windorah

Dear Family and Friends


We have been without mobile and internet coverage whilst we have been in Windorah with Barb and Laurie, so I will catch up on all that has happened during that time. It was really good to catch up with them. They are well and enjoying themselves living and working in Windorah which apart from being in remote outback QLD, is in the heart of what is known as the Channel Country.


It gets this name because the Cooper Creek which runs on the edge of the town splits and divides itself during the wet season, into a vast tangle of channels, which fill up very quickly covering a huge area of land mass eventually empting itself into Lake Hope in South Australia.


Coopers Creek was named by Charles Sturt in 1845 and the reason he called it a creek and not a river was because at the time he was here it was during the dry season and the water was stagnant and not running. Little did he know that at another time of year it would become a expansive water system of many channels.


Windorah is an aboriginal name meaning "big fish" and lies 35 klms from where the Thompson and Barcoo rivers meet forming Coopers Creek and its many, many channels. Barb and Laurie showed us aerial pictures on the TV of the creek in flood and it is only by air that you get an understanding of these channels and what happens when it is in flood.



On Sunday, the day after our arrival, we went for a pleasant Sunday drive to have a look at this unique and beatutiful landscape. We took with us morning tea and a picnic lunch and all up we covered 500klms. We got a very good idea of how far the Barcoo Shire covers west of Windorah.


Our first stop was known as J.C. ruins which lays 80klm due west of Windorah and was once a thriving community known as Canterbury. All that remains are some of the wood that once was the hotel. Nearby was a small cemetary, a reminder of how hard life was back in the 1800's. Adults, all too young to die and small children not strong enough to fight off illnesses like dysentry and fever.


We also stopped at an old pub out in the middle of nowhere. The old bloke who had it died and thay had an auction and sold off everything. The chap who bought it put a fence around it ands it just sits there going to rack and ruin.

Our journey took us out on the Birdsville Rd to Betoota where we turned north going through a private property then coming back into Windorah on the Diamentia Development Rd.


If we think it remote out here and we have the luxury of cars and planes how much greater that sense of remoteness must have been with only horse and cart to get around.


Barb and Laurie have to go to work each day and when they are in town they come home for morning tea and lunch. On Tuesday when Barb came home she asked if I would like to go with her on a garbage run. This particular day she was just doing the bins located along the banks of the Cooper where many people like to free park. It's a busy little area judging by the amount of rubbish we collected. Clearly free parking brings many tourists to the to the banks of the Cooper Creek and to the little Caravan Park they have in town. It amazed me just how many caravans there were staying in the caravan park each night.


We had a clean up day giving the inside and outside of the car and caravan a good clean though the dust in such a dry area means it won't be clean for long.


From the information centre we picked up a brochure telling us about the various buildings you can see in the town. The school was started in 1888 and this year has just seven pupils. Barb is trying to organise it so that Natalya and Lachlan can come for a visit during the Sept school holidays and if they do it might be possible for them to spend a day in school and experience school in the outback and likewise tell the kids there what school is like for them.


In the middle of Albert St in town there is a large rock with a plaque on it in remembrance of Constable Thomas Callahan, a policeman who perished in 1888 when travelling from J. C. ruins
to Windorah. He lies in an unmarked grave about 40klms out of town.


On the edge of town there is a Solar Farm that is a fairly new govenment initiative progect looking at new ways to produce energy. It consists of five very impressive solar dishes that provide Windorah with their power during sunshine hours. It is a first for QLD and Windorah was chosen for its location because of the number of cloudless days they have throughout the year.


Barb was saying the other day that they have yet to experience a dust storm. In 1987 they had 10 dust storms in the one year making that their all time record for any given year.

Two things I have learnt whilst being in Windorah. The first is that you don't leave an external house or car door open as snakes are fairly common around here including some of Australia's most deadliest and they will go inside uninvited. The second thing is that whenever you go outback in your car you never turn the engine off just incase it won't start again. Laurie said that at times when they go out somewhere for work it is not uncommon for them to leave the engine idling for three or four hours while they complete the job.

We decided we would all go camping down on the Cooper during our last few days together. We headed off late afternoon on Friday and had ourselves set up in no time. We weren't in a public area as Barb and Laurie had arranged for us to be on private land so it was very quiet and peaceful. Bird life is prolific, we spotted Crows, kites, ducks, egrets, cormorants and shags plus some we couldn't name. During the day we often saw wild pigs on the opposite bank of the river and once we saw lots of little piglets which were cute except they are wild and considered a nuisance. We had a roaring fire going each night and spent our nights sitting around it and star gazing.
Barb and Laurie headed back into town on Sunday afternoon and we stayed the extra night before setting off for Jundah, Stonehenge and Longreach. We spent just one night at Stonehenge at a camp spot in the middle of town before heading on to Longreach.

We decided on our way to Windorah, not to go to Willow Gemfields and we would just go straight up to Darwin. but whilst we were with Barb and Laurie we watched a DVD we had bought last year about sapphires and the way they were mined. We realised how much we had been looking forward to seeing our new friends and having a go at finding some sapphires. So we changed our mind and we are going back there and we are now quite excited about seeing everyone. that means we have decided to stay in QLD and head home to spend christmas with the family.

The camp spot we are at is just 4klms north of Longreach on the Winton road. It is a huge camping area and there is probably 60 vans, campers and motorhomes with room for plenty more. Evidently there are often a hundred or more camping here. Because there was plenty of room we gave our neighbours plenty of space between us and them and wouldn't you know it someone came and parked right beside us. so we feel a little cramped


That I think brings us up to date

Love to one and all.


Ken and Lyn