Broken Hill Township

 The real attraction in Broken Hill is the architecture.  Much of the town harks back to the past in its construction.  This includes much of the housing in the town that looks like it has seen better days.  The city has some beautiful old buildings.

The iconic Palace Hotel (Queen of the Desert fame) has amazing painted walls throughout.

Housing around the town has a feel of the 1920s about it.

Broken Hill Sculpture Park

 One of the local attractions at Broken Hill is the Sculpture Park overlooking the town.  While the sculptures were striking in the environment, the real fun was in trying to interpret the esoteric gobbledegook used to justify their construction and existence.

Broken Hill on the horizon.

To Broken Hill

 Our final dinner was in the Family Hotel.

Next morning we had a look around the Tibooburra area.  It was originally called "The Granites" after the granite boulders that dominate the area.

Of course the original industry was gold mining.  Most of the miners starved or lost everything in this harsh environment.

Accommodation was rudimentary, there was little water and no services.  It was a tough life.  Continuing south we visited Poole's Grave.  He was an assistant on the Sturt Expedition and died of scurvy.

On the way to Broken Hill, a constant in the landscape was the many dry water courses.

Tibooburra

 We arrived in Tibooburra where our interest centred on the Family Hotel that had once been owned by Claire's mother's uncle.  It was his investment around Leitchville that helped support the family.

The Pub has a reputation in the area and artists from Broken Hill would stay in the Pub and paint on the walls.  So there are valuable works by painters such as Clifton Pugh and Russell Drysdale on the walls of the pub.

Heading South

 We had a long drive to get to Tibooburra for the night.  We expected a very difficult road but as it turned out, a new road had been put through that was not on the maps.  The new road was not too bad -

although the signage was sketchy.  It seems old leaf springs are not great for signs.

Lunch was at an abandoned station.  It is hard to imagine the life people would have had out here, and the abandoned billy cart makes you wonder at the life children would have had.

Our journey south took us through the Warri Gate on the Queensland border.

The "Dig Tree"

 As Burke and Wills progressed, they left a support crew on the banks of Coopers Creek to assist them on return from the north.  The support crew gave up hope and left only hours before Burke and Wills arrived back some months later.  The support crew left a blaze on the trees with (ambiguous) instructions to dig for a cache of food left behind.  The blazes have since grown over and research indicates the tree initially designated the "Dig Tree" was the wrong one.  There is now a walkway to the campsite.

The tree originally thought to be the "Dig Tree".

The blaze on this tree is now thought to direct attention to another nearby tree (shown below) where the food was buried.

Death in the Desert

 It really is a challenging landscape in the middle of Australia. Away from the water the land can be powder dry.  Currently the Coopers Creek is flowing and more rain is expected.  The pelicans love the flowing water and seem to appear as soon as the water arrives.

The grave of Wills (of Burke and Wills) is down the creek from Innaminka

and King from the same expedition was found some time later.  King seemed to have the good sense to listen and learn from the locals and so he survived.

Although the Coopers Creek was only 200 metres away, the area was dry as a crisp!  More evidence of the extreme landscape was the sign showing the 2010 flood level.  It was hard to believe when this is considered to be a wet year.

Innaminka and Coopers Creek

 We arrived at Innaminka and organised accommodation.

Then we headed for Cooper's Creek and the site of the original grave of Burke.  The seriously flawed leader of the Burke and Wills Expedition.  In this part of the world, a "Creek" can be a dry river bed, a tiny trickle or a 40 km wide sheet of water flowing over the landscape.  There had been plenty of recent rain so the area was green and the Creek was flowing.

Lunch was under one of the massive eucalypts that lined the creek.

Burke died here after accepting food from and then ignoring the advice of the local indigenous population.  His body was later moved to Melbourne.

The Strzelecki Track

 It was a very "outback" experience at the Cameron Corner Store.  Drinks were plentiful, food was adequate, presentation and comfort were minimal.  The evening entertainment was to pin bank notes to the ceiling that would then be collected for the Flying Doctor Service.

We left our (very) basic accommodation to check out the Dog Fence between New South Wales and South Australia and Queensland.  One of the longest man made structures in the world extending over 4000km.

Then over a 100km of reasonably solid but rough road over sand dunes as we headed toward the Moomba Gas fields that supplies South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.  The roads around the gas fields were VERY different.

Next we tackled the Strzelecki Track aiming for Innaminka.