Well today was a very good day, we travelled from Longreach via IIfracombe, Barcaldine and Blackall to Tambo and every town on the way had something unique and very Aussie about it. Also they were very clean and tidy towns, the locals are obviously proud of their little pieces of Oz!

IIfracombe had the “Machinery Mile”, basically the whole Main Street had old farm machinery on display. From trucks, tractors, ploughs to all sorts of farm equipment dating back over a 100 years.

Then it was onto Barcaldine which has the “Tree of Knowledge”. This is the birthplace of the Australian Labour Party in 1891, after the huge shearer’s strike that was centred around Barcaldine. The 13 leaders of the strike were charged and tried and received 3 years hard labour in Prison. Amazingly most of them ended up in public service, either in parliament or government authorities in a number of states around Australia. Here and Eureka in Ballarat in the 1860’s were the 2 big issues that shaped Australia. A shearer’s strike and gold miners not paying tax, seems worthwhile to challenge the authorities at the time!

Our next stop was Blackall, a small town that also has historical significance. We’ve all heard about the “Black Stump” and the saying “Beyond the Black Stump”, well its here in Blackall were it originated. The original Black Stump was used for determining longitude and latitude of towns west of Blackall and the saying beyond the Black Stump inferred there was basically no civilisation west of Blackall! Which in all honesty is not far wrong, there’s bugger all but its been in the Aussie vernacular for over 100 years.

Finally we arrived in Tambo for our 1 night stay and what a great little town it is, Very clean and also very green, they must have a good supply of bore water here. Some of the old buildings are great and the pub was very enjoyable. We had a great time at the Pub’s Chicken Races, unfortunately our chooks performed badly, basically they finished with egg all over their faces and should have been scratched from the event. The chooks were auctioned off as a fundraiser for the RFDS and it was fun for all. We teamed up with Darren, Debbie, Tony and Gloria from the Van park, who were also in Longreach with us as well. Tony came out the winner and donated his winnings back to the RFDS. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening of drinks, food and good companionship, a true “Grey Nomad” day!