We boarded the PV Jandra at 9 this morning to do an hour long cruise on the Darling River. It was a great trip, with lots of information passed on about the river. Where we were tied up at the bank before leaving, there is a telegraph pole. At the top is a marker which is where the flood of 2011 came to. Just below is there was another marker for the flood of 2012. Quite amazing.
The paddleboat only needs half a metre of water under it. The Darling River in this area has a good amount of water in it. It starts near Brewarrina, which is not far from Bourke. The river is lined with Red River Gums, just magnificent shaped trees.
With all the twists and turns in the Darling River, it actually travels 3 times the distance you would travel in a straight line. In the late 1800's, Bourke was the largest inland port in the world for exporting wool, shipping over 40,000 bales down the Darling each year. Hard to imagine now. There were over 2 million sheep then, now there are only about 200,000. The peak price for wool was in 1952 when the farmers got 1 Pound (money) for 1 pound (weight) of wool.
The trip on the Darling was certainly worth doing. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
After lunch we went to the Back o' Bourke Exhibition Centre, which is attached to the Information Centre. There is also a Artesian Bore in the grounds. Through a series of interactive displays, spread over a couple of buildings, you are taken on a journey to learn about the people and history of the area. It was excellent. The ticket entitles you to 2 days entry.
A number of people featured in the display. Henry Lawson was sent out to Bourke by his editor when at The Bulletin, with 5 Pounds and a train ticket, to get him away from the Pubs in the Rocks area of Sydney and also to provide him with some new inspiration. At the time Bourke had 28 pubs! It now only has 1.
C.E.W. Bean, the war historian, was featured as he spent quite a bit of time round Bourke. Breaker Morant was a drover round Bourke, and a friend of Henry Lawson. Sydney Kidman's drovers used to rest their stock between his stations and the markets at the site where we are staying. Fred Hollows was also featured and spent quite a bit of time in Bourke. He loved it and is buried here in Bourke.
From the Centre, we headed to the Cemetery to have a look. I love wandering round old cemeteries. Fred Hollows figures very prominently here.
We headed into the town after this. Bourke apparently has the worst crime rate per capita in Australia. With the way the shops are boarded, that says there is some truth in that. We had a walk around. It is not really a pleasant place to walk around. There are roller doors over the shops and some of them only have an opening up for the door, which is then pulled down when it closes for the night. This is the newsagency.
The winds continued today. It was cooler earlier tonight and we had the heater on in the van by 5 o'clock. It is only supposed to be 1 degrees in the morning. See how it goes.
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