We drove over the border and saw the same dusty landscape, only with the appearance of more cactus. We passed a few small towns, that if one blinked one would have missed, and headed to Cunnamulla. We were going to have a look around and decide whether to stay or keep going to Charleville.
The road, The Matilda Highway, to Cunnamulla was mostly straight, but so much road kill - kangaroos, emus, wild pigs, we even saw a dead sheep, a fox, and a goat.
Cunnamulla is on the Warrego River and the name is derived from the Aboriginal word meaning 'long stretch of water'. The township was developed at the crossroads of two major stock routes about 1858, and the area is predominantly sheep country. Today it also has vineyards and honey bees.
Our first stop was the information centre. I checked out what to see in the area, while Peter walked over to the pub to find out about free camping at the back.
The info centre is located in a small section of an old high school building. The rest of the building is a museum. We are 'museumed' out, so gave it a miss. Along side the info centre is the Cunnamulla Fellow Centre. A bronze statue of the Cunnamulla Fellow, based on the Henry Lawson poem of the same name, is located in front.
After a short drive around the town, we decided to stay one night behind the Cunnamulla Hotel. There were six other vans there when we arrived, so parked along the back fence.
We had dinner and drinks at the pub, and the food was pretty good (considering it was all frozen food from boxes), so we decided to stay a second night and drive a bit further afield. Also I wanted to try the pizza. We ate with another couple in the dining room who were from the next suburb from our home, and talking with other campers two others were from around our suburb. The owners of the pub were lovely, very friendly and helpful. The pub itself has real character. Sadly, like many of the businesses, it is not doing well. There were a few locals in on Friday night, but Thursday it was all campers.
We walked around the town and along a section of the levy bank, and there were so many empty shops or closed shops. The town has 4 running pubs, and some of the closed buildings looked like they may have been pubs previously.
We drove to the weir and through part of the bushland - very dry country.
We thought Cunnamulla was an interesting town to visit and would stay again on the way to somewhere else.
We left Charleville and headed up the Matilda Highway towards Blackwell. Our first stop was Augathela to see the wire sculptures.
