Haven't you left yet?

We've been in Moranbah for 6 months now. Kids have done 2 terms of school and the original work contract finished on the 6th March.
Somewhere along the way someone asked if we wanted to stay, so in a lapse of concentration we agreed to stay until March 2013.

So the original plan to head back to Portland before heading North again and across the top, turned into a 4 week charge down south, sort our furniture, visit relllies and friends and be back in Moranbah for start of second term.

First night on the road in Emerald, been here before:

The bath in the new caravan, kids still fit.

The view most days. We averaged about 500km a day and decided this was about 2 hours too long in the car. There had been a lot of flooding around SE Queensland and Northern NSW. This is between St George and Narrabri:

Lunch stop in Seymour. Southern NSW (riverina) and northern Vic (Shepparton to the Murray) was also flooded so we had to go through Wagga and Albury.

Camped in Creswick just north of Ballarat. The weather turned windy and cold here and stayed pretty ordinary for the next 4 or 5 days.

Portland foreshore, been here before!

One of the main reasons for the trip was to go to Gallpens 40th. Havent got any respectable photos of this.
Anyway, took the opportunity to get my old bike out of the shearing shed and head away for an overnighter to Casterton:

Got faster as the night went on:

Back in Portland we got all our furniture picked up and sent to Moranbah.
Stayed with the Holts for a day or two. Jorja took some wild animals to show and tell at school:

Bit of Street art:

Portland foreshore again:

Headed to Geelong via Macurther. Contemplated with Flynn:

Had the royal tour of the Geelong yacht club with Able Seaman Jones:

Left our caravan in Melbourne, then got on a big boat:

Went for a tour through the countryside

Walked into a waterfall with not much water, spectacular drop all the same.

Kids had a half Birthday party for candle blowing practise:

Went to one of the last family owned stations at Lapoinya (14 acres I think). Guided by the kids Great Grandfather.

Beth had a bit of a prang on a flying fox. We thought she was just doing the usual carry on, but it still hurt the next morning so we had a trip to the hostpital. Broke a bone the forearm just above the wrist.

Tipped more oil in the car.

Headed back to the mainland on Easter Friday. Had the roughest trip I've ever had. Kids snored all night. Mum was a bit crook, I just rolled around and tried not to fall out of bed.

First night heading North was Lake Eppalock near Bendigo:

Still a bit of water around Hay. We camped beside the river and nearly got bogged getting into the camp. Lucky it didn't rain. Would still be there:

Smoko in Mount Hope, not lot there except the usual mining remnants.

Kids domesticating in Cobar, been here before!

View heading North between Cobar and Cunnamulla. Didn't change a lot. Green grass from the edge of the road to the horizon. The only dry part of the country was SW Victoria.

Highest point in Cunnamulla, a sand dune behind the caravan park.

Local resident of Cunamulla Caravan Park

Last few hundred K was dirt from Tambo to Clermont. Foud out that the caravan isn't dust tight.

Getting close to home. A Peak on the Peak Downs road between Clermont and Moranbah

Arrived home to a house full of furniture and box's of rubbish we'd forgotten about

Only took about 2 weeks to sort most of it out.

4 states in 4 weeks. Did about 2800km on the way south and 2200 going North. The wet bits meant the trip south was a lot further East than we intended. Just have to work for another 12 months to make up the annual leave.

Northern NSW.

The day we left the station it was supposed to rain, so we headed into a caravan park in Bourke. Camped beside the grumpiest of grey nomads encountered so far. "Oh they've got children" pretty much confirmed them amongst the 80 percenters. Don't know what it is about the travelling retirees, but they fall into two distinct groups. About 20% are very friendly, great with the kids etc, and the rest seem to be full time whingers. Like a bloke at Bourke said, maybe they didn't make it as National Parks Rangers, were either too grumpy or not grumpy enough.

End of rant:

Brewarrina. Another town with a fairly high indiginous population. We camped about 10km out of town beside the river. Then it rained and we nearly didn't get out.

On to Walgett, similar in most ways but slightly more appealing, then North to Lightening Ridge.
One of the "residents" at the caravan park had built this contraption. He seemed to pretty typical of the locals:

The town of Lightining Ridge is pretty well serviced and quite well developed. Population is about 7000 so a fair way ahead of places like Whitecliffs and Andamooka. The outskirts of the town is all holes and mullock heaps. Had a bit of a scratch around but didn't find much.

The video at the end of the mine tour was quite well done. I think the success rate was something like 10% of miners find something, 10% of those make a living, and 10% of those strike it rich. Definitely a game for the "passionate". Equipment has all levels of ingenuity:

Local Church

And the hot springs

Which were very hot. About 43 degrees so we had to get out every 10 minutes to cool off.

From Lightning Ridge south through Walgett again then East through Burren Junction. Hot springs here too but it was blowing a gale and pretty awful so we continued on to Wee Waa and camped in the bush:

Heard some strange noises in the night that we couldn't work out until the next day when we stumbled across the Radio Telescope Array outside Narrabri. Being a still night we could hear the telescopes re positioning.
Very interesting and well presented visitor centre.

Camped at Yarrie Lake which was a bit windy during the day but very pleasant at night.

Spent a couple of nights in Narrabri at the showgrounds. Spent a day out at Mt Kaputar National Park:

The country changes around Narrabri fairly dramatically from flat plains to the western edge of the Dividing range.
The following day we drove up some hills to Sawn Rocks:

Camped beside a river between Narrabri and Inverell. When we arrived it was a beautiful sunny day. That night it rained, all night, and all the next day. We had no phone service so couldn't check the weather. I walked about 3km up the road where a local pulled up and told me the rain was supposed to stop. Eventually it did and the following afternoon we were able to get out.

Next stop was going to be Inverell Showgrounds, but the local council had closed it to campers the day before. Weve since seen this in a few places where the caravan parks put pressure on the councils to stop camping at the showgrounds.
So we said stick Inverell then, and moved on to Glen Innes, where the showgrounds had better sites than any of the caravan parks for about half the price:

Glen Innes has a pretty strong Celtic heritage. Probably something to do with the bitter cold weather. There is a modern Stonehenge arrangement on to pof the hill.

Kids had a go at becoming King Arthur:

From Glen Innes to Tenterfield, and up to Boonoo Boonoo Falls. Bit quiet at the moment:

But evidence of some pretty serious water recently:

Made it into Queensland for the second time (first time was Camerons Corner). This is between Tenterfield and Stanthorpe:

Stanthorpe was a bit fresh and windy. Quite elevated there though.
Next town North is Warwick. Being Sunday the markets were on at Glengallan Homestead. Lots of animals for the kids to play with:

Kids ended up in the local paper:

Very spectacular house:

Into Toowoomba. Bit of culture shock after being out in the scrub for months.
The local Ag Show was on, so we found our biggest hats and boots and headed in. Lot of farming equipment as you would expect, but plenty of other stuff as well:

Very steep decent out of Toowwomba toward Ipswitch. Went through Grantham in the Lockyer valley which was severely flooded last summer. Still a lot of empty houses, and a couple that had been washed downstream.

Made it into the Gold Coast which was particularly awful. Traffic was very heavy all the way from Ipswitch. Weather had warmed up though. Saw the sea for the first time in 5 months.

So why did we go there?

Had a day out in the Feme Park. Kids were probably a bit young as most of the rides were aimed at 8 to 10 year olds and older. But we had some fun and saw a few animals:

From there we went to Brisbane and saw Simones Aunty Sue and David. You will have to assume they looked glamorous as we forgot to take a picture of them.
Then up to the Sunshine Coast where we caught up with Dean and Nina Eldridge formerly of Portland who have Koby the same age as Beth, and Riley who was born a few hours before the twins:

Then we saw Grant Hicks, formerly of Burnie who I played in a band with breifly, and used to drink beer with extensively.

Big blog this one! must have been a while since the last one, or we take too many photos. Anyway, bare with us:

So then it got interesting. After leaving the Station at Bourke two things happened:
1. A former Engineering manager from Pivot in Portland rang me and asked if I wanted a job. So after some telephony with a raft of recruiting people asking identical questions, we all flew up to Moranbah (200km West of Mackay) to have a job interview and look around the town. Dyno Nobel are an American company owned by Incitec Pivot (Australian fertiliser manufacturer) who are building an Ammonium Nitrate (explosives) plant to service the mines.
The big carrot is that they supply houses. So we are here for 6 months.

2. We decided to change caravans. The Roadstar has served us well and is brilliant when stopped. But is big, heavy, and a general pain in the bum once it needs to be moved. So we looked at wind up camper trailers and ended up buying one on the Gold Coast.

So we based ourselves in Caboolture (Showgrounds), went and collected the new caravan, cleaned out the old one, packed an enormous amount of stuff into storage with a local removalist, and sold the old van. All in a week:

The bathrooom in the new van is a bit smaller:

This is it packed up:

And unpacked:

Which means we can camp in places like this now:

So we will probably get stuck in campsites about the same amount, but they will be even harder to get out of.

From Caboolture we headed west back into the hills, through Blackbutt and Yarraman. There is an old railway tunnel with bat colony included:

Fell out the other side of the GDR (great dividing range) on the Western Downs at Dalby. The country flattens out again here. Agriculture takes over from traffic:

Dropped in to Jimbour Mansion just north of Dalby:

The place is lived in but the gardens and outbuildings are open to the public.

Kids in their new bed

From Dalby we headed west on the worst sealed road in Australia, through Chinchilla toward Roma. Lot of new houses in these towns and mines everywhere.
Roma's main attraction is its oil and gas drilling history. Ran into the Mornabah school principal on holiday.

Had a ride on the Roma Express:

North from Roma through Injune to Conarvon Gorge. Being school holidays all the campgrounds were booked out so we camped over the road and headed into Conarvon for the day. Lot of fires around the are and smoke everywhere.

Absorbed some indigenous culture:

and went for a swim:

Rolleston to the north was also booked out so we camped on the side of the road, which was a lot nicer than the caravan park anyway.

Then onto Emerald. Had a couple of days there as I had to do a medical for the job:
Monorail at the botanic gardens:

Emerald had a few other attractions such as an Irish pub with Guinness on tap. Had a very nice meal and sampled a few.

Then it was just another 200km up to Moranbah. Got here Thursday and moved into the house.
We have a "duplex", which is a 3 bedroom house attached to another one. 2 car garage, big living area, air conditioned, partly furnished with the essential bits like fridge, washing machine and an enormous telly which the kids are still a bit dazzled by.
Presume we are in the right place!

So I start work and the kids start school at the local primary on Monday (3rd Oct). Beth in Grade 1 and the Twins in Prep.
Could be a bit warm up here. Since Caboolture the weather has really warmed up. Don't think weve had a day under 28 for the last 2 weeks.

The 20th of September marked one year on the road for us. Few statistics if you haven't dozed off yet:
- 7 months straight since we've lived in a house
- Total working weeks: 30 for me and 6 for Simone. So we've worked 60% of the time, which is about what we planned.
- Total km: about 18000. Probably about 14000 towing the van
- Average fuel economy, 25 l/100, or just under 12mpg. Worst economy was about 9mpg (31 l/100) from Bairnsdale to Omeo. The new van has this down to 17 l/100 and 20kmh quicker.
- Average price of Diesel has been between $1.40 and $1.60, so we’ve used about 4500 litres of diesel, which cost $6750.
- Camped in caravan parks about probably half the time. Tended to stay in Showgrounds the last month or two as they offer the same facilities (power, water, toilets and hot showers) for $20 a night, whereas caravan parks have averaged about $45. Most expensive caravan park was Moruya over last Christmas ($460 a week/ $65/night), so we moved into a house. Quite a few around Brisbane/Goldcoast/Sunshine coast were $80 and one I think was $98 - for a power point and a tap. And you need to provide your own building!

Next update in March.

Right then, where were we?

We have survived 6 weeks living in the "outback". I think it was legitimate "outback" as it was actually Back of Bourke.
NSW seems to get a bit confused with its Easts and Wests depending on where you are and where your referring to. "Western NSW" seems to start at about Dubbo which is clearly in the East of the state.

Anyway, a few pictures before you doze off:

Kids doing some earthmoving on the levee bank:

Beths Portrait of mum:

View from our front door, dog, work ute, shearers quarters etc:

Now for a short summary of the station. Skip this paragraph if statistics arent of intrest. The bits I cant remember I will make up:
Trilby Station, on the Darling River, between Wilcannia and Bourke. The property is 130,000 acres which is about 15km wide and runs from the river, North West toward Wanaaring.
Trilby was originally part of Dunlop Station, which was around 860,000 acres and was the first station to have fully mechanised shearing (about 1888). Gary and Liz (owners of Trilby) also own a few ajoining stations for a total around 320,000 acres.
They run about 14,000 sheep and can run up to 22,000. A significant part of the business is mustering wild goats. Plenty of these about and quite a large part of the property is set up specifically to contain them once they get in (electric fences and spear gated yards). Around 10 to 14,000 goats are exported each year.
Flooding of the Darling can make the homestead an island and early this year the house was surrounded by water for 3 months. They get about 4 weeks notice of an impending flood which is enough time to get stock and machinery to higher ground.
Most of the property is watered from rain catchment, and there is also a number of bores. There are wells on the property from the 1800's which were hand dug to 500 feet.

Sheep yards near the homestead

We had the plods turn up checking gun licenses and safes:

One local major event was a clearing sale at the Old Dunlop homestead. The house was about 150 years old so had accumulated a bit of stuff in that time. Th Auction attracted quite a big crowd, A few camped at Trilby who were from Echuca and Bendigo:

Every vehicle used on the property was lined up:

This is a speedboat with a V8 Ford motor strapped in the middle:

Boxes and boxes of books and magazines. Wheels magazines from the mid fifties:

And some other titles from the mid seventies:

This Ford ute apparently has factory 4 wheel drive, and only about 400 were made. It went for TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS:

A lot of the other boat anchors also went for rediculous money. Things like broken old Furphy camp ovens went for hundreds of dollars.

Anyway, back to the station, which is where we spent most of our time. In 6 weeks we had one trip out to Bourke (120km away) and one trip to Cobar (a bit further).

The road past the front gate:

This is the old mailbox at the original front gate. Where the white paint starts on the left hand side is where the 1974 flood came up to:

The river floods into a Lagoon which we did a bit of canoeing on:

Gary took posession of a new dog (a Kelpie called Bessie), so we babysat for a while. Kids had a ball with her, and I think mum got a bit attached too:

The main reason for our stay was this lot. A variety bash from Adelaide footy club came though and stayed the night. We helped feed 100 odd people and then clean up after them:

Bit of machinery from the Old Dunlop Farm down the road. This farm grew crops on the river flats in the late 1800's. Most of it was used for stock feed to run all the horses. This part of the station employed about 100 people:

Looking North across the 10,000 acre paddock. This was all under water in 1974:

Tanks and troughs up on the red country:

About 30km north of Trilby is the old New Chum Station homestead. The residents left here in the 60's to move to a new house and basically left this place as is:

Back to the river. A view of the river flats:

Beth and her new best friend:

Evan helping out:

Our camp:

Kids found a local:

The Louth races was also on while we were there. Attracts about 3000 people I think so a big weekend for the town:

The work ute. Bit of a step up from the Triton I had in Portland. This one had a dog and a chainsaw!

Canoeing on the Lagoon again. Makes it look like we had a lot of spare time, which we did, sort of:

Evan at the gate:

Ella fell in the grey water dam:

Armchair at the end of most days:

Looking at this:

So all in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our time there and will be looking for more of this sort of thing down the road.

So we have actually moved a bit lately, from the western NSW border and are getting close to the sea again. After Bourke we went to Lightning Ridge and today we are in Narrabri heading toward Glen Innes. Probably head North from there:

After 9 weeks in Deniliquin, we managed to move about a bit, and finally North this time.
Had a farewell dinner in Deni kindly sponsored by Sunrice. Don't look to pleased about life as you can see:

Before we went North, we had a short trip back into Victoria again for the Echuca Steam Rally. This is a pretty big event with a lot of operating big machinery including traction engines and a suprising number of steam lorries which looked pretty scary to operate.
The Thomas train here orginally came from Qld cane fields and was used as the first train on the Abt Tourist Railway in Tasmania until they restored the original engines:

Also plenty of toy trains and pipe smoking bearded chaps waving thier arms and shouting at each other:

Draught horse team demo's loading logs:

Think weve started something here:

Camped beside the Murray River. Evan gaining confidence:

From Echuca, we headed back through Deni, then Hay, then out toward Ivanhoe.
In between Ivanhoe and Hillston is an old station called Willandra which was bought by National Parks in 1972 and the homestead and shearers buldings restored. Very interesting place.
This is the track around the "house paddock":

Shearers Quarters:

Shearing Shed:

From there we headed East to Ivanhoe, then through to Menindee. This was 200km of dirt which started out OK but got rougher toward the end. Took about 4 hours and crossed about 50 grids. Was worth it in the end arriving at Lake Pamamaroo. This is the lake to the North of Lake Menindee and out of the National Park. Lake's are full for the first time in about 10 years:

Menindee as a town doesn't have much going for it, and so far has the most arrogant information centre attendant we have come across. Found out that most of the National Park was closed due to flooding on the river, and the main lake wasn't accesable as the indiginous brothers were scratching around for artefacts.
The woolshed was still open:

The last night at Menindee rain was forcast, but didn't eventuate, until a short shower in the morning so we packed up to get out on the main road before it got slippery.
Headed West from Menindee to Broken Hill. Arrived with a 3 wheeled caravan. Wheel studs all tore out of the hub, so spent a few dollars at the local trailer shop:

Cold weather up on the hill shrunk us a bit:

Met up with the Gallpens who were on their way back from Alice Springs, so while there were a few extra kids about we had a birthday party for Evan and Ella:

The Living Desert Sculptures. Not sure what the "Living Desert" is, but some arty types had dragged these rocks here and chiselled them into various shapes. Each one had a plaque to tell the uncultured what we were looking at:

Silverton was the next day out. About 25km out of Broken Hill. Another collection of broken mining boom buildings. Although these ones have made the most out of tourism. The town had some interesting bits but was very commercial. Lots of art galleries and movie memorabilia:

The filming of Mad Max 2 in the area seems to be the main claim to fame:

Obligatory photo of the Interceptor, although I thought it looked better from the back as most of the front had fallen off:

For Evan and Ellas birthday we went to the local cinema and watched Cars 2, which Evan liked expecially.
As we had a week and a bit before our next job commitment, we headed up to Camerons Corner. After the previous weeks incident we decided to leave the Van in Broken Hill and stay in cabins. This worked out pretty well as we did about 1100km of mostly dirt, and most of it pretty rough in 5 days.
First day was up to Tibooburra, then out to Camerons Corner:

On the way out we came across an old bloke with 2 camels pulling a Suzuki 4WD with the motor removed. Apprently he has been walkabout for years and upgraded from a pushbike towing a canoe.

Not much at the Corner except a Pub, and a breif appearance by a school while we were there:

The Pub is in Queensland, but we went through South Australia to get to it:

Took the jumper off North of the border:

Pub:

And the locals perched at the bar:

There were signs everywhere not to throw anything for the dog. Didn't stop him trying:

The next morning we headed back to Tibooburra. We were going to do a lap around the "Jump Ups" (hilly country in amongst the flat bits) but could see rain heading towards us so didn't take the chance.
Some vintage transport at Tibooburra:

From Tibooburra we headed South East to White Cliffs. Stopped at a river for morning tea and dug some rocks out of the river bed:

Whit Cliffs is an Opal Mining town. We stayed in PJ's underground B&B which is part of an old mine. Place was like a rabbit warren and we lost our room a few times:

Inside was much more appealing than the roof:

The back part of the mine was still "original":

From White cliffs we went back to Broken Hill for a couple of nights, then headed out to our Station job on the Darling River. OUr last night in Broken Hill there was about 4mm of rain which flooded most of the table drains in the cenre of town, so we drove out in axle deep water in some places. The roads either side of the Darling river were still closed from flooding so we went due east through Wilcannia and onto Cobar.
These two towns were chalk and cheese. Wilcannia had bars on windows and no-one about while Cobar was all immaculate shops and people everywhere.

Camped about 80km North of Cobar. Met a local cocky who was chasing sheep rustlers. As we were camped on the road they were using he asked us to keep and eye out:

The map to date. Still going around in circles:

So as of last week (6th July) we are at Trilby Station for about 4 weeks helping run the tourist accomodation. Simone is cleaning the cottages and shearers quarters, while I empty bins and collect firewood. Has been enjoyable so far.
We had 12mm of rain on the last 2 days which meant the road in was impassable, so there are a few people staying an extra day or two.

Still in Deniliquin.
We were going to leave last Friday, but the place seems to agree with us and the money in agriculture is a bit too good to run away from.

Deni has about 8000 people, so similar in size to Portland. Main industries are Rice milling and selling stuff to Rice farmers. Place has been a bit dead during the drought having so much reliance on water, but there is some optimism about now after the recent rains.
Not frightnened to water things up here. Rice obviously needs a drink, and involves drowning acres of it in about a foot of water over the summer months.

View from the top of the Hull Bins at work. Flat country. Mulwala channel in front which starts from the Murray up at Yarrawonga.

Lineup of trucks delivering rice. Harvest is nearly over so the queues are a bit shorter now.

Anyway, Deni has a Harvey Norman, which has more huge televisions than the kids have seen for a while. That entertained them while we sat on the lounge suites. After 8 months of caravan seats and camp chairs, they were pretty comfortable:

Had the rowdy Holts visit us the weekend before easter. Kids were pretty excited to see some familiar faces.

Flat. This is out towards Hay. Not far from here is apparently the flattest bit of the earth, or some similar local claim to fame. Seems anything more than a few metres in elevation is called Mount something, or something Hill.

Beths tooth collection - old and new

Easter we went to Condobolin, which is 450km North, and in the middle of nowhere. Drove there in one day (took all day) which is the biggest day weve done so far.
Most people asked whay the hell we were giong there for, mainly (well only) to see the Condo 750 Rally. A two day Safari type navigation rally thats been running since the mid 80's.

Saw a few of these:

And lots of these:

And being easter, there were rabbits about. And the NSW ones drink the local beer:

Came back through Lake Carlelligo. Forgot it was Anzac day until we nearly drove through the middle of the parade.

Happy Girls:

Stroppy Boy:

Downstream of Deni on the Edward River is Stevens Weir. And there lives a frog:

In amongst the leaves:

Quite a nice picnic area.

Did a few renovations in the caravan. Will be a bit more careful where we do it next time as all the grey nomad tradesmen flock around and offer advice and want to help:

Ella the story teller:

Had a fleeting visit back into Victoria. Went to Echuca for a day. Seems to be the main place to go shopping from here. Only 80km away.
Bought some warmer cloths.

Weather has turned a bit cold the last few weeks. Down to 3 or 4 most mornings and around 16 during the day. One day was -1. Then Last Saturday it was 23!

A picture of our camp. Real estate bargain, worst house in the best street:

Some of the local wildlife. Apart from possums and mice:

Speaking of mice, the mouse plague has settled down a bit. We only see half 3 or 4 a night in the awning instead of 10 or 20. One night we had 3 traps going flat out and cought about 15 mice in an hour or so.

Last weekends expedition was to Lawsons Siphon which is where the Mulwala channel crosses the Edward river by going under it. Interesting bit of engineering built either side of the war. Involves two pipes 3m in diameter that drop about 20m down then surface again 700m away. Channel is down at the moment so it wasn't flowing.

Down on the beach we tracked some Kangaroos and worked out how far they can jump.

So thats the extent of our excitement. Finish up here on the 10th June and head toward Broken Hill, then turn hard right toward Bourke.
We have 4 weeks work lined up on a station on the Darling River. Might need bigger boots and hats for this job.