There and Back Again 2022 – Day 3 – Kamilaroi and Ngiyampaa country

Today we travelled through Kamilaroi country and then Ngiyampaa country further west from Bourke to Cobar.

Good awning, Grey Nomad!

Just outside Dirranbandi, we saw this spoonbill – our ornithological experts informed me that this is a very pale form of the Yellow-billed Spoonbill. Thanks JG.

Hebel is just 4km north of the Qld/NSW border. The population is about 60. It was named after a German who ran the Cobb and Co staging post.

Bokhara River at the campground outside town. There is a lot of water about, every creek and river has a substantial amount.

The Hebel Hotel was built in 1894 and was a Cobb & Co coach stop. In the early 1970s, writer John Larkins and photographer Bruce Howard went on a 40,000km pub crawl around Australia, telling their wives, “Don’t wait up!” These are excerpts from the out of print book when the pair visited Hebel: “Once there were three things in Hebel, Queensland (not counting the dust). There was the Hotel, there was the store, and there was a pile of empty bottles which rivalled the pyramids of Egypt in size. Why, it was said that on a sunny day you could see them a-glittering from the Pacific coast, 350 miles east. But one day the council made them bury the bottles. And now there are only two things in Hebel (not counting the dust).” The bottles are gone but the character is still here.

We saw this sign at Hebel which is close to the Qld/NSW border. Apparently once the rabbits reach this point, they form a receding hare line.

Lightning Ridge is famous for mining of black opal. We saw some beautiful opals for sale.

The one above recently sold for $160 000. The rest are still there!

Catching up with a local who had a hard life

Stanley the Emu – about 10km south of Lightning Ridge is this enormous sculpture 18 metres high made from steel girders, VW Beetles and old satellite dishes by local artist John Murray. Stanley reminds me of the emu who was so much bigger than all the others emus that they disowned him. He was ostrich-sized.

It really is impressive, even more so in real life.

The Annual Opal Convention and Festival was on at Lightning Ridge and just down the road was the Goat Convention where delegoats from various parts of the Capra Kingdom meet to “chew the fat” … and anything else they get their teeth into (which is just about everything).

Walgett – Water Tower art of Jimmy Little, a celebrated and beloved Australian Yorta Yorta musician, actor and advocate whose career spanned six decades.

Walgett Court House built in 1880

We chanced upon a crackle of Red-tailed black cockatoos eating fruits of the White cedar trees in Walgett.

This one’s a girl, the males have a solid red patch on their tail feathers.

Under shady trees on the banks of the Barwon River (at the boat ramp) at Brewarrina.

Peaceful dove foraging on the banks of the Barwon River.

The Brewarrina fish traps are known by the Ngemba people as Ngunnhu. The Ngemba people used advanced knowledge of river hydrology and fish ecology to trap and catch large numbers of fresh water fish. A complex network of river stones arranged to form ponds and channels are one of the oldest known human-made structures in the world. They were underwater with minor flood level on this visit.

Fish are a celebrated part of culture and life in Brewarrina.

Emus between Brewarrina and Bourke

Mount Oxley from the Kamilaroi Highway

Bourke Water Tower Art is a tribute to Gundabooka man Percy Hobson who was the first Indigenous athlete to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1962. At only 20 years old, this local high jumper broke the record when he leapt over a 6’11″ high bar (2.1 metres) in Perth.