4/6/23 Too Many Goats To Count:: Bourke to Broken Hill

Bourke was, in its heyday, a significant transportation hub boasting several paddle steamer companies, a Cobb & Co coach terminus, a large Afghan community supporting the camel trains that traded further west, and in 1885 a railway link which heralded the beginning of the end of the era of river transportation. Having woken up alive and unscathed in Bourke, we tootled off to check out the replica of the original dock with its multiple levels to accommodate the changing levels of the river.

Morning on the Darling.

 The river was alive with fish and birds, although signs along the levee bank informed us that this wasn't always so.  Back in the days of the paddle steamers all the snags and fallen trees in the river were summarily removed to both clear the way for and fuel the voracious appetites of the paddle steamers.  This had the unfortunate effect of allowing the river banks to erode away and the fish stocks died as they relied on submerged snags and logs to live a happy fish life.  The problems persisted long after the paddle steamers had left, until some bright spark decided to start planting trees on the river banks, and throwing old trees into the water.  This was very successful: the river banks stabilised and the fish came back to lead, if the fishy activity I saw was any indication, very happy fishy lives.

There are happy fish in here.

Bourke was also the birthplace of Percy Hobson, who in 1962 became the first person of Aboriginal descent to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal for Australia. He jumped 33 cm above his own height with a Games record of 2.11 m and was greeted by a brass band playing "Hail the Conquering Hero"when he returned to Bourke.  I also discovered that Fred Hollows was buried in Bourke, having declared in life that Bourke was the essence of the Outback: a sentiment he apparently shared with Henry Lawson and the makers of the third border sign which we passed yesterday.

Having exhausted all the interesting Bourke factoids that we could find, we finally headed out of town.

 

Emus were in short supply on the road south, being replaced by goats in such numbers as to defeat counting. The goats were obviously much smarter than the kangaroos, as evidenced by all the roadkill being kangaroos and all the live animals being goats. The goats had benefited from the recent good seasons: they were fat and healthy and baby goats abounded.

 We stopped in Cobar for morning coffee and place-mat sized doughnuts from the Cobar Bakery.

The Western Hotel proudly announced that it has the longest verandah in the outback.  Of course it does.

The kilometers sped by.  Fat fluffy clouds popped up in the sky, having read the forecast and decided that they would contribute to the forecast rain. Every two hours we stopped to stretch our legs, go for a walk, and take some photos.  The fat fluffy clouds got together and attempted to block out the sun.

I didn't light any fires.

Onwards!

We stopped at a roadhouse and I met a goat which did not run away. I couldn't tell you which roadhouse: they all blurred into one after a while.

More onwards!  We started to see hills in the distance, which was encouraging given we were heading toward Broken Hill which by definition should have hills in the vicinity.

Nearly there.  We had a dinner date waiting for us in Broken Hill.  I don't know what excited us more: the thought of catching up with friends or the thought of the roast dinner the friends were cooking.  Don't be silly, of course it was the friends.  But we were lucky to have so many friends who are excellent cooks.

Sunlight, clouds, and wide open spaces.

 Being somewhat focused on the roast dinner awaiting us, we didn't pay too much attention to where we stayed other than ensuring that it was at the same end of town as the roast dinner. There was a lesson to be learned there, as we discovered when we checked into our decidedly daggy little donga and realised that we had to be careful where we stood in the bathroom lest we fall through the floor. But the bed was comfortable, hopefully the roof didn't leak, the heater worked, and the roast dinner was waiting so the donga would do for the night.