Winter Holiday July 2012: BLACKALL TO BARCALDINE

We drove the 107km from Blackall to Barcaldine without any dramas. We checked out some caravan parks but they were quite full with everyone crammed together, so we decided to go to the showground.   It had lots of room around the football field with hot showers, power and water so that is where we stayed for 3 days.   The cost was $26.oo per night but it was worth it to have some room.
We arrived about midday Saturday and set up.   In the afternoon we were entertained by some local football matches starting from under 6 to first grade.   We went around and sat in the stands with the locals and cheered for Barcaldine (Barky to the locals) who won.
On the Sunday we drove around and had a look at the sights.   We took some photo's of the Tree of Knowledge which is the tree the shearers protested under during the shearers strike. On Sunday afternoon we went to the Top Tourist Park to listen to Tom from Artesian Country Tours and have some free damper and billy tea.    His talk was very interesting about the history of the area and his jokes and poems very amusing.
On Monday morning we went on Tom's tour.   It took us to Aramac and around some private properties where we saw great scenery, escarpments, caves, lots of kangaroo's, emu's and lots of birds.    Tom also took us to some aboriginal engravings which have puzzled the local natives as well as scientists from around the world as to their meaning. We went to the place where natives got their ochre for painting faces and cave drawings.
I don't think Tom stopped talking about the history of the area, local drovers and stations for the whole 11 hours of the trip, but it was very interesting.
We pulled up stakes on Tuesday morning and travelled to Longreach.