To Barcaldine

 Saturday 10th July

Fuelled up ($1.37) we turned onto the Capricorn Hwy and headed for our morning cuppa stop at Alpha, having passed through Bogantungan and glad we weren’t born there under that moniker.  The café and bakery were both shut so no coffee to be found in Alpha but I did buy a pack of homemade cornflake cookies in the craft shop. When did I last see cornflake cookies? Alpha boasts 27 murals but the ones we saw mostly looked like they could do with a touch-up. There was also a sculpture representing petrified wood. Perhaps we have been spoilt by the fabulous silo and water tank art now featuring around the country. 

We pushed on to Jericho, built on the banks of the Jordan River and just south of Galilee Dam. Not surprisingly, they have an impressive Crystal Trumpeters monument and Trumpeter statue in town which reflects their biblical infused history.

Unfortunately we just missed their Saturday morning market and there is no coffee shop open here either. We settled for a coffee made in the van, enjoyed with a cornflake cookie, and speculated on what would be screening at the southern hemisphere’s smallest drive-in theatre. We had parked right beside this landmark where apparently, they had shown the latest rounds of the State of Origin and once a month screen a double feature. 

We have crossed back over the Great Dividing Range and the road conditions have improved now we have finished with the continuous black soil plains to the east of them. There were long straight stretches on either side of the townships where the Roads Dept have erected trivia signs to encourage drivers to stay alert. One asks a question, a kilometre later the next one gives a hint and the third one provides the answer. 

We pulled up in Barcaldine (Barcy to the locals) and home to the Tree of Knowledge. 

Under this tree in 1891, striking shearers held meetings and assemblies. Like the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, it was one of the few occasions of civil unrest involving police confrontations, arrests and imprisonment. It is also considered the birthplace of the Aust Labor Party. The heritage listed ghost gum was poisoned but has been recreated as an incredible 18m tall sculptural timber canopy. The timber slats move in the breeze and give the effect of wind in the leaves which are no longer there. Inspiring artistic vision. Amazing, and beautifully illuminated at night.

We joined some of the other travellers for billy tea and damper at 4pm. The manager serves up this traditional Aussie ritual around a campfire and bough shed. The only thing that feels a little out of place is that the manager is Raj, a very hospitable Indian.  

Later we had dinner at the Shakespeare Hotel, one of only a few open, though in its day this town had quite a few drinking holes.

Sunday 11th July

We woke in the chill of the early morning but had to sneak a hand out from under the doona to find out if Ash Barty had won Wimbledon. With that good news to warm us, we snoozed on until we suspected it was warmer outside the van than in. 

After breakfast we went for a walk along Lagoon Creek on the edge of town spotting birds. For such a small place they have quite amazing facilities for the locals including a frisbee golf course, skate park, driver ed. centre, a gazebo and this walk on paved paths that is more than 2 kms long. 

In the afternoon we visited the Australian Workers’ Heritage Centre. It’s a sprawling museum-styled complex with exhibition spaces that pay tribute to the lives of all workers who built our nation and continue to do so. There is an old one-teacher school, an outback police watch house, a shearers hall, railway carriage and station, post office etc. These buildings have all been moved onsite, making them feel very authentic. 

Dominating the whole site is the tent which was originally used in the Bicentennial celebrations. Most interesting of all was the ‘Young-un’, a sapling with the same DNA as the Tree of Knowledge, its only truly direct descendant. 

Dinner was the van park special: fish and chips under the awning.