Escape

This was written in March 2009, but for some reason I didn't put it up. I thought I should finish the story ....


Neale the policeman finally opens the Birdsville Track for traffic.

At the beginning of March we were starting to develop cabin fever, after having been unable to get out of town because of the flooding for the last five weeks. As soon as the water went down enough for us to leave we drove down to Adelaide for a week just for a change of scenery. We knew there was a fourth flood coming, and hoped it would be up and down again quickly enough that we could get back in, but just in case, arranged for the flood boat to pick us up if necessary, and leave the truck on the other side. And necessary it was — it took nine days for the water to drop enough for us to go and get it back.

We finally got to drive all the way down the Birdsville Track. We stopped overnight at Mungerannie Hotel, a little pub next to a spring, with the Mungerannie Station homestead nearby. Pam the owner was lovely and looked after us very well, I think we were the first people she'd seen in days, it still being non-tourist season at that stage. The road itself was very good, but it was so hot we thought our air-conditioning had broken down until we opened the windows to find out. We realised how bad it would be to break down out here in these conditions, with little chance of someone happening by to help out. It reinforces the need to let people know where you're going, and letting them know when you get there.

There are a lot of ruins along the way, the most interesting being at Farina. There were several buildings, the town was finally deserted in the 1980s after the railway was closed, but once had a population of 300. I can't imagine how people used to live out here.


The ruins of the Mulka Homestead.


The ghost town of Farina. The Post Office finally closed in 1980.


The Lake Eyre Yacht Club. Not such a joke now, with all the water in Lake Eyre at the moment.

At last the scenery started changing, there were hills and trees, and the towns were closer together. After an excellent lunch at the pub at Parachilna, we detoured through the Flinders Ranges which was so foggy and rainy it was difficult to see anything. At the Clare Valley, I had to buy a jumper because when we left Birdsville it was so hot I didn't think to pack warm clothes. We stayed in a fabulous house overlooking the valley and enjoyed a bottle of wine in the spa bath, looking out at the blustery rain, thinking what a novelty it was to be cold again.


The scenery finally starts to change, although it is still a bit surreal. The (sealed!) road winds around naked hills south of Marree.


The Flinders Ranges was so overcast we didn't see much on our detour through after Parchilna.


This is the view of the Flinders on the way back north, the one most people see.


The view from the spa in the Clare Valley.

I'd earlier been looking on the internet job sites to see what sort of work might be available when we left Birdsville, and had spotted an ideal position in Broke, in the Hunter Valley, a couple of hours north of Sydney. We'd decided we loved Birdsville so much we would stay until after the next races in September, but the job was too good an opportunity to miss. After a couple of phone conversations, I agreed to do an overnight trip to Sydney for an interview once we arrived in Adelaide, which was successful. This threw a major spanner into our plans, I was due to start at the end of May. We were absolutely torn, our heads said what a great opportunity this was, our hearts said oh no, this means we'll have to leave soon! I was very excited at the new job, but it was going to be hard leaving Birdsville ...

By the time we drove back up the track to Birdsville, it all seemed a long way away — we still had three months to go, we would make the most of it. We radioed the flood boat guys and stashed the car at the race track. There was a welcome party in the boat when it arrived, it was a real homecoming. We stowed our belongings in the boat and headed back to town.

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I'll put some more up shortly from what I can remeber, but it seems so long ago now. I'm dying to get back out to Birdsville, but circumstances so far have prevented it. Evan managed to get out there for the last Races, and for the Bronco Branding -- the National Titles were held there in May. And to the Drovers Festival in Camoweel -- his latest book, called The Drovers -- Stories behind the heroes of our stock routes was released recently and is a very good read -- not that I'm biased!

And yet more flooding ....

Desert? What Desert? Just out of town on the Big Red road, looking west.

The third flood was a doozy. It came up much higher than the previous two, lapping at the grid that marks the edge of town and reaching 7.2 metres — the flood level sign disappeared altogether. The river flooded out all over the gibber plains behind town as well, so we were surrounded on three sides, and the Bedourie was completely awash about 30 km north.

We were totally cut off for a while because the only way in and out of the place, the MacAir plane, went broke and stopped flying. The government had to charter a plane, but there was no ticket-buying infrastructure and for a week or so you had to already have a ticket or be dying (literally) to get onto the plane, causing a great deal of frustration for people wanting to leave or come back. They then made tickets available through the council, and have since awarded the Birdsville route to SkyTrans for the next six months while they tender the contract. SkyTrans has been very reliable so far, they actually come when they're supposed to, but they've hiked up the price of tickets quite significantly.

The food truck from Adelaide wasn't able to get here either, they finally came last week after nearly six weeks, and had to stop on the other side of the flooding, about 5 kms out of town. The food was ferried across by a couple of the locals in utes with snorkels. We get a delivery from Quilpie on the plane previous to that, and I was able to get a supply of fresh fruit and veg, a good thing because I was down to cans and frozen stuff.

Finally after three weeks the water started to go down again, although the Georgina River/Eyre Creek system was still coming up. We went out to have a look at Eyre Creek, about 45 kms into the desert. The water runs down channels between the sand dunes — it was apparently about 16 kms wide but we didn't get past the first channel. Another weekend, we went camping out to Adria Downs Station, on the Eyre Creek about 100 kms north of Big Red. The normally dry Muncoonie Lakes are full and very spectacular. We camped on the dune south of the lake and had a relaxed evening around the campfire. In the morning we dropped in on the station owners for morning tea (Judy's delicious pikelets with jam and cream). Don had to come and get us in the tinnie, they were still flooded in. When the lakes dry out they will grow lush grass which will feed the cattle for the next couple of years, so they were very philosophical about it all.

This sign is on the fence of the grid at the eastern edge of town.


Annie and Georgina don't let the flood stop their morning walk.


Lauren and Paul in the floodboat, checking out the water.


The bridge out of town.


From the billabong (south side of town) looking back towards our unit.


Looking back across the gibber plain on the western side of town.


The first of the 16 km-wide channels of the Eyre Creek about 45 kms out into the Simpson Desert.


Whoops, could have done that better! The dunes are very soft after summer and no-one driving across them. And it pays to travel in pairs — it only took a few minutes to pull Neale out again with a snatch strap. Otherwise, it would have taken a long time to dig him out by hand ....


We passed this herd of 25 wild camels on the way up to Muncoonie Lakes.


The two lakes, separated by a sand dune.


Don arrives with the tinnie to take us across to the homestead for morning tea.


We had to walk the last bit ....

What I did in the holidays

Evan at the bar at the top of the Dingo Caves for the OQTA dinner.

There's been a big gap in my posts from early November to early January, I thought I'd better go back and fill it in a bit.

This the quiet time, when it gets really hot, all the tourists have stopped coming, and people are leaving town — the pub is back to bare bones staff, the Bakery is shut so there's nowhere to go for our morning coffee get-togethers, and people are going away on holidays. During the cool winter season they're all very busy dealing with the 45,000-odd visitors who come through, but now it becomes a more inwardly-focussed community. There are about 30 people in town, so you know everybody, and you spend more time in their company because there just isn't anyone else.

Even so, there seemed to be a lot of things going on. The Outback Queensland Tourism Awards were held at the end of October, about 200 tourism industry people turned up. Dusty was still in Birdsville and did the catering on Friday evening at the Dingo Caves, while the main event was held Saturday evening at the Racecourse. We had a Pink morning tea and bra decorating event for Breast Cancer Day, and a Melbourne Cup lunch, with prawns, champagne and chicken. The pub held a pool party, the school had their Christmas concert (complete with a visit from Santa on the fire engine, one of its very few outings in the year), and the kids put on a great evening of entertainment. We swam a lot in the billabong and all of a sudden it was Christmas.

It felt very odd to be so far away from family and friends and the usual Christmas things. This year, Evan's sister Helen and her daughter Emma came out from Canberra. Helen and John, the barman, have been conducting a long-distance romance ever since they'd met each other at the races and were planning to spend some time together. We had a very pleasant Christmas brekkie of panetone and champagne while we opened presents, so Christmas lunch didn't happen until about 3 pm. We were about to start when John got a phone call saying his daughter and her husband had just arrived on the plane to surprise him, so we reshuffled the table and chairs and put out a couple more plates while he picked them up. It was very cosy in our little flat, but everyone was in a good mood, and lunch lasted well into the evening.

Next day, the seven of us and four more friends went down to the Andrewilla Waterhole, about 80 kms south of Birdsville, for swimming, sailing and a picnic. We had access to two Laser dinghies down there while their owner was away. Kay and Russ are sailors when they don't live in the outback, and had their own dinghy with them. It was a memorable day, very relaxed and idyllic.

New Year's Eve daytime entertainment is traditionally organised by the Social Club (aka Evan and Kay) and is a "car rally" of sorts, whereby everyone is given a list of questions and then you have to drive all around town to find the answers. It finishes at Pelican Point, by the billabong, where every washes away the dust with a beer or two, and those with enough energy indulge in water sports. There was to be three events, but everyone had so much fun with the kayak racing, we never got around to the other two. Then it was back to the pub, where the Social Club put on a barbie on the verandah, while the party continued inside. There was still quite a crowd for the countdown at midnight, and I'm sure everyone got kissed by everyone else. It was considered by all to be a big success, several people said how much they'd enjoyed the day.

And then things got really quiet. There was talk of big floods coming, so we started to get organised for that.

From the top of the Dingo Caves looking down to the dinner tables.


Pink everything for the Breast Cancer Day morning tea. We had great fun decorating bras after the talk.


Evan and Judy from Adria Downs Station won the Best Dressed prizes on Melbourne Cup Day.


Dave Phoenix passed through Birdsville while walking the entire route of the Burke and Wills expedition.


A farewell barbecue for Dusty and Teresa on the verandah of the old Courthouse.


For our wedding anniversary, we drank a very nice bottle of champagne on top of the Dingo Caves, while watching a spectacular lightning show in the distant storm clouds.


The pub brought in a big blow-up pool and a karaoke machine for their Pool Party.


The school Christmas concert. This is the quietest I have ever seen these kids.


These kids are from Mount Leonard Station, and learn by School of the Air. Santa was a big hit.


This West Wing plane has the longest mail run in the world. Here they are dropping off at Glengyle Station.


Coming in to Glengyle Station. Compare this pic of Glengyle with the one in the "The floods are coming" post.


Christmas morning at Chez Outback — champagne, panetone and pressies!


Laser sailing at Andrewilla Waterhole.


Relaxing in the shade shelter at Pelican Point after the car rally, New Year's Eve afternoon.


Getting ready for the Men's Kayak Race.


Midnight approaches on New Year's Eve at the pub.

Australia Day in Birdsville

Pub chef Miranda shows us her bowling style.

Australia Day was bright and clear, but very hot and humid. The weather station had 39.5 degrees, although it was 43 degrees on the verandah at the pub, with almost the same in humidity. Everyone kept a very low profile, but started coming out of the woodwork for the Pub Cricket Challenge, due to kick off at 4 pm. The game was remarkably enthusiastic despite the heat, and there were drinks breaks every few overs. My partner Katrina and I scored a very respectable 12 runs before we got retired, whereupon I proceeded to replace the gallons of sweat coming out of me with a cold Goldie in the air-conditioning of the pub. Evan very sneakily hit his first ball straight over the airport fence, incurring six runs and out — thereby avoiding running up and down in the heat. He then went off to organise a golf chipping contest on the oval — our neighbour Lynton hit the ball closest to the flag and came away $100 richer.

The Social Club (Evan and Kay, helped out by me, Kay's partner Russ and fill-in policeman Dave) held a popular barbecue on the verandah in the evening, followed by the Awards presentation in the pub. The official Australia Day Awards were to be held in Bedourie this year, but since its cut off by the floods, they have been postponed until March, so the pub staff organised the unofficial awards instead — we now have six OBMs in Birdsville.

A couple of guys turned up in the pub in the evening, they'd come across on the closed Windorah road, in the dark, hit a washout and totalled their car. They'd walked about 15 kms towards town when one of the station vehicles picked them up and brought them in. They were very lucky to be picked up — it would have been a long walk, and there's next to no traffic at the moment. They looked to be unhurt, although the Flying Doctor came in the next day.

Fiona steps up to whack the ball. Coen (green top, left), gets ready to run.


Ref and scorer Jess keeps a close eye on the action.


Evan and Kay (aka the Birdsville Social Club) clean up after the barbie.


The OBMs pose with their certificates.


This is why you don't drive on flood-closed roads at night ....

Flood Progress Report #2

Just out of town, on the road past the billabong and out towards the river.

These pics were taken a day after Flood Report #1, the water is higher still. Since then, it has dropped and the water crosses the road in only a few places and its possible to drive out to the river again. There has been more rain to the north, the water is on its way back again. We expect the level to be at least as high as this again on Friday.

Taken from the grid at the edge of town. The water is much higher than yesterday.


The flood boat, ready for action if it's needed. Note the houses of Birdsville in the background.


The pelicans cruise up from the billabong to check out what's new to eat.


This is pretty self-explanatory.


Looking across to the shade shed on Pelican Point, normally a spit out in the middle of the billabong.


This is the same spot the day before.