Noises of Western Towns

Bird of the Day:  Pale-headed Rosella: possibly a lifer, no more than second ever for me, and at the end of its range.  Battling fang and talon on the red carpet for spots on the podium were : 

• two flocks of about 200 each Budgergiar; and  
• a flypast of 3 Red-winged parrots at Lorne.

In the “big flock” sub-category Emus gets a golden guernsey.,  We saw one group of at least 50 and overall saw 200+ for the day

Plant of the Day:  Cactus – which seem to be a major problem at Lightning Ridge.

Scene of the Day: Pelicans at weir at Brewarrina

Art of the day: Story and paintings of the fish traps at Brewarrina.  Contenders who didn’t cut the mustard were:

•                      the fish sculpture leading to the Visitors Centre at Brewarrina;

•                      the mural at Walgett; and

•                      the big emu outside Lightning Ridge

Typically Australian thing of the day: Contenders were corrugated iron as a building material and very wide streets.  On great consideration, thr rippled ferrous material gets the gong.

Maximum Temperature  19 Minimum temperature -1

Distance travelled  with camper 305  without camper 0

Not a good nights sleep.  The passing trucks didn't worry us too much although I christened my new notebook by noting a "2 deck B-double of cattle, a triple decker B-double of sheep and a B-triple gravel trcuk" going by in swift succesion.  The pelican in the next site running his heater until after 1am was only a rude annoyance.   However the noise of dogs barking, fighting and snarling between about 1:45 and 3:45 was appalling (somehow I estimated there were about 30 of them spread across the town).  About 3 the roosters joined in although still 4 hours to sunrise!  I mentioned this to someone later along the way and they commented that we were lucky we didn't stay in Walgett which is really noisy.

Heading off along the Kamilaroi Highway (which is bitumen - thank goodness in view of the number of trucks using it) and there were birds everywhere.  Emus were in flocks of up to 20 -30 and we estimated we saw 150 in total before Brewarrina.

There were several Black-faced Woodswallows and two flocks of Budgerigars (which I estimated as 200 per flock).  Also a Wedge-tailed Eagle (one of few on the trip) and some Major Mitchell Cockatoos.  Black Kites were common, feeding on the plentiful roadkill. (I presume that the dry weather has the roos feeding on the green pick beside the road, and if they are injudicious in the way they jump relative to an oncomng truck, Kite-food is the result).  One thing missing was the white circles in the road caused by the feeding kites defecting with their cloacae pointing away from the carcase, as we saw on the road from Cunnamulla to Moonie a few years ago .

The big attraction in Brewarrina is the aboriginal fish traps in the Barwon River.  This is one of the major tributaries of the Darling which is formed downstream of the confluence of the Barwon, Culgoa and Bogan Rivers about 40 road kilometres east of Bourke. (The Macquarie, which we met in Dubbo, is in turn a tributary of the Barwon.)

The site of the fish traps is adorned by a series of murals by the local indigenous youth (LIY) along the bank of the river (on flood barricades I think),

Some of the LIY turned up while we visited, accompanied by their Jack Russell terrier apparently called Roscoe.  Despite the calls of his custodians he was very keen to get to know Tammy but it never got beyond mutual sniffing.

There is a rather interestingly designed weir just above the traps and it was very well supplied with pelicans: presumably the weir also does a good job of trapping fish.

This is the spillway from the weir.

We asked a passing lady, who looked as though she'd know the answer, where the fish traps were.  Our guess at her knowledge was correct and she pointed us promptly in the right direction.  I couldn't quite work ou the process but the basic idea is the fish are led into dead-ends in rock mazes and the word 'dead' becomes more than a metaphor.

The use of the site in this way is very longstanding.

The fish icon is reflected in this design outside the Visitor Centre.

Here is the Brewarrina War Memorial.

This is an historic bridge over the Barwon, now replaced by a much sturdier and much blander modern edifice about 100m upstream.

On, on for 100km to Walgett.  We were firmly advised not to stay in this town as it was "a bit rough": that statement is amplified in this article in the SMH a few months later  .  Given that the gate to the Memorial Gardens  was firmly locked away in a substantial spiked fence ...

... and every business had shutters over the windows I suspect this is a fair description (although at lunchtime it was quite OK).  Here is the cenotaph, in the middle of the main street.  No one has trashed or stolen it!

This rather fine mural was on the outside of the Community Services building.

As with Dubbo, Walgett had a Memorial Walkway in memory of a Black Tracker: in this case Norman Walford who worked at the job for 25 years.

We were a little nervous leaving the car and camper unattended especially when a hoon - of distinctly Anglo appearance- nearly drove over us as he took his ute along the walkway.  But before we left we did find two Pale-headed Rosellas, at the limit of their normal range.

On towards Lightning Ridge, our destination for the day.  About 15 km out of Walgett (and thus 57 kms from Lightning Ridge) we saw the turn off to Collarenabri through which we may pass in a couple of days time.  This seems like a major back track especially with a more direct dirt road available.  We shall have to take local advice on this matter.

A few kilomentres outside the Ridge we passed a pair of cyclists, at least one them female.  They will reappear tomorrow.  A little after them we came across Stanley, a very large emu sculpture.  Click to get a bigger image and look closely and you'll see that the main components of Stanley are former VWs!  He was first thought of by John Murray who has a Gallery in the town (although Stanley's original home was intended to be Birdsville) and welded by Tim Parsons.

Here is the campsite at Lorne Station just outside the town.  They had many adverts, in the form of painted car doors, along the road from town.  And when we looked around plenty more raw material parked around the property!

The noon was full and rose.

We were parked next to a lovely couple from South Australia who had owned a Cub camper in the past but had just gone up to a full-sized caravan.  Unfortunately it came with a TV and they played it a little too loudly. But we still got a fair nights sleep.

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