Coasting down the Capricorn Way, windows down, music up, we had not a worry in the world as the town of Winton approached us. This little piece of outback Queensland is famous for their dinosaur exhibitions as it stands to have found fossils from the age of the great beasts. As we originally planned to see a museum filled with these great dinosaur bones, this little town offered us other amusements. We had been informed by the same lovely old mate from the Crocodile Dundee pub, to check out the famous Arno’s Wall in Winton. Although tourist information didn’t explain this at the site, he gave us the back story behind the wall and how it is famous today.
Arno’s Story
There once and still is a gentleman that loves collecting god forsaken rubbish and hoarding it on his property. Several years ago now there was an exceptionally large and hidious pile alongside council property. The council had forever harrassed poor Arno to remove this rubbish or they would take action to have it removed as it was an eyesaw. Now as no tourist information reveals, Arno’s response to the council was to concrete his belongings into a stone wall to stick it to them and forever his hoarding memories remain. This wall is now a tourist attraction adjacent to Arno’s Park in Winton.
After a bit of messing around at Winton – chatting to a local for a solid hour or so in regards to work, camping at their local billabong and sharing Arno’s memories, we kept heading east to Longreach. Arriving at Longreach on a Saturday only meant one thing which hadn’t happened for a solid month, a night out! Staying at a caravan park (with a spa for an afternoon relaxation session), having some afternoon beers with a couple of friendly neighbours, we then found ourselves at the local pub for our first counter meal of the trip! After a delicious parma and chips, we walked down to another pub to be subjected to some great creative live music and a dj. Here where we danced the night away and Nay even found herself gaining the attention of an extremely friendly female!
You could only imagine the next day was a bit of a struggle. Leaving after the 10:00am departure time (we had also made good mates with the park managers) we struggled merely 80km east that day to land at Charles Lloyd Jones Weir just south of Barcaldine. At this tucked away location we rested and spent two nights of free camping chilling by the Weir and they were very protective of their toilet paper in the loos! We did experience however, our first sight of drizzle since leaving Melbourne. This didn’t effect us too much as the awning was quickly erected and we took shelter. Unlike any normal camping adventure we got stuck into a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle! The rest of the time here flew by and we were back on the road as Mark, like a little kid, was getting very excited about digging up sapphires in the Gemfields!
Historic Road Trip Fact
Barcaldine is home of the Tree of Knowledge and its current housing sadly due to vandalism. Although deliberately poisoned in 2006, this tree still stands today as a marker for the founding of the Australian Labor Party.