and people can enjoy family friendly movies, etc. They hope to finance the running costs with a cafe and by selling photos. Paul is currently working as part time school chaplain, it is this work that has helped him see the needs in the town. The photo shows Paul and a builder friend from England helping him repair the building, in the centre of town. They hope to open around March 2011.

 

 

 

I have to leave so much out, but we made our way home via Broken Hill, so we could call in on some friends. Just out of the Hill was a field covered with a dazzling display of Sturt Desert Pea.

 

 

 

From Broken Hill to Mildura, and from there to Griffith, Leeton and Wagga. The whole countryside was lush and green. We stopped at a picnic spot at Narrandera beside the Murrumbidgee River. Because of the good snow and rain earlier, and because Blowering and Burrunjuck Dams were over 80% full, they decided to send an environmental flow down the river, then it rained (same rain as flooded Shepparton in Victoria). The river here is higher than it has been for 10 years. These river red gums are getting a really good drink. 

 

 

We caught up with family and a few friends in Wagga then came home, the end of another wonderful trip.

 

We hope you have enjoyed tagging along with us. We feel privileged to have been in the Outback at such a wet and beautiful time. Who knows when it will look this good again.

 

Bye and God bless,

 

 

Peter and Lee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tucson Station

Dear family and friends,

We are close to finishing our 6 week placement at Tucson Sheep Station, helping the family. The children, aged 10 and 8, are enrolled at Longreach School of Distance Education and do their schoolwork at home under their mother's supervision. Our job is to give mum a break, so she can catch up on other things.

Lee is working with her student, you can see the telephone and computer in the background. The children have an average of one lesson each day "on air" with their teachers, using the phone and computer together.

The older student's lesson is about Australian Ballads, and she is learning the steps of a dance, following instructions from a tape. She needed a partner, so Peter was "it". Completed lessons are sent in to the teacher each fortnight and another set posted out with books and tapes.

Tucson is a 35,000 acre Merino sheep station south-east of Winton and west of Longreach, just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. The land is open grasslands with a few scattered trees. You can see the house on the right, sheds in the middle and a transportable "donga" to the left, where we slept. The grass is reasonably long this year after good rain. 

This is the road into Tucson, 29 km from the bitumen highway. It is mainly black soul plains and can get boggy after rain. We went in and out each weekend, mainly to go to church in Winton.

The sheep are spread out in large paddocks at this time of year, so there are no pictures of large mobs. However there were some pets around the house. This ewe, named 6:30 had her first lamb about 1/2 hour before this photo. She is in the process of licking it clean, the taste and smell helps her identify her lamb.

Jasper, the ram is helping Lee hang out some washing on the line. The hard dry ground came right up to the house.

Water for Tucson comes from sub-artesian bores, ie they need pumps to bring the water to the surface. Water is stored in above ground turkey nest dams. From there it is reticulated via poly pipe to tanks and troughs in several strategic points. Michael went to check this bore, so Madi and Bear turned the water spray on and made a fountain of it. The water was very warm, but they were soaked and the ride home in the back of the ute was quite chilling.

This is the view from our bedroom window. The landscape is very flat grassland, but there are also several large flat-topped Mesas (Jump-ups) over the whole area.

  

This is a closer view of the edge of the jump-up near Tucson. We went here for a picnic and we climbed to the top of  "two rocks".

On another weekend we went further towards Winton into Bladensburg National Park. One of the jump-ups in the park is called Scrammy. Here we all are at Scrammy Gorge. You can see the dark rock layer in the background, this is extremely hard.

And this is the gorge face, once the hard surface rock is undermined the rock crumbles. The whole area is very dry but when it rains there is hardly any soakage, all the water flows across the surface and into the gorge, then out across the plain.

The surface of the jump-up is several kilometres in size each way, this section contained several very hardy trees like this one.

We have enjoyed our time with the Mims family at Tucson. We are heading south this Friday south of Longreach towards Jundah and Windorah, on the edge of the red sand desert, then east to Quilpie and back to Bourke, NSW. Thence to Broken Hill and Wagga to visit friends and family. We plan to be home mid to late September.

Drop us a line at pcaspo@telstra.com with your news. We would love to hear from you.

Bye for now and God bless,

Peter and Lee.

Winton part 2

Dear family and friends,

 

It is over 7 weeks since we left home and we are still in the general area around Winton. We start our VISE teaching placement next Monday 12th July. Since last email, we have been enjoying getting to know several Winton people and seeing the sights in the general area.

 

 

We like this photo. It was taken while the Engadine team were here and shows 2 Engadine men cooking sausages at Winton school and some eager children waiting. This was part of the big breakfast we did on the last Friday of our team visit.

 

 

Winton was the location for an unusual exhibition, sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Art. The show, Digital Odyssey contained as its centrepiece this tapestry/collage. All materials supplied by locals, particularly local Vinnies, and roughly stitched together. The theme was "home", and various people were interviewed and a video recorded which was then shown using the collage as screen. It was dark. Lee and I represented tourists, the remaining interviewees were locals. We had to say what "Home" meant to us. And that is where your tax dollars go!!!!

 

 

We travelled to Boulia, 385 km away towards Birdsville with Bob Witten the minister for church on Sunday evening then stayed overnight and took school scripture on Monday. It was a lovely little 2 classroom school. Here is Lee with some of the junior class, singing an action song where they had to jump up and down.

 

 

We went to the annual Winton Show, where we saw sideshows rides, produce for judging and ring events. The showground is on the edge of town.

 

 

Bladensburg National Park is just south of Winton, we camped on Surprise Creek for three nights, it was very relaxing.

Bladensburg was one of the original very large pastoral leasehold properties around Winton. it was cut into smaller freehold properties in the 1930's.

 

 

 

"The carpark is full". This is the view from Bladensburg Homestead, now a National Park ranger station. It looks barren but there is some good pasture.

 

 

One of the properties created from Bladensburg is Carisbrooke. It is 55,000 acres, and contains a large plateau with beautiful views. We stayed there a few days and went on a mini bus tour with the retired owner (his son now runs the property). Here we are having lunch.

 

 

 

The three sisters at Carisbrooke. The Diamantina channel country is in the background. Carisbrooke is about 80 km south west of Winton.

When we were there, the property owner asked us to look after the place while they went to Townsville for a few days.They gave us use of their old 4WD, and we went to a dam on the property, where there was a lot of birdlife.

 

 

There is always one galah in any mob, including people. This is a small part of a huge flock of Corellas that arrived just after us and swarmed around for quite a while before settling. There were over 200 corellas.

 

 

 

On the way back from the dam, we saw two mobs each with about 30 brolgas. Here is one dancing but none of the females (we presume) seemed very interested.

 

 

Last week we drove to Cloncurry and passed this road train, It is 53.5 metres, 86 wheels. It takes ore about 180 km from BHP Cannington Mine to a rail siding near Cloncurry. Cannington is the world's largest single mine producer of both silver and lead.

 

Before reaching Cloncurry, we stayed at McKinley, at the back of the "Walkabout Creek Hotel" which was used to film Croc Dundee. We shopped at Woolworths in Cloncurry (first Woolies for 6 weeks, and prices were very good). From Cloncurry, we headed east on the main Mt Isa to Townsville road and stopped at Julia Creek and Richmond, then to Porcupine Gorge National Park.

 

 

This is called the Pyramid, in the Porcupine Gorge, where there was flowing water and some people went swimming. It was quite hot, we walked down into the gorge with our lunch and stayed several hours.

 

 

Some butterflies on the Grevillia in the gorge caught my attention.

 

This morning there was a cool change. We are now at a small village called Corfield, 80 km north of Winton. It has one pub and six houses. We are free camping in a roadside spot next to the pub, where we had free hot showers. The pub is community owned and operated. It is raining, and the crowd is lower than expected for State of origin 3. There are about 12 dirty looking 4WD vehicles parked at the pub, the local graziers who came here over dirt roads.

 

Tomorrow (Thursday) we go to Winton where there is mobile phone access and I will send this email. After church on Sunday morning we will go to Tucson Station for six weeks. Next email will be from there.

 

We would love to hear any news from you. Click on this link, pcaspo@iinet.net.au and send us a short note.

 

Bye for now and God bless,

 

Peter and Lee.

 

 

 

 

Winter in Winton

Dear family and friends,

 

We are travelling again, this time we are staying in Queensland, mainly in the Winton area. If you don't know Winton, it is the place where Banjo Patterson wrote the words of Waltzing Matilda. It is just north of the Tropic of Capricorn, and about 800 km west of Rockhampton.

 

We started from Sydney just over a month ago and went to see Peter's Mum in Wagga and then north to Bourke and then into Qld. We spent 2 nights with the Williams family. They are friends we met on our first VISE (volunteers for isolated students education) placement in 2007.

 

 

 

This photo shows one of several temporary lakes on their property near Wyandra. When we were there in 2007 it was drought and the lakes were just large claypans. The lakes will dry up in a few months.

 

The country looks really good, lots of long grass, even beside the road.

 

 

This is part of the dog (dingo) fence which runs 6,000 km from just north of Brisbane to the south coast of western Sth Australia. You can see the grass here. You may recall a photo last year of the same fence taken in a very different environment, in the desert near Coober Pedy. This photo is near Tambo, between Charleville and Blackall. In this same area you leave the catchment of the Warrego River, which runs into the Darling south of Bourke, and enter the Lake Ayre (Coopers Creek) drainage basin.

 

We went to Winton this year because we had arranged a small group from our church to begin the re-stumping of St Pauls Church (ie dig out and replace the foundation piers). We are BCA (Bush Church Aid) Nomads and Winton Parish is supported by BCA. The next few photos show stages in the re-stumping.

 

 

There are about 60 stumps and they are all to be replaced eventually, because of the threat of Northern White Ants.

 

 

We removed some old rotten stumps by digging down an average of 600 mm (2 feet) in hard black clay soil, with not much space. It took one man one day to dig out one stump. This photo shows Bob Witten, the minister at Winton.

 

 

The stumps are replaced with steel ones, which can be adjusted at the top. These ones are about to be cemented into place.

 

 

The cement was mixed on site and then dragged under the building on this sled. In all we finished 8 stumps and another team from our church will arrive soon with some better gear to remove stumps, so we hope they will get more done.

 

We also did some painting and other maintenance, and went with the minister to school scripture and to some other activities in the town, where we were able to give a Christian message. At the end of the week, we had a pot-luck dinner at the church and the local Mayor thanked the team.

 

 

The mayor on the right, is presenting a book about Winton to Rick Lewers, the minister from Engadine, who was in the work party.

 

That is now over two weeks ago. The Engadine work party have returned and Lee and I have been recovering and doing some odd jobs around the church, working together with some other BCA Nomads who are also camped at the back of the church. On Sunday 6th June we had church at Winton then drove 380 km west to Boulia, where Bob Witten takes a monthly service at 6 pm, then school scripture on Monday morning. Lee and I helped with scripture, it was a lovely little school, mainly aboriginal children, very happy and well run.

 

On the way to Boulia we saw a flock of about 60 to 70 Brolgas.

 

 

 

 

 

 On the way back, we stopped at the Middleton Pub for lunch and a chat with Lester the barefoot Publican.

 

 

Middleton consists of one pub and a couple of falling down buildings. It is 180 km from both Boulia and Winton and there is no town in between, just a few large sheep or cattle stations.

 

That has brought you nearly up to date, so until next time, bye and God bless.

 

We would love to hear a bit of your news, please click this link and write us a short note.  pcaspo@iinet.net.au

 

Peter and Lee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter’s Writing

Use this link to some things I have written. http://pcaspo1.blogspot.com/