Not quite a line in the sand

I had thought Emerald was North of the Tropic of Capricorn, but it is not so.  And it would have been a line in the black soil plains anyway!

As dawn broke, after a damp night (6.5mm of rain at Meadowbank) a family of Pied Butcherbirds appeared.  The young one had gone by the time I took its parents piccie.

The owners of the farm came to chat to people as they packed up, which I thought an excellent idea.  It is a top spot for a camp and they deserve support.

We began the rest of the day by going back into Roma to checkout the cattle sales.  It was somewhere between a blast and a total hoot.  They had over 11,000 head of cattle to sell.  Frances felt a bit sad about them all getting a bullet PDQ, but a report we heard on the ABC suggested that they were going mainly to feedlots (so the bullet was deferred).

Here are the trucks getting cleaned as they reloaded.

 A couple of views over the yards.

 Here are the auctioneer and his team going flat as a maggot.  I couldn't spot what was going on at all.

I found these guys amazing in the way they worked the stock into the pens in which they were needed.  Seeing the horses working 'upstream' through a mob was quite astonishing.

As we walked in I commented to Frances that it would be a good business to have the Toyota dealership for Roma.  Looking at the folk in the action I reckon the white Akubra franchise would also be a nice little earner.

If I was talking as much as those guys did I wouldn't want someone lighting up a cancer stick near me!

 On the subject of prohibitions there was no rule about not having a mutt.  So we took Tammie in.  As she doesn't like perforated steel walkways Frances carried her, but it was still good that no one was at all fussed.  There wasn't a rule about clean boots but there was a lot of poop around and I was amused about these bloke hosing off the footwear on the way out.

 On the way back into the town we saw a display of indigenous artefacts that was quite interesting,  Some modern...

 and some traditional.

 As we left a car pulled up with a couple of mature-age blokes in it, both having red/yellow/black headbands.  It turns out the area in which the display was mounted was an aboriginal burial ground (of unknown precisely, but old, vintage).  The best comment by one of the guys is comment of the day.

We stopped to refuel at Injune. The servo in the main street had no diesel.  We then went to another place which had fuel but a queue of 6.  Unfortunately some of them went in the wrong way so it was chaos, which annoyed me, but as it was 2 hours to the next town had to wit.  I think the woman then charged us the wrong amount (too cheap) but we were outtathere.

Some distance North of Injune we got into limestone and couldn't stop for the best views, but this gives the idea.

The next town was Rolleston memorable mainly for none of the towns named on signs out of town being Emerald, where we were headed.  The Shire (or DMR) has obviously gone troppo.  On consulting a map Springsure was the go. More cliffs: these turn out to be in Minerva Hills NP,

Coal mining is the go around, so big trains are evident.

We are very close to the Tropic, so Bouganvillaea is very evident.

Here is the War Memorial.

I have mentioned that Queensland goes in for "Big" things: here is the Big Van Gogh Sunflowers.

I needed an example of the house style called "Queenslander"and tis was a beautiful (Beaut??) example.

There are lots of insects around.  This moth was elected as subject of the day.

• Bird of the Day: Peaceful Dove.
• Vegetation of the day: Bouganvillaea.  
• Memorable moment:  Roma stockyardsa by a mile..
• Comment of the day: When chatting to the indigenous guys it emerged one of the came from Miles.  When asked how far it was he replied "80km.  Spear chucking distance."
• Troppo moment of the day.  Daft road signs in Rollesrton.k.