Louth and the Mary Mathews Monument

It is just a short 80km drive NE towards Bourke from Kallara Station to the small town of Louth.  There is not much to the village of Louth.  A school that teaches kindergarten through to Year 6 with a total of 8 students, a pub known as Shindy’s Inn (which is up for sale), and a cemetery where more people lie each night than currently reside in town.

In the cemetery, one headstone stands out above all of the rest, particularly as the sun sets.  A polished granite monument was erected by Thomas Mathews in memory of his wife Mary, who died of lung disease at just 42 years of age on August 19, 1886.  “Nothing so special about that”, I hear you say – “happens all of the time that a spouse places a special headstone on their partners grave”.  I agree, but this headstone and monument is more unique than most…

The monument is a polished granite pillar with a polished granite Celtic cross on top of it – the whole thing stands 7.6m tall (~25ft in the old scale) and was shipped overland and by paddle steamer from Phillip Island in Victoria (near Melbourne) to outback Australia.  The headstones' journey took over two years due to the river boat becoming stranded in a waterhole for two years during a long running drought!

Mary Mathews has quite an impressive headstone - even in broad daylight

Interestingly at dusk each evening when the sun strikes the cross that sits atop the pillar, if standing in the right place in the cemetery (the ‘right place’ location moves a little bit each day of the year), the reflection of light from the cross is nothing short of dazzling, even blinding for about three minutes.  After that time, the sun is too low in the sky or you are too close to see the full brilliance of the reflection.

As the sun sets the reflection gets progressively brighter

Stand in the right spot and the reflection goes from dazzling to blinding!

The really interesting part of the story, however, is that on the anniversary of Mary’s death each year, August 19^th, the reflection is at its brightest directly where the doorway of the home Thomas and Mary used to share once stood.  The home is no longer there but the love story is eternal!

I am not typically wowed by too many things but this impressed me greatly.

To wrap up this edition of WTF? – Where are The Farrows?, I will say that if you get to ‘see the light’ in Louth, be sure to have your sunglasses handy because it can be very bright!

Kallara Station Stay

This post is a bit longer than usual but we had a really good time here and I just have to share.

Over 300km driving today - all on dirt.  Travelled from Kinchega National Park near Menindee, NSW along the Menindee to Wilcannia Road until we reached an intersection with the Barrier Highway about 8 km east of Wilcannia.  Crossed the highway and then continued onto the Wilcannia to Bourke Road for 150km or so to our next campsite at Kallara Station (12km from Tilpa, NSW).

The ride on the 300km of dirt roads all the way from Pooncarie to the Tilpa Pub was not too bad as far as corrugations were concerned.  While not as rough as we had expected, it was very dusty.  Luckily there were not many vehicles on the roads we were on.  Just two vehicles travelling in the opposite direction and we saw no one else travelling in our direction.  We certainly were on ‘the road less travelled’!  A quick stop at the Tilpa Pub for a leg stretch (and an ice-cold country pub beer) then the last 12 km to our destination for a couple of days - Kallara Station.

The Tilpa Pub was a welcome rest stop after almost 300km of dirt roads

We established our camp to stay for a couple of days at a beautiful spot right on the bank of the Darling River just a kilometre from the homestead but totally secluded and private.  We had the place to ourselves except for the kangaroos, emus, feral goats, pelicans and an echidna.

Campsite on the banks of the Darling River at Kallara Station.

 

Ant eating Echidna rolled into a defensive ball.

For those not familiar, the spikes are hard and bone-like!

Heather asked the owner whether she could do some metal detecting along the river and was given the all clear to hunt wherever she wanted to.  With that said, she promptly got her bug hat on as the flies were thick and she was off!

Metal Detecting Heather decked out in Hi-Vis and fly/bug hat

While Heather went detecting, I checked out the caravan to see how it had handled the dirt roads.  A bit of dust had got in here and there so I cleaned that out and squirted some silicone sealant into where I thought it was coming in.  While looking for dust I had noticed a couple of the cupboard and drawer handles/latches were not working.  It turns out that the roads must have been shaking the insides of the caravan more than we could feel from inside the truck.  To cut a long story short I ended up having to check and tighten the latches on all 32 of the drawers and cupboard doors in the caravan.  To make sure they could not rattle loose during the next dirt road leg of our journey I put a little bit of ‘Loctite’ (essentially glue for the threads of nuts and bolts) on every threaded part of every latch!  That should do it (I hope)!

Just as I was finishing up the repair job, Heather returned from her hunt with a beaming smile on her face – I knew she had found something special!  She then showed me the source of her happiness.  She had found a hat badge worn by Australian Cavalry Soldiers from around the turn of last century, i.e.: 1900.

Hat Badge from the 1st Volunteer Australian Horse Regiment

The badge design is a kangaroo and an emu supporting a shield on which is the badge of the Colony (St George cross with the 4 stars of the Southern Cross on it).  Across the face of the shield is a crossed musket and sword.  On the bottom of the shield is a boomerang on which the regimental motto of FOR HEARTHS & HOMES is written.  Across the top is AUSTRALIAN HORSE, denoting the regiment.

The Australian Light Horse Regiments, which existed up until 1943, started with the 1^st (Volunteer) Australian Horse regiment, which was established in 1898.  The men were typically shearers, station hands, farmers or squatters (large-scale sheep or cattle farmers).  Finding this badge along the banks of the Darling River where some the largest sheep stations in the country could be found at that time, makes this a really great find!

If we had more time we would have stayed longer.  We will definitely go back and really take our time relaxing in the solitude of the bush.

Hope you are enjoying the story so far and keeping up to date as to WTF- Where are The Farrows?

Start of our Darling River Run

Our ‘against the flow’ Darling River Run started as we drove into the town of Wentworth just on the New South Wales (NSW) side of the Murray River (which forms the border between Victoria and NSW).  It is also where the Darling River meets and flows into the Murray.

Having now entered NSW we made a quick stop for fruit and veg supplies then set of on our drive from Wentworth to Pooncarie then onto our overnight stop at Kinchega National Park near Menindee.

It had been a long day of driving by the time we had arrived at our destination.  The wind had picked up and there was dust and sand blowing everywhere making it pretty dismal to be outside. We quickly parked at a camp site and settled in for some dinner and an early night.

The weather had calmed overnight and we woke up to clear skies and a gentle breeze.  Before hitting road again, we visited the and Old Kinchega Homestead from which Kinchega Station was run.  At its peak of operations, the station (ranch/farm) comprised over 800,000 hectares (1,976,000 acres)!  At the historic old Kinchega Woolshed, over 6 million sheep were shorn.

Wool bale press in the old Kinchega Wool Shed

Where the sheep are shorn is called the 'Shearing Board'

Multiple shearing units were/are attached to a common shaft drive

All of the bales of wool from the shearing of the sheep were loaded onto barges towed by Paddle Steamers downstream to Wentworth and other inland ports along the Murray River.  An interesting but sad story relating to a paddle steamer occurred here in 1872…  Apparently, some of the boat hands hitched the ‘PS Providence’ to the bank of the Darling River here and then went out on the town.  They came back quite the worse for wear and proceeded in their drunken state to stoke the boiler before falling into bed.  They had, however, missed one important step.  While they had stoked the fire box, they had not filled the boiler tank with water.  It quickly overheated and the boiler blew up, blowing the boat to pieces and throwing men and materials everywhere.  The cook, who had not gone out that night, was found alive the next day high up in a tree.  Unfortunately, he died of his injuries a few days later.

On that sombre note we returned to camp, hitched up the caravan and set off once more.  The elementary thing for us to remember from this event is to make sure the kettle is filled with water for tomorrow morning's coffee before going to bed!  Stay tuned to find out WTF – Where are The Farrows? and where they stop next.

Animals on the Road

There was plenty of wildlife other than cattle and sheep roaming ‘free range’ along the way that we needed to be wary of even in the middle of the day.  Mainly kangaroos and emus but plenty of feral goats out this way too.  Let me tell you that big bodies coupled with small brains, i.e.: kangaroos and emus, does not make for a good combination when it comes to road sense!  Please, let me set the scene for you…

We were motoring along in our 2.5 tonne ute (pick-up truck) at between 80 and 90 km/h, towing 3 tonnes of caravan behind us on a loose gravel surface when a pair of emus ran across the road well ahead of us – they must have been about 100m or so up the road.  As a natural reaction, I eased off of the pedal a little because the combined 5.5 tonne rig does not stop or even slow down as quickly as the ute alone, especially when on gravel roads.  It turned out to be a good thing too as one of the emus, then decided that it wanted to go back to whence it had just come and proceeded to bolt back across the road – this time right in front of us!  I felt sure we were going to put the Bull bar / Roo bar to use and unfortunately hit the thing.  We were both saying/yelling, “Oh oh…Look Out!” and “Wait for It!”, and bracing ourselves for the impact and a cloud of feathers.  As it turned out we ended up missing it by the narrowest of margins!

After our hearts stopped racing, we remembered, or realised, that the dash cam that we have on our vehicle should have captured it all, and sure enough, it had!  We watched the footage on the laptop to see just how close a call the emu had.  When reviewed frame by frame it was only the arching of its back with a fraction of a second to spare that saved it from being roadkill!  Below are last three frames from the dash cam.  The first is a great Road-runner impersonation, and the last one where it appears to be arching its back to just squeeze past the bulbar and is looking back at us.  Some pretty good screen shots from the dash cam video.

Great Roadrunner imitation!

Just missed!

The picture below, by a local NSW artist called John Murray, is probably something akin to the view the emu had of us!

Emu's View of Oncoming Traffic?

Well that is enough for this post.  Reliving the ordeal has got me all wound up again so I think I need to put my e-pen down and have a beer and relax.  That all for this instalment of WTF? – Where are The Farrows?

Overnight at Pink Lakes (Murray - Sunset National Park)

After an easy sealed highway drive of about 400km from Cape Jervis in South Australia we made camp on the shore of Lake Crosbie, one of the Pink Lakes in Murray-Sunset National Park across the border in Victoria.

Once we had ourselves setup – it doesn’t take too much effort when the sites are large, flat and you just drive in and park where it suits you, we went for a short hike around part of the lakeshore.

Along the way, depending on where the sun is relative to your view of the water, the lake can really look pink.  The park brochure says the water is actually crystal clear and very salty.  The bed of the lake is solid salt and it is a species of red algae that lives in the water that gives it the pink colouring.

Lake Crosbie is one of the Pink Lakes in Murray-Sunset National Park

Along the hiking trail we saw a few different types of brightly coloured wildflowers.  The orange ones and purple ones caught my eye so I took a couple of pictures (see below)

 

Purple flowers atop succulent growth

These look like Marigolds but I don't really know what they are.

As the sun started to get lower in the sky we returned to camp and enjoyed a couple of beers and some wine while we watched the sun go down and the stars come up for what would not be the last time on this trip.

Beautiful watching the sun go down and the southern stars come out!

I intend to write a blog every couple of days to document our journey but will only be able to post when mobile phone coverage is available.  So whenever there is more than a day or three between blogs and you are wondering WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, rest assured we have not given up on the journal - we are probably compulsorily e-silent until the phone 'pings' to tell us we are once again within range of civilisation.

Long Weekend at Cape Jervis

Finally the day to depart had arrived.  The ute had been serviced and was full of fuel and the caravan has clothes, food, beer and wine to ensure that we have everything we could need to have a great time!

After getting up early on account of being very excited to hit the road, the time dragged by so slowly as we let the workforce get their commute done without an unwieldy caravan adding to the peak hour traffic. At 9:30am we could wait no longer so we locked up the house up and set off.

Just a quick 110km south of Adelaide our destination for the first weekend away was Cape Jervis.  Heather's metal detecting club was having their annual field trip down there so we arrived at the site and set up the van for a four night stay - an nice way to ease into the vacation.

The first evening there Heather hosted a 'Welcome to Camp' hot dogs and marshmallow roast which was well received by the 25 or so that had checked-in that day.

Heather serving up hot dog buns, cheese, relish, onions and sauce (ketchup)

Roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over an open fire

The next couple of days were spent with the rest of the club searching for old artefacts, coins and the like on an old sheep station.  Plenty of spendable and pre-decimal coins were found while Heather also found a couple of old medallions.  One that was issued to school children across the country in 1951 to commemorate 50 years of Federation in Australia and a second, more unusual one, which was issued to members of the 'Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes'.  This 'order' was established in 1822 in London, however, branch offices also sprang up in the colonies.  They still exist today as a philanthropic men's club (the Adelaide branch is located at 232 Main North Road, Prospect, and they meet every alternate Thursday - just in case you are interested).  Feel free to 'Google' it if you want to know more.  It made me think of Fred and Barney in the Flintstone's cartoons heading out to the 'Lodge' wearing their silly hats with antlers.

'Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes' medallion

The writing (in latin) around the perimeter of the medallion is the club motto which says 'Nemo Mortalium Omnibus Horis Sapit', which those of you that are well versed in latin would surely know means 'No man is at all hours wise'.  Who knew?  The buffalo in the centre speaks for itself (I presume).  This metal detecting caper can be educational!

We hit the road again tomorrow heading east into the neighbouring state of Victoria before turning north towards NSW and Queensland.  That's all for this post but just remember, if you keep asking yourself WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, then one day soon the email postman will send you an answer to your question.

Planning for a September Roadtrip

The winter of 2017 in South Australia is not quite over but with each day that passes the signs that spring is on the way become more evident.  The birds start chirping and squabbling in their new nests just before the sun comes up, while at the other end of the day it is no longer dark when I get home from work each evening - not big things but subtle triggers for the mind to recognise that the seasons are changing.

With the steadily improving weather, the time is also right to hit the road with the caravan in tow!  Last year we headed for the Flinders Ranges in South Australia's mid-north for a couple of weeks.  This year we will be going a bit further afield and for a bit longer.  Our destination is the Sunshine Coast in Queensland!

Route from SA to QLD via the 'Darling River Run' through NSW

We intend to follow the Darling River while travelling north and east (against the direction of water flow) through outback New South Wales as we make our way towards Queensland.  There will be plenty of nights of bush camping and clear night skies beside the riverbank to enjoy along the way.  It will be a decent haul of ~2,500 km to get there and we haven't really thought about the route home yet.  Not to worry - that will all sort itself out in due time.

With the fun and excitement about a vacation starting as soon as you commence the planning process, I really don't know why we shouldn't just be in a state of planning to be somewhere else all of the time!

Updates on our progress and stories about the interesting and/or stranger things we do or encounter along the way will be provided regularly once we are on the road so that you will always have an answer to the question... WTF? - Where are The Farrows?