THE FINAL RUN HOME ....

Another great trip -- six months looking at our amazing Country: agriculture, mining, landscapes and fossicking centres were all on our agenda. Interspersed with that, more importantly, were the people ... old friends and new.

Having driven through hundreds of kilometres of drought-affected country, it was refreshing to drive up the Bunya Mountains from Kumbia. It was cool and green at the summit, with lovely rainforest including Bunya Pines ... but a very short distance down all sides, drought conditions prevailed. I must just mention “prickly pear”. For those of you who love making jam from the fruit I can report the plants are flowering prolifically, indicating there’ll be a good crop for you in autumn. And we've noticed a variety with yellow flowers, instead of red – is this a new strain which may be resistant to cactoblastis? Hope not.

Kumbia has a great ‘free’ stop, almost. You pay for power now. The first night there was none. The Council workers explained that they’d been visited by vandals, who had also wrecked the men’s’ shower. Everyone used the women’s shower. But there was power available for our second night, and we still contributed our donation for the upkeep of this beautiful place ... lovely shady trees to camp under.

A night at Kingaroy Showgrounds allowed us to visit the shopping centre and stock up our ‘fridge again.

Then Goomeri showgrounds ... at $15 per night it’s good value, and you can walk into the village to partake of excellent coffee. Barry and Carole come here for the Pumpkin Festival at the end of May ... though I think it will be much colder then. Right now the afternoons are reaching into the high 30’s. But like so many rural towns, Goomeri businesses are suffering from the drought too – there’s no money coming into the town from farming to be circulated around the businesses.

G20 is happening in Brisbane currently ... is that why Google won’t bring up my Facebook page or my BLOG? Has everything been closed down for this, er, event?

Peter and Judy have cleaned our house, including the carpets. What thoughtful people. We hope they've enjoyed their six months in our house.

Since tomorrow is predicted to be a 40º day, we plan to leave early for the 2½ hour run home .... and we pray for no holdups with traffic, fires or our vehicle. Any rain or floods? Not likely.

PS. I have to apologise to G20 -- Google is working now! But it won't upload pics! Urgh.

FULL CIRCLE

Six months ago, after visiting our Care Outreach friends near Miles, we headed to Roma, then turned north to Injune, without even stopping in Roma. Several years previously we ‘farm-sat’ a property west of Injune. We contacted the owner and she said Come on out. When we arrived, Lynne [there are two of us!] had specially made a cake for morning tea ... as you do in the country! Her husband had died since we were there, and she is running the farm herself now with some family and neighbourly assistance. It was great to revisit, as we really enjoyed being able to help out in their situation.

We continued north, past Carnarvon Gorge, to Springsure, Emerald, and Longreach. We found the great free camp on the Thompson River, and stayed for three days. The highlight at Longreach was an arranged meeting with Jill and Ian Ezzy and their friends, at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame.

My considered opinion of the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, though, is that it’s lost some of its vibrancy. I’m not sure why. Its fantastic library has been relegated to an outbuilding, as has Hugh Sawry’s paintings. There’s nowhere to sit and read the books. Hugh was a mover and shaker with getting the Hall set up. Admittedly, Dick Smith has funded a good new film, but other things seem a bit tired. And, for lunch there was almost nothing to choose from ... and we were there for early lunch.

Then it was on to Winton, Hughenden and Mt. Isa where we had a great dinner with Arthur Robinson, ex Goodlife.

Why hadn't I written about it then? Well, my laptop and I kept having differences of opinion, and it wouldn't let me access my BLOG. I suppose the laptop was old, if something 8 years of age can be considered OLD. It couldn't cope with the newer software programs ... so I had to buy a new laptop.

Meanwhile John had difficulties with his IPad ... but the free wi-fi at Mt. Isa library enabled us to eventually get that sorted into a working model.

I wanted an Apple laptop, to sync with our other Apple equipment, but they don’t have those in Mt. Isa. I’ll get one in Katherine, I thought, as I remembered the nice man in the computer shop there who helped me out a few years ago. When we arrived, the business had expanded exponentially, but they still didn’t have Apples. Gotta go to Darwin for them, the nice young assistant explained. He and his sister, who was working there too, came from Maroochydore! We weren’t going to Darwin, as we had a rendezvous with W.A. friends at Fitzroy Crossing or Halls Creek. So I settled for a good deal on a Toshiba PC, with Windows 8.1. Now I was on an even steeper learning curve!

It was only when we got to Broome, weeks later, that I was able to access my emails, internet and BLOG all on the new laptop, and the old one could be put away ... although John still needs it to record books he has read.

So I didn’t BLOG about the Avon Downs free stop, or the station stay at Banka Banka with the pet heifer, or my completing the Grade 3 walk around Edith Falls, north of Katherine. I didn't write about the magnificent red cliffs near the Victoria River, or our great 3 nights at Wyndham with Fuzzy, the tame donkey, who came for breakfast each morning. Or our visit [finally I succumbed] to El Questro on the Gibb River Road.

The BLOG began at the beautiful Fossil Downs Station, at Fitzroy Crossing.

We've traveled mainly outback N.T., W.A., S.A., N.S.W. and back into Queensland.

Now we have come FULL CIRCLE and are back in ROMA, staying at the Pistol and Skeet Shooting Club. Very friendly people here. It’s the second-biggest shooting club in Australia, after Wagga. We went into the big Supermarket this morning ... and met one of our Care Outreach ‘advisers’ – we must be getting closer to home.

We've met up with old friends; we've made new friends, but now we’re looking forward to seeing our ‘Coast’ friends. It won't be long.

*** It was great that Ed & Bronwyn Gerlach spent a day/night with us behind the Drillham Hall and helped with Care Outreach.

Mitchell Cattle

        We're told the epicentre of the drought is in the area south of Mitchell.

This mob of cattle, being driven along the 'long paddock', were glad to have a drink in the Maranoa River, at Mitchell.

MITCHELL

This is bliss – our own en suite in the Mitchell caravan park. The nice people gave it to us at no extra cost – as it’s the end of the tourist season. There’s a toilet, shower and basin in a little tiled cabin, adjacent to each caravan site. We can leave our towels and toiletries there.  No more having to think of what we need when we leave the ‘van. We've stayed here before, although last time when we wanted to it was too wet, and we had to decamp to the Showgrounds.

Some of the Care Outreach team stay here, when they visit the property owners in the area. Vince, Team Leader, has developed a large client base. The area has suffered badly in the past few years: in 2012 they had the highest flood ever recorded when the Maranoa River burst into the town; since then it’s been drought.

Care Outreach assisted mightily during the floods. They have a very good reputation in the area. So much so, the Local Council requested the Mitchell Care Outreach team to make an extra visit this year, and assisted them with travel and accommodation to do so.

Driving up from St. George on Monday, there was very little vegetation for the stock. But the properties must have de-stocked everything they could, and just kept their breeding stock. Those we saw were in reasonable store condition.

We’re heading to Miles after here; the people we hoped to connect with in Roma are at the Coast! Then it’s just a slow meander home.

STAYING AT ST.GEORGE

Can you come for dinner on Thursday night?  An invitation like that is hard to refuse. Having been on the road for six months, most of our eating has been around the caravan ... with the occasional bakery bee-sting!

We were looking forward to connecting with Sam and Latasha. They had both been students at The Pines, where John and I volunteered for several years. Both were great students, although Sam had an objection to wearing shoes and socks in class. Hadn't he been brought up on the farm in the country? His soles were tough. It was sternly explained to him that OH&S has different rules in town.

At the caravan park we chose a nice shady site ... the season is over, said the owner. Just choose any site that suits you. One night we were the only caravan in the park ... which was a bit lonely; it was nice when some good company arrived.

And we had a great dinner with Sam and Latasha, Esther, Lily, Samson and Hope.

Latasha is amazing. She was my star pupil at The Pines, and I recall telling her that she was ready then to hit the speaking trail. Others were good too, but they needed a little more practice. Latasha presented everything with style, passion and conviction. I want to be a motivational speaker, she claimed.

Little did she know that a few years later she would have the greatest story to tell. Returning tired from Brisbane, she fell asleep while driving, and veered into the path of a B-Double. The poor driver did everything he could to avoid her – he tugged his steering wheel so hard it buckled out of shape. Under the truck, Latasha drifted in and out of consciousness with considerable injuries, and clearly remembers thinking: I have a choice now of living or dying. Samson, her third child was with her, unharmed. Thinking of Sam, the two girls and Samson, she decided she better live, and asked God to make that happen.

So the road to recovery commenced, with positive input from every quarter. But not without its considerable moments. We were at C.O.C. Chinchilla two years ago, when Sam and Latasha presented the whole story, including graphic pictures! Yes, Sam was taking pics of the scene and the B-Double while Latasha was being rescued. Our little contribution was to arrange [unintentionally] for a B-Double to be there, in the grounds. This left everyone in no doubt of the miracle of her survival.

It’s great to see her now, with little Hope having arrived, assisting Sam in his role pastoring the INC [Christian Outreach Centre] in St. George. Sam is still working on the farms, and Latasha uses her creative talents to present a children’s music ministry each Wednesday, among other roles. Last Tuesday was a ‘friendship day’, so the friendly people from their assembly had permission from IGA to set up their coffee machine outside their supermarket, give people a cup of coffee, and befriend them.

We also connected there with Shane Timmer, originally from Sunshine Coast but now building in St. George. He was building a new Sunday School room. Shane and Sarah care-took our house once, just after they returned from a round-Australia tour, and we were heading south.

Having already extended our stay from 2 to 4 days in St. George, it was really tempting to extend further. It’s a lovely town.  

IMPRESSIVE ANGLICAN CHURCH at CUNNAMULLA

This very modern Church building impressed me mightily in the middle 1960’s.  As mentioned previously, Duncan, Diane and I had driven to Western Australia and came back to Port Pirie on the Trans Continental train, and were driving back to Victoria when we got this good idea to drive up to Bourke along the Darling River, eventually ending up back in Kingaroy, where our Young Farmers Club from Lilydale, Vic. had visited earlier in the year.

From Wentworth we headed north to Broken Hill, then at Wilcannia we followed the Darling to Tilpa, crossed over and up to Louth.  We were convinced it was going to rain. Just then, the transmission tunnel parted company with the differential, or something like that, and the car ground to a halt. We sent Duncan walking back to get help at Louth. In the meantime, the captain of the Louth cricket team, who’d been playing in Bourke that day, drove along and seeing two young stranded females on the road, said he’d wait with us till the help arrived. [He might have been concerned about the rest of his team whom he’d left drinking in the pub in Bourke, and who came along later.]

Eventually the local mechanic arrived in his jeep, with Duncan in tow. Apparently it was an easy fix, and after talking to these helpful men, all sitting on boxes in the middle of the road, we said we thought we better get going to Bourke, as it looked like it was going to rain. It doesn’t rain here, they said. You can hit your head on the black clouds, but it won’t rain!

That night in Bourke it rained heavily. In the morning we got some supplies at the Bakery and headed for Cunnamulla. That’s when I first saw this impressive ‘star-shaped’ Anglican Church. But after having lunch by the river, we headed off towards Bollon and St. George. The roads were not paved all the way then, and the thick mud was splashing everywhere as we slipped and slid our way along. It turned dark and eventually Duncan said, I can’t see well enough to drive. I’ll have to adjust the angle of the lights to light the road better. He was an engineer and could do that sort of thing, and liked the opportunity to be dramatic and show-off his skills. Diane and I spat on some toilet paper and merely rubbed the mud off the headlights, which had a better effect.

Getting close to St. George, where the bitumen commenced, a truck was stopped on the side of the road. It was the local council workers with some ‘Road Closed’ barriers. We heard yous were comin’, they said with good humour. We’re gunna close the road now! We knew nothing about the wet season/dry season scenario in the north of Australia. I’m still amazed we didn't get stuck in the mud ... perhaps Duncan had more driving skills than we thought!

We journeyed on, and slept in the car outside the Moonie power station, now de-commissioned.

Back at Kingaroy we caught up with our new Rural Youth friends, even helping one out by singing in a concert at Nanango. A better version of Edelweiss you never heard! Our pic even featured in the local paper!

We left Kingaroy next morning and gradually we wended our way back to Victoria, arriving in time for Christmas. 

In 1997, John and I, and cousin Helen from U.K., drove down the road beside the Darling River and we camped at Louth. Over at the pub were photographs of various Louth cricket teams ... and I was able to identify the captain who’d stayed on the road with Dianne and I some thirty years previously.

WILCANNIA to COBAR, to NYNGAN to BOURKE to ......

This “new territory” fascinated us. Gradually we left behind the dry bluebush, saltbush, mulga country ... on which the stock do amazingly well. We saw no stock in poor condition. We've been told the stocking rate is one beast to 25 acres ... which is a world apart from the one beast per acre we grazed in the Waikato, N.Z.

Getting nearer to Nyngan the country changed gradually into cropping land; wheat crops were nearly ready to harvest, and looked like good yields ..... if no disasters occur.

Different species of trees and grass suddenly loomed. After hundreds of miles of desert-type terrain, it was balm to the eyesight to see green crops in paddocks. Lots of emus strutted around; not many kangaroos.

Because we don’t have a timetable, our travel is governed by the weather ... more particularly the wind, of which there has been plenty. We try to avoid travelling into it, endeavoring to achieve a reasonable fuel consumption. We don’t mind if it is blowing behind us, helping us to skim along.

Which is why we were in Nyngan for four days, instead of the initial two-night stay. But in a peaceful setting beside the Bogan River, with good company, it was no hardship.

Now we are staying in Bourke for some extra days ... no, not because of the excellent bee-stings at the Bourke Bakery .... because the wind is blowing, very hot, from the wrong quarter. And again we are in a beautiful, peaceful camp. We can actually smell the roses. On Tuesday we may head back into Queensland, to Cunnamulla if the wind turns south-west, as predicted.

But will I see the property with the TY1 cattle-brand, which was significant to the world-breaking cattle drive I’m writing about?

We have identified a road we haven’t traveled previously; between St. George and Mitchell! Care Outreach operates in this region. We must go and see.

At St. George and Roma we hope to engage with some graduates from The Pines. And at Miles we may connect with some people we know there. Which means we are getting very close to home!