Air Conditioning Failure

This morning our air conditioning in the Bushtracker failed while connected to the temporary generator arrangement set up last night. I spoke with the electrician connecting the last of the power connections to the main generator and he came to look at our system. He had the blown fuse out in a few minutes and I rushed to town to buy a new one, only to find the only electrical shop in town was closed for lunch for an hour. I briefly caught up with our friends at the pub, but was back at the shop when it re-opened. 

Boyd the electrician had the replacement fuse in and the air con working within 5 minutes. He refused my offer to pay him so we will track down his company on Facebook and give him huge public thanks. Temperatures are set to reach 37° on the weekend so I had even tried to find a hotel or motel room for us but Winton is booked out. Our friends with working air con would have helped out, but Blue and Tilly will be happier in their own space. Anita was ready to pack up to drive to the nearest caravan service centre in Mt Isa! This tiny piece of wire nearly ruined our time here.


I missed one show while sorting out the air con, but managed to see the tribute concert to Slim Dusty. Several of the festival entertainers performed one or two of Slim's songs. Their renditions were quite different to the way Slim performed those songs, and in most cases were really good. Gretta Ziller did a great job on The Biggest Disappointment, almost making it sound like a rock song. The Shire Hall air conditioning was not as effective as yesterday. As it was almost full we had to wear masks throughout the show, which made me feel hotter.

I came across this new sign after missing a turn when looking for fuel. It is not as grand as the Blackall sign, but apparently the time to see it is at sunset so we will try to do that tomorrow.

After dinner I went back into town to listen to the Travelling Country Band at the North Gregory Hotel. I was too late to get a seat in the beer garden, but could enjoy the music sitting in the comfortable Art Deco style foyer. Pete Denehy and the band's fiddler performed an amazingly fast train song. The Hillbilly Goats were the next act - they are more comfortable performing their old time Appalachian folk music than Slim Dusty songs. I took a couple of photos of downtown Winton.







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