Australia: Outback QLD

This blog follows on from the previous and sees us chomping at the bit to reach Thargomindah (feature photo) in outback Queensland.

Plenty of rain has transformed the usually parched landscape so the road ahead is full of life: emus run and kangaroos hop across the road (driving after dusk is risky), mulga scrub multiplies and birds are prolific.

Tourist season should have begun in February, but the global fuel crisis and then heaving rains saw barely a traveller trickle. They’re coming now though. Southerners are passing through on their annual pilgrimage to thaw out in North Queensland warmth and local businesses are surely smiling.

St George on the bloated Balonne River was our first stop. We walked along the Riverbank Walkway (2.5 kms), stopping for drinks and banter at Australia Hotel, before absorbing the excellent Fighter Pilot Memorial.

Queensland’s most western winery Riversands is nearby, so I tasted, devoured a cheese platter and departed with a few bottles of quaffable red.

This classic St George Queenslander Hotel was built in 1866 as a stop for Cobb and Co coaches ferrying passengers from town to town. Was a good pick for State of Origin night.

Further on, tiny town Bollon has 247 people, a fantastic free camping ground on the banks of Wallam Creek and a most interesting Heritage Centre as well as a water tank which is an engineering marvel. In its hey day, Bollon had 3 hotels. Today, there’s none with the last one burning down this year.

In Cunnamulla, it’s Archie St Clair’s sculpture of the ‘Cunnamulla Fella’ that attracts attention.

The song written by Stan Coster and immortalised by Slim Dusty is a tribute to young Aussie blokes who worked long and hard on sheep and cattle stations in the 1950s and 1960s. These were the decades when Australia rode on the sheep’s back, cattle prices were high and jobs were aplenty for young, strong stockmen to muster, break in horses and chase scrubbers (feral cattle and horses). The stockman squat captured below was par for the course after a hard day’s work.

Artesian bore baths are dotted along our travel route. Cunnamulla Hot Springs is the slickest.

Worth a stop is Eulo Queen Hotel for its substantial roast lunch. Masses of history on tap here.

We’re here! Thargomindah was a very easy town to drift around. It’s set amongst outback red dirt, has endless blue skies and enough to keep visitors occupied for a few days.

The excellent Information Centre pointed us to a self guided tour of the old hospital, hydro plant and jail.

Noccundra (an hour and a half from Thargo) is home to this 1882 sandstone hotel and like other hotels we’ve stopped at, it provides a lifeline for  communities battling isolation.

There’s an airstrip close by and light planes (including Flying Doctor) https://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/qld/about/ park in front of the hotel. Certainly, there’s room for road trains and the like to pull up so drivers can have a hearty meal, conversation, even mechanical repairs.

Cattle and sheep stations out this way are enormous. Nockatunga is 2 million acres (8500 sq kms) and has 30,000 cattle. Noccundra Hotel, once part of Nockatunga Station, is now privately owned.

A group of women whose husbands manage stations in the area were lunching at the hotel when we called in. One lady’s idea to bring women together to build friendships in a demanding environment began with the thinking, ‘If just one other lady comes, it will be worth it’. Ten turned up, so yes, it was worth it.

Another ‘pub without a town’ we visited was Toompine built in 1893. It’s been well restored and friendly, and guests are invited to relax at long timber tables.

Seventy seven kilometres from Toompine is Quilpie, an opal town. The main street deserves a slow amble to take in the Brick Hotel (nicely restored), Rail and Military Museum, opal altar at St Finbarrs Church and if you stay at the caravan park, you can add an artesian bore bath to this list.

Went to the town’s bakery, viewed the baker’s shearing achievements plastered over the walls, talked to her about shearing, went to the newsagent and bought the latest issue of Graziher (excellent magazine) and discovered this article. I didn’t have time to return to the baker and show her, but guess she’d know.

From Quilpie, we returned home, stopping for too short a time in Charleville, Morven and Mitchell.

Have to say our month long drift into an uncomplicated rhythm of vast skies, vivid sunsets, starry nights and endless space was satisfyingly weighty.

Will leave you with this very creative Thargo fire pit.