Outback night skies never disappoint.
Camooweal Billabong
I have tried to find detail of the regular residents of the Billabong but all I got was a “quack quack”. In other words, nothing. Not even a signboard to say what types or brands of water birds come here. Do any migrate to here or just pass through on to some other breeding region? Can’t tell you. Wikipedia didn’t enlighten my mind either.
So to do better than the “signboards” just come and experience the wonder of the activities of the birdlife in this out of the way billabong in outback western Queensland.
There is strong talk amongst the human grey nomads that this billabong is being closed. The decision to close the sites for camping is to protect cultural heritage and was made following discussions held between Mount Isa City Council and local landowners.
However, it is still open to short stay Grey Nomads. This lagoon is really owned by the many varieties of birds that inhabit the billabong and make it a busy natural place to live. They make the culture of Camooweal Billabong real and full of life. They are an exhibition of how we too should get along in the places we call home. Thank you birds and nature.
I said earlier that night skies in the outback never disappoint. I wrote that before I got out of bed for today’s sunrise. I guess we have to “endure” lots more of these stunning expanses of morning and evening colour, during our time in the outback.
The Northern Territory
The last we saw of Queensland is Police stopping traffic to do searches of the vehicles. Don’t know why, but they were very active around the vehicles they had stopped.
Daly Waters is a well known town located around the goings on of an old country pub. Yes, everything is old and mostly broken, left to rust and never to be moved; aircraft, buses, trucks, cars windmills, and anything else that doesn’t need to be used again. The owner runs around on his quad bike making sure all is happening to his plan. He is a big guy and on the back of his quad bike, he has installed a sign “wide load”. He owns 3 or 4 other camps/pubs of similar value and “mission” in the Northern Territory. The meals provided are high quality. He has entertainment each afternoon and evening. The staff are the most helpful and courteous group of young people you could want to employ. They love what they do and so does the owner. If you are in the area, plan a two day stay to enable you to take in the “different” way people live in the NT. We stayed just a few hours including lunch, but I wish we could have stayed longer for that “Daly” experience. The restaurant and shop is very different to other roadhouses.
Just a few hundred kilometers north from Daly Waters is Mataranka. We have set up camp there for the weekend. More next post.
great life - retired got nothing on 