Longreach QLD

No Pics at the moment :( Telstra is slow in Longreach :(

Left a lttle earlier than usual and i finally saw my first huge roo jumping accross the road about 200 mtrs ahead. It was close to Augathella and i was wondering was I a little too early on the roads. I kept the speed down and have not seen another.

Augathella motel

First town i stopped at was Tambo. Very nice place, gardens well kept and surprisingly a few new houses. I have no idea what you do in Tambo or what the main business is, however most tourists stop here, relax by a small lake & feed the ducks and enjoy the weather.

Next stop is Blackall. I was told this place is a dump but's not. Again pride is taken by locals re their gardens But the houses are a little older.

Visited the famous black stump. It wasn't too much but at least i know what the phrase means. When they were settling the area, the serveyers used this stump as a You are here reference and built the town and infrastructure around it. Pics below.

I then visited the BlackAll woolscour. It was the largest and now the only still steam wool scour in the greater universe. It ceased operation in 1978 after about 100 years in operations. Back in those days, they cleanes the wool before it was transportes OS. By cleaning the wool, it weighed about 30-40% less which meant they could transport more clean via ship, mainly to UK.

Some stats if i can remember then;
- 4 out of 5 sheep on au are merinos
- in the early 1900's au had over 100 mill sheep
- today au produces about 50-60% of worlds wool
- in the early years, a farmer could sell his dirty wool to the woolscour or choosw not to and wait for ot to sell in europe & get paid a much higher sum after 8 months. Those who waited made a lot of $$$
- Au was made off the sheeps back. Amazing how this country (gdp / exports) relies on agriculture
- about 97% of au wool is exported
- what made BlackAll unique was the water used to clean the wool came from a bore @ 58 degrees all year round and the water was soft not hard. Very pure.

So next time you buy clothes, make certain its natural like wool / cotton. (mm water used for cotton is not good, buts for another day

Nowadays, the wool is shipped dirty as we have realised the by products of l lanolin is worth $$$.

Backup steam generator

Main Steam generator for the woolscour

Steam run metal lathe

That's one full fleece from 1 sheep. Huge!

Since the closure of the woolscour, BlackAll is decling. The town restored the woolscour and now its a great tourist attraction.

Back street in BlackAll

Pics below are of cactus trees which you see every now and again. This one is big, most are just 3 or 4 leaves and just higher than the grass line.

The road from Tambo to Longreach is a disgrace. I think all my filings are loose and i had the luxurary of picking the best line, unlike car / truck drivers. They are working on it & i rode on a new section and whilst better, not to compare to an eastlink. It was still rough :(

The motel room had a great view out my back door.