TOD Tour 2.0 Day 18 - Winton to Hughenden

Kennedy Development Road: 216km (2531km)

The Kennedy Development Road

Often the best days on tour are the ones with unexpected treats and more often, they happen when we detour from the Grey Nomad formula of driving without break between major centres or at least the nightly stops. For us, what's the point of being our here if you don't stop and chat with folks.

We left Winton for the two hundred odd kms north east track to Hughenden about half nine. Road signs warned us of soft edges and suggested we drive in the middle of the road where ever safe to do so. My immediate thought was to hope we didn't meet too many trucks because as the black top narrowed, it was obvious we would have to get right off the road into those soft edges if one of those triple trailers came toward us.

It was a chilly morning, with a lazy breeze magnifying that chill. A couple of nuisance stops, on the roadway, to secure the back window of the van when the roughness of the road surface bounced it open, exposed us to the temperature and the flat, poorly grassed, vast paddocks around us.

About morning tea time, we arrived at Corfield. I'm not calling it a town; in fact, calling it a village would be a massive exaggeration. With a population of seven, which Gail, to co-manager of the Corfield Club says was an inflated figure, Corfield has one building. It started life as the School of Arts but when the Manuka Pub (the Corfield Pub) burnt down, it was re-purposed. Horrified that the owner of the pub didn't intend to rebuild, the locals started having a few stubbies across the road at the School of Arts and it was during the discussions which ensued that the idea was launched to form a community co-operative and form a "club". This tin shed, with bar and kitchen, is now the hub of the smallest of communities which has members who come in for a beer from 60kms away. Gail and her Husband had earlier been managers and have returned for a couple of years until someone in the community wants to step into the role.

Fabulous but that's not all. Corfield also hosts a horse race meeting every August which draws more
than 600 people for the five race event whose premier race is - you guessed it - the Corfield Cup!

Beside the Club is a free camping area which included showers and behind that is a tennis court in very good nick.

Had we done the "usual thing", we would have missed such a great story. Loving the road.

Click to see today's photos

After reaching Hughenden, we went for a drive around town. The highlight was the massive Flinders River, the longest in Queensland. Unfortunately, the only thing filling it was sand. There was no water in sight.