Channel Country and towards the Diamantina NP

Leaving Birdsville the next day (18 August) we set course together northwards along the Eyre Developmental Hwy, or more delightfully named “Bilby Way”, towards Bedourie and the Diamantina National Park. Just out of Birdsville and before you reach Sir Sidney Kidman’s first property, “Carcory” a ruin, a new tree appears. First a couple, then in sparse copses and occasional lone sentinels. It is the Waddi tree (Acacia peuce), thought to be a remnant of the time before the last glacial era that shaped much of this part of Australia. As with so many things on these journeys, they are slowly dying out. It is an extraordinary wood that was traded by the Aborigines across the whole continent and was used by them for spear tips and other hard duties. Apparently it is the only wood that blunts a sharp axe, breaks the tooth of a saw, and a drill bit cannot penetrate. I don’t know how the indigenes made spear heads but I guess they must have used flints chipped from local marlstone!

Carcory is interesting in that whilst Kidman was the greatest of the cattle barons, and his company is still the largest land holder in Australia, his first venture turned sour and he lost 4000 head of cattle. He was a quick learner and didn’t look back after that. How he got finance I don’t know.

We persuaded Max& Linda to come with us into the Diamantina NP and left Bedourie about 2:30pm to tackle the 200kms of good gravel from Bedourie into the park. We knew we wouldn’t get as far as the park before sunset. The road rose gradually across iron black gibber plains and short bleached hay Mitchell grass, uninterrupted horizons spread in all directions. The spatial senses were on high alert and this was a new experience altogether. Curvature of the Earth. A pair of Brolgas over on the left. Then a trio of Emus strode in stately fashion and took off helter skelter. So began the best night we have spent travelling. With the sun twenty minutes from setting we pulled off the track onto a grassy flat area beside a shallow stunty tree edged dry creek and set up camp, our new chums nervous about the isolation (and Helen was prevented from calling up dingoes), but happy to be in company. We settled down with a G&T, bag of chilli chips and a couple of beers, cooked up a good meal, and laughed away under stars and stars and stars. There were so many stars none of us could find the familiar constellations, and we had to be satisfied with the Cross. The Bowmore failed to help in this quest but made our incompetence in matters astronomical something we all thought we could live with! We played Pepe Romero, and gypsy flamenco from the film Vengo at high volume, and knew nothing could be more fun than this – it was like being teenagers again!