West to Emerald and Barcaldine

Sunrise in Barcaldine

We headed west from the coast on Saturday, quick diesel stop at Rockhampton, (beef capitol of Queensland) and through Gracemere which is known for the largest cattle sale yards in this state and into the central highlands region. Blackwater was the next town and of course, guess what, another capitol of Queensland, the Coal capitol and the place responsible for all those noisy trains passing by at Mt Larcom. 40 kilometres out from Emerald we passed the historic marker for early explorer Ludwig Leichhardt who noted the deposits of coal in the region in 1845.

The land is thick with grass, rich red soil changed to black, and we noted crops of forage sorghum and sorghum and a Cotton Gin on the way into Emerald. Only an overnight stay in Emerald and we were greeted with a very loud welcome by thousands of Galahs and Lorikeets. As we left the next morning there were fields of of yellow Sunflowers, hundreds of acres it seemed, and also cotton fields and the soil was a rich chocoloate colour. We passed by the turn off to both Sapphire and Rubyvale which are the sapphire producing areas though we have it on good authority from a fellow camper in Emerald that Willows is the place to go. He showed us blue, green, yellow and orange sapphires he had fossicked there. No time to stop and make our fortune this trip!

The next day we travelled on the Capricorn Highway into high country of rolling hills and mountain ridges, lush growth which supports the fattest, healthiest Santa Gertrudis cattle I have ever seen. We climbed the Drummond Range, 535m above sea level which then levelled to high plain country. Major Mitchell explored this area and of course the Major Mitchell Cockatoo bears his name; they are the crested white ones washed with pink.

We were 170 kilometres outside of Barcaldine and I saw a sign, "you are entering the Lake Eyre Basin on the Great Dividing Range elevation 440m". Passed by the towns of Alpha and Jericho and then the highway heading into Barcaldine was lined with flowering orange bottlebrush trees and wattles.

Barcaldine Caravan Park was a great spot and also came with a local larrikin and bush identity Tom Lockie who entertained us with 'billy tea and damper' and a good yarn or two! The water supply comes directly from the Great Artesian Basin and the first free flowing bore was struck in 1886 and is the life blood of this town as it is known as the Garden City of the west.

On Monday we drove out to the Lloyd Jones weir and saw a road sign identifying the Cobb & Co trail, which is just a dirt track. All these towns were stops for the stage coachs in their day and they carried the mail as well as passengers. Must have been bone rattling transport . The local museum was a great treasure to explore and found it interesting that 'Barcy' was first settled by the Scotts.

Barcaldine is most famous today for the 'Tree of Knowledge' a large Ghost Gum, which some 'bastard' poisened in 2006. A rather poor example of a tree, but obviously important enough to erect a monument, a gigantic cube of timber recreating the size of the tree's canopy. Inside this cube are equally gigantic timber wind chimes which sound better than the Labour babble which would have ensued under its broad branches. I wonder if the spelling of labour was due to the lack of scholastic abilities of these pioneering pollies. In 1891 The Great Shearers Strike took place and the tree came to symbolise where Queensland Shearers and Pastoralists were involved in this industrial battle.

Barcaldine food note for those foodies amongst us: Meat Pie followed by ridgy didge cows cream, cream bun and jam - childhood memories revisited.