THARGOMINDAH
Another glorious day, temperature peaking at 30C. This afternoon I saw the first cloud since
leaving Brisbane, high in the eastern sky.
It has been magical weather for travel.
Thargomindah is 192km south of Quilpie on the
Quilpie-Thargomindah Road …. Narrow but very good bitumen for all but 38km of
well-graded gravel when one enters the Bulloo Shire. It is 923km by road from Brisbane, and has a
population of 200. Like Quilpie it is on the Bulloo River.
Had morning tea with ladies at the Information Centre, and learned
a lot about the place yarning with them.
So very hospitable. Went to edge
of town to have a look at the primitive electricity plant run by water pressure
from a bore. Was only the third hydro electric
plant in the world, and first in Australia. So Thargo had electric street
lights from 1898—long before most other towns.
The Leahey historical house was also interesting. It was built of locally made bricks in the
1880s as home to one of the two founding pioneers of the district. There are bronze busts to them both in the
main street. A lot of interesting
historical photos on show. Amazingly
they just leave the place unlocked all the time for visitors to go in. I found a couple of the country churches the
same. Seems they don’t have the big city
vandalism we are so used to.
Photos here
Photos here
EULO
Heading east from Thargomindah towards Cunnamulla, one
passes Lake Bindegolly. Pretty much
dried up now, but still lots of wildlife around. I stopped but didn’t bother doing the 5km
walk into the national park.
112km east of Thargomindah is a place that describes itself
as “a quaint little town”. A general
store, a couple of churches, an art gallery, pub and opal centre are strung out
along the highway, with a few houses scattered around. I stopped for coffee at
the general store which has a huge sign announcing REAL COFFEE. Not sure what that meant, but it tasted good
anyway.
Photos here
Photos here
CUNNAMULLA
Another 86km brought me to Cunnamulla, like Charleville on
the Warrego River. Only this time it is
real river with plenty of flowing water, and I noticed a few fishing on the
banks. It is 726km from Brisbane by
road, and has population of 1650. Quite
a sizeable town with a neat central shopping and services area.
After booking into the Billabong Motel, I had time to do a
quick run around the town. There is a
very eye-catching sculpture in front of the Council Building of the “Cunnamulla
Fella” – apparently immortalised by Slim Dusty in one of his songs. One the edge of the town stands a solitary
tree, known as The Robber’s Tree.
Apparently a guy robbed the National Bank in town, wouding the
manager. He took off into the bush,
pursued by the constabulary and dogs. He
climbed this tree to escape, but was scented out by the dogs and captured. He was hanged (the last to be so) for Robbery
Under Arms.
The local railway station only sees the occasional freight train
now, but is one of only 3 in Queensland that has a completely covered
platform. I see one of the buildings in
the main street is named Corones Building.
I have seen that name in every town since I left Roma… a large Greek
family that apparently prospered with hotel, café and provisioning stores
throughout the West. More to see
tomorrow before I push on.
One thing I have noticed over the last few days is that the
country is flat, shows signs of frequent flooding, and is covered with what I
call scrub. In fact they are varieties
of Acacia, growing 2-3 metres in height.
Hardly a gum tree to be seen anywhere. I guess it has to do with the
salty nature of the soil and water.
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