Days 10 - 14 (25/4 - 29/4): Tilpa to White Cliffs to Tibooburra (Barkaanji, Yarli and Karenggapa countries)

DAY 10: We had a lazy start to the day, not leaving camp until after 9 o'clock. The birds continued to feast on the river fish and the noise of the water was constant.  I woke up last night sometime and was shocked to hear really heavy rain - until I remembered where I was.  It was just the noise of the water going over the weir onto rocks below.

We headed back into Tilpa to do the Tilpa sightseeing things, that is, not much.  There is a war memorial, the claim to fame of which is that it is the only one in the country to memorialise Breaker Morant.  His connection to Tilpa?  He once worked on Kallara Station, Tilpa. In the interests of Anzac Day we visited it and paid our respects.

I took a few photos of the town. Although the population sign on the tennis court reads '0' there really must be about 10.  There were a few houses and at least 4 people working at the pub.  With the Darling River Run being an advertised adventure now, Tilpa is obviously expecting more visitors.  There is a new playground and new toilet/shower facilities right opposite the pub.

Our sightseeing in Tilpa done, we continued down the eastern side of the Darling River towards Wilcannia.  We had hoped to camp in the Paroo-Darling National Park but the campground there has been closed to camping since last years floods.  We took a look anyway and other than being a bit weedy it looked fine. However, tempting it was to stay there, we decided not to.

Many birds were nesting - mostly Nankeen Night Herons  - in the trees along the river and above the campground. Maybe this is why they are in no rush to open it up for camping. Maybe rangers are waiting until the birds are fledged.  Such mass events can't be too common here. This photo is very poor (camera on the wrong setting yet again), but you can see one of the masses of nests.  The place actually smelled a bit like Muttonbird Island in Coffs Harbour smells when the Muttonbirds are nesting.

Reluctantly we left and headed into Wilcannia to put air into tyres (since it is bitumen to White Cliffs where we were headed today), fill up with diesel and hopefully get gas.  What we were forgetting is that almost nowhere was open on Anzac Day!  The one place that could've given us gas couldn't - their machine was broken and unsurprisingly, they didn't have any of our little canisters for our 'choofer'.

We had morning tea by the river but didn't do any more sightseeing since we had been here about this time last year and nothing was open anyway.

The drive from Wilcannia to White Cliffs is not particularly interesting other than for the fact that it gets drier the further you go.  94 km and two cars passed us going the opposite way, one car overtook us and we overtook one other - yes really - we overtook someone. So many dead kangaroos on or alongside the road.  This is definitely not country where you want to drive between dusk and dawn!

It was hot enough, at around 30 degrees,  when we arrived at White Cliffs so we picked one of the few sites in the one caravan park here that offered a little bit of shade.  We are camped next to some trees and grasses which proved to be a haven for quite a few birds tonight, including of course my Willie Wagtail.

Singing Honeyeater

Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

White-plumed Honeyeater    

Willie Wagtail

Thirteen different species all told. 

As I am typing this I am listening to the incessant barking of a dog. Is the owner at the pub playing two-up?? Will I have to listen to this all night??

DAY 11: As it turned out I got to sleep easily, despite barking dogs.  But ... I did wake up in the night to one of the dogs still barking and I couldn't get back to sleep. Finally, someone put the poor thing out of its misery by returning home or something.

Today was a really interesting day in White Cliffs.  

On the way out to our first tour, we visited the White Cliffs Cemetery.  As with many pioneer towns, it is filled with many children who died very young with no health care and a harsh environment. Have a look at the first column in this list of those who have been buried here between 1898 and 2000.  

                                                       

The view back to town from the cemetery is good though. Today's weather, as you can see, is very different to yesterday's. Cloudy and cooler.

                                   

                                   

A smaller cemetery housing mostly children is in the centre of town. Typhoid seems to have been a major killer of the young.  At least their resting place has a fine view at the end of the day.

                             

Our first tour of the day was relating to an 'Ecosystem Management Understanding' program that some local pastoralists, in particular Annette and Barry Turner, are taking part in. In the words of the program itself, "EMU introduces land users to the ecological management of landscapes and habitats by learning to recognize and read landscape processes, condition and trend, and to capture rainwater onsite."  By ripping up 'dead' parts of their property during the drought and thus decompacting the soil, seeds are captured in the rips and the rains are able to penetrate the soil better, thus rehabilitating the native grasslands.  In addition to this, they are putting up soil barriers near areas that have eroded over the years, diverting water so that it spreads more evenly and slowly over land rather than running down eroded gullies straight into the water courses. They are using the practices used by Peter Andrews in the Bylong Valley years ago (that people scoffed at then) whereby barriers are placed in water courses to slow the passage of the water down them.  

It was interesting to hear all this after having heard how the Darling River eroded more when colonisers of the area removed trees and debris from the river to enable the paddlesteamers to navigate the waters. This made the water flow extremely fast down the river in flood events and eroded the banks more quickly than previously.

Another interesting thing they are doing is creating seed nurseries where they rip up a designated bit of land, let it reseed naturally but also close it off to stock and feral animals completely.  This then becomes an area that can reseed 'dead' land.  The soil in the seed nursery we saw was so much softer than that surrounding it. It was wonderful to hear the efforts this couple are going to to make their property better adapted to our changing climate, with the added benefit that it will, hopefully, improve their productivity.

After morning tea back at camp, we took ourselves on a driving tour around White Cliffs. We visited the world's first commercially viable solar array. The photo explains how it worked much better than I can!!

We passed by the Bill O'Reilly Oval, named after the famous Aussie cricketer. I never knew that he had grown up in White Cliffs.

We went passed a range of old buildings, the oldest of which is the Old Police Station, now a private residence.  It is the oldest existing building in White Cliffs and was built in 1898.

A visit to the only shop in town was disappointing. They had no Swap'n'Go gas bottles of the size we need and do not refill bottles. Another wait - we have not yet run out.  Maybe Tibooburra??

After lunch we visited the 'White House', a house being built underground and open to the public for tours. The lady of the house (Cree, her husband Lindsay called her) is an artist and has some beautiful pieces decorating their home. Lindsay, at 76 years of age, still reckons he has another 2 years to finish this house, his fourth here in White Cliffs. Basically, within a 50m x 50m claim area, you can build whatever you like, however you like and as deep as you like, no permits required. You just need to have the lease of the land. This particular house has 25 rooms!

 

                           

Pete found a friend called 'Boobs' here.

After visiting White Cliffs I think I've decided we need to move here. Pete could build me an underground house using all his ingenuity, never have to worry about council regulations and could just build when creative urge grabbed him. It would save a lot of paper!!

We then went and visited an outdoor gallery created by a chap called Doug Torpey.  Amongst other things, he creates figurines out of old railway sleeper pegs.  Some are truly funny, others just really well done and he has figurines from all walks of life doing all manner of activities.  Here are some of my favourites with the names I've given them.

 Partners for life

Having a piss

 Tabletennis

 Campfire

 Bath time

 A lazy day's fishing

 Ouch!

 Having a yarn

We did go out to 'Potch Gully' to fossick around but no luck - not that we were expecting any.  I did find myself a couple of interesting rocks though.  I love a good rock.

A beautiful sunset tonight, followed by a very disappointing dinner at the pub. 

From inside the camper

DAY 12: After packing up camp, Pete and I headed out to the Paroo-Darling National Park, the section that is about 55 km east of White Cliffs, in particular to Peery Lake.  Apparently this Lake fills on average about once every 10 years and then it has water in it for about 3 years thereafter.  While it was nowhere near full, the lake still had enough water for plenty of birdlife.

There was a walk to a lookout, the first signpost on which was written 'don't bother'. We weren't put off but wondered why someone would write that.  Maybe the lake was dry. The view from the lookout was actually pretty good and the mound springs around the lake very obvious.

There were no other designated walks so we took ourselves down towards the lake.  It is bordered by sandstone rocks, at least on the side we were on then flats from which the water has receded. 

These flats are now dry or not so dry cracked mud.

There are a number of mound springs surrounding the lake, where artesian water bubbles up to the surface. 

To get to most of the bigger ones (at least to get to any bar the one closest to the carpark) proved tricky, as finding a route where you did not sink down into mud was more difficult than it appeared. The water actually extended a fair way further than it looks from the lookout.

I love this country. There are so many interesting plants that are able to cope with this extremely harsh environment and we were lucky enough to see a few remnant flowers. Not long after rains, when the water has receded a little, this area would be sooo pretty.

I spent hours wandering around, looking at plants and the bird life, although getting near to the latter was difficult.  I didn’t want to scare resting birds and getting near to the lake without doing so was nigh impossible. Today’s blog is really going to be a photo bomb because this is about all we did!

 Pied Stilt

Red-kneed Dotterel

 Juvenile Tree Martin

Flying Pelicans

 Royal Spoonbill in flight

After all my wanderings, it was really too late to return to White Cliffs and run the risk of running down kangaroos/emus/pigs/goats/sheep so we pulled into Goodwood Station, a sheep station where they allow campers to stay for a small fee. We had the place to ourselves – at least the camping part.  There were 14 shearers and 13 others at the homestead, so in actual fact there were 27 other people sharing the property.  However, after setting up camp we saw noone. We were guided to the homestead by the young teenage son who was keen to show us his non-helmeted motorbike riding skills.  Quite funny really, except for the no-helmet bit.  His sister accompanied him to guide us to our campground. I have never seen someone with such pale legs! I thought she had leggings on, until I realised it was her skin. She was wearing shorts, but how someone survives out here with that skin is beyond me.

There is a little rain forecast so while sunset wasn’t stunning, it was still beautiful to watch.

A campfire and a mothwatch later, we retired, weary, for the night.

 Red-gum Ghost Moth

DAY 13: Onwards, ever onwards, we left Goodwood Station, heading towards Tibooburra and Sturt National Park up in 'Corner Country'. We had wondered if the drive would be a bit boring, but in fact the topography and scenery changes all the time, from white pebbly ground, to ranges in the distance, to hilly country, to bare, dry almost barren country. Always something different. We had hoped to avoid the forecast rain while on the dirt road and luckily we did.  The road always seemed to turn away from any shower that looked as if it might hit us.  The rain around made also for interesting sky panoramas.

We passed by a section with a lot of Leopardwood or Flindersia maculosa. These trees are said to be good to have on a property as they help drought-proof it.  Apparently stock will eat the leaves in drought so,  at least on the olden days,  people would cut down branches when nothing else was available.  They have beautiful bark and are a very distinctive tree. 

                     

We were also lucky enough to chance on three Wedge-tailed Eagles feasting on some roadkill.  I just happened to catch the last one on video - not very good, but for once I at least managed to get the camera video working on time.  They are huge birds - 2.5m wingspan!

The last 110km was on bitumen but not long after we turned onto the 'Silver City Highway' we turned off to visit 'Salt Lake'. 

We had heard from a couple in White Cliffs that Milparinka, on the road to Tibooburra, was worth taking the 2km diversion for.  It certainly was.  It was a town founded in the late 1800's as a gold-mining town.  Big things were planned for the town according to an old town plan we saw there, but the harsh environment and a lack of easy-to-get gold meant that the rush didn't last long.  Today it has a population of 4 but has a pub - of course! 

After lunch, we did the tourist walk around and looked in a number of buildings.  Most of the place is in ruins, but a few buildings or parts thereof survive.  Altogether like a spread-out museum.  Another town with a fascinating history.

There were a few places west of Milparinka that sounded worth visiting too, such as one of the camps where Burke and Wills stayed for a while, but time wasn't on our side. We needed to get to Tibooburra and our camp before kangaroo hour.  Again, soooo many dead kangaroos on the road.

Tibooburra is bigger than I thought it would be.  Obviously well set up for the tourist market. We were finally topped up our gas supply here!!  Thank goodness.  We can rest assured that raw food won't be the only thing on the menu for the next week. 

We have entered granite country here for the first time.  Everywhere else has been sandstone and here, rising out of nowhere are granite outcrops and boulders.  Our first camp in the park is at Dead Horse Gully Campground. 

We'll have fun tomorrow!  We did go for a short 2km walk after setting up, hoping to see sunset but we were too early and sunset was a bit of a dud tonight with all the showers around.  Fortunately, looking at the weather, it seems as if the worst is east of us, actually exactly where we have come from along the Darling! Phew! Fingers crossed that no more roads are closed and that there is no more rain.

DAY 14: A lovely lazy morning today.  I hardly got out of the camper until morning tea time was it was very blowy, cold and rainy outside and we had all day to enjoy this place.

There is a different type of camp pest here.  Absolutely unafraid. It kept hanging around, drumming (the noise an emu makes) at me. When I rattled a tie-thing at it to try and encourage it to go away, it came closer so I withdrew back into the camper.

This was pretty early but not long after, the sun disappeared and one of the squalls that are still hanging around hit us.  The result - a beautiful rainbow (and a super-faint double) over the camp.

After morning tea the weather had cleared up considerably allowing us to do the walk around the granite tors. Granite boulders are always fun and are so photogenic.  

I continued mooching for some time after our proper walk and was waylaid for quite a while watching some seed bugs busily eating?? some seeds from a tree I have not yet identified.  Beautiful winged seeds - the wings are quite large.

Seed pod

 Bright red nymphs of a seed bug

The adult is not as colourful

There do not seem to be many flowers at the moment but the bluebush and saltbushes are flowering. Their flowers are so tiny though, at between 2 and 4 mm in diameter, you would be forgiven for not noticing them.

Bluebush 1 male flower

Bluebush 1 female flower

Bluebush 2 female flower

Bluebush 2 male flower

Saltbush flower

Saltbush fruit

After lunch we wandered over to a replica gold mining 'village' that has been set up near this campsite. It is very authentic in that the installations look just as I imagine they might have when put up by gold digging newbies. I needed to have been able to take my Year 5 students here - what they would have learned out in the field!

In this country if you follow a watercourse, even if it is dry, you are likely to find more flowering plants. Today that was certainly true.  I found a few flowers of plants I had seen elsewhere looking decidedly bare on today's walks.

A daisy 

A mallow

A Solanum

Later on, we walked up a hill to view a much nicer sunset. Tomorrow will be fine. 

As we were just about to return to camp, we notice the trails of two planes very close to each other. They travelled like this across the sky.  Too close?

We also found slate on the hill we climbed up to view sunset.  Apparently this overlaid the granite as shale and somehow as the granite was heating and moving underneath it, this heat caused the shale to turn into slate.  I find this all a bit difficult to understand, and I may have got this mixed up, but the difference in the geology of two hills facing each other was obvious.

Another day in the outback ends.