Australia Visit - Day 14/15 - Back to Richmond

Our last morning in Burketown saw blue skies and it was hot (imagine that). We (mainly Paul and the old man) packed up and readied. Our plan was to go via a big swimming hole on a scenic river that runs through one of the more well known National Park (the name of which eludes me right now) in Australia. As it turns out the directions we'd been given weren't the best and we never found the waterhole. Still, we had a lot of miles to travel so we just kept on going. With all the cattle up north there are street signs warning of the danger of hitting them in a car. I have to say, these are possibly my favorite signs - it looks to me as though the message being conveyed is that cows will eat your car.

Warning: Cows eat Cars

We stopped briefly at Burke and Wills junction then up on the one lane road towards Julia Creek. Although there isn't much traffic on it during the day, most of the traffic is roadtrains (trucks pulling two, three or four trailers) and when you meet one of them coming at you from the opposite direction, trust me, you get off the road. It can be quite an adventure traveling at high speed on gravel with rocks flying up. In fact we did get a good windscreen dent from one such incident. (Check out the movie at the bottom of the entry)

Fifty kilometers or so up the road we blew out a trailer tyre. Paul pretty quickly dealt with that but, if you can believe it, we soon blew another one. Fortunately it wasn't too bad and we limped into Julia Creek moving at about forty kilometers an hour for several hundred kilometers. When we finally made it there the tyre was in bad shape. Still, a quick change and we were on our way. We did stop at a waterhole (yes, a billabong) just outside of Richmond. Paul told us some of the local history and it was quite a pleasant spot.

Waterhole (noondah I think?) outside Richmond


When we got home the kids were happy to see us. Laura and Mitchell are great kids and it was fun to hang out with them. We played video games and then I went over to the pool with them while Paul put things away. It had been a long day but we still found time to head over to Lake Fred Tritton and try our hand with 5 weight flyrods. After an hour or so we were fishless but Paul turned on a flood light that can draw in baitfish. We went home and everyone turned in for the night except me. I wandered back down to the lake to see what the light had brought about. There were a swag of archer fish about, and they'd rush over to examine the fly as it crashed down on the water surface, but always refused it. I tried every fly I had but none seemed to be too good. I did manage one nice-sized Archer fish but that was it. Eventually the long day of driving caught up with me and I turned in.

Laura after showing me how she can do all four strokes - she's a fine swimmer!

Mitchell is just content to play around with his buddy Clayton

The next morning I was woken up by the kids. We had a fun time playing about but they had to get ready to go to school. After they left, Paul, dad and I went out in the heat of the day chasing fossils. Richmond is famous for the dinosaur finds in the area and fossils can be had everywhere. We split a few rocks and found plenty of shells and things but nothing fantastic. The old man cut his toe pretty bad when piece of rock splintered off and got him. Paul also took us out for a tour of the place including the Stawell River. It was pretty much dry (even at the one waterhole that usually doesn't dry up all year) and it's hard to imagine such places as the raging torrents they become when the big rains come. There is just so much to see out here and although the first impression is just a vast, endless, flat grassland, a closer look reveals so many cool things and places. I'd really love to just spend a month or so cruising around with a swag and four-wheel drive.

Just cruising around the district


The Stawell River, or non-river in the dry season

All that's left of the Stawell River waterhole


The afternoon saw us having a couple of beers with Paul's workmates. The session was cut short when Brad and Dave were called out on a job but it was good meeting them. There's a few differences between the blokes (and that causes some strife between them) but from my vantage point I wish they could see some of the people that I've come across and they'd realize (relatively speaking) they're all pretty fair-dinkum. I wish I had those guys as workmates and had their job site. I reckon they don't know how good they've got it.

We also had to get off to see the kids at their practice play. They are putting together the show Grease and both kids have parts, Laura has a speaking part. We didn't make it in time (mum did though so she salvaged some of it for the family) but the kids were full of energy and happy to tell us all about it.