Smelly, but good to chew on. This is my passport photo. It was four years ago now and I was happily playing in the yard at a Goondiwindi station with my brother and sister puppies (all red cattle dogs) when a ute pulled up at the homestead. The bloke from the ute chattered with the lady who owned the station then suddenly she grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and handed me to him, the bloke gave me a few pats then we jumped into his vehicle and off we went. This was the start of my new life with a fellow named Steve, a friendly sort of bloke who gave me plenty of food which I didn't...
Many of the town and district events I visit in the far outback are pretty much in house affairs whereas at Winton, a small western Queensland town is quite the opposite, it specializes in entertaining thousands of travelers most of whom come from the coast or nearby inside country. Winton is best known for three major events in history, firstly being the birth place of Quantas, secondly the place where our unofficial national anthem Waltzing Matilda was first recited and written of course by none other than "The Banjo" (A.B Patterson) whilst visiting Dagworth Station, and thirdly the Dinosaur stampede. This was discovered by a local station manager who first noticed strange marks in the soil which were later excavated and proved to...
Armed with a Mrs Mac pepper steak pie and a carton of iced coffee Sass and I left the Heartbreak Hotel and headed south down across the vast open plains to camp the night at the Barkly Homestead. The previous extended wet season left this country in good shape with plenty of feed so the stock were in forward to fat condition. Even the odd few water holes that exist along the track remained full enough to hold a variety of birdlife that would normally moved on well before this. Eventually we arrived at the Barkly Homestead and I pulled in beside another gooseneck horse trailer where the bigger riggs camp.The bloke who owned the rig was keen for...
Ringers from the top end . On the map Borroloola appears to be somewhat isolated sitting way up in the Gulf but it's only a 7 hour drive to Katherine or about 10 hours to Mount Isa. Most of the every day items required to stay alive can be purchased locally, the quality and choice may be laking especially in fruit and veg but you soon get used to that. The hard part is getting used to the prices they charge, especially for beer and the winter temperature sitting on 35 degrees tends to make one consume more beer than ever. Just north of Borroloola towards Bing Bong there is a turn of to the popular fishing retreat called the...
Steve The Northern Territory, our last frontier with deserts to tropical wetlands offers endless pleasures to those who visit here. Having moved on from the Daly my next venue was Harts Range race weekend 1365 k's south. Just short of Alice Springs I turned left down the Plenty Highway and an hour and a half later turned right down a sandy track to where the racecourse is nestled in beside the rugged foothills of Harts Range. An old mate, Jock McPherson calls the race . The annual event held here is run by the surrounding stations and the last place you can witness unique bush sporting events run as they have been since its inception in 1936 and not a re-enactment by some try-hard...
