OK, so I have had my dummy spit and have received some very good assistance from my old mate, Brian Black. So I am ready to give it another go.
Yesterday we travelled the 215 kms from Blackall to Longreach via Barcaldine. Here is your first research task. What is the correct pronunciation of "Barcaldine"?
The countryside was, well, more of the same, really. The road surface was much better. Our friends the emus were again in evidence, standing sentry-like on the side of the road.
We can't get over the size of the properties in this part of the world. The station gates are 20 or 30 kms apart and we have seen just one house in two days' travel. There is very little stock to be seen. This could be a result of the drought that is affecting this part of Queensland.
We broke the trip at Barcaldine to take a look at the "Tree of Knowledge" outside the railway station. Here is your second research task. What is the Tree of Knowledge and how does it fit in with Australia's history?
We were very impressed with the way the memory of the tree has been made permanent.
We checked into the Longreach Caravan Park in the early afternoon and watched the latecomers check in in droves. The Qld school holidays finish on Friday and so it seems that every second caravan is heading home. This is a huge park without a blade of grass on it. Talk about being in the Outback!
We took it easy today but did take the time to have a good look at the Qantas museum. It was well worth the time. However, we contented ourselves with looking at the 747 and 707 exhibits from a distance. We both felt that we had seen the insides of enough 747's to last us a lifetime!
We also called in to the Stockman's Hall of Fame. We discovered that it was a bit exxy after the Qantas Museum and would require a fair amount of time to look at it properly. So we contented ourselves with a couple of photos of the exterior and put it on the list of things to do if ever we get back here.
Tomorrow we are off to Winton. Winton is only 180 kms away without anything in between so it should be a relatively quick trip with an early check in.
We have had a couple of minor problems with the caravan both of which were easily fixed. A couple of mornings ago we discovered, when we did our pre-start check, that the left hand rear turn indicator on the van was not working. This was easily fixed with a Stanley Knife. That's right, one of the trailer connector split pins had joined up. Yesterday, when we checked in we discovered that the door was very difficult to open and then we found that we couldn't close it. The park management gave us the name of a repair man who came within about 5 minutes of being called and, after a bit of pulling and tugging discovered a couple of loose screws. Seeing that he was here we got him to put back a couple of other screws that had fallen out of one of the drawers. I wander what else will shake loose.
 |
| Tree of Knowledge |
 |
| Tree of Knowledge |
 |
| Tree of Knowledge |
 |
| Barcaldine |
 |
| Longreach Tourist Park |
 |
| Qantas Museum |
 |
| Qantas Museum |
 |
| Qantas Museum |
 |
| Qantas Museum |
 |
| Qantas Museum |
 |
| Qantas Museum |
 |
| Qantas Museum |
 |
| The Ringer, Stockman's Hall of Fame |
 |
| Longreach |
 |
| Longreach |
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGood on you, mate. Good blogging.
ReplyDeleteOnly 20km apart eh? Wait until you get further out.... This will seem like high density!
I say Bar-cle deen, JB says b-cawl-dn, who knows?
I have to say that i wasn't that impressed by the 'tree', especially the $5million price tag to create an artwork to commemorate the impromptu meeting place of striking unionised sheep shearers facing off against non-unionists getting off the train. There is a claim that the charter of the Labour Party was delivered under the tree.
As to why it's called a Tree of Knowledge, and by whom, is a mystery. One would have to assume that it's some sort of tenuous reference to the Tree of Knowledge from which Eve ate an apple in the garden of Eden.
I don't think you missed much at the the Stockman's hall of fame, just a lot of tedious reading, and all without any reference to RM Williams who founded the place.
Did you see or hear anything about the horse drawn coach that fell of the bridge there a few days ago?
Cheers, Brian
I just wrote you a comment, hit publish and a box came up asking me to log in to Google, so I did and here I am with no sign of my comment, so stuff it! Well maybe a precis - Fab. Blog, Great pics fit beautifully with the text, great trip, good decision to go, continue to do as well, Bev's lookin' good. xoxo
ReplyDelete