To Blackall

Augathella is pretty cool early in the morning in winter. By 8:00am after 2 cups of tea and some toast each for breakfast, it warmed up enough to go for a walk around town. What an interesting place! They have a monument to meat ants including this sculpture in meat ant park. Even the local footy team has been called the meat ants since the 70's.






For those of you old enough to remember Chips Rafferty, the local picture theatre has cashed in on the 'Smiley' film as the original story was written by a local and based on his school mate at the time.  We were talking to one of the locals out for her morning walk and were impressed by her obvious love of the area. Even some kids on bikes were polite and friendly.

 The roads have varied between reasonable and very good. Talking to locals we have been told major upgrades occurred in 2013 after major damage from flooding. We've seen lots of caravans and trucks including this one hauling 3 full length trailers. This one was at Tambo rest area where we stopped for morning tea.

 At this beautiful rest area in Tambo, we saw geese, ducks and these brolgas at the waterhole. Traditionally, our neighbour Meg has made us a date loaf whenever we have gone on trips, with the instructions that we are not to eat any of it until we are well away. Because she has been away, Chris made one for us to have, and we attacked it in Tambo. Beautiful, even the geese thought so!

 When we arrived in Blackall we did the usual 'stop at the information centre' and found an historical walking trail and art trail (for Chris). After we set up camp in the caravan park we headed off on the push bikes to see the numerous sites on the list. There were several sculptures around the town, including this eagle and nest - our favourite.
At Ram Park there was a fine selection of historic buildings and machinery, including an ambulance rail carriage and the gravity feed petrol pump - this brought back memories for John who got to use one in Mt Carbine in the 1970's on his way to Cooktown.
The local swimming pool is fed via the thermal springs and is a very warm 35 deg C while the spa there is even hotter.

Seen today: Lots more road kill including a steer (someone would not have had a happy day), brolgas, LARGE road trains, lots of caravan tourists, The Black Stump, Jack Howe memorial statue - this guy was amazing with his record for shearing in excess of 300 sheep with hand clippers in one day.