Day 61: Fri 25 Aug 23 - St George to Goodooga

Fri 25 Aug 23 - St George to Goodooga (Towed 203 km)

Weather: 3 Deg feeling like 1 Deg this morning, and another day started with the heater turned on. It remained clear and sunny all day, with no wind, and reached a very dry 26 Deg at Goodooga.

Despite the fresh morning in St George, we were packed and on our way to our destination Goodooga by 8.30. There were a lot of roadtrains heading towards St George, but by half way to Dirranbandi, the caravan parade had well and truly begun. We arrived in Dirranbandi (96km) at 9.40, and first on our agenda was coffee at the bakery. Russian-born baker Natalia runs the bakery, but today she didn't seem to have the same range of Russian treats and Turkish Baklava that she had when we last stopped here two years ago. Nevertheless, the coffee was good, and the treats we had were tasty. After our morning sustenance and a wander around the small township, we continued 66km to Hebel at the NSW/QLD border. We stopped and checked out the historic pub adorned with some of iconic artist John Murray's artwork, then we continued on to Goodooga 41 km away. The Goodooga Road from Hebel is a minor road, but it was in much better condition than the main highway from St George to Hebel. The area is looking extremely dry though, and there were plenty of emus to be seen in the paddocks along the way, and occasionally goats. We arrived in a very warm and sunny Goodooga at 12pm. Our stay at Goodooga is at the Artesian Baths Free Camp, and there were already about 50 caravans and motorhomes set up when we arrived - it appears to be a very popular destination, albeit with far too many prickles. The bike definitely won't be coming off the the rack here.

After setting up (remaining hooked up), we had lunch and another light afternoon nap. Feeling more refreshed, Noel stayed behind at the van while I walked into the township for a look around. There is absolutely nothing to see in Goodooga, and I only saw one other person on the street. There is a well stocked community store, but unusual for a country town, there is no pub. My reason for wanting to come to Goodooga, in a nutshell, is my Uncle Helmut worked at Brenda Station about 17km west of Goodooga, from mid 1954, about 6 months after he came out to Australia from Germany. Brenda Station, then owned by the Church of England, was about 500,000 acres in size and crossed both sides of the QLD, NSW border. Uncle arrived here from Port Kembla via Bourke by train then mail truck to Brenda Station. His work included docking and mulesing sheep, fencing and herding. It was a tough life for anyone, let alone a new immigrant from Germany with his young wife, but he stayed here for about 12 months before leaving for a job on another property near Dirranbandi. When he left, he caught a mail truck across the border into QLD to the Dirranbandi railway station, then on to another station for about 4 months, but he said he didn’t like it there, and can't remember much about it anyway.

I called the current Brenda Station caretaker / owner (unsure) today, to try and arrange a visit this afternoon or tomorrow morning for a look around, but the station has been closed a lot this year due to flooding, and the caretaker (a pleasant but obviously very busy lady) couldn't allow me to come out and walk around unattended, and she was simply too busy to spare me any time to show me around. She said she would call me back if she finished early enough, but I didn't hear back from her. I'm a bit disappointed being so close, and not being able to see where Uncle lived and worked all those years ago, but I do understand. When I called Uncle tonight, he was nevertheless thrilled when I told him that I was in Goodooga, and he recounted a few stories about his time at the Station. He also recalled attending a horse race in Goodooga where he won 5 pound on a race, which he described as more of a rodeo than a horse race. He said all the horses were stock horses, and all the jockeys were stockmen - good fun apparently. It's been great to retrace some of my Uncle's foot steps, and I'm amazed that his 94 year old memory is still so good that he can recall so much of his past.

Back at the van, I wandered over to take a dip in the Hot Artesian Baths, where Noel and I sat and chatted to two other couples from the Yorke Peninsula in SA for about an hour. The water was very warm (40+ Deg), so I had to get out several times to cool down. Afterwards, I sent the drone up for a few aerial shots of the area, then we had an early dinner and a quiet night. No TV tonight as there is no reception, but we have very fast internet - better than anywhere else so far this trip.

Parking spot in Dirranbandi for morno's at the Bakery.

Morno's at Dirranbandi Bakery

Dirranbandi's Beersheba Memorial

The charge by the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiment 0f 800 horseman was led by Brigadier-General William Grant who owned a property at Dirranbandi after the war.

Dirranbandi Park

Old Dirranbandi Railway Station

Statue of Tom Dancey, a local indigenous stockman who won the Stawell Gift in 1910. His handlers kept the 1,000 pound prize money, but 'kindly' gave him the trophy