THE SURPRISES CONTINUE - QUILPIE - PART 3 - (A LOCAL LOOKOUT, A CHURCH WITH A DIFFERENCE AND AN UNEXPECTED LANDING) (1 - 3 JUNE 2019)

Whilst Quilpie and Yowah are both towns with an ongoing association with opals and grazing, they are really quite different. But they do have one other feature in common.....a nearby natural lookout on a high spot rising out of the surrounding plains, and coincidentally they both begin with the letter 'B'. 

We had seen 'The Bluff', now we were off to climb 'Baldy Top'. 





Just over seven kilometres south out of town along the Thargomindah road, we turned off the blacktop and made our way out along a quite wide gravel road












which brought us to the car park at the base of Baldy Top. Given the hype which surrounds a visit to this area, I was a little surprised to see how small it was, but we pushed on nevertheless.






At this stage I should add that most of the publicity related to this vantage point advocates a sunrise or sunset visit, but as we soon discovered, that would present a serious challenge even for those who are much younger and more agile that we.

We now know that this sign was most definitely one to be believed!

The initial stages of the walking track on the lower section was a doddle, 













but as we began the ascent in earnest, the narrow trail

















through the craggy, often crumbling outcrops, was strewn with small and very slippery pebbles which gave way underfoot with what seemed like unrelenting malice.











We pushed on with care, past several impressive rock caves
















and on through sparse stands of spindly looking scrub.












This was not a long climb, but one which we negotiated at a very slow pace for obvious reasons. We were more than pleased to reach the top, but then came the obvious question....had it been worth it?










As we wandered around the summit we could see back across the road which had brought us here 











to the roofs of the Quilpie township shimmering in the distant haze.















To the south, the grazing plains stretched endlessly to the horizon, 
















whilst to the west of Baldy Top, its smaller, less impressive neighbour invited another scramble to another summit.










After some time taking in all that lay before us, including the Cruiser in the car park far below, it was time for our descent, one which I knew full well was going to be much more difficult that the climb up.









Any slip here would mean that gravity would see to it that a real tumble followed, and even my much more agile and sure footed hiking companion exercised significant caution and made sure that she lowered her centre of gravity when necessary.





I have to say the ten minutes of so it took us to reach the bottom were damned challenging. The photos do not really show angle of the slope and with the scree of pebbles filling most of the centre of main track, our progress felt akin to negotiating an ice flow.

Foolishly I had forgotten to bring my 'Wineglass Bay' hiking stick with me. My descent could best be described as agonisingly slow and measured, but I made it to the bottom in one piece.....almost.

In a classic case of overconfidence, as we hit the gentle slopes of the last of the track and I was basking in the warmth of self-congratulation, bang!  As I turned to see where Liz was, the pebbles beneath my right heel finally had a victory and I made an instant and most inglorious descent onto my right buttock. Apart from the indignity it did bloody hurt and I paid for my arrogance for some days to come. How does that saying go.....there is no fool like an old fool?




There is no doubt that the scene from Baldy's top at sunset is spectacular, as this shot, courtesy of 'outback queensland' demonstrates, but we were now more than satisfied that this is a venture for much younger folk.




With our return to Quilpie we dumped the Cruiser and went for another trot around town, this time through a number of the back streets. We were on a mission to find one of Quilpie's most notable landmarks, a church with an opal alter no less.

But as usual, a number of buildings caught my ever enquiring eye as we strolled along the extraordinarily wide streets which seem to the the standard here. If that were not a feature in itself, the names certainly are.....Jabiru, Boonkai, Dukamurra, Chulunga to name but a few.

We already knew that St Finbarr's Church was located in Buln Buln Street, so needless to say that's where we headed. 






En route we passed the Government Offices building and the Quilpie Police Station next door. Now there was nothing too out of the ordinary here at first glance, but.....

.....look closely. Here, as we had first seen in Thargomindah, this home to the local constabulary was identified by a blue (hopefully flashing) light on top of a 'police' sign. I was beginning to think this must be a 'channel country' thing, but, as was also the case in Thargo, the resident copper was not on duty so I wandered on wondering still!











But not before this base of local law and order dished up another surprise, this time in the form of a quaint piece of garden art, presumably a seated constable! 

A little further down the street this large building dominated the eastern side and I was quite taken aback to see 















that the colourful badge above the door proclaimed this to be the (presumably) HQ of the local miners. The purpose of this very large building remains a mystery to me but it did look impressive.

The nearby Quilpie butchery

















and the excellent Paulsen Brothers supermarket were both establishments which had attracted our trade and subsequent satisfaction with the food on offer.












We were on track to reach our target but not before we passed an ecumenical rival, the very outback looking St Matthew's Anglican Church,









and, on the other side of the street, another impressive edifice with a distinctly 'bush' feel....this time St Joseph's Convent.














At last, here on the intersection of Buln Buln and Quarrion Streets, we reached our goal, which despite its high and imposing bell tower, 












seemed at first glance to be a modest building indeed. But as happens so often, here at St Finbarr's Catholic Church the exterior belies what is to be found inside.






The doors to this outback church are open throughout the day and all who visit the town are encouraged to fell free to wander in. 






We did just that, and there they were, in front of the rows of simple pews,















arguably the most extraordinary and certainly unique alter, lectern
















and baptismal font to be found anywhere in this wide land of ours. As you can see, all are faced with pieces of boulder opal.










Obviously there must be a story here, and indeed there is, one which can be obtained from several sources. I have chosen this excerpt from the church website itself.

"In 1976, the Priest at the time [at St Finbarr's], Father John Ryan, decided to compliment the opal mining background of the area by commissioning local miner, Des Burton, to install a border of opal around the carving of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. 

Instead, Des offered the Priest ‘a bit on the wall’. This turned out to be almost an entire wall, which is now installed on St Finbarr’s altar, lectern and baptismal font. 

Des Burton, the father of the boulder opal industry, is largely responsible for putting Queensland Boulder Opals on the world stage. He was a chemist with a pharmacy in Quilpie and spent many years mining opal and opening up the market worldwide. By the 1980s, Des had opened several retailing outlets including Quilpie Opals in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall."

What this remarkable result is worth was something I was unable to ascertain, and I remain somewhat gobsmacked by the fact that this display of opal has remain unsullied over all the years despite free and constant access and absolutely no obvious security. Food for thought, perhaps!

And there is another slice of 'Australiana' directly associated with St Finbarr's. The Church was designed by a Toowoomba Architectural firm which included one Bill Durack. Now Bill himself may not be well known, but his sister Mary certainly is. 

Born in Adelaide in 1913, Dame Mary Durack, AC, DBE, spent many early years on cattle properties in the Kimberly and went on to write 28 books, the most famous of which is the tale of her forbears who established large and successful grazing properties. 'Kings In Grass Castles'  is now recognised as an Australian classic. 






Bill and Mary donated the brightly coloured glass windows (rather poorly photographed by yours truly) which are a feature of the western wall of the church.






Wow! What a story and what a result in little outback Quilpie, yet another of its surprises.






Finally, before we move on into the Channel Country proper,  I had one last visit to make, this time to the Quilpie Airport at the western end of the town,











where yet another offering of local art lines the road to










the quite modern terminal building. But this was not what I had come to see.

















The original airport terminal is now a museum which allows visitors to gain an insight into two different aspects of Quilpie's history......and they could not be more different. 











The roadside tourist sign

and the pictures on the outbuilding next to which I parked the Cruiser needed no further explanation.














The walls of the interior of the old terminal building are plastered with sheets of information about the exploits of this famous aviatrix behind her wooden bust. She really was a remarkable woman and a brave pilot. Her story is well worth reading. 










The wall display included this photo of the greeting she received when she landed on a rocky rise just north of the town,















another of her in the cockpit of her Gypsy Moth aircraft











and a third of her taking off after her  brief and definitely unscheduled sojourn in Quilpie.






The decorations on the wall of the shed next to which I had parked included this chart showing



the stops she had made en route to Australia, but the thing which most interested me was the question of why she had landed in Quilpie at all. It was not on her schedule.

There are two theories, in my view rather sketchily and quite inadequately presented here in Quilpie. I was determined to make some more sense of all this. Who was 'Grabowsky', for example, and why should he be believed? And who was 'Scott' and what was his role in all this?

It turns out it is a long story, but I'll attempt to be brief. 

Once Amy had landed in Australia, the Castrol Oil Company, which was sponsoring her efforts, was determined to extract every ounce of publicity possible and in doing so virtually made Amy 'public property'. She was considered by the Castrol executives to be a servant of the company and bound to follow any instructions given her. This included presenting at any function they organised.

The 'Scott' referred to was one Captain Charles Scott, an ex RAF and Qantas pilot who was accompanying Johnson across Australia more or less as her guide. Sadly Scott was a chauvinistic and arrogant man who was demonstrably jealous of the status Amy had achieved. During the flight across the Australian outback he attempted to make a race out of it to denigrate her flying skills, and with his faster aircraft he flew ahead of Johnson once they had taken off from Longreach.

Whilst in Longreach, Johnson met Ian Grabowsky who was the Australian representative of De Havilland aircraft (the Gypsy Moth was a De Havilland plane). She found him to be a gentle and sympathetic man and she confided in him that she was suffering agonising period pain and was on the point of exhaustion. She was dreading the thought of the public reception planned for her on her arrival in Charleville and wanted to avoid it, but one Captain Stanley Bird, the Castrol 'watchdog' would have none of that. 

As a quick aside, don't you just love the phrase attributed to Grabowsky....'feeling femininely unwell'.....what a delicate way of putting it!

After taking off from Longreach en route to Charleville, Scott, true to form, outdistanced Amy and did indeed lose sight of her and she subsequently landed in Quilpie. So, lost or in the throes of period pain and unable to face a welcoming committee.....who knows?

On balance, I am than satisfied that Johnson did this deliberately, motivated by the very understandable need for some privacy and rest, after which she then flew on to Charleville much later in the day to a very different and much quieter reception (needless to say Captain Stanley Bird was less than impressed but there was nothing he could do about it other than refuse to speak to her.....what a grand bunch she was associated with!).

She never revealed the truth before her untimely death in the winter of 1941 when she parachuted out of a stricken aircraft into the Thames Estuary and was subsequently swept under the propeller of a vessel attempting to rescue her. Her body was never found.

So there you have it, another fascinating yarn discovered in the Australian bush!

And, as I mentioned earlier, the other exhibit here at the Quilpie airport details the establishment of the Quilpie Wool Scour, built in 1935 to clean greasy wool which, until the end of WW2 attracted better prices than the raw product. This was a first for the district and did much for the local economy, but I'll resist the temptation to rattle on in more detail!

So, dear readers, that's it for our take on Quilpie, a town about which we knew very little on arrival, but were about to leave very much the wiser.

And now we are off to tick of one of my long held bucket list items......crossing Cooper's Creek (or is it Cooper Creek?).