Longreach is on the Tropic of Capricorn so we headed south into the cold today. On the way we went through the dog fence that we last saw in SA.
The Landsborough Highway is dotted with lots of interesting little towns that are remnants of the days when Australia 'lived off the sheep's back'. Unfortunately we had to bypass most of them as it was a long drive to Charleville. These towns are about 200km apart unlike further into the outback where any communities are about 500km apart.
We did stop at Blackall though. Folklore says that west of Blackall is 'beyond the black stump'. The black stump was actually a tree stump marked by the surveyors. All the towns over the Great Artesian Basin bore water up from great depth and the temperature ranges between 30 and 90 degrees; then it is cooled to run into the town water system. Blackall use some of the water at about 40 degrees to fill hot pools. These pools were absolutely beautiful and under utilised. They are not even advertised, we only knew about them from the recommendation of people we met a couple of weeks ago.
Next we passed through Barcaldine which was the centre of the shearers strike in the 1890's. This is where the Labour party in Australia has it's roots.
We stopped for lunch in Tambo, which was closed for the weekend as most of these small towns are. There is a well known teddy shop which I was disappointed not to visit but did find this amusing sign outside.
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| Teddies in Tambo QLD |
In the evening we went to the Cosmos Centre which is on the edge of Charleville. The skies are dark around here and the observatory is run by enthusiastic amateur astronomers. The telescopes magnify 800 times. There was a bright moon so the milky way was not visible, however we had a look at the moon, Saturn and some twin stars. Very interesting and very cold.
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