04-06/05/26 Waiting in Wilcannia

Wilcannia was the part of bicycle touring that happened in between riding the bicycle. No bicycle riding happened at all, other than a quick spin out to East Tilpa Road and back again. 

Still here.

The day dawned cold and clear with a bright southerly breeze, perfect for drying out roads. In between regularly checking the road status I explored Wilcannia and conducted quality control sampling at the cafe. 

The stretch of river on which Wilcannia lay was originally inhabited by the Barkindji, 'people of the river', the descendants of whom continue to live in Wilcannia. Colonisation was not kind to the Barkindji and Wilcannia is considered one of the most socially disadvantaged postcodes in NSW. The town was an alcohol free zone, so all the pubs were closed and shuttered. The Community Grocery Store opened every day apart from when it didn't. 

The Council Chambers housed admin staff who couldn't tell me why the road was closed or when it would open. On Tuesday afternoon they decided it was open, but on Wednesday morning when I went to leave town the big Red CLOSED sign was up again. "Oops", said the Council admin. "We made a mistake." I considered finding a lift to get to Bourke via Cobar. I was also tempted to just ride up the road anyway; after all how wet could it still be?

I went for walks around town, past multitudes of Government services staffed, when open, by civil servants who preferred to live 300km away in the much more congenial postcode of Cobar. I took a lot of photos of the lovely old sandstone buildings built during Wilcannia's golden era as an important river port.

Ruins of the Catholic convent.

Post Office.

Court House; The Queens Head, shuttered and closed; old store fronts repurposed with rammed earth walls.

Police Station; old wharehouse directly backing to the river; The Athaeneum; the current pharmacy and adjoining dwelling.

Not everything was golden during the paddle steamer days, mind you. Apart from the fickle rising and falling of river levels there was a small matter of river captains who probably should have stayed on dry land at all times. The stand-out was one Charlie Payne who left Bourke for Wilcannia with one steamer and two barges on a rapidly falling river. The first barge sank at Dunlop Station, the next at Curranyalpa Reef. Captain Charlie continued on, sinking the steamer near Wilcannia and arriving triumphantly in the steamer's dinghy. The reactions of the owners of barges/cargo/steamer were not recorded.

Behind the caravan park the Wilcannia weir provided a sound track of rushing water. Nagoora burrs lined the banks of the river, a secret community of dragonflies and butterflies thriving in their undergrowth.

Many years ago a small sister had a problem of nagoora burrs matted in her hair.  I dealt with it using scissors rather than a brush.  It was a long time before she forgave me.

Blue Skimmer draonfly.

The caravan park ebbed and flowed with travellers recalibrating their plans due to closed roads. I drank coffee with other solo women travellers and got to know the cafe staff rather too well. On Wednesday Jill set up a stall on the cafe verandah, selling flavoured salt which she harvested from the salt lake on her property outside of town. Jill was sympathetic to my plight and hailed a man in high vis as he bought his sandwiches.  He wasn't sure but thought the East Tilpa Road was open, as long as one applied bucket loads of caution. I decided that was my plan for tomorrow, and plodded back to the caravan park to set up for another night.

Home for another... etc etc

Four hours later a ute zoomed into the park, bounced across the grass, and pulled up next to me. Mr high vis stuck his head out of the window. "The grader broke down," he told me. " I had nothing else to do so I took a quick spin up West Tilpa and down East. They're both good to go. I called my boss and told him the roads can open."

I could have kissed him. We had a long and detailed conversation about the condition of the roads and which one had more dust, and then he had to take a phone call and zoomed off. "I knew it!" Exclaimed Roger when I told him the good news. "The council was just being slack and hadn't sent anyone out to check!"

I went to bed early, to get the night over quickly. Tomorrow, I ride.