DEEPER INTO THE BARCOO SHIRE - JUNDAH - PART 1 (THE TRIP AND THE CARAVAN PARK) (8 JUNE 2019)

As I think I have mentioned before, we had to be in Longreach on Sunday 9 June. A scheduled concert by the well known Australian outback singer Graham Roger at the largest of the Longreach caravan parks was more than we could resist. 

We had first been entertained by him on a filthy wet and cold night in Blackall nine years ago, and were keen to see if he was as good as we had remembered or whether our fond memories were more to do with the fact that we were sitting by a roaring camp fire, munching our way through a first class camp oven roast dinner (cooked by the park managers) and slurping a good red with delightful new found friends. 

Windorah to Longreach is a distance of just over 300 kilometres, and although that is just on the limit of our preferred travelling range for one day, we decided that an overnight stop made sense. On the Thomson Development Road, which was to take us up to Longreach, we had but two choices, the small town of Jundah or the even smaller hamlet of Stonehenge.

Jundah got the nod for a number of reasons, not least of which was that our bush intelligence network had told us that on the day of our potential arrival in Stonehenge, the town would be crawling with guests arriving from all parts of the surrounding district (and well beyond) for a popular local wedding. 

Apart from the fact that a site in the small local caravan park was problematic at best, we could well imagine being up most of the night either trying to block out the row of the revellers, or more likely, joining them!  Neither seemed a smart option......Jundah it was.

From my purely selfish personal perspective this decision came with another bonus....I would only have to tow the van for less than 100 kms. 

The weather had taken a real turn for the worse overnight, and we set out under grey and gloomy skies and the ever present threat of rain.

This was to be another morning of several highway jousts, firstly with emus (don't get me started on emus...as I have said before they must have been put on earth to make every other living creature look intelligent!),

and then cattle (although in this part of the country straying stock are very much the norm.....anyone driving these roads without keeping a sharp lookout is courting disaster).

Whilst Mother Nature may not have been kind with the weather, she made up for it in other ways. Today we were treated to large tracts of blooming wildflowers, across the grazing plains

and along the highway verges.

Today's trip also brought a real change to the topography. For much of the hour or so we were on the road, we drove through areas where wide open plains replaced the trees and shrubs on either side of the narrow strip of blacktop.

Fortunately the weather held for the most part, but by the time we were about 10 kms out of Jundah, the gloom took on a much more physical presence

as rain pelted onto the windscreen. Liz immediately downed tools as far as photography was concerned to help me focus on potential obstacles on the road ahead,

which were not long in coming, but by now we had driven through what was a passing shower and had clear vision in front of us again.

We were more than pleased that the clouds were beginning to lift by the time we were on the final approach. Setting up in the rain is never fun.

The evidence of the downpour was clear to see on the road as we reduced speed on the outskirts of Jundah

and approached what was to be out last river crossing for some time,

this time over the Thomson which, like Cooper's Creek and the Barcoo River, was flush with the results of the recent floods and rain.

All arriving in Jundah, from any direction, are greeted by not only the bland 'formal' town sign, but also another, something which as become a real tourist landmark.

These galvanised iron welcome signs, of which there are several and which are unique to Jundah, replicate the historic shop front which can still be seen in the town's main street. Each sign carries information boards detailing some aspect of the town's history and all are linked by walking trails. Our flying visit did not allow us time to tramp these trails but this is firmly on the agenda for our inevitable return visit.

After one last and utterly unexpected highway tussle on the final few metres of our approach into town, where I had to be more than careful not to ensnare the van in the roadside mire as I wisely yielded way,

we soon found the sign we had been looking for

and headed on down another very wide main street 

to the entrance to the Jundah Caravan Park. We had no sooner come to a halt just inside the park grounds when a cheery chap launched from a nearby building and introduced himself as Shane, the park caretaker.

Although, as you will soon see, the park was (for us) unexpectedly crowded, our early arrival meant that we could have the pick of the unoccupied sites on offer, which, to my surprise included several huge drive-thru's.

With our new host's full approval, we selected our patch for the day where I was delighted by the fact that I would not have to unhitch.

With a set-up which was now limited to lowered legs, power and water connection and a raised TV aerial (the reception in these remote towns was proving to be another pleasant surprise.........it was outstanding) we were out and about in no time.

As was the case in Windorah, the park here in Jundah is council owned. Shane told us that he had taken up a two year contract to manage park activities, and from what we saw he was just the man for the task. 

Whilst the park roadways and sites are unsealed (and showing clear signs of the recent rains), the fine red pebbles were holding up remarkably well in the wet,

and, as we found at Windorah, much work was underway here to soften the potentially harsh surrounds with shrubs,

lines of trees between sites
















and garden areas. And if you look beyond the plants of this small bed you will see that the van on this site had obviously come through much worse than we had to get here.






I later had a yarn to the owner to discover that he had come in from Longreach where a significant stretch of the road was under repair, work which had to be by-passed on a very muddy deviation road. I almost wished I hadn't asked....I now knew we had that to look forward to tomorrow!

The newly finished ablution facilities here were, again like Windorah's, first class,














as was the nearby large and well equipped camp kitchen.












The development of this park is still very much a work in progress, and at the risk of repeating myself, I have to again complement the Shire authorities for the way in which they are putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to encouraging tourism in the Barcoo Shire.







Their efforts seem to be paying off handsomely. The park was very well occupied, both here in the front section, 














and in the more open spaces at the rear, and like Windorah, this comes at a mere $16 per night.

Another feature of this park was the daily afternoon camp fire. One of Shane's tasks was the delivery of the necessary fuel, but as another service, particularly to the many who (as we had seen in Windorah) made Jundah their winter retreat,











he would also drop off wood for their personal fire pits.

We had too much to fit into this flying visit to spend time around the afternoon fire, but I am sure this would have been a great spot at which to glean more information about the local area and well beyond.









We could not have been happier with our new surroundings, which were much more than we had anticipated. And as he settled back to luxuriate with his daily brush, Max was pretty pleased too.





With pet care complete and his nibs back on his bed, it was time to take in the town, which proved to be more than interesting.