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On My Own - Australia and New Zealand 2002 Emmalee Tarry |
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The Barkley Highway |
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After you cross the border of Queensland you leave the dry forest and enter an endless grassland. I stopped early in the afternoon at Camooweal because the next stretch of road to Mount Isa is the notorious lane and half highway.
It is only 180 km, but why would anyone build a highway a lane and a half wide especially out here where land is cheap. It is a touchy point with Australians. One man defended it vigorously because he said the traffic is light and doesn't justify two lanes. And he said the population of Australia is much less than that of the US. Yes, all that is true, but a lane and half highway just doesn't make any sense. I think the real answer lies in the Queensland government which has had some problems with corruption. The politicians don't care about the people along this road. Surely it would make more sense to pay people to rebuild this road rather than paying welfare. It would stimulate the economy of the region and encourage tourism. Besides how much would be saved in health care for people injured in head on collisions.
Camooweal is a depressing place. The campground here was the worst in Australia. It was without grass and had only a few trees, rotting structures and barking dogs. The town itself has little to offer. A single building contains a grocery, new and used clothing store, and post office. On one or two side streets there are houses and a school. I drove around the whole town without seeing any birds other than crows.
The next morning I woke up at 4 AM because of a loud television blaring from the manager's house. Either someone else likes TV at 4 AM or he just did it to get us all out of there early because when I got out of bed he was walking around with one of the dogs and greeted me with a cheery " Another beautiful day in paradise." .
I left paradise at 7 AM. Ten kilometers out of town, suddenly the line down the middle of the road ends and the road narrows. This is the lane and half and it is an abomination. True the traffic is very light and most of the time you can drive down the middle of the road. If you meet a car you are supposed to move over to left, and put one wheel on the unpaved shoulder. Nobody says anything about slowing down and my observation was that no driver slowed down. Certainly do not expect the road trains to slow down. Waiting until the last minute to pull to the side of the road is very dangerous because there are a number of tourists like yourself who may make a mistake and pull to the right. If both cars pull to the same side you have a high speed head on collision. An accident like this occurred between two four wheel drive vehicles on a dirt road near Ayres Rock killing five people. An Italian driver pulled to the right. The British driver correctly went left. Everybody ended up dead.
Even if both drivers pull to the left, at high speeds both cars will throw rocks to either side. This increases the risk of a broken windscreen. An entrepreneur in Mount Isa advertises 24 hour windscreen repair. I bet he does well.
Drive defensively. Slow down or even stop well ahead of an approaching vehicle and get completely off the road. This is especially true if you meet or are passed by a road train. It is very hard for the truck driver to pull off to the left and they are certainly not worried about you hitting them with rocks. I never saw a road train slow down. In most places the shoulders are wide enough for you to pull off the road. Don't wait until the last minute as you may come to a very soft or narrow shoulder. There are a few places where because of a hill or curve you can't really see oncoming cars. Each time I came to one of the blind places I stayed far to the left even putting one wheel on the shoulder.
I had to pull off the road a total of 22 times during the 2 hour drive to Mount Isa. There are stretches of two lane road along the 180 km. One stretch was about 30 km long.. After Mount Isa the road at least always has two lanes, but it remains rough and narrow. Don't be afraid of the Barkley Highway. Do resolve to drive it carefully and yield the right of way.
Life at the Waterholes
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The drive continued with stops every time I came to a bit of
water. Enormous bridges span dried up river beds. Some are totally dry. Others
have a bit of standing water and every now then a flowing stream. At one water hole I had a flock of Diamond Doves the only time I saw this bird. Egrets, herons and Little Pied Cormorants showed up in small numbers like this guy who flew up on the branch to wait for me to leave. |
| This very muddy Blue-winged Kookaburra eyed me from a
tree. Around Kakadu you will only see the Blue-winged Kookaburra. Both can be
found in Queensland. Look for the absence of a dark line through the eye to
identify a Blue-winged. At this same stop I had my first Red-capped Robin. I am doing well on robins. I am determined to see as many species as I can. |
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Out in the grasslands I spotted this Daddy Emu with his little stripped chick. Male Emus take care of their chicks. I could only see one chick with this guy. Perhaps because of the drought the number of chicks in lower. Another Emu had a group of 3 immature birds behind him. Immatures are lighter in color and lack the blue or white on the neck. |
Marine Fossils
I arrived in Richmond about 4:30 PM and found a nice campground. at the top of a hill and next to a small park. The park has a display of rounded stones called "moon stones". They are not fossils but may contain fossils.
Richmond has an excellent museum to display the many marine fossils found in this part of Australia. During the last ice age the ocean was some 300 feet deeper and this whole area was one shallow sea. Many fossils remains of marine reptiles have been found here and there are active digs still in progress. The museum contains some excellent examples of the marine fossils found in the area. Outside the museum is a model of a large marine dinosaur called Kronosaurus Queenlandia. The complete fossil remains were found by Harvard geologist William Schevill and the reconstructed skeleton is now housed in the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge. I will make an effort to see the skeleton.
I have been looking for an Internet terminal for several days to catch up with E-mail from home. Outback campgrounds often do not offer internet. The local libraries usually do and as an added bonus you get to meet the librarian a great source of information about the area. In Richmond the library was across the street from the museum and for AU$2 I was allowed to surf as long as I wanted.
I spent a final night along the Barkley Highway at Charter Towers a famous gold mining town. Somewhere outside of town I saw my fifth and final Bustard.
The following day I drove all the way to Caines. I am not happy to be back on well traveled roads. I miss the solitude and beauty of the outback. Queensland is the best overall birding in Australia. I will stay here until I have to head south for the September Wollongong pelagic. I leave the Red Center with 223 birds on my list.
End: The Barkley Highway
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