Outback Queensland road trip Day 4: Around Charleville

 

 

By the numbers

1 tank of fuel

843kms before filling up

5.09kms walking

 

The day started cold, but we both stayed in the room until late morning before deciding to go for an explore. We thought it would be a good idea to plan where we are staying as accommodation had been a little bit iffy with things being almost booked out. Roma had no vacancy when we arrived. There was a sinking feeling things might not turn out to be so great. I had managed to make two bookings the night before to secure a place in Longreach and then went exploring other locations like Winton had nothing the Friday after. The pan ended up being that we head to Highenden and then to Winton.

 

It wasn’t until later that we realised there was an event on in Winton and that was a film festival that went on for a week that we did not know about and it explained the issues in not finding anywhere to stay, but we ended up with accommodation towards the end of the festival so it was alright. We did book some of the experiences for that time as well. I was using this time to take it easy as we had been on the move for several days and it was good to sit back without any real plans.

 

When we did leave not long after 11am, I was wanting to visit the information centre where the Royal Flying Doctors was located as I hadn’t seen very much about it at all. The TV had only been advertising the visitor experience out at Alice Springs. A touch too far to visit on our time frame. The small museum at the visitor centre told us about the beginnings of the service and that it started in Charleville and was essential for medical flights and these days flights and other services for remote communities who need medical help including dental. It was interesting they started with morse code radios and then that was soon replaced by actual radios and communications over the airwaves. We didn’t see any aircraft there, and nearby was something I hadn’t been that interested in going to though would next time. It was about the WW2 facilities, there was also the cosmos centre all about looking at the night sky.

 

Nearby at the airport I had seen a little museum that had today vanished from Google maps and I wanted to see if there was some interpretive centre out that way. There was a very small museum and it explained that Charleville airport or airfield was essential since flight began in the 1920s from air races and to mail runs with the small company Qantas that is now a little bit bigger. Many of the major flights that took out world records used Charleville as a stop over and it did include a short bit about the Royal Flying Doctors in the area. It was small, but a quick museum / interpretive centre about the history of the area. The airport was just as quiet and there were even signs telling us to watch out for snakes. We never seen any that were there at all

 

After looking at the airport and then finding the weather balloon centre, which told us they let of balloons every morning, we headed for the next item on my list of things to see and that was the cemetery, although we stopped at one of the parks that had a big red bench. There was a blue tree too as it was part of lifeline and then story boards throughout the park. The park had something far more interesting. Some devices that gave hope in creating rain The Steiger Vortex guns that were supposed to create rain around 1902, but didn’t actually work. The next stop was the cemetery, which was pretty sandy and had a sign telling us to keep the kangaroos out by closing the gate. Just outside the fenceline was an info sign telling us about the flooding in the 1990s and how a work crew stent a day and half cleaning up the cemetery. That I found interesting and walking amongst the headstones you could see how dry it was and see where other people were walking. It actually got pretty warm out there and I thought that was a good thing as it had been cool enough.

 

One of the jobs we needed to do before things got too far was to fill up with fuel and that was the first time we had gotten fuel since we had left Tweed and had done at least 800 or so kms since we left. We did visit the RSL again as they have some nice meals and some deals as well like pork chops or even a chicken parmi.

Outback Queensland road trip: Day 3 To Charleville via Mitchell

 

By the numbers

825kms from Tweed Heads 

3 hours driving

1 Artesian basin

3 Bilby’s

 

The morning came and it decided to have a little extra in the cool department with Roma. The temperature had reached zero degrees and I was happy to be in a room that had heat so I wasn’t too cold. We had to pack the car to be on our way to Charleville. Since we were right on the main road, we could hear the trucks going past at all hours. That would mean some interrupted sleep, but once we are gone from there it should hopefully be quieter.  We had decided instead of winging the entire trip that booking things might be the way to go instead. When we left the trip told us that we would be in Charlebille by lunchtime and we were happy with that.

 

The roads opened up and there was not much in the way of traffic going in the same direction as us, but trucks and caravans going in the other direction towards Roma. Part way to our destination we stopped in the town of Mitchell, where we needed a pit stop. The town has a. artesian spa located at the information centre and we went for a wander to have a look. It was pretty busy in the morning and we didn’t try it out. Instead we ended up in the local museum about the area that told stories about the buildings and people of the area including the local bushranger who was in the area. We both found it interesting looking around and there were some things that I had not seen like a charcoal type fridge and a tar vat used for roadworks.

 

By the time we left Mitchell behind us the trip indicator said that we would be in town by 1pm and I kept an eye out for anything interesting as I could see signs that said the roads we wanted to take were open. When we arrived in Charleville we found we were too early to get into our accommodation, but could get the key, then come back after 2pm. We headed into the town and found there were plenty of empty shops and a hotel we were looking at, which was the put wasn’t serving anymore, but had on street parking. The whole area was really quiet and I thought it was unusual. Mum had been here some years earlier and it had been more lively then. We found a bakery for lunch and a pie, but there were no fingerbuns at all.

 

Once we got settled in the room, we went to something that had been booked the day before and that was the Bilby experience about bringing the animal back from the brink of extinction and the blokes who helped save the species. There is still plenty of work to be done including predator free habitats and education programs like at the train station in Charleville. There were people doing it on a tour group that is in town. We got to see the Bilby in their enclosure doing their thing. After that we went to have a look at IGA and then went out for dinner after we had a little rest in the room. I started looking at accommodation further on in the week to break up the long drives into smaller ones. We are staying in Euromanga and from there at Windorah that is then a 3 hour journey to Longreach instead of something silly like 7 hours. Will really be on the edge of civilisation then and sealed roads.

Outback Queensland road trip: Day 2 Floating around Roma

 

 

By the numbers

1 car

2 cemeteries

7 kms walking

 

The morning started crisp as the temperature said that we would be as low as 3 degrees in the morning and I could believe it. We did not even need to leave our room for breakfast as we had bread for toast and coffee. Though the annoying part is the internet is a little iffy depending on where you want to access the internet. The motel wifi just gets a signal in the room and I ended up having the laptop on the portable fridge to get a decent signal. Then the laptop wanted to perform updates that lasted several hours.

 

We were up early to visit the saleyards in Roma for their Tuesday morning tour. It was a 5 minute drive down the road, but there were already plenty of people at the site, and that was not the workers. Other tourists had appeared out of the woodwork and there were over a dozen caravans in the parking lot with campers as well. The carpark was full of people too. At the start of the tour the farmer who was taking us counted at least 150 in the one group, while another bloke had taken another. Before we met for the tour we ended up in the interactive centre about the history of the sale yards. And that the Roma yards is where the prices for the rest of the country are set for the week. Plus the cattle from pretty much all over Queensland except for the tick country areas.

Once we were frere of the crowds that were filling up the interactive museum and it actually slowed everyone down a bit. We ended up on the tour where they explained that they could track the cattle from the farm to the saleyards and beyond. If they lost the tags and then it would be costly. The last truck had to be at the yard by 8pm the night before or else they would miss the sale. Everything has a paper trail. I got to listen to the auctioneers do their thing and they knew what they were looking for with the people who were below on ground level. Once the tour had ended we went through the interactive centre again as all the mass hordes of tourists had vanished. Caravans had gone too. That got us a little worried about accommodation in the other places we are staying.

 

Back into town we went and headed to a museum that was called Up the Creek Garage. It was actually interesting. It was us going on holiday to look at someone elses holidays in years gone by through parts of the United States with friends using vehicles that seem to have come from there to be part of the museum. They had done Route 66 and other routes that took them past places like New York and Wyoming. They had plenty of photos and even trips around New Zealand. They had the cars to back up their stories from their trips including a Lincoln. It was a nice little museum with a little bit of family history about two farm properties their family owns with stories from the newspapers. They have two long horn cows as well, which have different personalities. Mum got to feed them and we had a chat with the owners who were full of information.

 

Once we went on our way, we ended up having a look at Roma’s biggest bottle tree that was not very far from where we are staying. Mum went for a rest at the motel, while I ended up going for a wander, although after seeing all those tourists at the saleyards we were worried that we would get stuck looking for somewhere to stay, so booked the next two places in the journey. We havnt looked at Longreach yet especially since we don’t want to get stuck. The next two places are Charleville and Euromanga. I just need to sort out Longreach and then things should be alright. For my wander I headed to the Roma cemetery for a look around. On the way I heard some dogs and thought to myself with a gate that was open, what if a big dog came running out. Then it happened a big dog came running out barking at me. I kept walking and all it did was sniff me and go back home. The cemetery was only small and it had been started around the 1880s. The sun was slowly going down and I didnt want to get stuck anywhere in the dark. I wandered off back towards town and then found another little historic cemetery. I followed the sign and found opposite the the railway station there had been an old cemetery, where the headstones were no longer there. It had been earlier than the other cemetery. The streets of Roma are wide as most country roads seem to be with plenty of space, but no footpaths everywhere.

 

Its been a good short stop in Roma even if I havnt seen that much of the town, I bet that would be the future though I am happy that Roma is a pitstop for the first part of the journey. Some of the roads further out west might have water near them so we shall see what happens.