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| Emu, Charleville QLD |
The drive to Charleville was a lot quicker than our last two
drives, and we got there a lot earlier than anticipated. This turned out
perfectly, as we had enough time to set up camp, and even do a big load of
washing, before going to the 3pm Bilby Experience in town. The show involved a
presentation on the plight of the bilby and the work of the Save the Bilby
fund, and other groups around Australia, to protect these cute little creatures
from extinction. After the presentation we entered the nocturnal house, where
they had three bilbies in a dimly red-lit, glass walled enclosure. An adult
female, and twin four month olds spent the whole time racing around, exploring
and sniffing everything.
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| Bilby, Charleville QLD |
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| Bilby, Charleville QLD |
I spent a bit of time photographing some birds in the
caravan park in the afternoon. Immediately upon arrival we had noticed the
large numbers of Apostlebirds moving around the park, and in the afternoon a
group of five grey-crowned babblers joined them. In the evening, Graham and
Deb, the park owners, put on a camp fire and sausage sizzle for everyone (only
$2 a head!), and we spent a couple of hours sitting around the camp fire
chatting with the other travellers.
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Grey-crowned Babbler, Charleville QLD
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In
the morning, we got up early and went for a walk on the caravan park property,
and found a STRIPED HONEYEATER! We ended up seeing one again later in the day,
in the tree right next to our campsite while we were having lunch. After our
morning walk we drove through town to the sewage treatment works, behind the
cemetery. For some reason, “poo farms” attract the birds, and this one was no
exception. Within minutes of arriving I had my second lifer of the day: PALE-HEADED
ROSELLA! There were also a lot of
blue-faced honeyeaters flying around, and a few rainbow lorikeets and
ringnecks. We couldn’t see the water where all of the machinery is on the
corner, but we walked further down the track and two ponds are visible from
outside the fence. There were a lot of pink-eared ducks, as well as pacific
black ducks, grey teals, Eurasian coots, and a single yellow-billed spoonbill.
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| Red-capped Robin, Charleville QLD |
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| Striped Honeyeater, Charleville QLD |
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| Pale-headed Rosella, Charleville QLD |
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| Blue-faced Honeyeater, Charleville QLD |
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| Blue-faced Honeyeater, Charleville QLD |
Next, we headed back into town to check out the Cosmos
centre, probably Charleville’s main tourist attraction. For $10 entry we went
through the day time interactive displays and watched some documentaries about
everything space! It was really interesting and good value for money. For those
interested, they run sessions every night to view the stars through their
telescopes, which is really the main attraction for a lot of people, but we
didn’t do that. Instead, we had another night by the campfire with everyone at
the caravan park. We had a fun night, starting with a few games of Finska
(Finnish game kind of like skittles but different!), followed by wood fired
pizzas cooked by Graham (we all bought our pizzas in town and he cooked them
all for us!). We all had a lovely night sitting around the campfire chatting,
it has been such a nice place to be, we wish we were staying for longer than
two nights! Graham and Deb are the greatest hosts anyone could ask for, and the
grounds and amenties are the best of any caravan park I’ve been to.
After Charleville we headed to Blackall where we stayed for
one night just to break up the trip to Longreach. On the way we stopped at
Tambo and discovered the Tambo Lake and Park, which just happened to have quite
a few birds around! The first one I spotted was an INTERMEDIATE EGRET which was
another lifer for me! We walked as far around the lake as we could (you can’t
walk right around the lake as the water on one side goes beyond a fence onto
private property), and I picked up another lifer, BROWN HONEYEATER. Pink-eared
ducks were the most numerous, joined by pacific black-ducks and grey teals, and
many other water loving species including a darter, white-necked and
white-faced herons, and royal spoonbills. On our way back to the car I heard a
different sound and looked up to see a Noisy Friarbird! It took off before I
could get a photo, but I had seen one earlier this year in Noosa and had some
pics from then. I thought it was a bit out of place there in Tambo, but when I
checked the eBird records there was a record from a couple of years ago, and
the guide shows it is on the edge of their range.
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| Intermediate Egret, Tambo, QLD |
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| Tambo Park Lake, QLD |
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| Brown Honeyeater, Tambo, QLD |
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| Pink-eared Ducks and Hardheads, Tambo, QLD |
Just out of Tambo, we saw our first AUSTRALIAN BUSTARDS! We
only got a peek at the heads of couple, but it was still exciting! We also saw
our first Brolgas of the trip.
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| Australian Bustard (that dark spot in the middle!), near Tambo, QLD |
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| Brolgas, near Tambo, QLD |
We arrived in Blackall and set up our camper trailer in the
heat, and were just relaxing with a cold drink when I spotted some birds. The
Blackall Caravan Park has quite a nice garden, and the birds seem to like the
trees around the edge of the property – at least the side we were on! The birds
that had caught my attention turned out to be red-winged parrots! The same
species I had a glimpse of in Bowra a few days earlier! Here was a group of
four – an adult male and female, and two which looked like younger birds. A bit
later in the same spot, a Spotted Bowerbird appeared.
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| Red-winged Parrot, Blackall, QLD |
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| Red-winged Parrot, Blackall, QLD |
We went for a drive around town and saw the famous Blackall Black Stump, used in the early surveying days, and central to the saying "Beyond the Black Stump" for something that is far away. We had a delicious, and very filling, meal in the Barcoo Hotel that night, and prepared for the next leg of our trip, on to Longreach – the main destination of our trip!
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| The Blackall Black Stump |
On the way to Longreach, we stopped at Barcaldine, where we saw the Tree of Knowledge, famous for being the founding site of
the Australian Labor Party. The original tree was poisoned and died in 2006,
but the remains were preserved and are protected beneath a fancy timber
structure made from nearly 5,000 individual pieces of wood.
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| The Tree of Knowledge, Barcaldine, QLD |
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| Barcaldine, QLD |
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