DAY 87 FROM SOUTH TO NORTH - TOP END (NORTHERN TERRITORY) TRIP

20 July 2010

LONGREACH, BARCALDINE

Another cold morning this morning. Temperature was slightly down from yesterday’s morning.

Not an interesting drive to Longreach. Vast open plains. Yet there is something in those vast open plains with no sign of man made structures. Where else in the world could you experience such sights. Even though they look empty they are not. They are teeming with life. Birds, emus, kangaroos, sheep are those most visible but what about those that are not visible from afar. I was not a long drive to Longreach.

We did see an empty cattle train heading west this morning.

We strolled the streets of Longreach and went to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame. What a fantastic tribute to those who are the backbone of our nation. The building itself captured the feel of the outback. The exhibit portrayed the spirit, culture, passion and the harshness of outback life. It was just awesome. There was just so much information. You couldn’t take it in, in one go. It is a MUST visit place for all Australians.

Ilfracombe was just up the road from Longreach and is famous for its mile long outdoor machinery museum.

Barcaldine was a lovely clean and proud town. Six colourful pubs lined the main street.

The Tree of Knowledge, now a preserved art piece has pride of place.

The merimba canopy provides an interesting foil for the tree.

Just down from it was the seat of knowledge. Not sure what knowledge it imparted to someone sitting on it.

A very lovely town. We bush camped for the night just south of Barcaldine. No eating outside any more as it is getting too cold.

DAYS 86 FROM SOUTH TO NORTH - TOP END (NORTHERN TERRITORY) TRIP

19 July 2010

WINTON

A cold morning this morning – 9C degrees. However, my expectation that the days will get cooler has been proven wrong so far. By 9:30 am it was 20 degrees and it reached 28 degrees in Winton.

The road to Winton was not too exciting. No more termite mounds. Endless plains with Mitchell grasses in places

with an occasional rocky jump up.

Winton was very interesting. The Waltzing Matilda Centre was great. The enactment of Waltzing Matilda was fabulous. They believe that the Combo Waterhole near Kyuna was the billabong referred to in the song. We spent hours here.

I was also lucky to be here at this time as the exhibition in the gallery was Margaret Barnett’s Shiboti Unbound’ . Her shibori Track pieces were beautiful. The rest of the centre was also very interesting. The Winton Telegraph exchange was here. It is hard to believe that it was in use until April 1984.

We went to the historic Corfield and Fitzmaurice building. The life size diaroma was well done. I was intrigued by the dinosaur fossils here. A pity we don’t have time to do the dinosaur trail on this trip. I collected information so that we could include it in a future trip.

We were not impressed with Arno’s wall or the musical fence. Most of the so called instruments are not part of the fence and reminded me of projects I used to do with high school students.

From Winton we headed south east along the Matilda Highway. The area is a catchment area for Cooper’s Creek. We spent the night at a great rest area called Crawford Creek.