QUEENSLAND Brisbane to Blackall

Left Brisbane on 21 June.  Speedo 89565 -wonder what it will be at the end of this long trip.  Skies were blue, 15 degrees at 9am.  A pleasant change from our rainy start in 2008.  Paid 119.9 for fuel at Toowoomba, much cheaper than Brisbane price around 132.
Drove past newly harvested cotton fields, paddocks with small groups of cattle.
Stopped for roadworks at least 6 times.  After Dalby we were in mulga country and later some brigalow.  Looked up my Chinchilla booklet - mulga is Acacia aneura, around 8m high, with yellow flower spikes; brigalow is Acacia harpophylla 10-20m high, with yellow balls of flowers up to 20 m and rough, blackish bark. None in flower yet.
Road kill started after Dalby.  Had lunch at Charlie's Creek in Chinchilla where we saw apostle birds, white ibis, little black cormorant, willie wagtail, crows, magpies, pied butcherbirds, galahs.
More roadworks at 2:30 just after the sign 'Welcome to the Maranoa'.  Saw a nankeen kestrel.
Arrived at Judd's Lagoon at 3:30 when there was still room to find a good site.  Lovely place!

Black-striped wallaby

Great egret

White-necked heron

Galahs at nest - many nest holes and galahs

Sun setting on a 'galah' tree

Many other birds were there - grebes, grey teal, kookaburras, noisy miners, masked lapwings, corellas. We went to bed at 6:30 and I was asleep by 7:30pm.  Out of bed at 7 am - too cold at 3 degrees.  7 degrees at breakfast, but we were well equipped for the cold, despite no power.

Charleville was our next stop, 376 km on.  Stayed at the Bush Caravan Park - quite an experience.  About 60 people gathered around a fire at 4pm and while our host tended the dampers, his wife entertained everyone with a constant string of jokes.  The damper was free, either savoury (onion, mushroom, garlic etc) or ginger with chocolate.  Very good.  Secret ingredient is the liquid - just 400ml, preferably diet lemonade!

Worth stopping there for Cosmos Observatory.  7:30 session booked out by 2pm so we went to the 9pm one after a late, very big and cheap dinner at the local RSL.  Everyone had a turn at one of the 4 telescopes to look Jupiter, Saturn, Omega Cenauri, the Jewel Box and Alpha Centauri.  Presenter was excellent and we learned a lot.  Freezing cold of course!!  No photos  allowed.

2 nights at Blackall to deal with washing, top up supplies and be ready for the 5 hour drive to Noonbah via Isisford.  No power for us at Noonbah where we will stay for 10 days.

Fuel at Augathella was dearer 128.9 but still not as dear as Toowong!  Saw 4 emus just before and after Tambo. Do they always travel in 4s?

Lunched at lagoon in Tambo, seeing birds similar to Judd's Lagoon plus a currawong and 4 black-tailed native hens, seldom seen by me.  They waded in water and scurried into nearby bushes just as David tried to photograph them.

By the way, all photos are David's work - I'm hopeless!

Arrived in Blackall in time for a long delay while they sprayed bitumen just near our caravan park.  Later we walked down to the river and found the bitumen crew had moved there.  David did not have his good camera and used the mobile phone for poor shots of 2 brolgas and a white-necked heron in breeding plumage, so different that I thought it another species.  A small boy on noisy motor bike drove deliberately at the brolgas several times, much to our distaste.

That night an entertainer with guitar sang old songs quite well for an hour prior to the camp oven dinner ($25 each).  I spent that hour dealing with washing and we ate a defrosted stew from home.

Interesting that all washing is done with HOT water here, even when cleaning teeth.

White-plumed honeyeaters at our car in Blackall

We were rather squashed on a small site but no problems with neighbours.  Slept well with fan heater going. 

Shamrock St Blackall

Peter Shaw & Co where we bought a car USB charger

Next morning we shopped to top up supplies and went to the local attraction, the Blackall wool scour which operated from 1908 until 1978.  It is now restored (but not operating in commercial terms) and the tour was worth doing, though the bloke spoke too quickly and assumed too much prior knowledge.

In car park at wool scour

Artesian bore provided hot water for scouring wool and driving a water wheel for electrical power.

Shearing stands

Flywheel driving the whole system via belts

Two washes and one rinse for the wool before being dried and baled.

I worked on this blog after lunch.  Then we returned to the brolga area.  Alas, on a Saturday there were more noisy motor bikes and no birds but we did the eagle sculpture and the horse cart.

Eagle and Nest 2007 Richard Moffat

Family business making horse carts

Looked for another place to see birds and found ourselves at Ram Park. 3 grey kangaroos were eating grass nearby.

Old railway station

Examples of many different pumps used in the past

Home to pack up after buying hamburgers for tea at a nearby Caltex.

Blackall is struggling to survive in the drought.  Many shops are vacant.  They rely on tourism to survive and at this peak time, the only caravan park and free camping near the river were filling up.  The river is just a series of waterholes.