The big event of the morning on Day 2 is the Drag Race. People pay to enter the Drag Race, get dressed up in drag, then run (or walk) from the start at the top of Big Red down to the finish line in The Plaza. Of course you have to walk up Big Red to get to the start line! There are prizes for the first three runners, the best three costumes and the best three groups of costumes. Some of the costumes were very creative. Four from our group participated and they looked fabulous. They were even selected in the top 50 and had to go up on stage at the end and parade in front of the whole crowd.

I climbed Big Red to get photos of our little group. Once the race started I ran down a bit further to get photos as they went by. Then I did it again, and again, and again until I caught up with them at the finish. My thighs were burning by the time I got to the bottom of Big Red. It’s hard work running downhill in the deep red sand!

It was all a lot of fun and raised $$$ for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The concert commenced this day with gates opening at 12 noon. We were all set up with our group by 12.30pm. Event organiser Greg Donovan welcomed everybody to day two followed by a short video of events and moments from the day before.

A special report was given by a guy from Queensland Health, who were there conducting Covid-19 tests. He let us know what symptoms to look for and to remind people to maintain social distancing, use the sanitiser and to let us know the good news that they hadn’t had a ‘positive’ test yet. Yay….we hoped it stayed that way.

It was another warm afternoon as we settled in to listen to the first artists up for the day, Vika & Linda. They rocked the Simpson with some new songs they’ve recorded whilst they haven’t been able to perform to live audiences.

Brian Cadd was next up. This guy might be getting old but he can still perform. His voice is not what it once was but, once a performer, always a performer. Brian Cadd has not changed his hair style since the sixties however his hair now is all white. While he was on stage there were lots of people on top of Big Red behind the stage including one guy flying a large kite. What an experience to be sitting here in the desert with amazing music and that incredible view of the giant sand dune that the festival is named after.

Brian Cadd was followed by another Aussie rock legend, Russell Morris. His voice sounds the same as it did back in the 70’s when I was in high school. I remember his music so well. He gave a great performance and I really enjoyed this one.

There was a large group a couple of rows in front of where we were sitting. Their whole group were wearing very distinctive bright pink Hawaiian shirts. One of the ladies, who I’m guessing would be in her 70’s, danced through the whole Russell Morris bracket. She’s a rocker from way back.

Chocolate Starfish were back for another set and this time they played their own music. Can’t say I liked it as much as when they did the covers the day before but that’s probably because I didn’t really know any of the songs.

Next up was Ross ‘The Boss’ Wilson, another old rocker. His performance was fabulous too as he sang many oldies.

As the sun was going down it was the turn for another Aussie legend, Glenn Shorrock. Glenn was the lead singer for the famous Aussie band Little River Band before going on to a successful solo career. He was also fabulous.

In between artists the Crackup Sisters organised games like tunnel ball, tug-o-war, performed on stage and generally kept the crowd entertained.

The sky put on an incredible sunset while we waited for the final act of the night. The one we’d come all this way for…..Paul Kelly. What can I say? What a show. It was every bit as good as I thought it was going to be. Paul Kelly’s distinctive sound rocked the Simpson. It was an amazing experience being in the audience for this great show. He finished his set and everybody kept cheering ‘more, more’. He came back on to the darkened stage alone and, lit by a single spotlight, Paul Kelly recited ‘Clancy of the Overflow’. There was a complete hush over the crowd. It was awesome. Then the band came back on and Paul Kelly sang, probably his most famous song, ‘Little Things’ to finish the set off. Wow, wow, wow.

We all meandered back to camp, thankful that our camp is so close, and settled around our campfire again. It had been another awesome day at The Big Red Bash.

Apparently an Air Guitar competition was held in the morning however I didn’t go down to The Plaza for that one. I did go down to watch the Crackup Sisters show again. The show was completely different to the previous day with lots of hula hooping and whip cracking. Those girls are very clever.

This day was the first day of the music festival and our group set up our chairs and stuff in the concert area about 12.30pm in time for the Official Opening and Welcome to Country. We got out our beach cart, loaded our chairs, drinks and warm jackets for later and wheeled it to the concert area. It was easier than carrying it.

The Welcome to Country included a half hour video that followed the adventures of local Aboriginal Elder, Don Rowlands, as he took members of his family into the Simpson Desert to tell them Dreamtime Stories and share in the knowledge of their ancestors. It was a lovely family story and I’m glad that Don is sharing his knowledge, culture and language with his family so that it won’t be lost.

The Crackup Sisters were the MC’s for the day and they were also the interim entertainment between music acts.

It was a hot sunny afternoon but once the sun went down it rapidly became cold and I was very glad of my Big Red Bash microfibre blanket to keep me snug. The atmosphere in the concert area was amazing. Everyone was careful to maintain social distancing by keeping groups apart and 2 metres from the row in front. Even in the ‘mosh pit’ area at the front of the stage people kept apart from each other. We enjoyed the music of The Chantoozies, Eurogliders, rocked to Sarah McCloud and enjoyed the mellow sounds of Busby Marou.

During the performance by Busby Marou it was time for Richard and I to make our way to our booked Helicopter ride. The heli landing area was way over the other side of Bashville and took about 15 minutes to walk there. When we arrived the flights were running a bit late so we had to wait. Our original time was 4.59pm and we eventually got on the chopper at 5.20pm. It was perfect really as the sun was going down and the sand hills really glowed in that light.

The chopper pilot was Hylton Ward whom we had met in Winton when we were on a tour with Red Dirt Tours run by Hylton’s wife Vicki. Hylton had sat up the back of the bus with us and he remembered meeting us. I’m sure we got a lot longer than the 12 minutes we’d paid for. It was worth every cent.

The Bashville site looks so incredible from the air. It is enormous and almost filled to capacity. There was even a new section that had to be created to fit in all the campers. It was easy to see the arc shape of the site from the air with the main stage front and centre. In front of the main stage is a large open space called the ‘Concert Area’. This is where festival goers bring their camp chairs and set up to listen to the music. On either side of the concert area is a long block of composting toilets. In the arc behind the concert area is The Plaza. This is where all the food vans and merchandise vendors are set up. It is also home to the the Medical Centre, the Covid Testing Tent and the Admin Marquee. The Crackup Sisters ‘house’ and a mini stage are also in this area. Behind The Plaza are ever widening arcs of camp sites.

By the time we got back to our chairs in the concert area the sun had gone down and we got to enjoy the music of the Black Sorrows and
Chocolate Starfish. Chocolate Starfish were brilliant. Their set was called ‘Best of the Best” and they played covers of many famous songs from the likes of Queen, Meatloaf and others. What a great voice their lead singer has!

It had been a fabulous start to the Big Red Bash.

We spent the day familiarising ourselves with Bashville. Some walked to the top of Big Red, others walked around the expanding camp sites, others walked to the sand dune behind our camp and Richard read his book.

I booked a ride on the helicopter for the next day. There are three seats in the chopper but the combined weight of the three passengers cannot exceed 230kgs. As Richard is 95kg and I’m 73kg in my boots that didn’t leave enough for another person unless they were a small 60kg so we paid for the three seats, $585 for a 12 minute ride. Expensive I know but it should be amazing to see Bashville from the air.

The Crackup Sisters Show was held in the morning at the Plaza in front of their ‘house’. These girls are from Winton in outback Queensland and put on a comedy show using their whip cracking, acrobatic and circus skills. They are very quick and brilliant at improvising. It was a funny show.

Catie stood in the queue for the Merchandise Tent for a couple of hours but she was able to get what everyone had ordered. A big thank you to Catie for being so patient and standing for such a long time.

Before we had left home our group had arranged to hold a ‘pot luck’ dinner. A group dinner where everyone contributed a meal to share. I had made lasagne. What a feast we enjoyed with such a great variety of delicious food. Our Makin’ Memories group are great cooks!

Our ‘Makin’ Memories’ group of 6 caravans and one motorhome set off from Birdsville on the morning of Sunday 4 July 2021. I think everyone was feeling some excitement as, this was the day, the culmination of 2 years of planning. There was sadness in 2020 when the event was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a great sense of relief to hear that the same artists would return for 2021 and our tickets would carry over.

Unfortunately, one of our gas bottles ran out during the night (why do they always run out in the middle of the night?) so we left the group early to go up to the Roadhouse and get in the queue for a gas refill. There were only five in front of us so we hoped we wouldn’t hold the group up for too long.

As we waited I saw our group head out of town and got a message from Mandie that they would wait for us at the end of the tar. We didn’t have long to wait before it was our turn for the gas refill and then we were off on our way to The Big Red Bash.

We’d arranged to use UHF channel 29 to communicate with each other. As we got closer to our group my call on the UHF was answered and they were all pulled over waiting for us. It was a great sight as we came over a sand hill and there they were. We let them in in front of us and we joined the long queue ahead of us.

The queue moved fairly quickly. It wasn’t long before we arrived at the Marshall where our Early Entry stickers were checked and, as Brian was in the lead, he let them know we were a group of 7 (originally 8 but now down to 7) and we were asked to pull off to the side while they sorted a big site for our large group.

We were directed by marshals to turn into a certain roadway and down to the middle of the bash site. We were given 8 sites to set up on. Turns out our site was only the second road back from The Plaza and right next to the middle walkway directly in line with the main stage. There was even a toilet block on the other side of the walkway. The ice and firewood truck was there too. What a fantastic spot!

We set up our RV’s and as we had the spare spot we were able to set up our fire pit in the middle of that. Everyone was pretty happy with our site. We couldn’t have really asked for a better one.

We enjoyed another great night around the campfire.

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What is The Big Red Bash?

It’s a 3 day music festival in one of the most remote places on the planet. It is held each July under the shadow of the most famous of Australia’s mighty sand dunes, Big Red.

The site has been nicknamed ‘Bashville’ and sits on the dry lakebed of Lake Nappanerica on Adria Downs Station near Birdsville, Queensland. Adria Downs Station, owned for over 80 years by the Brook Family, is an organic beef producer of Hereford beef. The property is 8,700 square kilometres in size.

The dry lake bed is graded and leveled each year and marked out by surveyors into a large arc shape with marked pedestrian walkways and roads. Front and centre is the huge stage and directly in front of that, facing Big Red, is the concert area. This area is fenced off and opens each day of the festival to allow people to bring their chairs and other paraphernalia and set up for the concert.

Behind the concert area is The Plaza. This arc is home to the food vendors, merchandise tents, The Crackup Sisters ‘house’ and a smaller stage for events such as the Air Guitar Competition, the finish of the Drag Race and fashion parade.

Behind that in ever-widening arcs are the large campsites, each marked out with little flags.

The ‘Bash’ has had most of Australia’s iconic musicians and singers perform over the years since the very first concert by John Williamson in July 2013. John played to about 600 people atop of Big Red to entertain the runners and volunteers of the Big Red Run, a 250km long desert run created by Greg Donovan to raise funds for Type 1 Diabetes research.

The event has gone on to see John Farnham, Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, Lee Kernaghan as headline acts. They’ve performed for progressively bigger crowds and in 2021 10,000 people are expected to ‘rock in the Simpson’.

The Big Red Bash has added other events to the program over the years such as the Drag Race, a race down Big Red by people dressed in drag, the Air Guitar Competition, the world record attempt at the number of people doing the ‘Nutbush and all of these events have an entry fee. The funds raised from these fun events all goes to The Royal Flying Doctor Service. Each year tens of thousands of dollars is given to RFDS to help keep them providing their vital service to outback patients.

So what is The Big Red Bash? It’s basically a big party of campers who come in all their variety of RV’s to camp in one of the most spectacular places in the outback and attend the most remote music festival in the world.

Now that all our group had arrived in Birdsville it was time to start our preparation for our travel out to Bashville. We all had 2 day Early Entry Passes which meant that we could travel out to Bashville on the Sunday. As long as we travel out in a group and arrive in that group we will be able to be camped together.

To gain entry to Bashville you need to exchange your e-tickets for wristbands and Early Entry car stickers. This is done at a stand set up at the Birdsville Information Centre. As expected there was a queue but it moved very quickly and efficiently. In no time at all we were processed. As our group met up after the ticket exchange we were approached by the official photographer for the Bash and she wanted to take a photo of our group in our colourful shirts. We were happy to oblige.

While we were having our photo taken I recognised Greg Donovan, the organiser and man responsible for the Big Red Bash. I approached him and had a brief chat and he is so relieved that the event is going ahead in spite of all the challenges Covid has thrown up.

No grey water can be emptied onto the ground at Bashville so everyone needed to empty their grey water tanks. There is also no water so water tanks needed to be topped up. Luckily there are lots of taps scattered around the Birdsville Common. There were queues at most of the taps on the Saturday as everyone was doing the same thing.

There are no dump points at Bashville either so everyone needed to empty their cassettes so we go out there with empty ones.

Once we’d done all that and our motorhome was ready to go we took Robert up on his offer to head out to the desert and check out Bashville and the incredible scenery of the Simpson Desert.

The road out to Big Red is mostly a tar road. Only the last few kilometres are gravel. The road travels over a few low sand dunes with large valleys in between. The sand hills go for miles in either direction. The Simpson Desert covers some 176,500 square kilometres and is the largest sand dune desert in the world. The sand dunes are the world’s longest parallel dunes and vary in height from 3 metres to around 30 metres. It is Australia’s fourth largest desert.

Munga-Thirri National Park includes the Queensland part of the Simpson Desert and goes all the way to Peoppel’s Corner where Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory intersect.

We knew as soon as we crossed over a large sand dune that the one in front of us was Nappanerica, or Big Red as it is popularly known. Apart from the sign telling us! Big Red is 40 metres high and is a very impressive sight when you see it for the first time. The closer we got the bigger it seemed.

At the bottom of Little Red Robert pulled over to lower the tyre pressure so we could make the crossing over the dune. It is most important to lower your tyre pressure as you won’t make it over with your tyres at highway pressure.

Once that was done it was time to tackle Little Red. I’m not kidding the road is not really a road just a sandy track that goes up over the dune. It is bumpy and you can hear the wheels digging in to the deep sand as you go up. Robert has done this before and he just kept the vehicle at a constant speed and we bumped our way to the top. We paused briefly at the top then headed back down, which is nearly as scary as going up!

There were a few vehicles at the bottom of Big Red waiting to have a turn at going to the top but we continued on and went further out into the desert. We crossed another couple of sand dunes before turning around and making our way back to Big Red.

Here we got in line to make out way to the top. So many vehicles don’t make it to the top however Robert didn’t hesitate when it was our turn and, again he just kept the car at a constant speed and up we went. The car seems to be on such a precarious angle as you go up and when you get to the top you feel like you are shooting into the sky but then the front wheels go over the rim and the car levels out. We’d made it to the top first go!

What a view from the top. Lots of spectators were on the top watching the vehicles make their attempts. There was lots of groaning when another attempt failed and loud cheers for those that make it. We didn’t see many make it first go though. It was great fun to watch and we stayed watching for an hour or so.

On the other side of the dune is Bashville. Wow it looked amazing from up there. The stage was already set up and some of the food vendors had already set up their trucks. The Admin and Merchandise marquees were up and the streets and campsites were all marked out with flags and signage. We could see lots of toilet blocks at various places around the camp area. It was amazing to think that in just a couple of days this place would be full of over 4,000 camps and roughly 10,000 people.

Bashville is situated on Adria Downs Station (8,700 square kilometres) and it borders Munda-Thirri NP. Bashville is set up on the dry lake bed of Lake Nappanerica. Adria Downs is an an accredited organic property and this is why no grey water can be let out on the ground at Bashville.

Seeing the sight from the top of Big Red we could appreciate the amount of work it takes to put on an event of this size in such a remote location. It truly is a unique event. My excitement was definitely building.

We made our way back to town and we all enjoyed a night around the campfire and we were all ready to get on the road at 8am.

We did it! We made it to Birdsville. After 2 long years in the planning we were finally here AND so were thousands of others.

We had the best nights sleep at our campsite on the banks of the Eyre Creek but we were both excited to be only 130km from our destination and woke early. There was no argument….it was up and get going.

Our camp at Eyre Creek was only a few kilometres from where the great tar road became a great gravel road. We expected there may be a bit of water across the road at Cuttaburra Crossing but it had all dried up and was no problem. Quite a few campers were set up there.

The road became a good tar road again and it was another 20-30km of this before we came to roadworks. There were many big earthmoving machines working away at the new road. It won’t be long and this road will be a tar one all the way to Birdsville.

We stopped to check out Carcory Bore and Homestead Ruins. It was amazing to see the boiling water coming out of the bore and running into a channel before entering a dam to cool. Apparently that water comes out of the ground at 85 degrees. No wonder it was steaming!

Carcory Homestead was built in 1877 out of local limestone. Only the walls remain today. The roof is long gone. The story goes that the roofing iron was commandeered by the Federal Government in WWII. This was once one of Sir Sidney Kidman’s properties however after losing 4,000 bullocks during the drought in 1906 the property was abandoned. Carcory is now part of Rosebeth Station.

At the end of the roadworks we arrived at the section that had already been finished and tarred. Wow, what a great road. We really ate up the kilometres on that stretch.

It’s funny what you see on the side of the road sometimes. We came across a pile of junk that people have left behind and it included a stove, a satellite dish, a lawn mower, an air conditioner, a washing machine and a dishwasher. Now why would anyone want to leave those things in the middle of nowhere?

The next odd thing we saw was a garden table and chairs sitting in the middle of a large paddock of red stones. Now that was just odd!

A bit further on was a ‘shoe’ tree covered in shoes, boots and thongs of all descriptions. I really don’t know why people do this.

About 30km from Birdsville the road became a shocker. It was rough gravel and I thought we’d been too lucky with the roads so far. Our speed had to drop right off over the 23km of corrugations. We were passed by so many on this section including one idiot in a Landcruiser towing a Crusader caravan who went past us so fast he threw rocks up all over the front of our motorhome. All the others passed us slowly but not that one. Serves him right if he gets a flat tyre!

We stopped for a cuppa at the Waddi Tree Grove. There was a large parking area and about 5 vans were already pulled up including the idiot in the Crusader. I wasn’t going to talk to him!

The Waddi Trees are a rare and ancient species of tree. They are so hard that they can cause damage to axes and saws and, when dry, is almost impossible to drill. Waddi fence posts nearly a century old have shown little sign of decay. Waddi Trees are now a protected species and are now only found in three sites, one of which is Birdsville. When Australia had a much wetter climate 400,000 years ago Waddi’s would have been widespread across Central Australia. They are very slow growing and can live for hundreds of years.

About 10km out of Birdsville the road became a tar one again and we gained some mobile service on our Telstra phone. We got to send and receive messages from our family and to hear that Kevin and Sally are back in Winton however they cannot get a tyre until next Wednesday. It was now Friday. The Big Red Bash is to be held Tues/Wed/Thurs so they will miss it. What a shame for them.

When we arrived in Birdsville we went directly to the Roadhouse to fill up with fuel. Then around to the famous Birdsville Bakery where we met up with some of our group. Next stop was the dump point before making our way out to the Birdsville Common where our group was camped. It was great to see everyone.

Water is available at taps around the common so before setting up camp we filled up with water. I got two loads of washing done while filling up. We quickly set up camp and got our washing hung out. It was a gorgeous sunny day so our solar panels are charging the batteries nicely.

Most of the group left to go for a drive out to the Simpson Desert and across some sand hills but Robert and Richard stayed behind and went shopping while I took the opportunity for some quiet time to update this blog.

I’m sure there will be a great night of socialising around the fire pit tonight. I’m just so excited that we’ve finally got here and the Big Red Bash is going ahead. Can’t wait.

PS: not enough service to load photos (and I’ve taken hundreds) so they will have to come later!

Oh what a slow start to the day with a welcome sleep in. The last week had been an early start each day so a sleep in was appreciated by all. We set off from Middleton Hotel campground about 9.30am and continued our journey west. The countryside around Middleton is flat grasslands with the occasional flat topped mesas in the distance. The road is a narrow one lane tar road with wide gravel shoulders. The straight road stretches way ahead of us and we could see the Farrells caravan in the distance.

As we approached Cawnpore Station we came to an area of mesas. The road traveled up and over this line of hills. We stopped at Cawnpore Lookout and walked to the top. The scenery is just spectacular. The mesas with their top layer of ironstone and then the red sandstone layers under are incredible. There was a guy flying a drone and I’m sure he would have been getting some amazing footage of the hills from above. I just can’t stop taking photos! I’m sure my phone is going to run out of storage!

Past Nerida Station and the land had flattened out again to wide open grasslands, although there wasn’t much grass left to speak off. It looked like it had all been grazed out.

We stopped at the site of the ruins of the Min Min Hotel. Boulia Shire has erected a signboard explaining the phenomenon of the Min Min lights. The creek nearby had water in it. Evidence of the recent rains. The paddocks surrounding this creek were covered in a slight green tinge of new grasses coming up. The land flattened right out after this and the narrow road stretched straight ahead into the horizon. We both commented on the lack of animals. I think we’d only seen one lonely cow and a couple of dead birds on this part of the trip.

We came to a series of floodways and went up and down over those. Some of the little creeks had water in them. On the other side of the floodways we came to the ruins of the Hamilton Hotel. Not much is still standing just a bit of fence and a brick and stone chimney. We stopped to take a couple of photos and continued on. We hadn’t got very far when we caught up to the Farrells. They were on the side of the road and oh no! They had another flat tyre on their car.

It took the better part of an hour to change the tyre and put on the spare. Now they have no spare. I just hope they’ll be able to get a tyre in Boulia. I wouldn’t like to be traveling out here without a spare or two!

After travelling down the road a few hundred metres the Farrells pulled over to check the tyre and let us know they had decided to return to Winton as they thought they’d have a better chance of getting tyres in a bigger town than Boulia. We think they made the right decision. Hopefully they will get the tyres sorted and catch up to us in Birdsville.

We continued on and made it to the tiny outback town of Boulia. Boulia sits on on the Burke River and it was a muddy brown waterhole as we crossed the bridge into town. We fueled up, visited the tiny supermarket for fresh bread and came back across the bridge to park under a shady tree for lunch. We were parked right next to the caravan park which is on the riverside. Across the fence was an RV we recognised from our travels since Winton. It is an orange Kombi towing a red teardrop van. I had a chat to the couple as they waved when they saw us pull up. They recognised us too.

They are from Melbourne and luckily left Melbourne on the day lockdown started. They were very happy to be across the border into NSW just in time. It was no surprise to learn that they are also going to the Big Red Bash. They are first timers too!

Also stopped for a break in Boulia was the Pizza Van and the Pie Truck we’d seen camped at Middleton the night before and again along the way. They are on their way to BRB too.

While having our lunch break we had some decent Telstra service and were able to speak with our daughters and daughter-in-law. It was great to talk with them.

We left Boulia heading southwards. The land around there is very flat and there was a line of jump ups on the far horizon to the west. I was quite astonished by the quality of the road. It’s a very good two lane tar road and we were able to eat up the kilometres on that stretch.

Some of the shallow depressions in the paddocks still have water in them from the rains a week ago. We regularly cross cattle grids along the way.

Around 3.30 we crossed the Georgina River and saw a huge mob of cattle on both sides of the road. They were Brahman cattle and they looked fat and sleek. Not long after this we passed the marker for the Tropic of Capricorn. We’ve crossed this line a couple of times already on this trip.

About 100km south of Boulia we came to an area of stones. As far as the eye could see the land was covered in red stones. Not a lot of grass in that area for cattle to eat. I’ve never seen so many rocks. They need a Big Red Rock Eater out this way!

The sign for Motorcarbreakdown Creek was missing. Rich said someone’s taken it home as a memento for their man-cave!

About 30kms north of Bedourie we left the red stone plains behind and came to an area of red sandy country covered in scrub much like the country around Menindee. There were large shallow channels between the sandy hills that were covered in water.

We arrived in Bedourie around 5.00pm and went directly to fill up with fuel. There was a bloke near the bowsers taking down the amount of fuel everyone used and handing them a paper to take inside to pay for their fuel. We asked him why he was doing this and his answer saddened us greatly. He said that in the last week three vehicles have pulled in, filled up with fuel and driven off without paying. Scumbags!

We continued on southwards and drove until the sun was about to set. We ended up camped by the banks of the Eyre Creek. Water views again! We had hit the gravel road not long before and as the sun was soon to set we pulled up for the night. Only 130kms to go tomorrow and we will reach Birdsville.

After our fabulous tour with Red Dirt Tours out to Lark Quarry we were dropped right back at our motorhome. We quickly got going. Rich dropped me at the Spar to get some supplies whilst he went to get a gas bottle. Next stop was the bottle shop to stock up on some wine then we were driving west out of Winton.

A few kms out of town we took a left off the Cloncurry Road and turned onto the Kennedy Development Road that would take us all the way to Boulia 365km away.

The road for the first part of this journey is a narrow tar road surrounded by flat native grasslands. In the distance you can see ‘jump ups’ (mesa hills) and they shimmer a blue colour in the far distance.

About 65km out of Winton we came to the Diamantina Causeway. This is a long stretch where the narrow road crosses over many floodways. Some of these were low bridges and a few of the channels underneath had water in them. All these channels feed into the Diamantina River. Some of the floodway markers were 2m tall so I can’t imagine what it would be like when there is that much water going down these channels.

The landscape changed after crossing the Diamantina. There were lots more trees and the soil was really black like it had been burnt.

The road was a one lane narrow tar one but every now and then it would widen into a two lane road to enable people to overtake safely. Crests of hills were also wider. I was surprised how good the road was. A few times we needed to get off the edge of the road to allow others coming towards us get past. This just means slowing right down and putting half our vehicle on the shoulder to give them enough room. A couple of times we had to get right off the road to allow big triple trailer road trains go by.

We made it into Middleton just as the sun was setting and found Sally & Kevin already set up camp and had a BBQ dinner ready to go. We enjoyed not having to cook.

After dinner we all wandered across to the historic Midddleton Hotel where we enjoyed a cold beer and chatted to the lady owner Clara. Her and her partner have taken over the hotel from his parents and have great plans for the future of the hotel while still preserving its history. We wish them luck. One thing they could do immediately is to start charging a camping fee. They provide a large flat space for campers, toilets and showers and I don’t think any campers would mind paying $10 per night to camp there. We gave a $10 donation into the RFDS tin on the bar to cover our camping fee.

The hotel, in the middle of nowhere, was once a Cobb & Co changing station. Cobb & Co’s first run through Middleton was in February 1865. The hotel would have been a welcome relief for passengers where they could get a meal and have a rest after being jolted about in the coach. I don’t think traveling by coach was particularly comfortable.

The last Cobb & Co Coach to pass this way was in the early 1920’s. Middleton was once a thriving little town proclaimed in 1908 and had a police station, store, hall, school and the changing station and hotel. Only the hotel remains.

The Middleton Hotel is the last changing station remaining on the Winton to Boulia mail route.