QI Tour - Cunnamulla Fellas (Day 25)

The Artesian Time Tunnel

 Oh a huge day!

After a good night's sleep in our new digs at Cunnamulla Tourist Park we were off to town for some exploring.

The Tourist Information Centre didn't open until 10:00am (it was a Saturday) so we had a coffee at Wildflowers on the busy five way intersection of Jane, John and Emma streets. Good coffee and lots of knick knacks and plants to look and buy. Had an engaging chat with Bruce and Max. Max is a greyhound and Bruce, his rescue human. A man who has lived several lifetimes.

The Artesian Time Tunnel was our quest this morning, which takes you down into a faux mine and back 100 years to when opals were being hunted to the north west. In the Yowah area, everyone was after a Nut: a rock-encased opal of large proportions rumoured to make you your fortune. As big as a cricket ball and larger, men went as crazy as the gold diggers thirty years earlier. There are some clever deceptions played on you for your $10 (concession). You enter through a steel lift door after some encouragement from the lift operator, who looks like one of those silver moving statues you find busking in busy community space. The steel door closes and the lights go very much into scary darkness mode as the "cage" rattles and bumps and shaft lights slide past and impending doom is played out on the unsuspecting. This included a few episodes of complete darkness as the operator we had just left to his silverness, explained that he had a spare yellow wire to ponder. Arriving at a great depth, you exit through the steel door on the other side of the caged time machine - which makes the TARDIS look like a limo - to a horizontal mine shaft, with lots of information boards and a variety of media explaining the rich wool and mining history of the area. A few yards later, a curtain reveals the rest of the museum - all at the same level you "left" and pretty much your standard, rural folk museum.

Cunnamulla have taken the standard fare and through clever additions of audio visual "characters", have lifted their exhibits above the rest. There is an excellent short film which explains how the Great Artesian Bore works, although what the presenter does to his garden hose, I wouldn't try at home.

Lots of photos. Lots of artefacts. Lots of local history. It was good to see some of the uniforms and the instruments of the Cunnamulla Town Band, mentioned so meritoriously when we were at the train station yesterday. I even found a set of Arthur Mee encyclopedia ... the same as the Langston children of University St, Miranda had to support their learning from the 1950-70's.

Outside, we said hello to The Cunnamulla Fella, a huge statue of a stockman having a cuppa, created by Archie Sinclair to honour both the Australian stockman and Slim Dusty and Stan Coster, who wrote the song which inspired the statue. In the 1950's and 60's, when wool was a pound for a pound, the stockmen were mostly young blokes on the verge of manhood, 15 or 16 and they worked long days in sun and rain, mustering sheep and breaking horses for the work. Its a fine statue and captures the lifestyle admirably.

While there, we had a grandparent moment, singing happy birthday to one of our grandsons via Facetime. Technology can be a wonderful thing.

As Sue was peckish - time travel always gives her the munchies - she went to the Cunnamulla Coffee Shop and wrapped her laughing gear around a camel burger. She reports its the best burger she has had (until the next one). I sent some postcards to the grandchildren (yes, we are "old school") on their laborious journey and then, when she was dealing with her indigestion, we went on a historic town  self-drive tour. Not just a chance to highlight derelict buildings, this gave us another look at the cultural history of the place. Of particular interest were the lovely old post office, the Warrego Watchman (the local rag which has had many names but always the same location since 1936) and the one which really caught our attention, The Robber's Tree.

In 1880, a fellow by the name of Joseph Wells robbed the bank and in the process of trying to get away, accidentally shot the next door shopkeeper as they struggled. He lit off for the bush and a hunt ensued until a sheep dog tracked him down up a tree on the edge of town. Money returned and shop keeper not really much worse for wear but Wells was convicted of robbery and wounding and promptly sentenced to death! The bank manager and shop keeper both made repeated calls for clemency but they fell on deaf judicial ears and Wells became the last man in Queensland to be hung for robbery.

The highest in the tickle-your-fancy irony stakes was the former Railway Hotel, built in the heart of town and a very long way from the railway station. The owner built his hotel on the location because it was where the rail was rumoured to be terminating.

The last place to visit before tucker was the Cunnamulla Weir, a wall across the Warrego which creates a wide expanse of water in the river through town, mostly for recreation. The towns water supply comes from under the ground, in the Great Artesian Basin. It smells of sulphur and tastes different but its perfectly fine and likely a lot better for you than the heavily treated water of major city supplies. The Weir is renowned for its bird life and we watched fascinated as 30 or so white-backed swallows dived and darted across the water and through the air and then rushed back into the road culvert that channels water under the roadway across the lee side of the weir. There is video of them among the photos.

Back home for my lunch and finally getting access to the one washing machine that worked.

Whilst I'm not sure I want to rate our adventures today, there is no doubt that attending our first rodeo (pronounced row-DAY-o in Australia but most at the Cunnamulla Showgrounds were using the America road-ee-o). It was a hoot, sitting in the wood and steel stands, watching very upset horses trying and succeeding to throw their riders to the ground as quickly as possible and then the two of us having a beer with the locals in the shade of the hospitality area - okay, the shed. Sue had her first XXXX and me my first Great Northern. Met lots of folks and had great conversations. Everyone was so genuinely welcoming: blokes in their caps and jeans, with riding boots and a quiet swagger; the ladies in their tight jeans (regardless of shape) with the sparkles on the back pockets, which bulged with mobile phones. Girls dressed like their mummies and boys like their daddies. These were the country folks I had thought I would meet at the small schools I taught at. Wish I had.

Asking one of them to take our photo, we discovered we were talking with Mel Millgate, who not only was pleased I was raving about Bourke - she is the head tourism officer for Bourke - but also lived in Tamworth for six years and was a friend of a friend. 

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today's photos

If the need to bring in our clothes had not been pressing as the sun reached its last few degrees, we would have stayed on.

Another warm day dissolved into sunset and again the kookaburra chorus rained down from the rivergum which shaded the Avan.

Rest day tomorrow. Whilst we aren't in any hurry these days, our tours have a day off factored in once every seven or eight days. Tomorrow will be reviewing the finances and most likely, writing the blog you are reading.

Ah the serenity!

Queensland Outback Tour - Bourke to Cunnanulla (Qld)

Bourke to Cunnannulla 257km, Mitchell Highway

Bush Tucker Road House

It was a lazy driving day today along the mostly straight, always flat Mitchell Highway. The last two trips have proved to be well below my expectation with fuel consumption. The lifetime average for both AVAN's behind the Forester has been 12.7L/100kms (22.2 mpg in old money). From Burren Junction to Bourke it was 11.4L/100km and today, 11.0 (that's 25.7mpg). Not bad for a 2.5 litre petrol engine. Mind you, its been like rolling a ball on a billiard table.

Technical stuff out of the way, Sue had her first drive of the trip. Whilst I'll drive the vast majority, its best for her to be able to take over in the case of an emergency when I am incapacitated or in case of an argument when she leaves me behind. 

Road kill was her greatest impediment ... lots and lots of road kill. There were times when the Mitchell Highway looked like the Afganistan of highways. Roos, emus, pigs and lots more lining up for their turn. The emus were prolific by the roadside, often moving in herds of twenty or more.

We stopped on a whim at the Bush Tucker Inn and Caravan Park - think red dirt and corrugated iron and you just about have the picture. What a hoot. The two ladies who were running the joint and their friend who had joined them for a coffee, were great characters. We made ourselves a cuppa tea for $3 and joined them out the front under the shade of "the verandah" and had a fun half hour discussing all sorts of topics. They were great company as they watched big cars with bigger vans pull in and guessed at the drinks orders and argued over whose turn it was to make them. We were really glad we called in.

The Cunnamulla Fella

Pushing on, we reached Cunnamulla about 12:45pm and booked into Cunnamulla Tourist Park to a warm welcome, a grassed site in sight of the Cunnamulla sand dunes and power and water. With our discount, a cheap night.

During the afternoon we visited the famous Robber's Tree - that's what the sign said - where bank robber Joseph Wells was caught hiding from the police in 1880, after robbing the Qld National Bank and then crashing his horse during the getaway. He was found by tracker dogs, not as I suggested, in the Autumn and was tried and sentence to be hung. The Branch Manager and his assistant who had been injured during the robbery, argued against the sentence and made petitions on his behalf. On the 22nd March 1880, he was sent to the gallows and is the last person to receive the death penalty in Qld for "robbery under arms".

We also went out to the Allan Tannock Weir which holds back the Warrego River. The construction was completed in 1991 and is most interesting and allows you to stand at eye level behind the restrained water, while the spillway operates just 15 metres away. There is a boat ramp and indications that this is a popular spot for water sports.

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Back in town, we met the Cunnamulla Fella, a double life size statue by Archie St Clair, depicting the bloke sung about by Slim Dusty in a song written by Stan Coster. Its a pretty impressive likeness of a bush bloke having a spell, sitting on his swag and enjoying a cup of tea from his pannikin. We also had a wander around the shops which were all shut being a Sunday afternoon.