I decided to have a look at some different country on my journey from
Broken Hill to
Milparinka this week. And so I took to the roads less travelled via
Silverton,
Umberumberka Reservoir and Stations beyond.
The bitumen gave way to a stony, washed out road from the reservoir for a short distance and then became a hard packed sand road for the rest of the way. Numerous washouts had to be negotiated with care. On this route one passes along the
Mundi Mundi Plain. It has been dry for a while but recent rains have brought a bit of greenery to the ground surface, where seemingly, nothing seems to grow except some Acacia derivatives. Sheep and goats and local fauna seem to thrive though.
I passed by the stations of Eldee, Wilangee, Kentappa, Mount Woowoolahra, McDougalls
Well, Joulnie, Westwood Downs, Pine Ridge, Sanpah, Border Downs, Winnathee, Yandama and
Theldarpa.
My Natmap Raster 250K maps let me down however. I am running the 2005 version but the maps must 20 years out of date. I had both a printed version off my computer and on my PDA. There are tracks shown on the maps, which I failed to locate as they are now non existent but are shown as major arterial unsealed roads. My route took me along a road that became a track and then all but vanished when I picked up what seemed to look like wheel tracks made by a Suzuki. This brought me out right in past Westwood Station
Homestead. The Suzuki was there, the dogs were tied up and barking and there was washing on the line. I called out to apologise for driving into the private property but got no response. Maybe whoever was there was having midday nap.
Further along the road at an
intersection I met some fellas in a Defender who were going to drive along the
Dog Fence. We were talking roads when they produced a commercial map to show me how to get there. The driver fella then said “ Ah! Yer one of them GPS people” noticing the PDA on the windscreen. He then waxed lyrical about the red
sand dunes one might encounter along the
Dog Fence. But I was going in another direction and left them to their own devices.
Once again my mapping let me down at Border Downs Station as a road marked to Lake Want did not exist. When I arrived at the
Dog Fence I met a fella who was an employee of SK Quinyambie Station who had just come through the DF to access one of their other properties across the border and he corroborated that the road shown on the map did not exist.
Various signs along the way had me intrigued and one stated that if you did not comply with current occupational health and safety requirements then you may be refused permission to the station. Another stated that it was illegal to drive along the
Dog Fence.
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Just over a sand ridge, were Smithville
Gate and Smithville Wild Dog Eradication Depot. I had been told of some historic buildings there but when I arrived at the
gate to the Depot, the reception committee included a number of dogs, one of which had its paws on the
gate and looked like it was two metres tall. Every time it barked it swallowed a thousand flies and so I decided that in my best interests I should move on, which I did.
At
Hawker Gate, which does not exist any longer (at least I could not see it) I avoided a collision with a westbound GU Ute (with Vic rego), which was on the wrong side of the road and driving too fast. I went bush slightly. His mate buzzed by too and waved politely. Seeing as I was off the road I decided to stop and take some photos. From here the road swung east to
Milparinka
Outside
Milparinka a stone was flicked up by the GQ tyres and pierced a 20lt
water bottle on the trailer and I was made aware of this, by the blokes lounging around under the veranda of the
Milparinka Pub. There I paid for my three nights accommodation at Mount Browne Goldfields and refuelled at $2.16 a litre. Ouch!!
The next few days was spent at Mount Browne Goldfields swinging the detector, driving off track and enjoying some solitary
camping down by Mount Browne
Creek where the Honeyeaters, Willie Wags and the melodious Butcherbirds kept me company, not to mention the mobs of feral goats! I found lots of ‘treasures’ but no colour unfortunately. The old
mine sites and mullock heaps are littered with old rusted iron and even so, the area had been
well detected by the professionals. There is still gold to be found but only in very small quantities.
On the way home I took another back road through Mount Browne Station and also Mount Shannon, Pincally, Pimpara Lake, Yelka and The Veldt Stations before making it to the Silver City Highway. Once again the road was smooth hard surface sand with nary a corrugation. Wildlife was amazing. Fat feral goats with a new crop of kids, a variety of sheep breeds and their lambs, some good-looking Hereford Cattle, Red Kangaroos by the hundreds together with the odd Brown roo, Stumpy-Tail Lizards, Mulga parrots, Lorikeets and Wedge-tail Eagles. And Emu’s by the hundreds too, some with little ones, all trotting to keep up with the slow moving diesel or trying to cross the roads in front of me. All these and the people who farm the area seem to survive
well in this very arid region.
At Pincally Station I was let down again by my mapping following a road to nowhere. I backtracked, took a road heading east and then a short while later found a wide graded road with a telephone line beside it heading south. This road was not marked on the map either!
When I arrived at the Silver City Highway to refuel, pump the tyres up and have smoko, a kind traveller was keeping the
gate open for me. We had a chat and he wanted to know if the roads were very corrugated. I replied that they were in fact very good apart from the dips and washouts. He seemed a tad disappointed and it turned out that he was on a mission from ARB Company to find some badly corrugated roads to test out some new shock absorbers. I suggested that they try the Anne Beadell Hwy. That would sort any shockie out!
Ah! I forgot to mention gates. It would seem that the road makers in the north west of New South Wales have never heard of cattle grids. Along my journey of some 587 kilometres of back roads, I may have encountered at least 80 gates as I lost count at 50. When I would find one left open I would pass through with a sigh of relief. And not one
gate was straight, as at some time or other it had been bent by a bulbar or two! You certainly cannot be in a hurry out here in the Never Never. I saw only 7 vehicles for the two days of driving these roads.
The 146km to
Broken Hill is still semi sealed with some gravel sections but the road gangs are working on sealing a section at the moment.
In my travels I caught up with ExplorOz Members Dave B(NSW) and his wife Nora, and would like to thank them sincerely for their kindness and hospitality. I also had a cuppa with MintabiePete (NSW) and his wife, and we found that we shared knowledge of many old characters of our days in the Northern Territory.
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Cheers