Julia Creek - Wed 4th November

Julia Creek is on the Flinders Highway 138 km east of Cloncurry. Julia Creek is also located close to the geographic centre of The Great Artesian Basin and is also home to an unique marsupial the "Dunart".

The Julia Creek tourist information and rest area in the centre of town.

As is the case with many small towns in Queensland's centre and west, the local councils are updating infrastructure for the locals and also to entice the traveller  to pull over and stay in the town for a while. Since our previous stop here, about 15 months ago, the town now has brightly coloured shades over the centre road parking bays.

Note the dust coating the canopies, they really need some rain out here.

This is the other side of the main street.

There is also 'piped' music along the CBD section of the road. The town's economy relies on cattle, sheep and the mining industry.

Some area "stats"

Some buildings along the main street have murals like this one.

Homes and business buildings have water cylinders that look a lot like the hot water heaters that we have along the coast, when in actual fact they are 'cool-down' tanks. The artesian water is very hot when it comes to the surface, therefore the water is plumbed directly into these 'cool-down' cylinders before it enters the plumbing system of the building, and "hopefully" it is cool water. Well, at atmospheric temperature anyway, and that is currently about 37 deg C. If you've ever wondered why outback men consume vast amounts of meat and very few vegies. Well, here's why, bananas $7 kg, broccoli $7 kg, a lettuce at $5, a cauli at $5.50 and a cabbage at $8 each. I'll wager that the shoppers buy frozen vegies out here.

Blackall - Tues 13th October

Blackall is located on the Landsborough (Matilda) Highway, 107 km south of Barcaldine. Following the plan of many Queensland outback towns the streets are very wide with generous median strips dividing the traffic.

Notice the tourist information board, bottom left of the photo, these are situated at buildings and points of interest in the town.

This gives the towns a "wide-open" feel of spaciousness like the wide open lands the towns have settled into.

This is one of the 'cross streets' intersecting with the main street. The old petrol bowser, left of photo, has a price per litre of 73 cents, obviously it has been shut down for quite some time.


It seems as though the north end of the town is being redeveloped to a greater extent, with businesses located in newer buildings. There is a great facility, the north end of town, for the aged beside a large Ambulance Station. No, I'm not looking to go into there just yet. Meanwhile the south end of town does have the Community Centre.

The entrance from the street to the Community Centre.

This is the main entrance to the Community Centre,

Blackall claims to be the 'home' of the Black Stump. Sadly, the original stump was burned out and has been replaced with a petrified tree stump in the same location.

Blackall also claims "Jack Howe" legendary sheep shearer and record holder of most sheep shorn in one day. 321 sheep in one shift of 7 h 40 m. (not with my back thanks)

Yet another Blackall claim, this is proclaimed to be the first bore put down to The Great Artesian Basin, oddly, Barcaldine also makes claim to this distinction.

The drill rig that was used for the first bore attempt.

The Masonic Lodge, constructed in the 1880's, still in use today, and in very good shape. The verandah was not part of the original construction but was added in the early 1900's.

The CP is small and cramped with old broken concrete pads and old but clean amenities.