Monday 28^th

We were off early on the tour with a local operator, a 7.30 departure. The flow doing the tour is a local character and a real diamond in through.

We headed for a nearby town called Aramac. During the drive there we were entertained by Tom Lockie, the tour operator, telling stories of the great cattle theft where a bloke stole 1000 head of cattle from around Aramac and drove them all down to Adelaide to be sold. The police caught up with him but he got off on a technicality, as the prize bull, a white one and the prime piece of evidence, was stolen from the police lock up the night before the jury was to retire for a verdict, and another was substituted. He told it so well.

A replica of the white bull is in the main street of Aramac.

We then set off to the outback of the towns and headed for a place called Grey Rock which was and old Cobb and Co station and a pub in the middle of nowhere. The grey rock refers to a large cliff near the place were people have been carving their name in the rock since the 1880s. Ahhh! Time for morning tea – Billy tea out of a really billy , over a roaring fire accompanied by muffins and rock cakes.

On we go. We took off again and eventually entered a cattle station owned by a friend of Tom’s. Tom has exclusive use of this area to show his clients. We drove down fence lines that that were still standing and in good condition since they were first installed in 1886, no rust out here and the fence posts were made from Gidyea trees – very hard wearing and impervious to termite attack.

We eventually arrived at our next port of call. This is a cliff face with rock carvings dated to be 10,000 years old where the carvings would extend over 40 metres.

There were carvings of kangaroo paws, emu Paws, stencils of hands and feet. There were also carvings which have been studied in London and they turn out to be a star map of the Milky Way and a representation of the Big Bang. There was also a very clear representation of the Southern Cross carved into the rock. Absolutely amazing.

Southern Cross

Tom walked back a hundred metres to the bus to get lunch ready while we were left for another 30 minutes or so to wonder about the wall.

A lunch of billy tea, sandwiches and fruit cake with a lot of talk of the carvings and plenty of talk from Tom of the bush and its characters, complete with photos and copies of old letters and telegrams about the people of the times.

Off again in our Toyota Coaster bus. These buses are the best for the country up here and they are regarded as the best vehicle for conversion to motorhomes going around. Tom just belted down red dust roads all day in this thing and it just went were it was supposed to go and still gave a very comfortable ride.

The trip home was via an ochre area where various colours of ochre could easily be gathered. The aborigines used this for their ceremonial occasions but the locals also used this to trade with other tribes to the North for the hard stones to make axe heads and cutting blades and the like. The local area does not have the hard stones found elsewhere, so they traded the ochre which was not found in other areas. Tom said that the use of ochre for ceremonies had only been going on for about 400 years, even though the locals had been here for 50,000 years.

The ochre caves

It was a long day and we didn’t get home till 6.15.

We walked across the road and had tea at a restaurant across the road and collapsed into bed. Tomorrow we will be leaving Barcaldine but it is a beautiful area with lots to see. Tomorrow on the road again.

Tonight we say goodbye to Tony and Clare as we head North and they turn East. We have basically been together since Charleville and that seems a long time ago. We hope they find some big rubies in Rubyvale.

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