{"id":716,"date":"2017-09-13T12:34:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T02:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/?p=716"},"modified":"2019-04-02T23:46:10","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T12:46:10","slug":"opalton-to-winton-bladensburg-np","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/opalton-to-winton-bladensburg-np\/","title":{"rendered":"Opalton to Winton (Bladensburg NP)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thanks to those of you who left comments or emailed us about the Ant-lions & wood borers. Mysteries solved. (Click on the previous post heading if you want to read the comments & haven\u2019t yet).<\/p>\n

Continuing north from Opalton toward Winton our route took us through the Bladensburg NP. Only just into the park we saw the first snake of our trip. A black headed python laying in the road. It didn\u2019t appear to be injured, but may have been dead. Either that or it was exceptionally relaxed. I rolled a rock close to it & it didn\u2019t move, so we left it there & carried on our way.<\/p>\n

Black Headed Python<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A short time later we saw our second snake, this very much alive & well, & obviously taking notice of us. Only the thickness of a finger & around 400mm long. No idea what sort, but wonder if it may have been a small\/young Inland Taipan, or perhaps one with anorexia? \ud83d\ude42 We kept our distance as Taipan\u2019s are one of the worlds most venomous snakes & a bite more than a tad inconvenient \u2026 given our location, probably deadly! Every so often it\u2019d raise it\u2019s head to look at us. Then again it could have been harmless. Can anyone identify it from the following photos?<\/p>\n

Can you identify this snake? Taipan?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I’m watching you!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like many of the National Parks in the outback, Bladensburg is named after the Station it once was before the government purchased it to preserve as a park. The following photos hopefully give a \u2019snapshot\u2019 of how we found it. As in previous parks we took the opportunity to drive the park\u2019s tracks, taking us through a variety of landscapes. The 4wd tracks vary, none would satisfy the hard core 4wd lovers who lust after the challenge of \u2018conquering\u2019, but having sufficient ground clearance was certainly needed in a few places, & low ratio helped us climb a couple of jump ups. 4wd was reassuring in sections of soft sand, but mainly the tracks were corrugated dirt or bumpy rock. We are finding that we enjoy seeing the country \u2018close-up\u2019 on these slow park drives, & have come to realise that the \u2018attractions\u2019 that the tracks take us to are often little more than markers along the way. As often as not it\u2019s the wildlife we see & the \u2018immersing ourselves\u2019 in the country which create the \u2018Wow factor\u2019. That\u2019s not to say that the waterholes, claypans, forests etc are \u2018ho-hum\u2019 \u2026.far from it.<\/p>\n

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The ‘Octopus Tree’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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“Wait for me Skip”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Looking off the top of a mesa (jump up)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
No soil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For my friends, family & other readers from outside of Australia, the term station is the outback Aussie equivalent to \u2018farm\u2019. Stations generally run cattle or sheep, but there the similarity with farm ends. Not only are most stations very remote, but also cover huge areas. The size of an English county would not be unusual, often much bigger. The drive around Bladensburg covered only a small section of the park & was 40kms (24 miles). Quite modest compared to many. 100km (60 miles) tracks around parks are not unusual, commonly taking 5 hours+. \u2018Farming practice\u2019 on stations like Bladensburg & most current stations is very different. The land is not \u2018worked\u2019 other than to create water storages etc. Stocking rates are very low, (measured in hectares per head not head per hectare) but in country where the inevitable question \u201cWhat on earth can the livestock eat?\u201d is posed by the ignorant like me, the immediate answer to oneself is \u201cplenty\u201d given the generally fine condition of the stock we see. Most of the station work revolves around ensuring water supply & mustering\/shearing etc. Most of their lives the stock have minimal interaction with humans.<\/p>\n

The old shearing shed at Bladensburg struck me as more modern in it\u2019s design than we would have expected from what we believe to have been a 1950\u2019s or 60\u2019s built structure. Lots of light & very airy. Despite being just a tin shed the interior, rather than oven-like was a refreshing santuary from the heat outside. I guess it would have been different when full of sheep, men & a pounding stationary motor to power the shearers blades. Nevertheless I couldn\u2019t help but wonder why the many shed builders across this land today have failed to appreciate such effective design.<\/p>\n

Bladensburg Shearing Shed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Belt driven shearing gear<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The workhorse – with added cooling capacity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A note on camping fees in Western Queensland National Parks. Fees are not being collected. The Rangers recognise the \u2018difficulties\u2019 imposed by the expectation that visitors will pre-book online. This was commenced around 12 months ago in W. Qld, & is totally inappropriate. In some places a ranger has verbally told us ‘not to worry about it\u2019, & in others notices like the following have been put up for campers to read. Given that the same system was introduced in other parts of Queensland prior to W.Qld, one wonders how long it will be before the desk jockeys recognise they\u2019ve stuffed up big time!<\/p>\n

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Winton, although a small outback town felt like a return to a metropolis. Here we had to drive on the correct side of the road , obey road signs, notice other vehicles (instead of their dust clouds) & navigate things like roundabouts! The town was very busy with us arriving at the same time as many of the revellers on their way home from the Birdsville races. The often lauded free camp just out of town at \u2018Long Waterhole\u2019 was a dust bowl, complete with a waterhole more akin to a manky puddle, & screaming kids on mini bikes. We didn\u2019t stay. Instead we found an equally manky stretch of water in the corner of a dusty paddock, shared with a mob of cattle but no kids on mini bikes, a couple of kms further out of town at Surprise Creek. This was home for 3 days, not the most salubrious surroundings we have called home, but it\u2019s what there was, it had an internet signal for my previous posts. Our primary reason for staying was to \u2018blog\u2019 & to restock. Restocking was significantly more expensive than any previous. You may be thinking that we didn\u2019t rate Winton very highly, but you would be wrong. It wasn\u2019t the best \u2019stay\u2019, but it also is not our first visit to the town. We were here a few years ago & enjoyed all it had to offer, & were pleasantly struck by the \u2018go-ahead\u2019 nature of the town. It is still the same town, albeit without it\u2019s primary ( & top notch) attraction – the Waltzing Matilda Centre which burned down about 3 years ago. They are however rebuilding & expecting to re-open next year. Winton remains a go-ahead little town, we just didn\u2019t get them on their best day.<\/p>\n

Never know what you’ll see on the back of a Winton ute!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Winton public art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Construction of the new Waltzing Matilda Centre in progress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Thanks to those of you who left comments or emailed us about the Ant-lions & wood borers. Mysteries solved. (Click on the previous post heading if you want to read the comments & haven\u2019t yet). Continuing north from Opalton toward Winton our route took us through the Bladensburg NP. Only just into the park we … Continue reading Opalton to Winton (Bladensburg NP)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-queensland-channel-country","tag-australian-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8PHoJ-by","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1252,"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions\/1252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}