Day 2 - Roma to Barcaldine

Day 2 - 2 August

Barcaldine or bust!

The good thing about wimping out and staying in a cabin for our first night at Roma, was that we could make a very early start in the morning and beat the caravan traffic. This meant that we had a very rapid run through to Mitchell, where Barb's mum worked at the hospital mid 1940s. We failed to find a cafe or servo open for breakfast here or locate the hospital, so with tongues hanging out we pushed on for Morven instead.

Truckstop/servo at Morven

Now that's a BIG Breakfast!

Hooray! There was a truckie stop/servo open in Morven serving gigantic hearty cooked breakfasts. Big on the protein and carbohydrates nearly as much as the saturated fats, this was the sort of meal that'd stand by you all day (as Estelle was wont to say). As indeed it did. No need to stop for lunch.

There's almost 200 km of nothing between Morven and Tambo. The highway seemed endless, broken only by the dodging of quite large kangaroo road kill on the road, and  we chewed through the kilometres arriving at Barcaldine mid-afternoon.

After checking in to our campsite we drove into town to have a look at the Worker's Heritage Centre and also see what remains of the famous Tree of Knowledge.

John backs into campsite at Barcaldine.....with a bit of help

The Heritage Centre was quite interesting. They have a newly planted sapling Tree of Knowledge called "The Young Un", being the only living tree grafted from the original which was poisoned back in 2006. There's also a whole heap of old buildings and displays about the Great Shearer's Strike which was the birth of the Labour Party in this country.

Which way to Longreach?

Replica train station

John in a railway carriage display

Picture of a train derailment near Yeppoon

Cute train station

Old police station

The Worker's Heritage centre

The "Young un"

Pond at Worker's Heritage

Painting of Shearer's strike

Tree of Knowledge

Since when did my old classroom become a museum exhibit?

We then went to visit the memorial to the Tree of Knowledge. It is surrounded by a rather lethal-looking wooden structure to protect it. I wouldn't want to be standing underneath if any of the hanging sharpened timbers come loose.

Tree of Knowledge memorial

Sharpened wood hanging down
Think Sword of Damocles

When we got back to camp we picked up our chairs and a mug and went to the camp kitchen where there was a free billy tea and damper for the camp guests. They didn't mention that we would also have a talk by a colourful local identity, Tom Lockie, who runs the Artesian Tours company. He was a true blue Aussie bloke .... he could talk the leg off a camp oven and tell a tall yarn, blue joke or bush ballad with the best of them. He was very entertaining!

Tom Lockie tells a yarn

Billy tea and damper and a tall story

Local character

The Barcaldine Tourist Park was a great place to stay. At just $27 a night for a powered site that included the billy tea and raconteur .... it was terrific value.

We were very pleased that we managed to erect the camper trailer in under half an hour and take it down, repack and have our morning showers in under an hour. John: Barb very kindly omits to mention that we had to back into our site.  Backing with trailer ... well the theory is fine ... one of the camp hands was very understanding and gave precise directions.  Phew!