Queensland Outback Tour - Bilbies

Sue

This morning was the ‘Bilby Experience’ at Charleville’s Bilby Centre. Yes, I got to stroke two Bilbies awwww. Sooo soft. We were able to also watch them hop around in their nocturnal house.

The presenter shared lots of info about their features and behaviors as well as the breeding program to prevent extinction. These are impossibly cute creatures.

Peter

Freakin' cats. Whilst foxes are the apex predator, feral cats are just behind them in removing bilbies from the planet. At Currawinya NP, four hours south of Charleville, special fences had been erected and twenty bilbies were released into the park. In three years they had built their population to 300 (they have a gestation period of 14 days). When floods came in 2010, holes in the fences let feral cats in. Seventy feral cats were removed. While that was done, the remaining ten bilbies were taken out for their own survival.

A really informative display and presentation. Unfortunately, it is felt that having people touch bilbies will encourage more support for their plight. For mine, telling people and letting them observe them under red light in an enclosure should be enough.

Click to look at today's photos

On our way back to our digs we dropped in on the Charleville Showgrounds and Racecourse, which is a really big complex. In the carpark today was the "Heart Of Australia", a mobile heart testing unit in a huge semi trailer, set up by cardiologist Rolf Gomes, spending more than $1m of his own money to do so.

That was about it for the day.

Toowoomba - Chinchilla - Roma - Morven - Charleville

Toowoomba - Chinchilla - Roma - Morven - Charleville 621(1385)kms

Woke to an overcast Toowoomba, before dawn, after a settled night’s sleep, our first on the road snuggled up in the back Forester. Pack up was smooth and we were on the road by 7:30am. After fuel ($1.64/L) we were out of town by 7:45am.

Morven Cafe

Chinchilla was our morning tea stop and the Tourist Information Centre served us up a scrumptious and cheap Devonshire tea. The conversation with the lady serving us was interesting. She was the female equivalent of the Sheik of Scrubby Creek – a lady whose self-given title was the Cactoblaster Kid. Most likely in her early forties - although carbon dating can be unreliable - she was badly hungover from her hen's night. I couldn't describe how she looked without being cruel. In fact, to stay positive, let me say this ... she got our change right.

On to Roma and the Big Rig which is ... a ... big ... rig. It’s a show about the discovery and manufacture of natural gas. We avoided the commercial venture and had lunch with the ducks, although one of them asked me for two dollars when I took his picture. Sue took some pictures of the bottle trees. Fuel in Roma was $1.68/L.

Afternoon tea stop was at Morven ... one of those small villages you find a long way from civilisation. We ordered a chocolate milkshake (Sue) and a mug of tea (Peter) and really enjoyed our two chocolate milkshakes! In fact, it was the most enjoyable cup of tea I had ever tasted, given that it tasted like a chocolate milkshake ... which, in fact, it was. Sue photographed the public toilets with some unusual murals and an old shed made from squashed kerosene tins. Meanwhile I was pulling the hub apart on the trailer as the bearings seemed loose and was soon making do with half a split pin.

The land was getting flatter, the road speed limits higher and the road kill more prolific as we head to Charleville. It was a long day - 631 km - but a very friendly welcome at the Bailey Bar Caravan Park. After we ate Sue's steaks cooked in the camping kitchen, we were off to see a the Charleville Bilby Experience ... some say the lucky marsupial and judging from the roadside, I'd say they were right.

TODAY'S PHOTOS

The Forester had returned 11.43 L/100 km yesterday over the Ranges. I expect a much better result
tomorrow after the basically flat run