What a cold night it was at Augathella RV Park. The boys even had frost on their swags. They said they were nice and cosy warm inside though.

We got away around 9.30am to head further south to Charleville. Katie had a quick stop at the servo to top up her diesel tank on the caravan as she might need it again to run the diesel heater over the next few nights.

We’d booked into Charleville Bush Camp for the night so we could have access to power & water and a laundry after free camping for the last three nights.

We duly arrived in Charleville and, as it was still quite early and our Bilby Experience wasnt until 1pm, we drove directly out to the Cosmos Centre. We left Katie and the kids there so they could check it out and Rich and I went back into town.

After parking the motorhome in the Main Street Rich and I wandered along checking out the stores. You know I can’t resist a good pie so we stopped at the bakery for a coffee and a meat pie. They were delicious.

As we were walking back towards the motorhome we came across katie and the kids. They’d had a great time at the Cosmos Centre learning about the solar system, our galaxy and the universe and were heading to the bakery for some lunch. We arranged to meet at the Visitor Information Centre.

The VIC in Charleville is inside the railway station. It is probably unique in that it is still a working railway station. Two trains a week come to Charleville. Sadly you can no longer take a train to Cunnamulla because part of the line south of Charleville was destroyed in an explosion many years ago. I guess the line is not viable enough to repair the bridge.

We were checked in by a lovely lady at the VIC who would be our guide to see the Bilbies. Katie and the kids arrived and we were all checked in. Promptly at 1pm we were called to follow the lady out onto the platform and further along we entered another door into a darkened room where chairs were set up. We all found a spot to sit and for the next half an hours we learnt about Australia’s dreadful record of animal extinctions since white people came to our land. It was shocking. Bilbies are one of those mammals that faced extinction except for some dedicated people who devoted their working lives to saving the Bilby.

We learnt about the Save the Bilby Fund and some of their great fundraising ideas such as convincing the chocolatier Darryl Lea to make chocolate Bilbies at Easter instead of Easter Bunnies.

We learnt about the feral animal safe enclosures that have been built and how well the protected animals inside the enclosures are doing. The cute little Bilby may be saved yet!

Next we were shown into the nocturnal house where a male Bilby and his two girlfriends reside. They are so cute with their bodies like a tiny kangaroo but grey and fluffy with long black and white tails. The male was about the size of a small cat, one of their deadly predators.

What’s that saying? ‘The best cat is a dead cat’. I’m sure the Bilby population would think so as their numbers have been decimated by feral cats and foxes and their habitats taken over by rabbits.

It was a great experience made better by the enthusiasm of our guide for the little creatures.

We left the VIC and headed to the hardware store to see if they sold wood and sure enough they did. We picked up a couple of bags of wood and a box of kindling.

It was time to find our camp for the night and headed westward out of town to Charleville Bush Camp.

The bush camp is set on a farm and has lots of powered and unpowered camp spots. Many of them are drive through. There’s an amenities block for females and one for males and a central laundry. There were lots of trees and it did feel like bush camping. The sites are large and people were quite spread out.

The owner told us at check in that he expects everyone to joint him at the communal fire pit from 4.30pm. Rich did ask if we could have our own fire and was told yes so we did that instead.

It was good to have power and water so we could get lots of washing done however Katie discovered there was no drier at the laundry only two washing machines. She was a little disappointed at that as it’s hard to get lots of washing dry when we are on the road each day.

It was my turn to cook dinner so I made a ginger cake to have for dessert with ice cream and maple syrup. Then I made a chicken, bacon & mushroom creamy sauce with spaghetii. The kids all went back for seconds and declared it a 10/10 dinner. I was happy with that!

As we were able to have a fire pit we sat around it to eat our dinner.