5 November 2016 - St George to Cunnamulla

Another bright, sunny... and hot morning, as we left St George for the 300km journey to Cunnamulla along the Adventure Highway.

Before leaving St George we passed by the Riversands Vineyards and forced ourselves not to have a tasting.  We have been there before.

051116 Riversands Vineyard

051116 Riversands Vineyard

051116 Riversands Vineyard

051116 Riversands Vineyard

120 km west of St George we came across Bollon, where we stopped for morning tea at Deb's Cafe.  Deb's husband gave us a rundown on Bollon's shearing history.  He was a wealth of information.  Bollon is on Wallum Creek and it has its own small weir and a series of protective levee banks.

051116 Bollon's Story

051116 Rayner Place in Bollon

051116 Bollon's levee bank

051116 Bollon's weir on Wallum Creek

051116 The highway through Bollon

We travelled through scrubby country as we headed west and entered sheep country. However we did not see one sheep until we came across one on a street in Cunnamulla.  We passed one herd of cattle along the way and a couple of emus.  The rest of the stock must have been back from the roadside and out of sight.

051116 Two emus cooling off in the shallow water

The further west we went the more wildflowers appeared.  They are mostly small blossomed flowers and, while they were massed, they did not excite the senses the way they did in WA.

051116 A little bit more colour

051116 Nondescript yellow wildflowers along
a broad watercourse

051116 Some white in amongst the yellow.

We stopped at one stage to photograph the emus in the distance.  There were a half a dozen wildflowers on the roadside, which we would not have seen had we not stopped.

There were several spots where water from recent rains remained in very shallow ponds, some of which were quite large.

051116 Water remaining after recent rains

051116 A shallow lagoon

We arrived in Cunnamulla with a temperature of 36 degrees.  Being Saturday, commerce in Cunnamulla had ceased and the town was devoid of people.

Fortunately our single sheep and Cunnamulla Fella were on show.

051116 Not the Cunnamulla Fella but our lone sheep

051116 Cunnamulla Fella

The Cunnamulla Fella is a large bronze statue in the centre of Cunnamulla. It symbolises the town's history through its young men who, back in the 50's and 60's, after working long hours mustering sheep, chasing scrubbers and breaking horses, would squat around the campfires on their saddles or swags, yarning about the days events.  Stan Coster wrote a song The Cunnamulla Fella which Slim Dusty later immortalised.  The Paroo Shire decided to turn folk legend into a reality and conducted a nation-wide competition for artists to sketch up, in any medium, their vision of the Cunnamulla Fella. Michael Nicholas won the competition and his sketch was converted to a bronze sculpture by Archie St Clair and was placed in its present position on 18 October 2005.  It stands on the lawns of the Shire Hall in the centre of town.

We have the air conditioner on and it is now a pleasant 24 degrees in the caravan at 5.42pm.