We had set ourselves quite a drive today as we wanted to be in Barcaldine overnight so we could spend the full day on the Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail tomorrow. It was doable - the roads in that part of the area are 110km/hr and are very driveable. The only thing we hadn't counted on was torrential rain along the way ... and some hail. But we made it - with most of our planned stops along the way ... if you don't count meal stops.
Our first stop was Mitchell - where a friend of ours had spent her youth. Her family owned one of the (several) pubs in town ... back in the days were coffee shops and cafes hadn't even really been established in the cities ... and certainly weren't even considered for the country. But there are a couple of cafes there now ... and we stopped at Wild Things.
It's been a while since we've been to Mitchell and I was surprised how little of it I remembered. They have some artwork in the main street now, including "Mitchell Bull" by Dion Cross, mosaics on the footpaths, and a few (tired) kangaroos outside Wild Things - they might have been drought-affected but they had definitely seen better times. .
We weren't the only ones stopping in at Mitchell. There were a group of three having breakfast at the table across from us while their fourth flew a drone up and down the main street. I was in awe that he didn't hit the power lines.
Next stop ... Morven. We've been through Morven twice before - the second time because the Miniature Museum was closed on our first way through - it's only open weekdays. Unfortunately, even though we were there on a Friday the second time, most of the town was "closed" for the funeral of one of the locals. And because this time was on a Sunday, we missed out on seeing the Museum this time as well. It was probably just as well it was closed because we had a lot of country to go through and I really wanted to make sure we had time to stop in Augathella.
The official population of Augathella is less than 500 but they seem to have worked out a way to pull in travellers. The Water Tower has been painted and is quite sensational. We weren't there for the night, but it is apparently lit up and spectacular.
Another draw card is the Giant Meat Ant Sculpture in Main Street. Below the Meat Ant the ground has been surfaced with soft spongy material (in case it ever falls?), funded by a Government grant.
If I hadn't known about the Giant Meat Ant from my reading, we would have known from the signs on the highway on the way into Augathella. It's a great idea. There are signs with Trivia questions along the highway - to keep people from getting drowsy. One of the ones on the way into Augathella: What is the mascot of the local sports team? I should have remembered this from my research.
But that's not all ... there are also murals in Main Street - the most striking being on (what is now) the Men's Shed ... Smiley ... with his bicycle. Who is Smiley? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley_(1956_film). Moore Raymond, author of the Smiley books and comics lived there for a while:
The family spent six years in Pimpama, south of Brisbane and, after a period in Sharon near Bundaberg, in 1913 moved to Augathella, north of Charleville until 1918. Raymond's brother, Robert Raymond (q.v.), recalls in FromBees to Buzz-Bombs (1992): 'My brother was at the time an active, inquisitive boy in his early teens. In the three Smiley books he wrote in London thirty years later he recalled with affection the time he spent in the hot, dusty little town, and brought to life many of its quirky characters. https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A45437
And more on the Smiley mural:
A small south-west Queensland community will today begin painting a mural to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the classic Australian movie Smiley.
The Augathella Cultural Association will create the mural on the town's old picture theatre.
President Trish Arden says Smiley was based on a young boy's adventures in the Augathella region and the mural is a fitting way to celebrate.
"It is actually based on things that did happen at the time," she said.
"We're using it because it is a 50 year anniversary of the movie Smiley, but on top of that it is all about this young fellow in Augathella and his name was Didie Creevey and his school friend, Moore Ramond who actually wrote the story Smiley."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-06-17/augathella-to-paint-smiley-tribute-mural/2473754
Didie Creevey - Smiley - or the man who inspired him, worked on a property, then a sawmill and then as a shearing contractor before having a heart attack on the job. https://www.dailymercury.com.au/news/augathellas-night-of-nights-approaches/3099195/
There was another massive mural on the shed down and across the road from the pub.
Augathella means “waterhole”, and in the 1800s the town had been a popular stopover for passing bullockies resting their teams. This traffic has more recently been replaced by the constant flow of Grey Nomads and the only working waterhole was in the pub. https://dimcfarlane369.wordpress.com/tag/didie-smiley-creeve/
Also in Augathella - but we didn't see it this trip - I admit we didn't stay as long as we could have because of the rain we'd already driven through - and the impending storm (which made for a great backdrop to the Water Tower)- is the Q150 Shed. It is supposed to be on Main Street so we may have seen it without realising what it was ... and the same might be true of the wrought iron sculptures along Main Street.
What we wish we had missed though was a less than enjoyable coffee from one of the establishments there. We were excited because there was a MERLO sign out the front but the coffee was from a push button machine (yes, we are spoiled and used to Barista coffee - what were we thinking?) ... unfortunately the person who pushed the button didn't seem to have been trained in care and use of the machine. We decided we couldn't support a Smiley face for this one - goodness knows I tried to persevere - I was really hanging out for a coffee - but there was no way I could drink it.
On the way to Tambo, the rains came. Heavy rains. And some hail ... and was it a turtle or a tortoise crossing the road? It was on our side of the road but we managed to miss it.
We had been planning to stop for a coffee in Tambo at the cafe next to the Teddies shop - but the cafe was closed. So was the Teddies shop - at least we knew where to look for it though - as we found out later, the sign that is usually outside Tambo Teddies - something about Teddies Crossing - had been stolen a week or so before we arrived.
We drove back to the Service Station and grabbed something but it wasn't really "lunch". That had to wait until our next stop - Blackall - and we knew we were driving in to Blackall when we spied the People's Sign.
The People's Sign is a unique and bold visual representation of what it means to live in the Blackall region. It was the vision of two local women who collected photographs from locals and visitors through the use of Instagram and the hashtag #betterinblackall. (blackalltambotourism.com.au) It is stunning and we were only sorry that it was still raining when we arrived which meant we didn't want to stop.
Blackall has a couple of other "claims to fame":
- The Black Stump - 30 Thistle Street behind the Blackall State School. Erected in 1988 as part of the bi-centennial. The Black Stump was used to correctly align the map of Queensland. Past the Black Stump was thought to be "outback" and as Beyond the Black Stump. There is more than one Black Stump in Australia - we should have known because we have stood at the NSW one on another trip.
- Ram Park Museum where there is a big Ram, and
- A sculpture trail - featuring The Eagle and Nest . We'll need to do some research to find out who the artist is ... and whether it is the same artist for all the pieces - and were they commissioned?
One of the pieces was Roly Poly - and it was just as well I had told S to watch out for it ... and that it was a big iron ball ... as she was able to point it out as we drove out of Blackall on the way to ... Barcaldine.
We had booked our BarcaIdine accommodation ahead -as we had all our accommodation. I had used a booking company but wasn't able to in Barcaldine. A call to a motel we had stayed at previously suggested there were work folk in the area taking up most of the available accommodation; so we called a couple of places direct and finally made a booking. We should have kept looking because when we arrived in Barcaldine and checked in, I decided we needed somewhere a little more modern (and possibly with a bit bigger room). We did a drive through town and found another motel with a vacancy - for both of the nights we were planning to stay - and checked in there as well. I must say I was impressed when the first venue gave me a full refund.
There had been more rain during the day and we were a bit concerned that the Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail was going to be washed out. If that was the case, even with the 4WD, we wouldn't be able to do the Trail.
I had been concerned about doing the Sculpture Trail in Ravi and had organised to hire a car. Barcaldine Car Hire are the only folk in the area who hire cars ... and I was incredibly impressed with the service. I had asked them to see if we would be able to get a driver for the car ... I knew I would have just finished a long two-day drive to get there and might not feel like the five to six hour drive around the trail - especially since two thirds of the 210km drive around the Sculpture Trail is dirt road - my very least favour road type. They weren't able to find someone to do the driving - but they tried, and I was very grateful for that.
Dinner tonight was at The Shakespeare Hotel - we had been lured by the promise of a Roast Dinner.
It continued to rain overnight.
Driving times (according to Google Maps in October 2020):
Roma to Mitchell - 1 hr
Mitchell to Morven - 55 min
Morven to Augathella - 1 hr
Augathella to Tambo - 1 hr 17 min
Tambo to Blackall - 1 hr 7 min
Blackall to Barcaldine - 1 hr 12 min
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