Wednesday 6th July

  We woke to another cold, overcast day but needed to start moving as we were heading from Charleville to Barcaldine, a distance of 407 km.  Luckily the outside temperature gradually improved from 8 degrees in the morning to 19, by the time we arrived in the afternoon, in Barcaldine. On route we called into the lovely town of Tambo for coffee. Tambo is famous for the “Tambo Teddies”, beautiful teddies hand made in this little town. We stopped at a lovely park in Blackall for lunch and I was a little inquisitive as to why there was a large model of a circus elephant in the park. Of course I had to wander over and read the information boards. (You can hear Rob sighing, can’t you?) Blackall was the town where the Perry Brothers’ Circus, started around 1889. It was a famous travelling circus in this area for many years. In fact it was sold to Stardust Circus in 1993. Arriving in Barcaldine, we quickly set up and headed into the main part of town, specifically to see “The Tree of Knowledge” and to read about the famous shearers’ strike, 1891 which lead to an organisation that later became the Australian Labor Party. We also went for a stroll along the main road which at one time had 11 pubs lining it. Reading some of the information about the pubs, many were burnt down and rebuilt several times over.