Mitchell and Muckadilla

A large weather trough moved into southern Queensland and drenched the entire east coast and inland areas so it was a rainy day all the way home. The farmers loved the rain of course.

Unless you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle with high clearance, the side roads are impossible when it rains.

The typical straight line for the straight road in outback Queensland. Of course, everybody has a different idea of where the outback starts. The progression is from the city to the towns to the bush to the outback.

Why anybody would want to build a hut out of kerosene tins is beyond me.

The main street of Mitchell on a rainy Saturday morning. Things are pretty quiet.

A couple of the Mitchell pubs.

This is a rubbish bin (trash can) and the shape must been used in some artwork somewhere which is shown on the brochure for the town.

An interesting seat.

Several years ago, Robin and I couldn't find any accommodation in Roma and were directed to Muckadilla where we spent the night. Here is the pub which is the dominant feature of this very small town.

This was the first bar that Robin sat at.

The menu. When Robin and I stayed there, I looked up at the menu and ordered a rump steak, medium rare. The woman who owned the place just looked me and I knew I was going to get it just as she liked to cook it. It turned out to be medium well and it was fine.

No doubt the second bench is used more.

The accommodation is fine and Robin and I enjoyed the place. Breakfast was unusual. Guests went to the kitchen where the usual breakfast ingredients were layed out and you simply cooked or made your own.

The house next door to the pub. When Robin and I were there, the owner said she refused to talk to the people living in this house.

The rest of Muckadilla. If you ever pass this way, stop in.

Charleville

Charleville was one of those places I had heard about but thought I would never go to. It's the kind of name you hear often on the weather forecast and usually it's for really hot weather.

The real story of Charleville is one of devastating floods of the local river. The mark on the wall of the motel represents one of the recent floods and the motel is quite a distance from the river.

There are some nice old buildings, but this old pub is closed.

Charleville is obviously the power center for the area, but somehow it seems to be down on its luck.

Yes, it was late in the afternoon, but on a Friday evening, the place seemed dead.

Perhaps the jewel in the crown of old Charleville was the Hotel Corones. It really has an interesting history, but like so many of the major hotels in country towns, it has seen better times.

The windows of the bar. It was the only bar downtown that was open and had people (all men) drinking.

Gracie Fields sang on the landing at the bottom of the stairs and reappeared for an encore by sliding down the balcony. Charleville was a huge air force base in WWII, particularly for US fliers. Apparently, the strategy was to keep the planes far inland so that they could not be attacked. When a raid outside Australia was planned, the planes flew to Townsville or Darwin on the coast to actually launch the raid.

The railway station which is not the end of the line, but I suspect not too many trains to the actual end of the line, Quilpie.

The Westlander which runs from Brisbane west to Charleville.

A few miles outside of Charleville is a new attraction called Cosmos. It's part of the town's attempt to bring tourists to the town.

This place is devoted to seeing the stars through telescopes. Because there is very little ambient light, visibility of the heavens is excellent. The shed is on wheels and moves away to expose some large telescopes. It was cloudy that night so we didn't come back at night.

Blackall and Tambo

The next town south of Barcaldine is Blackall.

Like other country towns, the streets are wide and this case, there is a median strip. The first tree along the strip is a Bottle Tree.

The area seems to specialize in these trees but they can be found all over the state.

The monument to Thomas Mitchell who explored the area. Much of the history we learned in school about Australia was of the discovery and exploration. Not many wars or battles in Australia, thank God.

A quilt in the Information Center. It looked like photos of the town had been quilted.

We were surprised by how green the grass was in Blackall. The water doesn't come from rainfall but from the artesian bore that covers much of Queensland as can be seen by the map. Some of the water is quite hot and it doesn't taste too good.

I couldn't resist this school photo in a shop window.

The plain on the way to Tambo.

Downtown Tambo. It's all go here.

A distinguished building, the Tambo Shire Hall,  with a large bottle tree.

The Tambo Post Office.

Unemployment in the area was a real problem and the Tambo Teddies shop was created to help provide jobs. Read the history here.

We stopped at a rest area with this peculiar toilet block. Fortunately I didn't need to go, but Geoff said the pong was awful.

Red dirt is everywhere in Australia.

A meat ant nest. Definitely not a place to sit down.

Click on the photo to see them in detail.

A mean looking bird. Like the meat ants, don't mess with it.