Day 16 - Camooweal to Barkly Homestead

We stayed hooked up at Camooweal so didn't take long to get organised. Our border passes were at the ready when we reached the police check point. There were no issues so we were in the NT about 9.30am, half an hour earlier than it was east of the border.

Most of the "grass" out here is straw coloured, except for an area that must have received some rain which was green. We passed a couple of cattle trucks and staging yards with cattle ready to be moved. There are no towns and no fuel between Camooweal and Barkly Homestead, just the Avon Downs police station. We topped up at Camooweal and again at Barkly Homestead.

This is the first time we have stayed here and the facilities are fine considering the remote location and bore water supply. This is our view across to the ARC hub. Thank goodness for these patches of green grass as I can carry Blue across the dusty areas. I was able to position the Bushtracker with the door side shaded during the hottest part of the day. I put our shade panel up to protect that side of the van from the heat. The aerial photo is from the Barkly Homestead website.




There is a pool here but we don't generally go into caravan park pools. We did a load of washing and spent time with the little critters in our comfortably air conditioned van. 

Our concert was in the beer garden of the hotel and other campers and a group of local Aboriginals joined the audience. Our Roadie musicians were very energetic and put on a great show.








Popular posts from this blog

Aussie Road Crew - Finished

Image
After our final dinner and concert some Roadies were continuing their celebrations near our Bushtracker. We could hear the noise even though all windows were shut and the van is normally soundproof. As it was after 10pm I ventured out to negotiate with them. While one person accused me of being the fun police, other Roadies supported my suggestion they turn off the amplified music and keep the noise down. The general expectation in caravan parks is noise stops after 10pm. There were non Roadies trying to sleep in tents, and I suggested their activities would reflect badly on Aussie Road Crew and Beccy who might not be able to return to this park on future tours. Fortunately there was very little noise after my visit. We drove out of the Crows Nest Tourist Park just after 7am looking for a MacDonald's in Toowoomba for coffee and brekkie. Instead we spotted Valetta Cafe in time to park the van across the road. I bought a take away brioche egg and bacon roll and coffees. The cafe is i...
Read more

Around Chinchilla

Image
The Condamine River is flowing over the Chinchilla Weir 5kms out of town. It has reached the 6m mark on the gauge and is an impressive sight. It is forecast to reach 8m by Tuesday in two days time. Chinchilla has suffered several floods when Charley's Creek rises. This is the post office in the 2010-2011 flood and as it was today. On 28 December 2010 the water level at Chinchilla Weir topped 15m. Despite this history of repeated flooding Chinchilla appears to be a prosperous town with many community facilities such as a water park, 700 seat cultural centre, and major road improvements. Many of the out of town workers are employed by QCG, a Shell company "producing" natural gas in the Surat Basin - presumably this means collecting the gas by fracking. Just down the road there is accommodation for 1,000 workers in Stayover so the town is benefiting from the presence of this large workforce. Tilly finally slept through the night. Today I kept her outside as much as possible ...
Read more

Broken Hill to Burra

Image
We left Broken Hill about 8am for our drive to Burra. Our first stop was at Mannahill. We followed this load of sheep as we dawdled through roadworks. On a recommendation from friends we explored Terowie, an historic town that is almost abandoned. The town grew late in the nineteenth century as a transhipment point from broad gauge rail to narrow gauge. In the 1970s the line to Peterborough was converted to broad gauge and Terowie became a near ghost town. Several abandoned shops are now owned by the South Australian Government. Unfortunately there is a risk associated with asbestos being blown around the town. The population fell from about 2000 to 130. In 1942 General Macarthur passed through Terowie on his way to Adelaide and Melbourne. He made a public speech at the railway station famously asserting "I came out of Bataan [in the Phillipines] and I shall return". A plaque marks the location at the rem...
Read more