The Queensland Outback

We have had a taste of the Outback - the long, straight, dusty roads that seem to go on forever with only the occasional train truck passing by.  It is a big country.  And enormously fantastic.  We have seen dozens of kangaroos, emus, goats, birds of many feathers, cattle and some sheep.  We have passed through acres and acres of cotton fields, seen the harvested cotton rolled or sometimes stacked in huge rectangular bails lined up as far as you can see ready for shipping to China.  We have gone through the reddest soil imaginable, visited two huge inland lakes, one of which is quite saline; and been to the Opal towns of Queensland.  We have had our first official bush camp complete with sausages cooked over a campfire.  And we have enjoyed every minute.

Major Mitchell's cockatoos - we came across a flock of them at the Granites in Cunnwinya National Park.

Pelicans at one of the inland lakes.  This area was once under the sea and the soil is very saline.

Emus.  They are just about as dumb as can be; as we know.  But we still love them.

Here is a statue of the Cunnamulla Fella commemorating the young fellas that used to work on the sheep and cattle stations in the outback during the 50's and 60's "when Australia was riding on the sheep's back" as they say.  They left school in eighth grade to work as cattle rustlers, sheep sheerers and whatever other jobs they could find, working long hard days. At the end of the day they would squat around a campfire on their saddles or swags (bed roll) yarning (talking) about the days events.

  

We are learning a little more of the language.  Jens was surprised to know that billabong is not a brand of clothing but is a word taken from Australia.  A billabong is pond or pool of water left behind after a river changes its course.  And we discovered wallabies are not the same as kangaroos.  They are similar in many ways but basically wallabies are smaller. 

We are now making our way back to Brisbane.  Since leaving Brisbane last Saturday we have driven 2,300 km and we have another 800 to drive before getting back.  As a reference, Australia has a population density of 3 people per square kilometre.  This compares to Canada which is about 4 and Denmark which is 130 or so.  This means long we have long distances between towns in Australia.  

We stopped at Toompine today, lured in by the road sign advertising cold drinks.  Toompine has a population of 1.  But the pub does serve cold drinks and food.  Thank heavens for the two seasonal workers from Canada helping out.  Otherwise, the one person in Toompine would have been run off her feet serving us and the other two guests.