Nindigully to Cunnamulla

Sunday 8th September
Looks like it is going to be another great day in Goondiwindi. We got away about 9am and headed to Nindigully. We knew it was going to be quite busy as there was a camp draft on there over the weekend.
On the way we stopped to go to the loo and I got dive bombed by a magpie. This hasn't happened to me for years.
When we got to Nindigully it was packed. It is a bush pub with camping opposite along the river and a big showground beside it. Firstly there was no camp spaces left along the river, then there was red dust everywhere and huge horse floats as big as semi trailers and caravans everywhere. Then there were hundreds of horses, cowboys, cowgirls and cowkids. So we found a spot up the back and started to set up. When Ray opened the caravan door he was met by a puddle of a yellow substance. Now this was a puzzle as we had emptied the on board toilet before we left Goondiwindi. We finally worked out what it was!!! A bottle of undiluted orange cordial had split and it was this which had run down the back of the cupboard and out onto the floor. We quickly got some water, emptied everything out of 2 cupboards, washed it all and then washed the floor. What could we do as the floor dried? That's right. The pub is next door. Lets go to the pub for lunch. So that is what we did, we had lunch and a few drinks while we waited for the floor to dry.
What a great pub. The oldest licensed hotel in Queensland. It used to be a Cobb and Co stop. Lots of memorabilia around the walls and they have free showers and toilets for the campers, which is also free.

One wall of the Nindigully Pub

Quilt bought to raise money for the McGrath Foundation hanging in dining room of the pub

Wall of hats at Nindigully Pub

View from the verandah of the pub

We decided to stay one night. We wandered over to have a look at the camp drafting and talked to the cowboys camped next door who ended up coming equal second overall.

The next morning we headed to St George and stayed at the caravan park in town for 3 nights. St George is known as the "Inland Queensland Fishing Capital' and it lies on the Balonne River.

Windmill at caravan park

We  went for a drive out of town to the Kapunda Fishing Camp and got a pleasant surprise. it is a lovely bush camp on the banks of the river and we decided to go there for a couple of days after we left the town park. We also went for a drive out to Beardmore Dam which is the main water supply for St George

Beardmore Dam above the wall

Beardmore Dam below the wall

Thursday 12th September
We left St George early and were out at Kapunda by 9.30am and set up by 10am. A great spot right on the banks of the Balonne River.

Balonne River at Kapunda

Our camp at Kapunda Fishing Park

 We could get some shade and there was a slight breeze blowing across the river. Ray made a cook fire and we cooked tea in the pan on the open fire. Everything tastes so much better that way.

Ray and his cook fire

 We had a few showers that night, nothing heavy. We went back into town for a Chinese lunch and when we came back to camp we just relaxed by the river. A bit of a thunderstorm came through in the afternoon and there were a few slight showers during the night.

Pelican on the river

Sunrise over the Balonne River

Looking out on the Balonne River from the van

Saturday 14th September
We got away from Kapunda about 8am and headed to Cunnamulla. We stopped at Ballon for an ice cream and the wattle birds were going crazy in the trees beside us.

On the road there were hundreds of dead kangaroos which had been hit by vehicles. Consequently heaps of birds feeding on the road kill.
We had to slow down at one point to let a flock of emus cross the road.

Emus crossing the road

We saw herds of goats, drovers with cattle grazing in the Long Paddock and flocks of sheep.
We got to Cunnamulla about midday and selected a good spot beside a reserve with a huge sandhill in it.
Cunnamulla is very quiet. Everything shuts down at midday Saturday and doesn't open again until Monday, except the hairdressers which don't open until Tuesday. I need a haircut badly so we are staying until Tuesday. Ray offered to cut it but I don't want a haircut like his.
Sunday has been a very hot day, about 33 degrees and hardly any wind so we put the air con on in the afternoon and just read and talked.
We have an on board toilet which we use when we are free camping. When we got to Cunnamulla it needed to be emptied and there is a public dump point in town. There were some funny symbols on the signs

Winnie the pooh directing us to the Poo Pit

The Poo Pit Ha Ha

It is now Monday and it has rained on and off all night and the temperature has dropped to 20 degrees. Certainly a lot cooler and more comfortable.
We went into town to take some photos. There was a beautiful tree called a bauhinia. We seen them in St George also. Lovely scent.

Bauhinia Tree

In the 1950's and 60's Cunnamulla was booming. Young guys just out of school would be working 7 days a week, mustering chasing scrubbers and breaking in horses. At the end of a hard day they would sit around the campfire on their saddles or swags and yarn together. Around this time Stan Coster wrote a song The Cunnamulla Fella, later sung by Slim Dusty and more recently by Lee Kernaghan. As a tribute to these fellows and also to Slim Dusty the council ran a competition for people to sketch their vision of the Cunnamulla Fella. A sketch was accepted from Mike Nicholas and was sculpted by Archie St Clair and unveiled in Cunnamulla in late 2003.


The Cunnamulla Fella
"Well I'm a scrubber runner and breaker too,
I live on damper and wallaby stew,
I've got a big cattle dog with a staghounds cross,
I never saw the scrubber he couldn't toss'
Cause I'm the fella from Cunnamulla
Yes I'm the Cunnamulla Fella"
 

Next stop will be Thargomindah tomorrow, about 170km to the west.