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.