London, Paris, Thargomindah?

When you think of major cities of the world the likes of; London, Paris, New York, etc, typically spring to mind.  You don’t often hear people citing ‘London, Paris & Thargomindah’ as a peer grouping.  When WTF? - Where are The Farrows? first heard this trio mentioned in the same breath they thought (because they would never say it out aloud), firstly, ‘WTF (Where The…) is Thargomindah?’ and secondly, ‘WTF (Who The…) are they trying to kid?’.

Well, dear reader, WTF? - Where are The Farrows? now knows the answer to the first question (because we have been there), however, for your benefit, the answer is illustrated in the image below:

Located in SW Queensland atop Australia's Great Artesian Basin, Thargomindah is 1,000km from Brisbane & 1,200km from Adelaide

The answer to the second thought may surprise you as much as it did us - They are not trying to kid anyone!  Please allow me to fill you in…

In 1891 drilling commenced on a bore (that’s a ‘well’ for the folks in Nth America and elsewhere), to supply the town with water.  In 1893 an exceptionally good supply was struck at a depth of 808 metres (2,650 feet) with water at a temperature of 84C being pushed to the surface by the natural artesian pressure.  Thargomindah was the first town to have reticulated Artesian Bore water.  The bore was also the source of energy for Australia’s first hydro-electric power scheme when in 1893, Thargomindah’s streets were lit by means of a generator coupled to a water turbine that was driven by the bore’s natural water pressure.  Thargominda was the ‘Third after London, One Day after Paris’ to have street lighting generated by hydro power!

The artesian bore and Thargomindah's original hydro power plant

Home of Australia's first hydro-electric power plant.
Who would've guessed?!

I thought the ‘third in the world’ claim to fame could have perhaps been displayed a little more prominently on the sign placed at the entrance to the old Thargomindah Hydro Power Plant but maybe that is just me?  Look closely at the lower left of the photo of the sign below (click on the image to enlarge it if that will help you), and you can see the words ‘Third after London, One Day after Paris’.

Bush modesty at it's best!  Click on image to enlarge
in order to read small print at centre right:
'Third after London One day after Paris'

Following a night in the metropolis of Thargomindah where we enjoyed electric lighting inside our caravan (because the mosquitoes were too thick to enjoy anything at all sitting outside), we rolled westward to the Noccundra Hotel in search of the next autograph in our Bush Pubs book.

I believe I have mentioned in previous posts that the flies and mozzies in these parts, after the better than typical rains, are abundant!  As we arrived at the Noccundra Hotel during daylight hours, it was the flies that greeted us.  Heather broke out the metal detector and her bug-hood and tried to do some detecting around our campsite.  She soon gave up.  The flies were too thick!

Flies and even more flies!

The Noccundra Hotel is different to most of the Queensland pubs we have visited far in that it was made of stone - built to last in 1883!  She is a handsome old girl from the outside but not much to speak of on the inside - oh well!.

Most things in Queensland were built out of timber.
Most things in Queensland have been eaten by termites!
The Noccundra Hotel was built out of stone in 1883 and
is still looking good.

One of two ‘claims to fame’ for the town of Eromanga where our next pub was to be found is that it is ‘The Furthest Town from the Sea’ in Australia.  The other is that Eromanga is/was the home of Australia’s largest dinosaur.  We requested and received a signature in our book from the publican and had a chat over the obligatory cold beer before heading back to camp.

The Furthest Town (and thus Pub) from the Sea

The last pub in the SW corner of Queensland that we were to hit during this part of our tour was the Yaraka Hotel in Yaraka.  Due to the recent wet weather and the subsequent road closures we could not take the most direct route from Eromanga to get there.  The Stonehenge publican (publicans are always the fount of all local knowledge), assured us that our vehicle would be able to get there but we "certainly would not be able to tow the caravan there" on the only route that was open to us which was an ill-defined track across 130 km of farmland.  So, we parked in the shire-provided caravan site across from the pub, unhitched the van and set off down the 130km long farm track to get to Yaraka.

Upon arrival we found a sign on the door indicating the bar was closed for ‘Siesta Time’!  WTF?  It was getting late in the day and we did not want to wait too long to start our return trip as driving into the setting sun on a poorly defined track with kangaroos and cattle all over the place is no fun.  At the same time, we didn’t want to leave empty handed.  Luckily for us, the publican, Chris, showed up and after exchanging brief pleasantries, we secured his signature and then had to leave.  Long story short, we made it home with an autograph and a whole lot of grasshopper guts splattered across the front of the vehicle.

Chris was more than happy to sign our book
after the effort we had put in to get to his pub!

Out the front of The Yaraka Hotel

The next episode of WTF? - Where are The Farrows? sees us in the town of Longreach (and surrounds) to re-supply after a couple of weeks out in the SW Queensland wilderness.