Quilpie - 30 July 2014

We had a walk round the outskirts of the town this morning to have a look at the Bulloo River, which also runs through Thargomindah. There are signs along the river bank with items of interest. One of the signs pointed out that King Brown, Eastern Browns and Collared Whip Snakes are the venomous snakes found in the area. The Browns are not very nice ones at all.

It was a sluggish river today. Needs a good bit of rain to flush it through.

We walked passed the Powerhouse and it was open so we had a look through. Power came to Quilpie in 1952. Hard to believe Quilpie has only had power since then. That was the year I was born.

We ended up at the Bakery. Cathy, the lady who owns the Bakery, was the World Champion Ladies Shearer in 1998.

The Information Centre has a Museum attached to it and is very interesting to look through. The Quilpie area was devoted to both cattle and sheep farming in years gone by, but with the downturn in the wool industry, it is mainly cattle these days.

There was a photo in the Information of Scandalous Jack, a local character from Quilpie, who obviously let the odd swear word drop. I loved the description under the photo - "Scandalous Jack, who was given this nickname because of his skill in inserting the great Australian adjectives into every conceivable nook and cranny of normal conversation.''

There was also an exhibition on at the Information Centre of paintings by Melanie Hava. We had come across her paintings at Eulo, which is just south of Quilpie. We liked them and were pleased to see them again.

Next to the Information Centre is an excellent mural featuring highlights of the Quilpie area.

After lunch we went out to the Airport as there is a display there of Amy Johnson, the first female to fly solo from England to Australia. She completed the trip in 19 days in 1930. After landing in Darwin, she was making her way to Brisbane stopping at small airports in Queensland on the way. She was supposed to land at Charleville. On her map the rail line ended at Charleville, but it had been continued to Quilpie, so she landed here by mistake. She was very attractive.

 



We also drove out to Lake Houdraman, which is just a few kilometres out of town. There was quite a bit of water in the lake and we saw a couple of emus having a drink. There were quite a few people free camping there. You have to be fully self contained to stay by the Lake.

Late in the day we went to Baldy Top, which is a rocky outcrop about 3 kilometres out of town, to view the sunset. The red of the rocks just glowed from the sun's rays as it was going down. Just gorgeous.