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On location, hunting for dinosaurs! While waiting for a massive Sauropod to wander across the barren...
Destinations > On Your Marks
On Your Marks
But it wasn't until I got to the historic Dulacca Hotel (370km), built in 1909, where free camping was offered that I got my first real taste of the bush - a steak so big it hung off the plate. While I ate I chatted to other patrons to glean news from the bush telegraph about getting to Birdsville. However the first conversation had me choking on that steak.
"Oh haven't you heard the races have been cancelled?" a gruff bloke with a tiny dog told me. "The road is under water, you can't get there. Group came through yesterday, they'd turned back."
Cancelled? Ye gods. Was this true or a bad case of Chinese whispers? A caravanning couple at the next table leant over when he left. They too were going to Birdsville.
"He's just yanking your chain 'cause his camper's broken down. They can't cancel the races, people can still fly there."
We agreed another 800km lay ahead before the closed road so we could enjoy the places en route and get road updates closer to Birdsville.
The next morning I headed to Roma (515km) for the southern hemisphere's largest cattle saleyards. These come alive on Tuesdays and Thursdays to explosive auctions, complete with a sea of cowboy hats and boots. You can also visit Roma's Big Rig if you're interested in mining or take the turnoff for gorgeous Carnarvon Gorge (250km north). More importantly for me was a tourist office where they reported the Birdsville road could open later that day. So I trundled off hopefully towards Mitchell (587 km), stopping briefly to relax in the artesian waters at the public pool and forget my worries about closed roads.
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Charleville (760km) was a few hours further at the end of the Warrego Highway. It seemed a good spot for the night to enjoy the renowned star gazing at the Cosmos Centre and Observatory and the Tuesday night yabby races at the Bailey Bar Caravan Park.
If you've never seen a yabby in action at full speed, open throttle, then it's definitely a sight to behold even though they only move at 100m an hour... if at all. Park owners Julian and Wendy O'Hern auction these yabbies to raise money for the Royal Flying Doctor's Service and they know how to work the crowd to get them plonking money down. An unlikely yabby called 'Boi Lyng Point' won by a claw length in the general unbridled revelry.
From Charleville the Channel Country Byway begins, a one lane, sand-riddled, 450km to Windorah with wandering emus, cattle and scraggly bush. I stopped in quaint Quilpie (980km) where the first thing I noticed, apart from the queue at the petrol pump, was the 45m historic mural by local artist Cheryl Pratt.
I met Cheryl working in the tourist office and she told me Quilpie was full of artists. At her recommendation I visited Lyn Barnes's vibrant gallery at the Opal House and St Finbarr church's opal altar.
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"Oh haven't you heard the races have been cancelled?" a gruff bloke with a tiny dog told me. "The road is under water, you can't get there. Group came through yesterday, they'd turned back."
Cancelled? Ye gods. Was this true or a bad case of Chinese whispers? A caravanning couple at the next table leant over when he left. They too were going to Birdsville.
"He's just yanking your chain 'cause his camper's broken down. They can't cancel the races, people can still fly there."
We agreed another 800km lay ahead before the closed road so we could enjoy the places en route and get road updates closer to Birdsville.
The next morning I headed to Roma (515km) for the southern hemisphere's largest cattle saleyards. These come alive on Tuesdays and Thursdays to explosive auctions, complete with a sea of cowboy hats and boots. You can also visit Roma's Big Rig if you're interested in mining or take the turnoff for gorgeous Carnarvon Gorge (250km north). More importantly for me was a tourist office where they reported the Birdsville road could open later that day. So I trundled off hopefully towards Mitchell (587 km), stopping briefly to relax in the artesian waters at the public pool and forget my worries about closed roads.
read on below advertisement
Charleville (760km) was a few hours further at the end of the Warrego Highway. It seemed a good spot for the night to enjoy the renowned star gazing at the Cosmos Centre and Observatory and the Tuesday night yabby races at the Bailey Bar Caravan Park.
If you've never seen a yabby in action at full speed, open throttle, then it's definitely a sight to behold even though they only move at 100m an hour... if at all. Park owners Julian and Wendy O'Hern auction these yabbies to raise money for the Royal Flying Doctor's Service and they know how to work the crowd to get them plonking money down. An unlikely yabby called 'Boi Lyng Point' won by a claw length in the general unbridled revelry.
From Charleville the Channel Country Byway begins, a one lane, sand-riddled, 450km to Windorah with wandering emus, cattle and scraggly bush. I stopped in quaint Quilpie (980km) where the first thing I noticed, apart from the queue at the petrol pump, was the 45m historic mural by local artist Cheryl Pratt.
I met Cheryl working in the tourist office and she told me Quilpie was full of artists. At her recommendation I visited Lyn Barnes's vibrant gallery at the Opal House and St Finbarr church's opal altar.
next page »
