Tuesday...27 May 2014

Well we made it to the Charleville show. It had the usual assortment of games in side show alley and the smell of manure pervaded the air where ever we went! We spent the biggest part of our day watching the sheepdog trials. The intelligence of these dogs is astounding.

Leaving Charleville, we went to Blackall which is 302 km further north.
Blackall has the only fully intact steam powered wool washing plant left in Australia. The Blackall Woolscour operated from 1908 to 1978 and although it is out of service the machinery is as functional now as it was then and runs from May to October each year as a tourist site.

Jack Howe, Australia's most famous shearer, shore a record 321 sheep in one day with blade shears at Alice Downs Station near Blackall in 1892. His record was finally beaten in 1950 but that shearer was using the modern electric driven shears!
This statue is outside the Barcoo hotel which Jack Howe owned at one time.

Now the other thing that Blackall is famous for is the legendary Black Stump.
Way back in the early days of our country, surveyors often used existing tree stumps to sit their theodolites on as they were more stable than portable tripods and therefore gave more accurate readings. The Black Stump is now petrified and it is considered that any country west of it is "beyond the black stump".