Really enjoyed that, thanks Oily, and I even got lost in the fascinating, but very long, advert in the middle about mindfulness with animals.
One thing which I would miss though on a job like that, the interaction with and company of other drivers, something I really loved about France and partly why I went back on the road after retirement with the car and the dogs.
@Mushroomman Can you just imagine it, a mobility scooter through Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan?
No real problem back in the '60s, but I think I might pass on that this time.
You need to set Google maps to avoid tolls and war zones. New York ~ Route 66 ~ L.A. ~ Brisvegus, simples, job done and you’re on the right side of the country.
Star down under.:
I used to pass it twice a week, on the way to and from Normanton/Karumba. ilfracombe.com.au/machinery-mile
As I recall, it was always on the right, between the road and train line, as you headed north.
Did you go via the Plenty Highway and Boulia or across the Barkley?
As far as I can remember, we used to go through Roma and at one time we went Beyond The Black Stump at Blackall. Another time we went via Charleville to visit a telescope to view the night sky for a couple of nights. Both times we visited The Qantas Museum and The Stockman Hall Of Fame, and I always regret not stopping just outside Toowoomba next to a road sign which read Darwin 3,200 kilometers to take a photo.
Now then S.D.U. can you tell me where I took these photos on a couple of occasions, and I shall give you a clue, it’s somewhere in Australia but I think that you might know it.
SDU:
You need to set Google maps to avoid tolls and war zones. New York ~ Route 66 ~ L.A. ~ Brisvegus, simples, job done and you’re on the right side of the country.
Just the slight problem of fitting the floats to the undercarriage and paddles on the wheels, I’ll get my local mechano on it rightaway. Navigation, no probllem, just dig out my trusty copy of Nicholl’s Seamanship and Uncle’s sextant and we’re good to go.
@Mushroomman Is there a real place called Beyond The Black Stump? I always thought it was a fable meaning anywhere Outback away from civilisation.
Star down under.:
I used to pass it twice a week, on the way to and from Normanton/Karumba. ilfracombe.com.au/machinery-mile
As I recall, it was always on the right, between the road and train line, as you headed north.
Did you go via the Plenty Highway and Boulia or across the Barkley?
As far as I can remember, we used to go through Roma and at one time we went Beyond The Black Stump at Blackall. Another time we went via Charleville to visit a telescope to view the night sky for a couple of nights. Both times we visited The Qantas Museum and The Stockman Hall Of Fame, and I always regret not stopping just outside Toowoomba next to a road sign which read Darwin 3,200 kilometers to take a photo.
Now then S.D.U. can you tell me where I took these photos on a couple of occasions, and I shall give you a clue, it’s somewhere in Australia but I think that you might know it.
3
5
Castle Hill, Townsville.
4
As above.
2
Could be anywhere.
1
Somewhere in Queensland.
0
Sorry I can’t be more exact, but I reckon it’s headed to the Bowen Basin.
Really enjoyed that, thanks Oily, and I even got lost in the fascinating, but very long, advert in the middle about mindfulness with animals.
One thing which I would miss though on a job like that, the interaction with and company of other drivers, something I really loved about France and partly why I went back on the road after retirement with the car and the dogs.
@Mushroomman
Can you just imagine it, a mobility scooter through Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan?
No real problem back in the '60s, but I think I might pass on that this time.
You’d never get that far! How would you ever get a mobility scooter over the first level crossing you got to in Romania?
SDU:
You need to set Google maps to avoid tolls and war zones. New York ~ Route 66 ~ L.A. ~ Brisvegus, simples, job done and you’re on the right side of the country.
Just the slight problem of fitting the floats to the undercarriage and paddles on the wheels, I’ll get my local mechano on it rightaway. Navigation, no probllem, just dig out my trusty copy of Nicholl’s Seamanship and Uncle’s sextant and we’re good to go.
@Mushroomman Is there a real place called Beyond The Black Stump? I always thought it was a fable meaning anywhere Outback away from civilisation.
I always thought the Black Stump was a church tower in Lincolnshire till I read the book
The book by Neville Shute?
The black stump is anywhere far from civilization, however, there are a few Black Stump pubs.
I’ve not visited the QANTAS museum but it’s on my bucket list. The Stockman’s Hall of Fame I can highly recommend, allow two days if you can.
Muttaburra and Winton are into dinasoar fossils and replicars, Winton also has a good truck museum.
Apparently this fella says he is now having to pay 150,000 Aus Dollars to get attract a good driver, would this be right and what does that equate to in British pounds, Buzzer
Buzzer:
Apparently this fella says he is now having to pay 150,000 Aus Dollars to get attract a good driver, would this be right and what does that equate to in British pounds, Buzzer
Sounds like an exaggeration Buzzer, but it’s all in the interpretation. Turd herders work long hours, they even have special log book allowances. The quoted figure sounds phenomenal, to eke out some sympathy for the employer, whilst trying to attract drivers with what appears to be $2,885 a week. The reality is that almost three grand a week will include all allowances, compulsory superannuation (10.5%) and Medicare levy. After deductions the employee will make $2,000 a week, certainly good money but you’ll definitely earn it in that sector and you’ll not see home for weeks.
Well, S.D.U. you really have surprised me as I thought that those two photos were just up your street, when you lived in Cairns.
I thought that another clue could have been in the first photo with The Table, if you were travelling up The Kennedy Highway towards The Tablelands or at least to Kuranda.
My daughter used to live in Kuranda and walk the dogs around The Barron Falls and I took those two photos on the way down The Ranges about three years ago.
Now I have absolutely no idea how these computer thingies work but a few months ago, after my computer decided to do an update all on its own. A little square box appeared near the top right-hand corner of some of the photos, that other people had put on this thread. I noticed that when I clicked onto that little box, a margin came up on the right-hand side of the page which showed loads of other truck photos.
So, after I had submitted those two photos on this thread last night, I clicked on that little box less than two minutes later and my photos, which I have never put on the internet before, came up in the right-hand margin. How does that work.
Edit.
I have just been looking on Google Earth and it seems that it’s now called The Henry Ross Lookout.
I do know of the lookout, but very, very rarely used the Kuranda Range. I preferred the Gillies if on the bike, or with a single trailer.
Here’s why. youtu.be/■■299c2W_Ag
Spardo: @Mushroomman Is there a real place called Beyond The Black Stump? I always thought it was a fable meaning anywhere Outback away from civilisation.
Hi David, I have just had to do some Googling about Blackall, as it was over twenty years ago when we stopped there for a couple of nights. But I do remember walking from the camp site to a school playing field which wasn’t too far away and there was something on a notice board next to what looked like a burnt-out tree stump. There was something about the tree being struck by lightning hundreds of years ago and that it was also an Aboriginal meeting place so, who knows.
Blackall back then, did seem like a ‘one horse town’ without the horse, so it could well have been classed as ‘the back of beyond’.
I must admit that the information board that we saw wasn’t as good as this.
What I do remember was that the area had been having a drought for several years and that most of the water came up from “The Great Artisian Basin” which is pumped up from deep underground. Whenever we stopped at a camp site, we always used their toilets and showers to save our fresh water supplies that we carried in the motorhome.
The water in the showers was hot, but there was a very strong smell of bad eggs or Sulphur, and after a shower we could still smell it on our bodies.
We ended up having to have another shower straight away in the motorhome and using up our precious drinking water, just to get rid of the bad egg smell.
Which has just reminded me, I wonder if Dig can remember stopping at The Sandfire Roadhouse near eighty Mile Beach in W.A.
I remember that they used to put clean cardboard cartons down on the floor as you came out of the shower, so that you didn’t get sand between your toes. It seemed a great idea to me.
I took these pictures a few years ago.
The person carrying the shopping turned out to be the owner of the Anglia, we got chatting, what a lovely lady she was.
Before we get too far from Blackall. redzaustralia.com/2010/11/o … -blackall/
If you reckon Blackall was a one horse town Mushroomman, you must’ve blinked and missed Tambo.
Which has just reminded me, I wonder if Dig can remember stopping at The Sandfire Roadhouse near eighty Mile Beach in W.A.
I remember that they used to put clean cardboard cartons down on the floor as you came out of the shower, so that you didn’t get sand between your toes. It seemed a great idea to me.
Yes indeed MRM .I first pulled up at Sandfire in 1971 in my ex military land Rover, I was greeted at the petrol pump by the proprietor mr Eddie Norton who’s greeting went along like this
Bet the roads rough, I replied I didnt think it was to bad worse north of Meeka next it was Bet its to hot [ me] quite pleasant Too many flies , a few but bearable Bet the petrols to dear I dont know you haven’t told me how much yet and where else could I get some if I dont like your price. His answer was" Your one in a million."
Start of a friendship until Eddie passed 10 years later but carried on by his son Ken even to today.
Eddie and his wife Kath and 3 sons moved to a 10acre block 300 kms north of Port Hedland and 290 ish south of Broome in 1970 lived in a caravan under a bower shed and started selling fuel out of 44 gallon drums with a hand pump the road house was structured towards the end if the year and grew from there.
I have spent a few nights there over the truck driving years and also since then when passing that way in the camper.
Irecall once being asked by Ken if I could mail a letter at the first post office i passed on my way south which I dually
did in Meeka I have no idea how important that letter was but I never paid for another meal there for at least a year.
The roadhouse has survived one or four cyclones being burnt to the ground and few other mishaps that have happened.
It was named thanks to the early explorer Leickhard who noted in his diary when in the area {The sand is red as if on fire]
Dig
A foot note in 2014 myself and2 friends and our wives in our Okas went into the great Sandy Desert about 900kms to the east of Sandfire one of our missions was to try and find an old Landrover abandoned there in 1965 by an old mate of ours who went looking for Lassiters reef the landy expired some where near Joanna springs Mick and his 3 aboriginal friends walked in 400kms not like us who drove into Sandfire 3 weeks later.
If we found it we were going to commission a team to recover it and bring it to Sandfire where it would be put on a Plinth ,Mick the owner was good friend of Ken and myself ,regrettably we failed maybe some else will stumble over it one day lets hope so.
@Mushroomman
Can you just imagine it, a mobility scooter through Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan?
No real problem back in the '60s, but I think I might pass on that this time.
You’d never get that far! How would you ever get a mobility scooter over the first level crossing you got to in Romania?
Never touched there, went via Belgium, Germany, Austria, Yugo and Bulgaria to Istanbul. Then, as mentioned above, diverted from the traditional route directly to Iran, south through Syria and Lebanon, then south again into Jordan and along the pipeline to Iraq. No trouble at the crossings for a 1956 Regent so I reckon a modern mobooter could manage it.
