Bras bullocks and bridges.

I have said before that a lot of these out of the way small towns and villages have to have something to catch the travelers attention, and Wyandra, some 100kms south of Charleville on the Bourke road, is no exception. We would have driven by but for the “Bra Fence”, which is literally that, a fence running some three hundred metres made up of bras!.

About 100kms south of the New South Wales border lies Bourke, another outback town that was established by Major Mitchell in 1835, when he erected Fort Bourke Stockade.

Just north of Bourke is Kidman’s Camp, which is where we are staying. However our accommodation is nothing like camping, we have a luxurious log cabin, aircon, luxury bathroom, all mod cons in a lovely green park with two swimming pools. After some of the places we have laid our heads this is indeed luxury.

Just down the road is the bridge over the River Darling, and next to it is the original bridge, built in the 1890s to carry the wool to the railhead in Bourke itself. Still in great condition, it has a small lifting span in the middle to allow the paddle steamers to pass through, which plied the river until the late 1930s. Bourke incidentally had the furthest inland custom house in Australia, as the Darling and lower down the Murray is navigable most of the year down to the Southern Ocean.

The town itself has many interesting old buildings, not least is the courthouse, which was built in 1900 at a cost of £9500. The crown on the spire indicates a maritime court, and again it is the furthest inland maritime court in Oz. Still used, it is open to the public when the court is not in session.

Almost next door is the Post Office, which was built in the 1880s, replacing the original that was built out of town at Fort Bourke Station. The whole town has been subject to severe floods over the ensuing years, and the 1890 flood height is marked half way up the wall of this building.

Just out of town is the ‘Back O’ Bourke’ visitor centre, which tells the legends of the back country, interesting, although we have seen better. We spent a couple of hours at an Outback Show there, where we saw demonstrations of working Clydesdales horses, Bullock Teams, Camels and working dogs. I found the bullock teams most interesting, I had not realized they were so biddable,  just calling the names of a couple of them brought them to heel.

The guide also showed us his skill with camels, much less biddable, in fact contrary at times. Eventually he got the saddle and bridle on him, and managed to mount and ride.

The Clydesdales are lovely animals, but he told us that they are not really suitable for the Australian climate, their white noses get sunburned and they are unable to eat and lose condition very quickly if not treated promptly. Most of the draught horses here were cross bred to prevent that problem.

Kidman Park has a campfire poet, and in the evening we gathered to enjoy his bush poetry. Twenty of us gathered round the campfire, all equipped with drinks and our own bowls and forks, because we were to be served a meal  Stew, rice and dahl duly arrived along with some quite fascinating poetry, all accompanied by chords on a guitar. And then the lemon tart with cream – to die for! A great evening.

Bourke is another interesting place worth visiting