Augathella and Blackall


Friday morning it was time to move on. My mate, John O’Malley and wife Sue, were on their trek home in their van. They are on a two to three month trip. We had been keeping in touch as it appeared we might cross paths. He recommended we visit Lara Wetlands which is about 25km south of Barcaldine. It just so happened that we would arrive there on the same day as them. So that was our destination for the day with a plan of two nights there.

Leaving Charleville the next town was Augathella. We stopped there for a coffee and to see if there was any reference to the Cunnamulla Fella song as there is a mention in the song of ‘The Augathella Fella’. There wasn’t BUT we found that the old Aussie movie ‘Smiley’ had its origins in Augathella. The ‘Smiley’ stories were written about a boy growing up in Augathella. Arthur Raymond wrote the stories about his childhood friend Didy ‘Smiley’ Creevey. Locals remember Chips Rafferty as a young shearer on Nive Downs Station. Chips was a star in the movie.








Aside from that claim to fame the town itself was nice. I love the humungously wide streets.





After that lovely interlude (except for the coffee, not so good) we headed for Blackall. On arrival we went to the Wool Scourer Exhibition. The times for seeing it did not suit us so we will save it for the next time we come through this town. We were later told that they have a big pool there which is a heated bore pool and a great camp ground at the end of town so it is definitely a place to stop at next time and we will be coming this way again. We had lunch there and checked out the shearers quarters that were on the property.



Back in town we checked out the Jackie Howe statue. Jack Howe was one of Australia’s greatest shearers, perhaps the best. In 1892, using blades he shore 321 sheep in 7 hours and 40 minutes. Back in those days they did not have slings to take the weight off the shearers, or pain killers and anti inflammatories.








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