{"id":22741,"date":"2020-06-09T20:16:43","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T10:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=22741"},"modified":"2022-04-22T08:12:31","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T22:12:31","slug":"back-of-bourke-australia-%f0%9f%87%a6%f0%9f%87%ba-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=22741","title":{"rendered":"Back of Bourke, New South Wales \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: 7-8th June 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelled: 304 kms from Lightning Ridge to Bourke in the North-West Region of New South Wales  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visited: Brewarrena and Bourke <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stayed: Mitchell Caravan Park $34 with all services. S30.09023, E145.94957<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget: NA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Heading south on the Castlereagh Highway there is a reasonable amount of traffic, mostly caravans and a few motorhomes intermingled with the trucks. Back in Walgett we refuel at a discount truck stop before turning west on the Kamilaroi Highway for Bree (Brewarrina).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Heading out of Walgett on the Kamilaroi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Almost at Bree another wide load.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We arrive in Bree in time for lunch and a wander about town. It\u2019s Sunday of a long weekend and seemingly everything is closed except the IGA and the Visitor\u2019s Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We find a parking spot overlooking the Barwon River weir, have lunch and relax after 2 hours or so on the road. The Barwon meets the Culgoa just around the bend and it\u2018s the Darling River for the next 1472 kms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Walking out to the weir. The Barwon River continues on its way.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The fish steps around the weir.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Noting the English reg on their Mercedes all-terrain camper we go over and have a chat to Joan and Simon. They shipped their camper over for a two year tour of Aus. They have just enjoyed a 10 week covid stop in Broken Hill and loved the place.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Some samples of Bree street art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nice traction engine in the park.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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We find the Visitor\u2019s Centre is open. They have an interesting historic photo gallery of the local pioneers as well as information on the lives of the local Aboriginal peoples. We chatted to the ladies working there for ages, two young women, obviously very proud of their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Follow the fish to the Visitor\u2019s Centre.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Anyway the day is getting away and it\u2018s still 100kms to Bourke so we return to the Kimilaroi and continue west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Map of Bourke after zooming out to provide perspective to NSW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are two camping areas in Bourke, we take the one closet to town, the Mitchell Caravan Park. It\u2019s still a kilometre into town, but it\u2019s only 10 minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As soon as we\u2019ve settled we head off to do some exploring.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Probably the most striking building in Bourke, the Court House.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Post Office.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Formerly the Bank of London. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Whilst Bourke is a lovely place to walk around and explore, everything is closed except the pub and the IGA (supermarket). We were a little disappointed to find even the tourist info closed and the adjoining Crossley Engine was not running at its scheduled time. Anyway we battle on walking the banks of the Darling River before making our way back to the Winnebago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sstjutr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Selfie on the Darling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We have some local lamb chops accompanying our Bingara sausages on the BBQ at the caravan park as soon as the sun sets. Bit of FaceTime with Indiana and Cooper followed by an episode of Jack Ryan (S2) and our day is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fairly grim start to our second day in Bourke. We have walked around Bourke and cannot find anything open for a coffee. Things are grim, Pam wants me to drive her home and make her a coffee…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a late breakfast we take the drive out to North Bourke to the Back of Bourke Exhibition Centre, which is actually open. We pay the extraordinary sum of $21 (pensioner) per head to enter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The exhibition centre is a series of the shade sails over the buildings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Simulated artesian bore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Breaker was local at one stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lots of history on the Darling River.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The $42 probably didn\u2019t set us in the right mood to really enjoy the exhibition. It\u2019s room after room of old pictures which are interesting in themselves but each is accompanied by long winded information panels which we found just too much. So we drive on to North Bourke to explore the old bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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North Bourke Bridge, circa 1888. It was the first lift bridge in NSW !<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Our last stop is Bourke Cemetery, luckily it\u2018s still open. The lady at the exhibition centre has given us a guide to the cemetery, so we set of to visit murdered policeman, bush rangers, Afghan camel drivers and Chinese gardeners who form part of Bourke\u2019s history as well as the grave of Fred Hollows the famed eye surgeon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My favourite, the general section.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fred Hollows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Afghan Mosque<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We wander the dust and thorns for an hour and manage to find most of the notorious, before heading back to the caravan park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pub is open for dinner tonight and we walk down as the dark settles over Bourke. The place is buzzing. The meal was excellent. We sit at a covid safe distance from another couple of travellers from Coffs Harbour and chat on for an hour or so rapping up our visit to Bourke nicely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nyngan tomorrow…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael+Pam<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS: We did manage to find an excellent double shot (short) cappuccino \u2615\ufe0fat the Caltex servo on the way out of town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: 7-8th June 2020 Travelled: 304 kms from Lightning Ridge to Bourke in the North-West Region of New South Wales   Visited: Brewarrena and Bourke Stayed: Mitchell Caravan Park $34 with all services. S30.09023, E145.94957  Budget: NA Heading south on the Castlereagh Highway there is a reasonable amount of traffic, mostly caravans and a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":22779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,122],"tags":[124,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-22741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"category-new-south-wales","9":"tag-country-towns-nsw","10":"tag-new-south-wales","11":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22741"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27739,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22741\/revisions\/27739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}