NSW Corner Country

The Sun-Herald - May 9, 2004

Our guide had warned us that Jock, a former opal miner in the outback NSW town of White Cliffs, “tends to put on a bit of a performance”. Still, we were unprepared for the eccentric bushie who bellowed his stories in language that was incomprehensible to a city kid. Nine-year-old Ben wasn’t leaving my side. It was only when he was invited to use the jackhammer in Jock’s underground dugout that Ben realised Jock was a pretty cool guy. With its remote location 255km north-east of Broken Hill, 50,000 mine shafts giving it the appearance of a lunar landscape, and public toilets sporting names like “Nobodys” and “Busybodys”, it goes without saying that White Cliffs has plenty of eccentric characters among its 150 or so people.

Almost everyone lives in dugouts: homes burrowed into the earth to escape the extreme temperatures. The Underground Motel, which has 30 such rooms, is one of the country’s more unusual motels. Ben found it a little spooky but later nominated it as the most exciting part of the holiday – other than the train journey to Broken Hill. Departing Sydney at 6.20am each Monday, the Countrylink service arrives at a very civilized 7.10pm (6.40pm Broken Hill time), with most of the trip done in daylight hours. It’s a great experience, allowing passengers to watch the countryside unfold as the train climbs from Sydney over the Blue Mountains to the plains beyond. On it rolls through tiny outposts like Ivanhoe and Menindee as the earth becomes increasingly redder.

The seats are comfortable with plenty of leg room and a pull-down table. The hot and cold meals, snacks, salads and sandwiches are reasonably priced and tasty. Wine is also available. At many stations, there’s an opportunity to get out and stretch one’s legs. Tours are timed to coincide with the arrival of the train. We were booked on Countrylink’s Corner Country Adventure, a four-night trip taking us to Cameron Corner, where South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales meet. It’s a harsh landscape, but beautiful in its own way. Vast plains of Mitchell grass, salt lakes and dry creekbeds lined with red gums stretch as far as the eye can see.

After a night in a Broken Hill motel, our guide, Steve Bottom, collected us in his 17-seater four-wheel-drive bus. The six others on the tour quickly adopted Ben as a surrogate grandson. Most of Steve’s passengers are older Australians, a statistic echoed by other tour companies. It’s a pity, because the outback has much to offer family travellers, not least being an education that could never be achieved in a classroom. Our tour followed roughly in the footsteps of explorer Charles Sturt, who led an expedition in 1844-45 in search of an inland sea. Along the 334km Silver City Highway from Broken Hill to the Queensland border, there are continual reminders of his epic journey.

On the first day, we visited Depot Glen, where Sturt’s party camped for six months during a severe drought. A stark reminder of their stay is the grave of John Poole, Sturt’s second-in-command, who died of scurvy. The initials JP 1845 can still be seen on a grevillea tree near his grave. There were valuable science lessons too. White Cliffs is the setting for a world-leading experiment in solar power; the “water” at the far end of the Salt Lake was just a mirage; the beautiful flora and fauna has adapted amazingly to these harsh surrounds; rabbits and other feral animals have caused enormous ecological damage. Steve knew exactly where to detour off the road to find a giant eagle’s nest, and he stopped to show us a harmless shingle-back lizard which reacts to danger by poking out its bright blue tongue.

From Cameron Corner, we travelled for some distance along the dingo fence. At just under 6000 km long, this is the world’s longest fence, stretching all the way from the Great Australian Bight to south-east Queensland. Each night was spent in accommodation providing a different perspective of life in the outback. One was spent in the shearer’s quarters at Yandama Station, another at the Underground Motel and another at the Tibooburra Hotel, a typical Aussie pub. Our tour crossed paths with the legacy of other explorers too. At Mutawintji National Park, we saw a rock on which Ernest Giles had recorded his 1861 and 1863 visits.

On many of the rocks along the watercourses, Aborigines left a breathtaking collection of paintings, stencils and engravings created over a period of 25,000 years. As the Countrylink service operates only once a week, we returned from Broken Hill on the Indian-Pacific, one of the world’s great train journeys. Our Gold Kangaroo sleeper cabin had two bunks and an ensuite. Meals are included and the food was jolly good. Shortly after breakfast, we rolled into Sydney’s Central Station as Ben was busy filling out the customer feedback form. “Awesome” was his comment. Which sums up the whole trip really.

FACT FILE

Countrylink offers a wide range of holiday packages. For information, phone 132829. The Corner Country Adventure costs $995 per person, twin share, which includes four nights accommodation, all meals and four-wheel-drive touring from Broken Hill.

© Christine Salins

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