Who'll come a Waltzing Matilda (Way).......

A slightly surreal scenario at this moment, as I am typing the latest overdue blog from a poolside patio table in Tropical Queensland surrounded by palm trees and greenery. I feel like one of those author types who sit looking for inspiration in a wifi friendly cafe....close but no cigar!

I am also confined to barracks having contracted Von's stinking non-covid cold. Von is currently in her happy place hoovering and cleaning the inside of the van with the occasional foray into the pool for a cool down. We are very fortunate to have been gifted a long weekend in Cairns (Trinity Park) at the abode of Les & Julie Crawford who we hope to actually see when they return from their weekend away.

So the surreal bit is the absolute overdose of verdant foliage and abundant GREEN everywhere having ventured back East from the West of Queensland. It was, initially, quite overpowering particularly as it felt like someone had drawn a line over the road and we went from DUSTY BROWN to GREEN in a matter of a few kilometres as we entered the Atherton Tablelands through the Ranges.

But before that, we must return to the DRY.....as an aside, if you haven't already, read Jane Harpers books, The Dry' it's a good literary portrayal of Outback Australia. (Although if you don't like Crime or Thrillers ...maybe not read!)

We left everyone devouring the previous blog on the Capricorn Way and embarked upon the Matilda Way which is one of the main 'sealed' highways (1812km) from the New South Wales border all the way up to Gulf of Carpentaria in North Queensland. We picked up this route at Longreach in order to follow it to its end at Karumba.

After our adventures in Longreach we had planned on an overnighter at a cattle station which was offering low cost camping in an attempt to diversify. They'd had to de-stock a large amount of sheep and cattle due to the drought and so had taken on the tourist market with tours around the station and/or camping. Now, we have been very willing to support farmers and local communities throughout this trip but we have to admit that this particular day and pending night beat us. It was soooooo hot and soooooo dry and soooooo windy that it became impossible to be stationary without us melting and being covered in layers of dust. We felt a bit precious and a little bad that we didn't stay; preferring instead to drive, with van air conditioning running, and onward to our next destination of Winton. The lure of the caravan park with a swimming pool was much too tempting! Some have questioned why we didn't get air conditioning fitted to the camper bit of the van.... and yes, on those very hot nights we do wonder.  We have always known we were taking the van back to NZ and so the use of air conditioning didn't seem necessary. It also meant we would have had to compromise on the removal of the skylight to accomodate the unit which we didn't want to do. We both rather like the ability to lie in bed and watch the night sky through the roof. And for those very hot days, which thankfully have been few, we will just have to suck it up!

Winton bound we went and a long stretch of nothingness.....which in itself has beauty and a certain amount of awe and wonder. Just the sheer expanse of wide brown land and big skies.

Winton clearly has gone all out to lure the tourists in...and it's working! 

It's original name was 'Pelican Waterhole' which apparently made the labour of postage and stamping a little arduous back in the day so the then Postmaster was asked to come up with a better name! Heaven forbid they used the local indigenous name....anyhoo...the postmaster decided on Winton as that was the suburb in Bournemouth, UK from where he hailed. (An all too common reason for Aussie towns being named.)

Back to Winton then, we also by chance arrived at the start of the Outback Film Festival which was a bonus. It had been postponed in June due to Covid but with the relatively free movement within Queensland, it had been rescheduled....probably because they knew we were in town haha! Tickets sales were up on last year, by all accounts as much as 30%, as hundreds of Queenslanders have taken to the road to explore their own State. We did manage to get tickets to an evening show in the beautiful old open air theatre, complete with big canvas deckchairs. I should point out that ordinarily open air would be perfect and it was for us....unlike the night before and night after, when, for the first time in months, it bucketed down with rain! Thunder and lightening from the dry of our van was fascinating to watch but I'm guessing from the open air cinema, not so much!

But I digress; there was so much more to Winton than the film festival. DINOSAURS and WALTZING MATILDA are probably their two main attractions. Due to budgetary constraints we picked one and had a look at the free bit of the other! 

The Waltzing Matilda Centre is a museum that, essentially, is dedicated to the the famous song Waltzing Matilda and legend has it was first sung in the North Gregory Hotel in Winton. Written by Banjo Patterson it is widely held to be Australias 'other' National Anthem. The original museum burnt down in 2015 and they now have a new one which, as buildings go, is quite stunning and a great tribute to the famous song.

Winton clearly has a musical and arty vibe running through it...maybe because it's in the middle of nowhere they need to find ways of keeping themselves amused? We like it!

The Musical Fence was one example of Art meeting Music where a collection of junk has been turned in to various musical instruments for you to bash about on! We did this to the best of our ability early one morning on Dennis' dog walk. Thankfully it is not in the middle of a residential area so good council planning too.  I particularly enjoyed my 'Animal' (Muppet) moment on the drums (in my mind I was Phil Collins). Winton's Musical Fence also was the inspiration behind the success of Gotye's debut album so with a little more practice, who knows!?

Winton is also home to the 'Crack up Sisters'...yes really (google them). Mmm, entertainers who list acrobatics and whip-cracking amongst their many talents! Guessing they are more legendary amongst the rodeo's and local shows but my Aussie readers may prove me wrong.....world famous in Australia?

On the same walk we also happened across 'Arno's Wall'. This is another feat of recycling...junk which has been embedded into a plaster wall. It did literally have everything AND the kitchen sink. Even had a few motorcycles and I think is still a work in progress when Arno is not working out at his 'dig' prospecting for gold.

The BIG draw to Winton though is the Age of Dinosaurs Museum, together with the Dinosaur Stampede Exhibit, the former situated about 30 minutes outside Winton. The latter is a lot further out and involves driving on unsealed roads so we decided to avoid that one in light of the recent rain. The Museum building is stunning and situated on the top of an escarpment, or as they call it here a 'jump-up', looking down over the plains and was born from one man's discovery on his land of a collection of dinosaur bones in 1999 whilst mustering sheep. Having unearthed more bones, David Elliott and his wife set up a 'not for profit' organisation to recover the bones and create a museum to preserve and document their findings. The Museum finally opened in 2009. They rely on volunteers at certain times of the year to pay to work on digs, or in the laboratory, and appear to have no shortage wanting to do this.

(this is how they preserve the bones...bit like when you break your arm/leg they put them in plaster until they're ready to work on)

We did the 'Express' Tour of the Museum and the Laboratory which was very well organised and informative. Seeing dinosaur bones millions of years old was truly amazing as was the process of preservation; all very labour intensive but very rewarding. They have a huge backlog of work (almost 10 years) due to the amount of bones they are discovering. The current one they are working on could very well be the best whole dinosaur skeleton of it's type in the world including, they hope, an ability to see what it's last meal was. Some awe and wonder right there.

The marketing team clearly are also right on point with a great new addition to their fridge magnet collection.

It's fair to say we really enjoyed our time in Winton, even the car park camping at the back of the pub....short walk! I know they will argue that they were the true birth place of QANTAS (apologies to my Australian readers for misspelling in previous blog) as the first meeting was held at the Winton Club, allegedly. But I think they have much more than QANTAS...they WALK WITH DINOSAURS.....even the Bins!

Conscious of our timings with regards weather and cyclones in the North we departed Winton and onwards and upwards through some moody weather and rain. Much needed in this part of the country we weren't complaining and have previously learned a valuable lesson on where to park a two wheel drive. (see Great Ocean Road blog). We had two stops along this route which we felt had to be done.

First stop was McKinlay which doesn't have a lot there; a small residential street and a fuel station. However, their two claims to fame are:

1. The Pub. Walkabout Creek Hotel was used in the filming of Crocodile Dundee for the outback pub scenes. 

and

2. The Library which was used as the film's tourist office. This also lays claim, in its current use, as the smallest Library in Australia ! 

So it was rude not to have a cheeky beer....at the pub. The library was closed!

The second stop along the long road of nothingness was a well known roadhouse in Australia known as the Burke & Wills Roadhouse. The road houses throughout Australia are providers of pretty much anything a traveller needs; Food, Drink, Sleep, Fuel. So there tends to be a number of different types of traveller landing...Road Trains, Camper-vans, Motorhomes, Caravans, Cars, and Motorcycles. It was here we met two motorcyclists, both female, both on separate solo journeys, and soon to be united with a third in Karumba (as it transpired). Amazing!

One of the women, French but now living in Oz, had motorcycled around Australia in the 1970's on her own and never went back to her home country. She's now in her 70's but still gets on her KTM and heads off wherever the mood takes her. Interestingly back in the 1980's she wrote a book of her experiences but publishers weren't interested as there was no murder or other unsavoury action! We tried to encourage her to reach out again as I think a lot of folk could do with a good news story right now.

The other woman Rozalyn Veersma (google her or YouTube) is, like us, attempting a BIG LAP. And, like Von at 50, decided to check out of her corporate world and go adventuring. Having watched a couple of her YouTube movies she is clearly an accomplished rider and YouTuber! We liked her philosophy of spending hours not money. She caught up with us again in Karumba as she had been waiting for a part for her Honda (when she then drained and cleaned her fuel tank...yep she knew her stuff alright!) I would recommend some of her Vlogs if you get chance. Loving some of the people we meet on the road.

The last town before Karumba is Normanton which introduced us to BIG Crocodiles. They have a replica life-size model of the biggest Croc ever caught in the WORLD ,

.. incidentally, by a female crocodile hunter! Some scary women up here then...noted. The croc (Krys) was 8.63 metres long (for those still on imperial..28ft 4inches). I'm hoping, as this was 1957, it was a one off. Not wanting to find Krys' cousin, we opted for something a little more genteel.....The Barramundi Discovery Centre.

The Centre, as well as being 'free admission', houses a breeding programme for Barramundi, which are a large white fleshed fish; and go very well with chips. Karumba is, allegedly, the prawn capital of Queensland so thought we ought to partake.  However, there was no Shawn to be had anywhere, all shops were shut and all prawns sold out, apparently the prawn season is April to July so we were just too late. Bugger.

(only prawn we spotted)

Karumba also boasts, according to brochures, some of the best sunsets. It is one of only a few places in Queensland where you will get a sunset over the sea. We were there for 3 nights and yes, we concur. We're not sure whether it is always busy in Karumba but there was definitely an increase in numbers of people up there and, in particular, the school holidays started which meant the swimming pool became kid-soup! Time to leave......and time for me to leave this blog too as it's fast approaching beer' o'clock.

I'll let Von blog the Savannah Way Adventure....or should that be Savonnah.