The main street came alive in the morning – plenty of locals and tourists out and about. Lots of locals saying g’day – nice change from the city.

And I thought the mascots of Kilcoy and Moore from Day 1 couldn’t be topped – I was wrong. Forget the Bilby Experience and Cosmos Centre in town – this guy is a tourism magnet.

Apostle bird in the morning sun.

There is a yellow-footed rock wallaby display at the National Parks office in Charleville.

They are amazingly quick and agile.

An emu lives here too. This one was kicked out of the flock – it was ostrich-sized.

A 20km drive out of town through Mulga scrub on the Diamantina Development Road to a recommended 3km long waterhole on the Ward River.

The old Ward River Bridge

This is a local yellowbelly fishing spot.

Ward River.

A mallee ringneck at Ward River

Back into town, we went along the Warrego River in search of birdlife.  Here is a pair of red-rumped parrots – male (above) and female (below).

The Cosmos Observatory is outside Charleville near the airport away from town lights. There is a visitor centre with interactive displays – like this one resembling the interior of a spaceship.

The highlight is the retracting roof that reveals the outback night sky in all its glory.

The viewing area once the roof has fully retracted.

One of the four Meade telescopes used in the viewing; programmed to look at star clusters, planets and nebulae. We saw the rings of Saturn through the telescope.

The Milky Way with Southern Cross in the centre of the image.

Scorpio towards the left hand side with the Milky Way; pointers and Southern Cross on the top right hand side of the image.