7/9/2021 Beyond the Black Stump: Mitchell to Ilfracombe

Once there was a black stump, standing in a paddock in central western Queensland, minding its own business.   In 1880 the Surveyor General came stumping along and declared the stump's home to be perfect for an 'astro station', whereby his minions placed heavy measuring machinery on the black stump and used it to measure latitude and longitude and to tell towns where to go. Nobody asked the black stump what it thought about all this: it just woodenly stood there and held up the machinery. Out past the black stump there wasn't much of anything and the phrase 'beyond the black stump' became synonymous with 'out woop-woop' and 'back of beyond'. 

We found the black stump and officially went beyond it. If you want to know, it's outside the Blackall State School and you must prepare for crushing disappointment - the real black stump is AWOL and the dummy one isn't even made of wood!

In addition to the black stump we visited the Outer Barcoo, where churches are few and men of religion are scanty.

Lunch at Blackall, where a sign informed us we were in the Outer Barcoo.

And of course in Barcaldine we had to visit the Tree of Knowledge:  Tree of Knowledge

The Tree of Knowledge, like the black stump, is long gone and replaced by something else entirely: in this case a glorious fantastical folly which Barcaldine uses very effectively to encourage tourists to visit and spend dollars in town.

It's very big.

It's like a giant wooden wind chime. I suspect it's meant to be reminiscent of a tree canopy.

Looking for knowledge...

We ended the day in Ilfracombe where we're camped in the carpark of the beer garden at the Wellshot Hotel. The Wellshot is the single survivor of the 5 pubs that thrived in Ilfrcombe's heyday. Pretty much everything and everyone in Ilfracombe is out numbered by the impressive collection of old machinery which marches beside the highway for the full length of town and provided us with a good hour of gentle exercise and entertainment.

Old and New.

Through the window.

A graveyard of graders.

We're getting soft from all the relaxing we've been doing recently: driving 580km in one day was a terrible shock, even if it was a great trip down memory lane.  It wasn't long before we were tucked up in our little tent,  lulled to sleep by the beer garden sound track interspersed with road train drive-bys.

Home for the night: Wellshot Hotel, Infracombe.