Bollon and St George (Natural Sciences Loop)

Friday 8 April 2017 – 168 ??? - 35°C

The campsite was very pretty as well as peaceful.  There is a nice breeze that keeps the fly numbers down.  We had a sponge bath again today, we definitely need to find a shower or pool today! After packing up, we went for a walk along Walam Creek where we had camped.  It is very pretty and there were hundreds of small birds flitting around in the early morning light.  We drove to Bollon, a small friendly town.

Next stop, St George.  We filled up on fuel and paid to use the showers at the caravan park.  We all feel and smell so much better!! We found ourselves a country café and had great hamburgers for lunch. 

We then visited the library to check our emails and Hayden got to read a book.  We drove to Dalby Tourist Park and set up for the night here once again.

Saturday 9 April – 168 756 – 169 114

Last night was a much cooler night, I even needed my sleeping bag.  We all enjoyed a sleep in and were packed down and away by 10am.  We headed for Jandowae to see the Dingo Fence, but, it turned out to be 110km further away along dirt roads and 4WD tracks, so we decided against this. We drove back to the coast via Bell and Kaimkillenbun, where we stopped for lunch.  We drove through areas of cotton and then grain, before arriving home to give everything a clean.

Total Distance 2767km

Eulo and Cunnamulla (Natural Sciences Loop)

Thursday 7 April 2017 – 168 070 - 37°C

We all slept in until 6:30am.  The stars in the middle of the night were truly amazing! I spent some time photographing along the Paroo River. After a cooked breakfast, we packed up and headed off about 10am.

Stop 1 – Eulo Mud Springs.  These were the original release valves for the Great Artesian Basin pressure prior to bores.  There were three of these, each 3 to 3.5m high and 7 to 10m round.  When Hayden jumped on the top you could see the top moving and Drew and I could feel it through our feet.

  Then Drew jumped on it!  It jiggled like jelly!  The mud itself rubs into the skin, and doesn’t feel “grubby”.  Hayden poked a stick into the surface and found a fissure below the surface which opened into a large underground hole – presumably this is where the mud would flow to the surface.

https://www.outbackqueensland.com.au/attractions/mud-springs/

Stop 2 – Eulo Megafauna.  We stopped to see the megafauna statue in Eulo.  This area is where the majority of megafauna fossils are found.

Stop 3 – Cunnamulla. We topped up on bread and salad ingredients, and checked our emails at the Cunnamulla Fella Visitor Centre. The Artesian Time Tunnel had an excellent video on the Artesian Basin.  The actual display however was disappointing, I felt more pictorial information would have been helpful. 

www.paroo.qld.gov.au/artesian-time-tunnel

The Cunnamulla Fella centre also had a quite good museum with the items well labelled and set out logically. They also had two large detailed models; one of a shearing shed and pens, and the other of stockmen’s’ quarter.

https://www.paroo.info/Information/CunnamullaFellaCentre.aspx

Stop 4 – Cunnamulla Sand Dunes. There is a large sand dune directly behind the town, and in complete contrast to the surrounding

countryside.  We had not seen any other sand since leaving the coast.
https://www.paroo.info/Attractions/Cunnamulla-Sandhills-Walking-Tracks.aspx

We decided to drive on to Bollon.  We should have got fuel in Cunnamulla as we took the gauge down to touching the “E”.  We put in 50L to get us through to St George in the morning.  We have camped at the Yumbai Creek Donation Camp Area – it looks pretty but we didn’t see much before it got dark.

www.balonne.qld.gov.au/camping

Eromanga Natural History Museum and Thargomindah (Natural Sciences Loop)

Wednesday 6 April  2016 167 548 - 40°C

This morning we were up and away as quickly as possible, heading to Eromanga.  This is a small town with a mini oil refinery.  There is a Living History Museum, which had a great video with lit accompanying displays for each section of industry in the town and area – dinosaurs, oil and gas, opals and sheep, as well as the school and CWA.  

We then went to the Eromanga Natural History Museum, which has been open three weeks and is fantastic!  I think this has the potential, and the director has the passion, for this to become a major regional attraction despite its remote location.  The museum has been established to Queensland Museum standards; and yet we could see and touch real dinosaur bones! “Cooper” is the most complete skeleton, and is 4 to 6m tall and 30m long.  The staff are also working on “George” who may be a larger version of “Cooper”. Cooper is a new species and genus and is the largest species of dinosaur found in Australia to date.  The first piece was found by the then fourteen-year-old son of the museum curator, and taken to Queensland Museum for examination because it “looked interesting”.  We got to see a video of how they prepare the bones in the field with plaster casts and then got to see them working on the rock/bones in the laboratory. www.enhm.com.au/

Dinosaur big toe

Plaster covered fossils yet to be worked on

Removing the rock from around the bone

Bone encased in rock

Next, we drove through some very dry countryside where the road appeared to go forever. I hit a small bird with the windscreen and twice Drew had to brake to avoid hitting emus crossing the road.  In all our travel today, we saw six cars.  

Next stop was Thargomindah, where we had a look at the third hydropower plant built in the world (after London and Paris), which was driven by the pressure of the Artesian Bore water.  In Thargomindah people have cooling tanks for water instead of hot water systems.  The water comes out of the ground at 70°C and needs to be cooled for use.  We did not get to see it operating as it was closed for a funeral in town.

www.visitbulloo.com.au/hydro-power-plant

Lake Bindegolly National Park was our next stop.  We had planned to the stay the night here, however it was HOT and DRY, hardly any lake, and VERY MANY FLIES.  So, we decided against the walk and this as a camping spot. 

We continued toward Eulo, and stopped at the Paroo River bush camping area (off grid). Lessons we learnt: always bring bug spray, need a second small fan for Hayden, need 12V power point plug to multiple cigarette lighter plug for fans, Waeco, lights and inverter, and need a cigarette lighter plug with thick cables for the inverter, need to cover all vents against bugs.  We had a very early night as the lights just attracted MILLIONS of bugs!  Great to test out our setup off grid though.

Exploring Quilpie (Natural Sciences Loop)

Tuesday 5 April 2016 – 167 304 - 39°C

This morning Drew taught Hayden how to siphon.  We then packed up and said farewell to Evening Star – a great caravan park!  Craig drew us a map of a shortcut from Evening Star to the Quilpie Road and suggestions of things to do in Quilpie.  

Our first stop in Quilpie was the local Visitor Information Centre.  They had lovely picnic tables inlaid with images made from cut opal, they also provided good brochures on the local trees and birds.  Hayden voted at a local photo competition and we had a look through the military museum.  In the street, there were several cattle silhouettes and some great 3D corrugated iron animal sculptures at the visitor centre.  

https://www.visitquilpieshire.com/

We are staying at the Channel Country Tourist Park – we all coped surprisingly well with the heat of setting up in the middle of the day. http://www.channelcountrytouristpark.com/ After lunch, we set off to see the sights of Quilpie!  

Stop one, St Finbarr’s Catholic Church – this has a beautiful altar, lectern and baptismal font all made of opal – absolutely gorgeous!  

https://www.outbackqueensland.com.au/attractions/st-finbarrs-church/

Stop two, Quilpie Airport – there was a large information panel on Amy Johnson’s unscheduled landing at Quilpie.  She was scheduled to land at Charleville, which on her map was shown as the end of the railway line, however the railway line did in fact continue through to Quilpie.  

Stop three, Baldy Top – this was hot, steep and had truly millions of flies; however, the distance we could see was amazing.  

Stop four, Quilpie Council Fossicking Fields – we found some pretty and interesting rocks with slivers of opal within them.  After thirty minutes, we could not stand the flies any longer and left.  

https://www.outbackqueensland.com.au/attractions/quilpie-opal-fossicking/

Stop five, Lake Houdraman – this was a beautiful, peaceful and isolated camping spot.  

Drew and Hayden then went for a swim at the local pool, which surprisingly had free entry.  After dinner, we had a soak in the Artesian Spa in the caravan park.  This was very relaxing, looking up at the amazing number of stars and my body felt much better for it.

Cosmos Centre - Day and Night, Weather Station Tour and Graham Andrews Parklands (Natural Sciences Loop)

Monday 4 April 2016 – 167 243 – 36 °C

"Thing" that releases the weather balloon

Weather balloon on its way up with the sensor hanging below

We began the day with a trip to the Bureau of Meteorology.  We watched the meteorologist record the daily observations – evaporation, minimum and maximum temperatures, rainfall, soil temperatures at 10cm, 20cm and 50cm.  We also got to watch the weather balloon go up.  It rises at 300m/s to height of 32km or more and has a GPS tracker that allows information to be sent back from up to 12km.  This information is used for weather forecasting.

Observing the sun

Photo taken down the eyepiece of the telescope

Meteorites

Next for the day was the Cosmos Centre – to view the Sun! Using a specialised telescope, we could look at the Sun – we could see two areas of solar flares and a sunspot.  We found out all sorts of cool facts about the Sun and Solar System! We then had a tour of the Meteorites at the Cosmos Centre, where they explained the different types of meteorites. “Jack” is about 15cm long and less then 10cm in diameter, and yet is 1.7kg – extremely dense.

https://www.cosmoscentre.com/

Stop 3 for the day was the Graham Andrews Parklands.  We had a picnic lunch and then followed the “Outback Native Timber Walk”.  This displayed various species of native tree with information panels explaining the indigenous and non-indigenous uses for the plants.

https://www.murweh.qld.gov.au/graham-andrews-parklands

Stop 4 was the Royal Flying Doctor Service Visitor Centre.  This had some great displays, including sample calls we could listen to and a current version of the RFDS chest that is at stations for use in conjunction with advice from RFDS staff.

https://www.queensland.com › Consumer › Attraction

After dinner, we headed back to the Cosmos Centre for Aboriginal Night Sky Stories.  This was presented by Shelley, a local aboriginal lady.  She was quite nervous at speaking initially but warmed up and did very well. Shelley explained that aboriginal people look at the black spaces between the stars when interpreting the sky, rather than using the stars in a dot-to-dot fashion.  She also explained how to see the emu in the sky, warrior in the sky and the crocodile in the northern sky.  Shelley also told us the Barramundi dreamtime story about two young lovers who ran away from the girls arranged marriage.  Really enjoyed this session!!

https://www.cosmoscentre.com/

Thurlby Station Tour, Angellala Bridge and Aboriginal Artefacts (Natural Sciences Loop)

Sunday 3 April 2016 – 167 160 - 37°C

This morning we toured Thurlby Station with Craig.  It is 33 000 acres, with a mix of mulga, sand and Mitchell grass plains with greatly variable carrying capacity.  We drove around the property in an old 4WD that no longer had doors or a boot.  We saw hundreds of kangaroos, dozens of emus and two brolgas.  We walked beneath an eagle’s nest and saw the assorted bones scattered beneath.  We saw emu tracks and many wild dog tracks.  We then visited a creek to put in yabbie pots and travelled along the old Cobb & Co roads and saw the remains of the bridge from that era.  Next, we walked around on the plains near the Ward River, where there are many Aboriginal stone artefacts.  We saw several “Flakes” which show the bulb of percussion from their creation.  Craig also explained the station’s efforts to conserve the environment with stock rotation, controlled burning and fencing.  The station uses mobile phone cameras to measure the level of water in the dams, and remotely open and close the water flow.  We returned to the caravan park completely covered in dust – but a very interesting morning.  https://www.murweh.qld.gov.au/evening-star-station-tour

After lunch, we drove into Charleville and explored the historic buildings. Next up, we drove out to Angellala Bridge explosion site, where they are still repairing the road two years on, the railway bridge is yet to be repaired. A truck carrying 53 tonnes caught fire, crashed and exploded and caused major damage.

In the evening, the caravan park had a large campfire gathering.  Bacon and egg damper, and choc-chip damper were made in camp oven’s in a separate pit of hot coals, followed by ice-blocks for the kids and marshmallows toasted on long, forked sticks.  Craig gave the kids a show, tell and touch session of Aboriginal artefacts – fighting shield, close combat shield, women’s collecting basket, fighting boomerangs (which are shaped like a seven), assorted other boomerangs, fighting clubs, grinding stone, wooden bow, axe heads and a complete axe.  The axe was made by splitting a young tree, inserting the axe head in the split, binding the tree above and then waiting for the tree to grow around it, and then cutting it down once the handle is the desired size.  Once the children had dissipated, some much older and fragile axes were brought out for viewing only.  Craig also showed us a conical headdress made from bark covered in twisted hair and topped with ostrich feathers; a large stone penis showing circumcision (apparently, some Aboriginal tribes practices circumcision and some did not).  A thoroughly enjoyable and educational evening.

https://www.eveningstar.com.au/