The Wandering

Dry stone sculpture in the parklands near the Stadium.

Aerial view of the sculpture from the Windan Bridge.

Bacon and egg plants in flower near the water.

I spotted a white heron foraging at the water's edge. He was then joined by a grey one. I must say the stadium parklands are looking lovely, but I still think the whole project was an extravagance that the State could not afford. The resulting economies will go on for years.

Reflections

We've been home for a week, so here are a few thoughts on our outback holiday.
The flies were a pest, especially the tiny black ones that only bit me for some reason. They have only just stopped itching especially during the night!

I had to bribe E to lend me her fly net for $5 as I'd forgotten mine

The first thing E did on arrival was use up all the free wi fi allocation by downloading stuff from Netflix. After that I had to spend $12 on more, but I kept the password to myself!  E and C loved the station dogs ( 4 of them ) and played with them a lot. Sometimes they came to visit our bungalow and sometimes E went over to the homestead to play, throwing sticks or balls for them for hours!


There were some walktrails to follow, with flowering shrubs near the creeks, but no swathes of wildflowers which you often see up North.

Stump of a giant tamarisk tree, which the previous owners had pulled out of their garden because it was making the surrounding soil go salt

C and E setting out for a stargazing expedition on our last night

More on Wooleen

Exploring on rented bikes

Wooleen has a large lake on the property which only fills with water from creeks every 9 years. We didn't see it this year. However, there is a smaller lake, Yewlands Pool, which was full and gave us an idea of what the large one would look like.

C and E discovered Yewlands on an early morning bike ride, some 12 kms round trip. (They came back rather saddle sore!). They decided to collect the oldies in the car and go back there for a picnic lunch. We were thrilled to see 4 emus on the other side of the lake, as well as lots of waterbirds. C identified a big flock of black winged stilts and some white necked herons.

I tried to photograph the emus on the other side

Lunch spot

Sheltering from the wind behind a large water tank: flies still in evidence!

A beautiful white gum near the lake's edge

C birdwatching

Stilts flying over

Stilts again

Dingo footprints

Contrary to the current opinion (from other station owners as well as the Ag Dept), Frances and David do not bait or shoot dingoes. They believe that dingoes prey on other feral pests which would compete with cattle for the sparse grass. Wooleen is experimenting with a small herd of cattle (120) which are confined to a particular area and then will be rotated as new grass permits. We didn't see David, except in the distance, as he was busy with fencing contractors putting up additional fences for this experiment. This meant that he was not running sunset tours for visitors, so we missed hearing all this from the horses mouth.

Wool?

Wooleen's woolshed, built in 1922, used to be listed by the National Trust. It is described in a guidebook published in 2005, but unfortunately it was completely destroyed (as in blown away) in a storm a couple of years later. It was a steam driven system. A steam engine was used to power all the shears and this made it possible to get through 1,200 sheep in a day. There are no sheep on the station today.




Steam engine, made in Lincoln.

Around Wooleen

Wooleen has been here for a hundred years and never thrown things away. There is nowhere to throw it! There are sheds full of abandoned vehicles and machinery, as well as old kitchen equipment gone rusty. Some of this has ended up in the "Bowerbird Museum", so-called because that is what bowerbirds do.

The museum is housed in the original kitchen of the homestead:

Medical Shelf!

Page from the homestead diary, describing the comings and goings.

This is very arid country. The landscape is dotted with windmills.

Remains of a carriage.

Frances's veggie patch.

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Murchison Settlement

We went for a drive off the property to Murchison where there is a road house, shore office and small museum. We drove for about 35 kms through a landscape of not very much:


At the road house we had a coffee and watched the TV news about the Thai Cave rescue and then looked at the small museum of life in the stations in the old days:



Ladies sidesaddle made for Wooleen.

Toilet malfunction

In the middle of the night the toilet stopped working. When C lifted up the lid of the cistern, this is what she discovered:

There's a frog in my toilet......
JL fished out 5 and threw them outside into the red soil. They won't like it, miles from any water. There are 2 or 3 still in there which he couldn't catch!
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Not many wildflowers out yet, but a few flowering shrubs:




C met an emu with 2 chicks whilst out on her early morning run. She got hissed at!

Life in the Outback

C filling the kettle from the rainwater tank; (taps inside only have bore water, not nice for a cup of tea).

Table mats with design of wild flowers

JL relaxing on the terrace

Display of old farm implements

Guinea fowl going past

Fly net worn over JL's cap

View from our front door

Dinner was smoked trout quiche, baked potatoes, salad and Aldi's champagne.