Australia Travel 2012

And this is where we travelled with 4WD & trusty tent ...

Left Melbourne, headed over to SA, skirted the Flinders Ranges, up the Oodnadatta Track to Lake Eyre.

Then to Alice Springs, across the Tanami Track up to WA, Halls Creek, the Bungle Bungles and Kununurra.

Took a detour to NT, Keep River and Gregory National Parks, Timber Creek, back to Kununurra & surrounds. From here it was Kimberley country, Wyndham, down the Gibb River Road, Derby, Broome, Port Hedland and inland WA down to Laverton.

Across the Great Central Road into NT to Uluru, KataTjuta, Kings Canyon, the Mereenie Loop Road into Alice Springs. From here it was across the Plenty Highway  (shredded tyre country) to SW Qld and Birdsville,  over SA border to Innaminka (Burke & Wills country), then to NSW and eventually headed south and back to VIC!


Blog starts with earlier posts in July. Click on the photos to get a better view and enjoy!

Lake Mulwala,Yarrawonga & back to Melbourne

Checked out Lake Mulwala, part of the Murray River and the border between NSW and Victoria and stayed in a motel at Yarrawonga, the Victorian town across the river to Mulwala.

Enjoyed a lovely casual brekky in a cafe here before heading back to Melbourne ... and more Canola crops along the way!

Arrived home 1 September 2012.

Murrumbidgee & the Riverina

Travelled then to Leeton (good coffee here!) and the small towns and smaller settlements along the back roads down to border and the Murray River.

Lots of Canola crops along the way, brilliant yellow!

Cobar & the Kidman Way

Heading south from Bourke now in NSW, along the Kidman Way ... via Cobar, Hillston, Griffith.

Cobar, a mining and pastoral town, copper, huge open cut gold mine.

Hillston on the Lachlan River, fruit and vegetable growing area.
 
Griffith, a big centre for the district, Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, agriculture, fruit, vegetables, grapes and wineries.

Bourke & Brewarrina

Over the border into NSW and quick visit to Bourke on the Darling River, then to Brewarrina on the Barwon River. Visited a friend who teaches at Brewarrina as well.

Hard to believe that paddle steamers came all the way up the river to here in the late 1880's - floods and drought years affected this method of transport and business, and some boats became stuck in the river bed for over a year until the rains came again.

Both Bourke and Brewarrina have old historic bridges ( no longer used) that are lift span bridges - they have a section in the middle that could be lifted to allow the paddle steamers to continue up/down the rivers.

The one in Bourke is beautifully painted, but I didn't get a photo of that one!

 

Burke & Wills ... a tribute

The Burke & Wills Expedition, what an incredible story.

Innamincka in the far NE of South Australia is the location where explorers Burke & Wills met their fate in 1861, after crossing the continent south to north, finding their way back to the supply camp on Cooper Creek & discovering their support party had just left!

The support partry had waited there for 4 months, as organised by Burke, but they had left the camp only 9 hours before Burke & Wills made it back there.



It was an incredible feeling standing at the "Dig Tree" and more particularly at the exact spot on the bank of Cooper Creek where Burke died, and his original burial site.

Wills perished a little further along the way.

The bodies of both Burke & Wills were exhumed from their burial places here in 1862 and taken back to Melbourne for a state funeral.

A beautiful, peaceful spot on Cooper Creek now, beautiful trees, grasses, plants & wildflowers, am sure all who visit there wonder what it was like when Burke & his expedition party were here on the Cooper.

Wildflowers ...

Hungerford & the Dingo Fence

Hungerford is a tiny, tiny SW Qld town on the Qld/NSW border. The pub seems to be the mainstay of the community and has been in use as such since the days of Cobb & Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is also one of the places where you cross the dog or dingo fence, built in the 1880's to restrict dingoes entering the area where sheep are grazing. The fence is over 5,000km long and stretches across Qld and SA ending at the Great Australian Bight. At Hungerford you need to open and close the gate when travelling to/from Queensland or NSW.

In this part of SW Queensland is the Currawinya National Park, dry sandy plains, mulga scrub/trees and the Paroo River, it was originally a pastoral lease - the huge deserted farm woolshed is still there in the park, as are some of the other farm buildings. The park has a 25sq km Bilby enclosure to protect and preserve the Bilby, but access to this is not available to the public. Probably a good thing really! Camped here on one of the waterholes.

Wildflowers ...