Fri, 28th Sept, 2018 Bush camp by Bulloo River, Quilpie to Bush camp by Wilson River, Noccundra, Qld (sightseeing)

That dumb rooster started crowing outside our truck at 4am!! I thought they were suppose to crow at sunrise!! He didn’t stop then either but it was too cold to get up and throw something at him.

6am 12 degrees, clear sky. The rooster is strutting around our camp as proud as punch!! I suppose it isn’t his fault so I gave him my banana peel which he demolished quickly.

Into Quilpie – nice wide streets like all the other outback towns.

Topped up the fuel – watching the price rise as we go (163.9c/l), hence we are doing the top ups. Found St Finbarr Catholic Church and I went inside to check out the opal altar. ‘In 1976, Father John Ryan decided to compliment the opal mining background of the area by commissioning local miner, Des Burton, to install a border of opal around the carving of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Instead Des generously donated an entire wall of opal which was installed on the altar, baptismal font and lectern. The late Des Burton is remembered as the father of the boulder opal industry as he was largely responsible for putting Queensland boulder opals on the world stage.’

Next door was St Joseph’s Convent.

Big brick building of Hotel Quilpie now called the Quilpie Heritage Inn.

Lovely murals in a park, shame they planted a hedge in front which is blocking some of the mural.

Checked out the railway museum next to the park.

I went into the Information Centre to check road conditions south and ask where we can fossick for boulder opal. She showed me some nice specimens. It is a man-made site just out of town – they drop of tailings from a mine somewhere so we can have a dig through.

Headed out of town – the centre island has cut outs of cattle and the stockman at the end.

Turned off into the airport to check out the Amy Johnson (1903-1941), pioneer airwoman’s history information. Unfortunately the information boards are cracked and hard to read but I got most of the information. “Amy was born in Yorkshire, England. In 1928 Amy became the first woman in Britain to be granted the Air Ministry’s ground engineer’s licence along with gaining both her commercial and private pilot’s licences as well as qualifying as a Navigator in 1929. In 1930 Amy decided to fly solo from England to Australia in an attempt to break Bert Hinkler’s record of 16 days. Amy’s father and Lord Wakefield, head of the Wakefield Castrol Oil Company purchased a used de Havilland DH-60G Gipsy Moth (G-AAAH) for 600 pounds. This plane, Amy named ‘Jason’. Amy left for Australia on the 5^th May, 1930. Her first stop was Karachi on the 10^th of May. En-route from Karachi to Calcutta, India, her plane suffered damage during at landing at Jhansi on the 11^th May. Due to repairs and bad weather, the final leg of Amy’s 11,000 mile journey to Darwin was completed on the 24^th of May, 19 and a half days after leaving Britain. Whilst in Australia, Amy was headed on a scheduled flight to Charleville, on her way to Brisbane. On the map she used to navigate, Charleville was incorrectly shown as being the end of the railway line. In fact, Quilpie this distinction, and much to the excitement of the locals, she landed here, before heading off on her final leg to Brisbane.” (I tried to make the other sign easier to read.)

Continued along the road to the Council fossicking area and had a dig around. Found some interesting bits in one pile. Got a nice little collection which we admired while having our cuppa under the shade shelter. Steve found some cut stone in another pile which showed the veins well so we added to our collection. Poor ‘Pat’ – more weight.

Drove out of town and turned off to check out Baldy Hill Lookout. It was a climb up to lookout so we decided we will do that on our return when we can got up for sunset.

Steve amazed how there is mains power to all these outback towns and stations which doesn’t happen in WA.

Narrow bitumen road through scrubby country with ranges around us. Stopped at the intersection of the Diamantina and Cooper Development Roads. Nice new RV stop with toilets and information. Even handicap parking area.

Continued on the Cooper Development Road which is also narrow bitumen towards Eromanga. Lots of dead emus along the road side as well as kangaroos. We past one live emu then a couple of young emus sauntered across the road ahead of us. No speed in these ones. The sheep are hiding in the shade and a roo was cooling under a tree too. Nothing much for them to eat out here.

Wide flat plains. Stopped to check out Rambutta Station’s ‘art’.

More emus still wandering in the heat while the roos are under the trees.

Past a sign ‘oil fields’ then we spotted a ‘rig’ which wasn’t working.

Further along was the entrance to Kenmore Oil Field which is owned by Bridgeport and we could see a rig going up and down in the distance.

Continued on and spotted a pipeline going under the road and then up to where we could see smoke. It was from a diesel engine which Steve thinks is pumping the oil along the pipes.

Into Eromanga which is the furthest Qld town from the sea and is also known for its oil and dinosaur discoveries. We topped up the diesel again beside an oil storage facility.

Two guys were filling up their tanks and we got chatting. He said the oil here has a high sulphate content and is mainly used by the mines to keep their stationary machinery going. The diesel we were filling up with comes from their company in Singapore or something!

He and his mate are mining opal further north west and he said the emus and roos are just dropping dead everywhere because of the drought. He showed us some very lovely rocks with beautiful colours of opal. Wasn’t game to ask to take a photo as one bit he said would become a $10,000 pendant. Wow. It had flashes of red which is very popular now. He used an endloader and he explained what they look for and how to get to the opal etc. Very interesting and very beautiful.

We are a long way from home and have a long way to go yet to get back to the van.

Drove across the road to a plaque beside the artesian bore.

Another one was about the iOR (Inland Oil Refinery).

Drove into the little township and pulled up beside some big trees laden with yellow fruit. 

The cairn out the front says it is Opalopilis Park and there is lots of lovely opal set into the concrete.

The ground is covered in roo droppings and they are lazing under the tree after filling their bellies with the lovely green grass here. Had our lunch in the shade shelter as it is 34 degrees.

Checked out the information board and the big map.

Next door in the Hall was a museum and it was open so we went in for a look. Lots of information and photos. There were videos playing of locals telling their stories which will be interesting to hear when we have more time. Snapped a few photos of interesting things.

The flood ones were amazing and the three comparison aerial shots are fabulous.

More info about the artesian basin and the gas and oil drilling and refinery.

A lot of info about boulder opal and some nice specimens on display.

A bit of information about the discoveries of the largest dinosaur in the world near here but most of that info is at the Eromanga Natural History Museum further out of town. Three dinosaurs are known as Cooper, Zac and George.

The blacksmith shop was near here.

Went along to the Royal Hotel but it didn’t have a history sign. In another brochure I read that it was built in 1885 and was a Cobb & Co staging post.

There was one across the road about the general store.

Drove further down and checked out a new park where ‘Knot-O-Saurus’ has been erected with his little family. They have come a long way.

Continued along the Cooper Development Road. Sky getting darker as a cloud band comes over us. No more dead animals by the road which is interesting and good. Saw a few good willy willies in the distance as the wind is whipping up the dust.

Turned south and travelled through the same sort of country but up and down long ridges on a straight bitumen road.

Stopped for a cuppa at the Innamincka turnoff. Chatted with a couple from Bowral, NSW who were towing a Nova caravan.

We continued south – saw two emus where some bore water was present. Shame they didn’t leave a phone number so we could make an offer for the ute.

Turned off onto the Warri Gate Road to head to Noccundra. Two chaps on motorbikes waved us down at the intersection. They were looking for the pub and had become confused as just up the road is Nockatunga Station where as they were looking for Noccundra further along the road. I said they had their nocckers mixed up!!

We pulled up at the toilets and checked out the info board. Only the hotel and hall are left of the township now.

Wandered over to the Hotel and read the plaque about Andrew Hume on the cairn. Lovely green grass here.

The guys on the bikes weren’t far behind us. They were both from England and had hired the BMW motorbikes (like the French guys we met on the Birdsville Track) to do a trip inland up to Cairns and then down the coast. They had just come up from Tibooburra and said the road was rough and sandy – for them of course, ok for us. They both had a fall off their bikes in the soft bull dust holes but were ok though one bike has a broken lever.

We went inside for a drink and chatted with some other chaps who were going to the Innamincka races tomorrow. One of them worked for Santos (oil) and had missed his flight so his mates were driving him up to work with a slight detour. The lady publican was giving him cheek, calling him a ‘Smurf’. Apparently they only wear blue work clothes and don’t have to wear high visibility clothing like all other work places. Interesting – he didn’t offer a reason why – just gave her some cheek back.

The old pub has very thick sandstone walls and the bar is in one small room on the end so it echoed a lot. Finished our drinks and headed down to Wilson River nearby to camp for the night.

There are a lot of other campers – maybe race goers too. We chose a spot and set up. The flies have found us.

Drinks down by the water. Lots of water in this lagoon but light brown like the others. A turtle is popping his head up. The ladies in the next camp have fishing lines out but aren’t hopeful of catching anything.

A flock of galahs arrived and fought over who got to sit on the little sticks in the water so they could have a drink. The smart ones just sat on the edge and had a drink. Then they all flew off together and peace came back to the camp area.

Our route today.

It is still quite windy and we had one big gust come through whipping up the dirt on the ground and covering us with it!!

Steve had prepared a fire to heat some water for showers but the wind was getting stronger rather than dropping. We waited for a bit but eventually gave up on that idea. Lovely colour as the sun heads to bed.

I cooked dinner on the stove with Steve holding up one of the big lids to try and block the wind. The wind has changed direction now and is coming across the water bringing a nice coolness to it.

Had a quick birdbath then climbed into bed at 8.30 as it was too windy to stay outside. Pulled down the kitchen door to stop the wind coming in that side. We both read for a while then gave up and went to sleep with the wind howling outside. I was able to leave the bedroom door up as it was mainly hitting the other side and back of the truck.