THE GOLDEN OUTBACK

WANDERING AUS THE SHANLEY FAMILY

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FOR our new Bruder's maiden voyage, we decided to take a week of the school holidays and explore some of Queensland's golden outback. We were blessed with good weather over the week, but we travelled just after a decent amount of unseasonal rainfall and everywhere we camped was boggy, muddy and ripped up from previous travellers. It was a fairly action-packed week, covering 3000km in eight days, but we had the best time discovering all that Western Queensland has to offer.

DAY 1: ROMA TO BLACKALL

WE hit the road fairly early and left a very chilly Roma heading west along the Warrego Highway through Amby, Mitchell, Morven and Mungallala. We had a quick smoko stop at Augathella and checked out the murals through the town and the artwork on the water tower. Our next stop was Tambo, home of Tambo Teddies and Fannie Mae's Café. We rounded out the day in Blackall at the showgrounds as the riverside camping was a very busy mud pit, and took the afternoon to wander down the main street. Blackall hosts the Jack Howe statue - one of our most famous shearers - some great artistic Blackall signs and the Big Ram at Ram Park. Another great little western town.

DAY 2: BLACKALL TO LONGREACH

HEADING northwest, our first stop was Barcaldine, just an hour up the road which is a T-junction for the western highways. Barcy is home to the Tree of Knowledge and there is a great display explaining the famous tree, the historical Shearers' Strike and formation of the Australian Labor Party. Being a Sunday and a very small town, there wasn't much happening at Barcaldine, but there was plenty going on at the Wellshot Hotel at Ilfracombe.

Just 27km out of Longreach, this town is really just the pub and a few houses, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in personality, and we were warmly greeted with hot coffee and cold beer.