River Road to Bourke
An edition of Australian Geographic did a feature than included a picture of the ‘Toompine Hotel’, well not even knowing where this was, I discovered a new part of Australia than interested me. Up the Darling, visiting Bourke, and then finding an interesting way home, thus the trip was born. It was a wet start, but I had to go, places I missed (Lake Mungo), would be caught up on in later trips. This video is visually nothing spectacular, with its dull grey wet weather, but is a good little film because of the feel, that, I take the viewer along with me as I travel, and this works to create interest.
At Pooncarie, when I can back to camp the night, went to the Pub to get permit to camp by the river in town. Misjudged and came into the camp spots by the river a little too fast, bend in the track, hit the skids and slid straight on (all wheels locked up) stopping just short of the river Darling just in front of me. Reversing back, white as a sheet, I gingerly went around the corner, and went down the track to camp.
The pies from the Quilpie bakery really are the best pies in Australia.
At the camp, in the nature reserve on the road to Thargomindah, I was camped on my own, well off the road. Had a good night, got up in the morning, put on my shoes, got out the car took a few steps, and as one does every morning after getting up (males), had a slash. All done, turned to walk back to my car, and there, parked next to me, a white hatchback, driver sleeping. I gingerly drove some way off and had my breakfast. Why, oh why, do people always want crowd in, this is not the last time this was to occur, but this person parked right next to me. The scary part was, I had no idea he was there, and this scared the ‘willies’ out of me.
I have always been a little afraid of the dark, no campfires, not showing a light at night. Camped on the Cooper, camped in a very popular spot, very much used location, fairly open and visible from the ‘Bourke and Wills Bridge’. I tried to find a better spot, but could not, the events of the night before, really ‘put the wind up me’. I sat and waited for the darkness to fall, then got in my swag to sleep. Bang, something hit the car, bang bong, a short while later, ting, and bang; there it is again, I dare not move, I dare not make a sound. Bang, bong; something’s hitting my aerial on the back of the car, not the car, just the antenna for Barratt (model 950 R.F.D.S.). They only went on for a short while but those bats of the Cooper, had me going for a bit, they were misjudging the thin stainless whip and hitting it with their wings, poor things.
Another of those magic moments when all the world is good, and time just stands still. It was just on the side of the road, next to the sign ‘Innamincka 243’, I finally found a sign to send me home, no wind, quite warm, radio Australia jangling away in the background. Fluffy clouds, eagle circling above, it was just a moment in time. Watch this bit of the video, can you feel it, it’s just magical, I shall never forget it, magical.
On the way back home, even at this early stage the Strzelecki track held few surprises for me. I thought, to break up the journey, I would do a set up, to see if anyone was bothering to notice what I was doing. So I proceeded to put fifty dollars in a ‘coke’ can, and place this can next to the only object for ‘miles’ around, the Lyndhurst, Innamincka and Mount Hopeless intersection sign. The reaction came, mostly disgust at wasting fifty dollars, “I have two minds to go there and get that money”, Jack said “but we all know it’s just too far away”. The trick with the fifty dollars had proved to be ‘good’, and was repeated many more times to inject a bit of Laverty in boring bits of my travels, just to break up the drive and get me out the car and have a look around.
Annabel Tully - QRRRWN Strong Women Leadership Awards Finalist
QRRRWN Strong Women Leadership Awards Finalist
The QRRRWN Strong Women Leadership Awards are a delightful mix of personal development, acknowledgement of achievements, valuable networking and a lot of fun!
The inaugural QRRRWN Strong Women Leadership Awards program encourages women to identify and celebrate the strengths they contribute to their community through their participation in agricultural, social, business, education, community-based, benevolent and ther activities.
The Awards program is also:
• a structure where QRRRWN can mentor and provide personal development opportunities to ALL entrants in the program, not just the winners
• a learning-ground and stepping-stone for women who wish to gain confidence and skills to progress further and later apply for larger scale awards programs such as the RIRDC Awards, Telstra Awards etc.
The Queensland Rural, Regional and Remote Women's Network Inc (QRRRWN) was formed in 1993 to meet the needs of women in rural communities throughout the state. It was originally known as the QRWN but we altered our name to QRRRWN in 2012.
Since then it's grown to be a progressive organisation running a series of programs in regional centres as well as being involved at a national and international level.
The membership of QRRRWN includes women and men who are:
located in a rural or regional area, involved in a rural business (town based or primary production), involved in a rural community, located in urban or coastal areas, and who have an interest in rural issues and are interested in promoting strong links between the rural and urban sectors.
Our focus is on all rural women and their families, communities and enterprises.
Queensland Rural Womens Network
PO Box 1568 Toowoomba QLD 4350
Phone: 1300 795-571 (9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday)
Fax: 1300 795-516
Email: admin@qrwn.org.au
ABN: 82 236 858 320