That's not a zoo - THIS is a zoo!

We've been to Dubbo a few times, without ever quite making it to the main attraction there: the Western plains Zoo. That's partly because it takes a full day at least to see it properly, and that hadn't quite been convenient for us.

Well this time, we made a point of getting there. We chose the bicycle hire option forgetting around, and I think it's by far the best way, even though our day there was the one day on our trip when it rained. It's about 6 kilometres around the main circuit, and you do a few more with side trips and things. Just right for a pretty leisurely day's cycling.

If there have to be zoos (and maybe there does have to be, given the increasing emphasis on and importance of, the conservation of endangered species role), then Dubbo is very much how zoos ought to be. Most of its enclosures are an order of magnitude bigger and better than those of most zoos.

The pubs of Bourke

The Shakespeare Hotel, boarded up like a lot of Bourke's buildings. It still has a bottle shop at least. In its heyday it was where the Amalgamated Shearers' Union met. When this union branch was formed in 1887, it was the second one in the country (after the one in Queensland). In the 1890's this union, and the shearers' strikes, led to the formation of the Australian Labor Party, the first Labour Party in the world.

This one's rather picturesque. It's the Post Office Hotel.







The Carriers Arms Hotel was often frequented by poet, writer, and journalist Henry Lawson, during his stint in Bourke in 1891/92. He frequented a lot of pubs, all over Australia, lets face it, and drank an awful lot. But he also wrote a lot of fine stuff. Here's his poem about Bourke:
http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/lawson-henry/bourke-0108028

Lawson wrote frequently for the Western Herald newspaper while he was in Bourke. It's been in continuous operation since the 1880s. Here it is, finalising production for the week's edition.







 And here's the Riverside Motel, formerly the Telegraph Hotel, dating back to 1876. It's on the banks of the Darling River, and it's where we stayed. A very comfortable and pleasant boutique accommodation place.

Back O'Bourke and the Outback Show

I've heard it said that 'The Outback' starts a few kilometres west of wherever you happen to be in New South Wales. When you're in Bourke though, you can state quite authoritatively that you're officially on the edge of the outback. After all, everywhere west of there (and north probably) is 'back of Bourke'.

To make it even more official, there's a Back O'Bourke Exhibition Centre, which has lots of worthy and informative exhibits. It's also the location of a terrific little 'Outback Show' every day, which really shouldn't be missed.

Horseman and animal-wrangler Luke Thomas runs the performance, with Karen Hindley (introduced as his 'mail order bride', Tatiana). And they do a very fine job of entertaining the tourists with their talking camel, their bullocks, sheepdogs  and horses. Plus some rather magnificent and silly Aussie outback humour. Wonderful stuff!

Oh my Darling!

The Darling River starts officially a few kilometres east of Bourke, where the Barwon and Culgoa Rivers converge.

By now we're about 800km north west of Sydney, and ready for a couple of days of easy sightseeing.

One of the things to do while you're visiting the town of Bourke is the paddle boat cruise up and down the river. Here's where we were about to go under the rather scenic old North Bourke Bridge. It's a pleasant one-hour trip. You see pelicans, kites, and other birds, and the river's banks are lined with Coolabah trees, plus Black Box and Red Gums.

It was the river that made Bourke, of course. In the 19th century there were paddle steamers steaming around all over the Murray-Darling basin, and Bourke became an important transport hub. Cobb & Co had their coaches running here too, and when you got off your steamer or your coach, you could employ a team of camels and their Afghan cameleers to take you further.


Here's the old bridge just before sunset.

Outback wildlife

All the usual suspects were on parade for us during our edge-of-the-outback trip the other week.

The coat of arms was well represented, as ever. So kangaroos popped up all over the place.  Unfortunately they were often horizontal on the road, being eaten by birds of prey. Emus sensibly lurked a little further from the road, and were mainly to be photographed using the telescopic end of the lens settings.

 

There were pelicans on the banks of the mighty Darling River. There were herds of grazing cattle and sheep who were, like the kangaroos, quite oblivious to road rules or personal safety.

And then there were apostlebirds. They're quite common west of the Dividing Range. They're not at all shy, and they tend to get around in groups of 12 or so. Hence the name!

The wedge-tailed eagle takes the crown for me  for its sheer magisterial presence. This one had been feeding on a dead kangaroo on the road, and was annoyed by the presence of our car. He decamped to the paddock nearby to await our departure, flapped his enormous wings a few times and did a few circuits. But he wasn't going to yield possession of his tasty find.

Hebel help us - welcome to Queensland!

Queensland was a slightly unexpected discovery on our recent outing. Meaning that we decided on the spur of the moment to cross the border, as an afternoon drive out of Lightning Ridge.

And there was Hebel, a tiny, and rather picturesque, little settlement, with a handful of houses, a general store, and a pub.




The Hebel Hotel is about as characterful as they get. I particularly liked the John Murray paintings adorning the place. John is a Lightning Ridge artist, who produces colourful masterpieces, often involving local fauna or humorous outback symbols. See his work at http://www.johnmurrayart.com.au/

Struck by Lightning (Ridge) - Part 3

The best way to get around and get a quick view of what Lightning Ridge has to offer is to do the various 'Car Door' tours. There's a yellow one, a red one, a blue one, and a green one. They take up from 20 minutes to an hour or so to drive around, plus however long you spend at the various spots.


For a $1 donation at the Tourist Information Centre, you get a map and notes, and you drive yourself around. The car doors mark the places of interest that the notes describe. Like the walk-in mine, the beer can house, the astronomy folly, various other eccentric housing etc...

 I rather liked Lightning Ridge.

Struck by Lightning (Ridge) - Part 2

Lightning Ridge is all about opal mining of course, so when you're there you make a point of going into an opal mine or two, and you check out a few of the opal shops.

We learned a few things about the precious gemstone. Like that in many parts of the world they not only don't think it's  precious, but they even think it  brings bad luck. I'd not  known this, and I've been wondering since about whether all those bits of opal jewellery I've given to European relatives in the past were entirely appropriate. We learned that the bad luck story was put around by De Beers, the diamond people, in the early 20th century, to ward off the opal threat to their prosperity.

Here's a picture of a nice stone, courtesy Opalauctions.com.

We  learned also about the difference between doublets, triplets, and solid opal. The latter is the most valuable, and Lightning Ridge's black opal is said to be the best and most valuable in the world. Opal was formed through rather mysterious processes involving acidic weathering of sandstone, the drying out of the interior of Australia, and, I think they said, trace elements getting in there somehow and producing the amazing colours. Dinosaur bones sometimes got turned into fossilised opal too, and this is an exciting new field of study these days. Here's Australian Geographic's take on opal formation:  http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2013/05/uncovered-the-truth-about-opal-formation/

 In the Lightning Ridge area the opal is found within a thin layer of kaolin clay between sandstone layers. In the underground mine pictured above, you can see the lighter clay layer, where the miners have dug deeper into the sides.

There are some big open cut opal mines around, but there are also thousands of small underground efforts, where countless individuals have, and still do, beaver away in the hope of striking it big. Some undoubtedly have made fortunes. Some are said to have made a reasonable living, but the majority have probably made little. The lifestyle suits them all anyway.

Just watch where you step. The lunar landscape is covered in holes (not always well covered), and mullock heaps. And all kinds of makeshift engineering equipment, abandoned cars and trucks, and the like.

Struck by Lightning (Ridge) - Part 1

 

 Lightning Ridge is an eccentric and generally friendly little place (with some notable exceptions!) It's certainly worth a few days of explorations, fossicking not necessarily for  precious black opals, but for the funny, quirky little sights and experiences that are to be had here.

 

Or maybe wallowing in the warm and free Artesian Bore Baths, like so many of the other grey nomads who pass through 'The Ridge'.

An amble through Coonamble and a Nickname Hall of Fame

Another pleasant little town. Coonamble has about 5000 inhabitants and many of them seem to be colourful characters, known mainly by their nicknames. They're pictured, larger than life, on various walls around the place. This is the Coonamble Nickname Hall of Fame.

We took a few minutes to stretch our legs here, to acquaint ourselves with these local identities, and to admire the fine looking pubs.


Like most of north western NSW, Coonamble has been suffering from drought for about four years, though there was a bit of rain a couple of weeks ago. It's traditionally known for sheep grazing, but more recently beef cattle have become important, plus crops such as wheat, barley, and canola.