Photo shows our recently renamed wagon, "Matilda" under a convenient gum tree, for a coffee stop a bloody long way from anywhere.

We are back in Gladstone marina in the comfort of Sundari and considerably much cooler than we have been way out back. September is a good month to hit the road as it is not as cold as it could be in mid winter, but dry and sunny, while the kids are still at school.

We have driven around 5,000 km over the last few weeks and have driven inland up to near the Gulf of Carpentaria and the NT border. Apart from a few who managed to cross the border before Queensland shut it again after the virus outbreaks down south, the roads have almost been exclusively the property of Queenslanders. Of course, they can't go anywhere else, so like us have taken to the bush to see anything they haven't seen already of their own home state.

From Gladstone, we drove west past Rockhampton through increasingly dry and dusty small towns, some thriving because of the mines and many not doing so well. We spent several days exploring lovely Carnarvon Gorge, marvelling how we managed to hitch hike there so far from anywhere when we were in our 20s. We stopped at any where interesting we could, past small lakes and billabongs, looking for roos, emus, brolgas, budgies and cockatoos.



Carnarvon Gorge has a running creek in the central Highlands



Camped at Big Bend, half way up the gorge



Aboriginal cave paintings (or wet season graffiti?), probably around 10,000 years old at Cathedral Cave in the gorge.



Campsite at Lake Nuga Nuga, south east of Rolleston

The country got drier and hotter as we drove ever further from the coast. Most of the country past the hills and inclines of the Great Dividing Range is cattle country, but the cattle are often outnumbered by roos and emus. By the time we turned round after spending time near the NT border at Lawn Hill Gorge, the afternoon temps were hitting over 35 degrees!



Budgamulla, or Lawn Hill gorge, a lovely oasis in hot dry lands near the NT border

For once, we didn't have to bother about looking for campgrounds. 'Matilda' ain't too posh, but there's enough room to sleep on a mattress shoved in the back and all we did was to drive off a road behind a gum tree or under the shade of a coolibah tree by a billabong (seriously!) A 'matilda' by the way, was a slang term used in the late nineteenth century for a bedroll or swag that unemployed rural workers humped around with them while looking for work in the outback. Banjo Patterson's well known poem (and later song) 'Waltzing Matilda' was penned in the hard times of the 1890s, following the Shearers' Strike and the subsequent creation of the Queensland Labor Party and then the Australian Labor Party. It's funny to stand by the famous 'Tree of Knowledge' in Barcaldine, where the shearers strike leaders used to meet, as it is now in the heart of one of Australia's most conservative regions!



What's left of the Tree of Knowledge in Barcaldine has become quite a tourist attraction.

We now have to get the parts to repair the damaged furler and forestay on Sundari before heading out to the reefs and islands east and north of here.

More photos are in the gallery!