Stirling to Palm Cove Day 5

8th August 2022

This mornings sunrise is a cracker, Amanda reports that bands of orange, red and pink wash into the sky from the horizon pushing back the darkness, banishing the stars, by the time we pack the car the sky again is pristine blue and the air crisp after morning dew. Apart from the wind the weather has treated us well on our journey so far. Perfect temperatures for travelling and the limited sightseeing we have done so far. Once again the skies are clear but there is a distinctive nip in the air. No need to hurry this morning the days drive to Miles is relativity short 461km. We stop at an IGA to pick up a few lunch items and right next door is one of Charleville’s attractions the Historic House Museum built in 1889 at a cost of £2049.

The building originally acted as the town’s first bank, the Queensland National Bank. The building painted red and cream and built inside out on the front facade, that is the frame in the form of cross members is on the outside and the interior walls are clad with timber planks. The building is raised above the ground on timber logs allowing airflow underneath. The structure now houses memorabilia of domestic and commercial significance including phones and switchboards from past years; old gramophones with music from past centuries, kitchenware, old bottles and appliances, hurricane lamps and much much more.

The memorabilia doesn’t stop inside the house in the back yard are sheds with old sulkies a Cobb & Co coach a steam engine and a really unusual oddity an ambulance that ran on railway tracks.

THE CHARLEVILLE RAIL AMBULANCE
Before the outback roads became all weather surfaces, in wet weather motor traffic between the towns of Charleville, Morven, Cunnamulla and Quilpie became impossible. Road Ambulances could not travel, hindering the ability to pickup injured patients and transporting them to Hospital. Ten rail ambulances operated in Queensland to cope with these conditions, each painted ambulance yellow with a canvas hood, and with prominent red crosses, a welcome sight in the far west of the state if you had urgent need of one. They would be operated by a qualified a Railway Department Driver accompanied by an Ambulance officer. After a fatality in Quilpie in the early 1920’s, the local medical doctor in Charleville asked for the purchase of a Rail Motor Ambulance in 1922.
Gardner of Enoggera built the ambulance body on an English Standard chassis manufactured by Coventry Motor Company of England, and delivery of a new Rail Ambulance took place seven years later in Charleville during December 1929. The ambulance had a 10h.p Standard engine, had a length of 15ft. 6 inches and a width of 7ft. 8 inches.The ambulance managed a maximum speed of 20 m.p.h (32 k.p.h.) on a straight road at first, but this for safety reasons had to be reduced to 15mph in 1935, and 6mph on curves. Amazingly it continued service until 1956 and is now restored and on display.

After an hour of poking around this fascinating house of treasures we decide we best move on to our first stop Morven along the Warrego Way heading due west to Miles.

At first the landscape is fairly well forested and dry looking but as we enter sheep and cattle country the taller vegetation thins out and plains that stretch to the horizon takeover, then again as we pass through Tregole National Park the density of more substantial trees and shrubs becomes more prevalent. Morven is a don’t blink or you’ll miss it town. We barely slow down and we are through it. This leg of the journey seems devoid of any wild life, no more goats or Emu’s instead large Prickly Pear plants dot the side of the road. As we pass the Mulga Bup (Pub) we are reminded that we are in Mulga country, Mulga refers to a type of wood common in outback Australia, the indigenous people used the timber as a vital resource. Banjo Patterson a famous Australian Poet used the term Mulga in the bush ballad Mulga Bill’s bicycle a humorous story about an outback man that when faced with increased cost of feed for his horse brought a bicycle (as many did in those days) only to abandon it in a creek after not coping well with the new fangled contraption. Eventually the term “Mulga” came to signify the outback.

The next town along the way is Mitchell founded in 1864 it has a rich history in sheep and cattle farming, the town also has a spa that bubbled up from the Great Artesian Basin, many of the towns in this Western Downs area rely on the water from the Basin for everyday use. The hotel we stayed at in Charleville used this water supply and we can attest that it does have a slight odour but tastes great is soft and is delivered to the tap slightly warm. We stop in Mitchell to take a few photo’s of the Bottle Trees and architecture then move on to Roma the next town along the Warrego Way before stopping for lunch. As the road is a main link to Brisbane we start to see a build up in traffic, a lot more Road Trains, often towing one or two trailers making them very long vehicles indeed.

Roma is the largest of the towns in the area with about 6000 people, acting as the main service centre in the region since 1900 when miners found natural gas here, making it a central point. As with the other towns along the Warrego Way, cattle, sheep and grain growing dominate the industry here.

We stop for one of our in car picnic lunches, either the wind or flies have kept us inside at lunch times so the car has become a “Dining car” We are staying in Roma on our way home and will have a closer look on our return. Looking at the GPS we can’t help but wonder at all the town names in the district. some examples Bargunyah, Muckadilla, Bindebang, Noorindoo, Wallumbilla, Dulacca.

Moving on along the highway our destination for the night is Miles, we pass through Yuleba State Forest and again the landscape becomes heavily forested, we arrive at Miles at 3.30pm. We have used only half a tank of fuel since leaving Charleville but fuel up for the next days travels to Rockhampton. We check in to our hotel to find the restaurant closed, the chef has cut a finger badly the night before and is unable to work. One of our must haves for the trip, not having to search for a restaurant every night is a dismal failure, so far we have eaten at two pubs a bowling club and an RSL, tonight we make our own after a trip across the road to the local IGA, grocery store, to be continued………

PS, we have had some reports that readers can’t see the pictures if you are unable to view them scroll to the comments section at the bottom of the post and click on that, the pictures should appear above the comments section. Cheers Tony