22 Mar 2013

After the end of the Desert Marathon and the commiserations at the Birdsville Hotel it dawned on me that we were still two thousand kilometers from home and that a large slab of that would be on dirt road.

With a driver that perceives every dirt road as an off-road race challenge, every sand dune an opportunity to see exactly how much further than the time before it is possible to proceed with all four wheels clear of the ground and every corner a chance to see if two and a half tonnes of four-wheel drive will stay upright while driven sideways, I was perhaps a little concerned. As your get older the years become more precious. The next plane from Birdsville being four days away I climbed up and into the aging and heavily modified Toyota Landcruiser that in an earlier incarnation ferried the kids to sporting ventures.

To be fair, to date, we have survived quite well the only serious damage being a couple of broken body mounts that hold the body to the chassis of the car. These I am told are of little consequence as they were broken well before we left, apparently damaged when the car “slipped” of the driveway and came to rest on its side . Twitching a few loose wires together and remounting the battery carrier with cable ties before the battery falls into the radiator fan blade and becomes the worlds first lead-acid milkshake are regarded as general ongoing maintenance in four-wheel drive circles. The problem with the back door not shutting was quickly if not quietly remedied with a few well place smacks with a nine pound lump hammer. A similar technique was used on the high beam headlight relay a screwdriver being substituted for the lump hammer.

The final photo shot at the Big Red sand dune completed we rattled off to Innaminka enjoying the balmy forty-five degree weather we have grown to love in the last two weeks. Innaminka is a fantastic spot on Coopers Creek. A haven for all types of fauna including the four-wheel drive mounted type who universally agreed that the air-conditioned pub with ice-cold beer was its greatest attraction.

23 Mar 2013

The rabbit no doubt ran as fast as it could but unfortunately didn’t miss the train or should I say the train didn’t miss it. Forty five tonnes or road train can make quite a mess of a two kilogram bunny. The one point eight metre wingspan eagle didn’t seem to mind, the rabbit was after all fresh and pre minced.

Next Stops Cameron Corner and Tibooburra.

 

 

24 Mar 2013 A Travelers Guide To Tibooburra

The Ayrton Senna of the desert slept in this morning so I had a chance to do some sight-seeing around the outback metropolis of Tibooburra. After an hour I had a pretty good idea what goes on in town.

Two Local Characters

The first local I met was Little. Little used to live at the hotel but became restless and took up an offer to move down the road a few doors. When I first saw Little she was just waking from a good nights sleep the middle of the main street, which is not as hazardous as you might think as not a lot of traffic runs through town and little as her name suggests is quite small. Little has a son who, for reasons that never became clear during the coffee and muffin we shared for breakfast was named Flowie.

 

Architecture and Landscape

The Centenary Celebration Shed was specially painted to celebrate the centenary of the founding of Tibooburra in September of eighteen hundred and eighty one. The two Ford Lasers were built about a hundred years after.

 

The Unusual Rock Display showcases unusual rocks the have been selected by hand and placed artistically around the garden of one of the several caravan parks in town.

 

The Responsive Flexible Solutions building houses the Roads and Traffic Authority’s answer to fixing country roads. As the name suggests they respond to complains about the roads by coming up with flexible solutions. I suspect that RFS is the bureaucratic equivalent of make it up as you go along.

 

The Tibooburra Community Village Inc. building was closed so I’m not to sure what their mandate is but I suspect it involves trees, in particular petrified trees. They do  have a seven metre ( 21 ft.) long lump of petrified tree in a glass display case out the front after all. It was a bit hard to see as the glass was very dusty, however I am confident that petrified tree enthusiasts will get a kick out of it.

 

The Tibooburra Corner Drive In Theatre is quite possibly the worlds only corner drive in theatre and has the added distinction of being built on the site of not only Tibooburra’s first public school but is second as well.

 

The Pastures Protection Office houses those who protect the pastures around these parts. We have one down were we live and each year they sent us a bill for protecting our pastures and checking on the livestock holdings on our property. We by the way have no pastures or livestock on our forty acre property that is zoned “scenic environmental” as properties of the “scenic environmental” variety can not be used for such purposes. As you can imagine I fully support their existence especially when they do so much to stop the wholesale mining our country. That was sarcasm by the way.

 

The Albert Hall. Not the Royal Albert Hall but the Tibooburra Albert Hall is conveniently located next to the Country Women’s Association Hall. Many a lamington has been washed down with a cup of Lipton’s after the annual eisteddfod here on a balmy summers eve I’ll wager. These days the only songbirds seem to be the ones nesting in the roof space. They ensured the undivided attention of Little and Flowie at least.

 

 

The Centre for Central Australian Souvenirs boasts a large collecting of memorabilia and tourists are invited to come in and “take a trip down memory lane”. I noted the Mobil service station sign hidden in the front garden and was immediately transported back in time, for it was as long ago as the day before yesterday that I had spotted a very similar sign at Birdsville (that one was still attached to the building however). Again, unfortunately the Centre for Central Australian Souvenirs was closed so I was unable to trip any further down memory lane.

 

I have no idea who or what the Milparinka/Tibooburra Isolated Childrens Parents Association is but I threw a couple of coins down the well because Little was looking at me and I didn’t want her to think I didn’t care.

 

The Tibooburra Court House is now a museum. There is no crime in Tibooburra so they converted the court house into a museum so they could “take a trip down memory lane”. Amalgamating the Centre For Central Australian Souvenirs and The Court House Museum to facilitate the collection of all the memories in one convenient location could be a proposal for next Tibooburra Community Village Inc. meeting to consider. It will no doubt be held at the Albert Hall and fully catered by the CWA.

 

The Village Store in the centre of the main street has the cheapest fuel in town and plays real country music. The Johnny Horton, Frankie Laine type, about mule skinners and such, originally recorded and faithfully played back on the Edison phonograph. For seven bucks you can have a mug of coffee and a muffin. I misinterpreted the muffin menu thinking it was a choice of banana or choc chip. It turned out to be a banana/choc chip combination muffin. I am not a big fan of chocolate chips in my muffins so I endeavored to eat around them, no easy task when the muffins been through the microwave.

A chalkboard sign boasted…. “we have the best muffins in town”…. call me strange, and I know you do, but if I had the best muffins in town I think I like to have it printed on a tee shirt. Maybe they are expecting a muffin challenge and don’t want to be left with a wardrobe full of boastful tee shirts. How about a best muffins in town 2013 tee shirt, then in say ten years time they could wear it to The Centre for Central Australian Souvenirs and “take a trip down memory lane”.

 

Tibooburra is a great little town full of friendly people and cats and I recommend it to you unreservedly. If you happen to be nearby pop in for a muffin, cheap fuel, a trip down memory lane and say hello to Little and Flowie for me.