Out next stop Barcaldine was only 80kms down the road but was a must stop to see the Tree of Knowledge. We have mentioned in earlier blogs about the Shearer’s strike in 1880’s where the shearing shed in Oondooroo was burnt down with several others and the shearer’s striking for several months. The strike was its most active in Barcaldine and the ring leaders would sit under the Tree of Knowledge in the Main Street. Unfortunately for 10 of the ring leaders they were arrested and sentenced to 2-3 years hard labour which took the wind out of the strike and the shearers went back to work in not much better conditions. But from those meetings the Australian Labour Party was born and through the political party changes were eventually made for better working conditions.
The tree still stands in the middle of the town but unfortunately someone poisoned it in 2006 and so the dead tree stands with a pretty cool memorial around it. A clone was taken of the tree prior to its death and grows in the museum just down the road.
After our Wellshot experience of being packed in like sardines we were keen to have a little space so thought we would try the Showgrounds. Upon arrival the car park was full of cars and it was clear something was going on. We were just about to turn around but thought we would drive through a side entrance and found a bunch of people still camping around the other side of the grounds so after asking around we discovered it was Show day but camping was still allowed.
So we set up and then went to explore the show. Our favourite was the cattle herding competition with dogs but we also saw horse riding, wool and sheep judging, produce awards and even managed to buy some tasty homemade baked goods. Not believing our luck we also got to watch a rugby match between the two local sides and then finished it off with the best seats in the house for the fireworks! Considering we didn’t even know the show was on we couldn’t believe our luck.
We also visited the Australian workers heritage museum which was housed in the old school buildings. It had some interesting exhibits on key occupations such as railway workers, teachers, postal workers but unfortunately it looked as if nothing had been updated since about the 80’s and a lot of the interactive exhibits were broken. Not sure where the $20 a head fee is going?
In some of the small country towns we struggle to find places to walk Griff other than up and down the streets but Barcaldine had a lovely walk in the wetlands just outside of town where Griff was allowed. We even got to see some more Brolgas! It does help when the days are full of clear blue skies and sunshine! Queensland sure does know how to do winter.
Tim discovered that Barcaldine also had a golf course which just last weekend hosted the Queensland Ladies Sand Green Championships. So we were pretty excited to see what the course had to offer. The course was interesting and maybe the competition should have been called the “sand fairway and green competition” as there was not much dirt or grass on the fairway. Trying to hit an iron shot out of a sand fairway and get distance was something that I definitely struggled with! We quickly worked out that the little patches of fake grass stacked near the clubhouse were for us to carry around and play our shots off but we decided to just keep going as we were. The course had some interesting features being mounds around the greens rather than bunkers and tiny little water traps around the greens. Made for a fun round. Tim came out victorious by a long way, he is definitely being docked a shot next time we play!
Barcaldine has definitely been one of our favourite little country towns to stay in. It’s great to see so many towns really trying to make an effort to get tourists into and spending money in their towns. S