Driving south

Right now I'm at my sister and brother-in-law's house waiting to go to the airport to fly to Paris! 

Well, actually, I'm spending two nights in Abu Dhabi, then onward to France. This has of course meant I've packed up my life in the Northern Territory, and delivered a load of junk to my parents' shed.

I was able to find a guy who wanted to get his twin cab Hilux from Darwin to Sydney, but didn't want to drive. So I offered to do it for him! I hadn't been to Uluru, so I wanted to do that, and it also meant I could visit my grandparents in Cobram, Victoria, with only a bit of a detour. It also meant I could stay with my colleague and friend Caddie in Alice Springs.

All up it was a touch over 5,000 kilometres. I had my dog Bruce with me, and he behaved very, very well!

After two nights in Alice with Caddie I went to Uluru - which was amazing! This is a photo taken at sunrise. I also went and had a glass of red wine while watching the sunset, but I reckon the sunrise photos are better. You can also see Kata Tjuta to the left. Amazing.

After watching the sunrise I raced up to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). The sun was up, but the colours were still amazing. I did part of the Valley of the Winds walk, and would have liked to stay longer, but I still had a long way to drive that day.

I had never been south of Alice Springs for work, so it was great to see that part of the NT, and the South Australian outback. This photo was taken driving south of Coober Pedy. It was a beautiful sunset. The outback was so, so different to the country around Katherine, but beautiful in its own, desolate way.

One of the best bits of the drive was rolling my swag out at a rest stop about 60 kilometres north of Woomera. The stars were amazing and just the sense of isolation was pretty unique. 

After that I drove to Cobram, which was a bloody big day, but it meant I could have two nights there and spend time with my grandparents and my extended family. Given I'm about to head to Europe for an indefinite period of time I'm very glad I made that effort.

So anyway, just a quick update - the first one for about two years! I'm planning to blog here from time to time, but I make no promises about regularity!

I'd better go make sure I don't miss my flight...

Wave Hill, Kalkaringi and Victoria River Downs

In May I went out into the Victoria River District for the first time. I had wanted to go for ages, but I went out this time because a bunch of old school drovers were riding from Camooweal to Kununurra down the old stock routes. You can hear the stories I did here.

VRD is about 400 kilometres from Katherine, the last hundred or so are on a very rocky gravel road. Now, I've never blown a tire, and I didn't really know what it felt like until I was on this road. It took me a while to realise what had happened, to the tire's detriment.

Through good luck, I've never had to change a tire. I've always known how, Dad made sure he taught me when I was learning to drive, and I also had to do it as part of the 4WD course when I started at the ABC. So I jacked the car up, took the nuts off, and tried to pull the tire off. It wouldn't budge. I kept trying and trying, and I could feel the car wobbling on the jack I was pulling so hard. I tried lifting it up a bit, but nothing.

I thought maybe there was some other trick, because it's a pretty new and flashy car. But the manual didn't say anything. I was about 40 kilometres from anywhere, and hadn't passed a car for quite a while. But eventually a road train came along and stopped. The driver got out and I explained my problem to him. He walked over to the car, kicked the tire, and it loosened off and was easy to pull off. He left me with this sage advice: "Nine out of 10 of 'em need a good kick".

VRD is one of the oldest stations in the world, and the homestead is about 100 years old. Back in its heyday they had over 100 employees, not including the aboriginal workers, who they didn't think to count. It had an Australian Inland Mission hospital set up by John Flynn, its own post office, a school, butchers, blacksmiths and at one stage had it's own postcode. It's an amazing old station. Nowadays the stock camp has about eight people in it. There's also a helimustering company based there, but I think all up there are only 45 people there now.

After leaving VRD and having morning tea with the old drovers 10 kilometres down the stock route, I headed to Wave Hill Station. Wave Hill is famous because this is where Vincent Lingiari walked off in 1966 and started a national push for land rights. The homestead isn't the original homestead, it had to move in the 70s because they ran out of water. Of course Vesteys don't own it anymore, and the managers there are great people, and have really funny kids!

I did this great story about two of their girls fattening up pigs to eat for Christmas. They were very funny!

The next day I went to the old homestead site, which is where the walk off happened. There's not much there, just a few old buildings and foundations. This was pretty much one of the only structures left. Now I have no idea what this building was, but it looks like it might have been a living area given the table and chairs outside. You could bet the bank that it wouldn't have been a white fella living area if it was.

From I've read the living conditions that Gurindji people were terrible, rough shacks with dirt floors. This building would certainly seem to fit that description, and the louvred windows make me think it's a living area, not a shed of some sort. So I can't definitely say that this is where the Gurindji people were living, but it's the only building left, so maybe there's a reason?
I then headed into Kalkaringi, which is the aboriginal community that was set up when Lingiari walked off. Well, I think he went to where Kalkaringi is now, and then to Daguragu, which is about 8 kilometres away. They're both communities now. There's a memorial at Daguragu which is where Gough Whitlam poured earth to Lingiari's hands, and handed him deeds to his land.

Behind the monument is an example of the humpies that the Gurindji lived in for eight years. I don't know if this is actually one of them or whether it's a recreation, but it's pretty rough living either way.

I'm really enjoying getting out to some of these areas, and this trip was really great. Some of the old cattle stations are amazing and have such rich histories. And I like that I get paid to get out and about and visit these places!

Daly Waters

As I mentioned, I've been trying to do a few more trips lately.

One I did on ANZAC Day was down to a little town called Daly Waters, population eight.

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The historic pub was holding a B&S, and being a rural reporter, it was important for me to cover this. Plus, I figure if I have to work on a public holiday I may as well have a bit of fun!

But Daly Waters is also home to one of Australia's biggest World War II airfields, which was also Australia's first international airport! There are heaps and heaps of WWII airfields around Katherine, I think the strategy was that if one was bombed or taken, there were others to fill the gaps. But Daly Waters was a big one.

I did a story on a whole heaps of old beer bottles that are near the base. Our old diggers didn't mind a drink, as it turns out.

The runway is a bit run down now, as you can see. I'm sure you can imagine that I drove responsibly and hesitantly drove the car down there.

Amazingly the runway is still in use with light aircraft, but I suppose you could land a Cessna is a lot of interesting places.

Daly Waters became the first international airport in Australia because Qantas used it as a refuelling stop on its route to Singapore, and it was also used in a big air race from London to Sydney in 1926. This is the original Qantas hangar, it now has a bit of a museum inside which is pretty interesting, if a little information dense.

Apparently the wife of the publican would come down with tea for the passengers, as they had to stop for about half an hour. The creek is between the pub and the airport though, so she used to have to take a high rope kind of thing to get across!

Cloncurry

So I know I haven't posted any photos lately. Sorry about that!

And Mum said she was worried because I didn't post a blog entry over the weekend. So this is my belated blog.

I only had a one day weekend because I had to work on Sunday. But on Saturday I went to Cloncurry with Brad because he had to cover a rugby match over there. He was worried about driving back at night by himself, because the road is known for roos, cows and camels darting across in front of cars. I drove over there, and in exchange he drove home, which meant I sat on the side line drinking tinnies of XXXX.

I can tell you right now, Cloncurry Rugby Club do a mean steak sandwich.

So yes, not much to report. Getting some good stories in the paper, check out the website for more. I'll leave this one short because I've got something else planned...

St George

I got a GPS thingy before I left, and so I can tell you that my GPS coordinates are 28º 02' 01.9" S 148º 35' 13.3" E. If you copy and past into Google you can see where I am.

I had planned a blog entry around a photo I was going to take of the "Welcome to Queensland" sign that I envisaged. One small problem... there was no sign or any acknowledgment whatsoever where I crossed at Mungindi.

No dramas on the road today, just hot and boring! The road was very quiet once I turned off the Newell Highway at Moree. I guess I might have passed a car every 50kms or so.

I left Newcastle at 7am, after packing a few final things. I think I forgot my thongs though! They would be very handy because I think I may be developing an ingrown toe nail, as it's very sore and a bit swollen. It's a pretty damn inconvenient time to be developing one if that's what it is! I realise that's probably a pretty weird thing to post on a blog, but hey, role with it.

Pretty tired, but okay, and the car is thus far going fine!

UPDATE: I found my thongs in the car so my toe is now living a life of luxury!

The road less travelled

I'm going to take three days to drive to Mount Isa, around 700-750kms a day.

This is the way I'm gonna go:


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I'm leaving Newcastle on the 10th of January, and aiming to make it to St George, hometown of Barnaby Joyce, on the first night. That'll be 750kms.

The second night I'm going to aim for Barcaldine (I'm not sure how to pronounce this town, can anyone help?), which will be 723kms.

The last day will be 742 kms, and take me all the way to Mount Isa.

That's a total of 2215kms over three days! A long, long way...