Desert storms around Tibooburra

 

Tibooburra
Hottest and most isolated outback town in New South Wales
Tibooburra is located 335 km north of Broken Hill, 1504 km north-west of Sydney, 900 km from Adelaide and 183 m above sea-level. It has a population of around 150 people and functions as a service centre to the district, with two hotels, motel rooms, a caravan park, cabins, a roadhouse, a local store and a National Parks and Wildlife Service office, relating to Sturt National Park.

The name Tibooburra is thought to mean 'heaps of rocks' in the language of the local Aborigines. This is presumably a reference to the granite outcrops near the town which are regarded as sacred sites of special mythological and spiritual significance. Three upright rocks, known as the 'Three Brothers' (only one remains), are believed to be an incarnation of three ancestors of the Wangkumara tribe who were turned to stone for marrying women from another tribe.

For 25,000 years the Wongkumara, Wadigali and Malyangapa groups have roamed through this area. Aboriginal sites including middens, quarries, camp sites, ceremonial sites, tool production sites and scarred trees are scattered throughout the area. In the 1930s literally all of the local Aboriginal population were moved to Brewarrina.

Tibooburra is probably most familiar to the people of New South Wales through the evening weather reports where it is regularly cited as the hottest town in the state. It is also the most isolated town being surrounded by harsh, rugged, flat open desert terrain, although its transformation after rain can be spectacular if brief.

The first Europeans in the area were Charles Sturt and party on their ill-fated 1845 attempt to discover an inland sea. While stranded at Depot Glen (see Milparinka for more details) they explored the corner country, visiting Mt Wood, Cooper Creek and the edge of the Simpson Desert in north-east South Australia. Sturt was followed by Burke and Wills who, on another ill-fated expedition, passed through the region on their way from Menindee to the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1860.

The area's rainfall (it averages around 200 mm per annum) kept land-hungry graziers and pastoralists at bay until the early 1880s when a survey team came through to ascertain the exact line of the NSW-Qld border and some pastoral holdings were established.

The town, originally known as The Granite or Granite Rush, really came into existence with the discovery of gold at Mt Browne (see Milparinka for more details) and then Tibooburra itself in 1881. That year nearly 1000 miners arrived in the town and the government, eager to provide services, surveyed the townsite and built a post office. Yields were disappointing however, lack of water was a chronic problem and typhoid and dysentery took their toll. Nonetheless over the next decade the town got a school (1885), courthouse (1888) and hospital (1890).

 

Things to see:  

 

One of the famous paintings at the Family Hotel

 

Historic Buildings
The Family Hotel (1883), with its famous murals and paintings, and the Tibooburra Hotel (1890) are both still standing in Briscoe St. Along with the courthouse they are regarded as the town's most significant historical buildings. All are built of local stone. Also of interest in town is the Tibooburra Outback School of the Air Distance Education Centre and the Botanic Gardens are open for tours at specified times during term time (08-8091 3317).

 

Family Hotel
The town's real highlight is the Family Hotel, built in 1883, which is currently owned by Peter and Liz Petrovich. A few decades ago artists, fascinated by the desert, came to the town to paint. They seem to have felt that any flat surface was worthy of their daubings because there are still original works by Clifton Pugh, Russell Drysdale and Rick Amor on the walls of the pub.

 

Tibooburra Keeping Place
Located in Briscoe St, the Keeping Place features a display of fauna, local photographs, and indigenous artefacts of wood and stone from the Wadigali, Wongkumara and Malyangapa tribes. There are also arts and crafts for sale. The centre is open weekdays from 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., tel: (08) 8091 3435.

 

Tibooburra Pioneer Park
At the end of the main street is the Tibooburra Pioneer Park which was established on 17 July 1999. The main attraction in the park is a full-size 27-foot long whaleboat (a sculpture by Anthony Hamilton) perched on the top of some poles. This is a replica of the whaleboat Charles Sturt hauled across inland Australia on a wagon with the intention of using it to row around the continent's 'inland sea' (he never found it). It was abandoned at Depot Glen near the current site.

 

The sculpture of Charles Sturt's whaleboat in the Pioneer Park

 

 

The Church of the Corner
This church was erected in 1963 by the Australian Inland Mission now succeeded by the Uniting Church Frontier services. It is open for use by visiting clergy by arrangement. It is a church for all the people of the area.

 

Tibooburra Outback School of the Air
This is a unique school of the air in the sense that the kids on the outlying properties actually interact with a real class of children in the Tibooburra Outback School of the Air. It is the only dual mode school in Australia. It can be toured at a cost of $2 per person and $4 per family. The best time to inspect is in the morning when the classes are in the room where radio contact is made with the outlying students. The air lesson times are Monday-Wednesday 9.00am - 12.30pm, Thursday 9.00am - 2.00pm, Friday has school assembly on the air from 9.00am - 10.00 am. On Tuesdays some of the students from outlying areas come in because it is the Royal Flying Doctor day. They operate on VHF radio. Over the road is the Bush Children's Hostel where children can stay while they attend the school for special functions.

 

Sturt National Park
330 km north of town along the Silver City Highway is Sturt National Park which covers 344 000 hectares of classic outback terrain. Formerly five pastoral properties, it is estimated that between 1880 and 1910 over 50 per cent of all the wildlife in the area was driven from the land by graziers who overstocked to a point where most of the edible saltbush and copper-burr was destroyed. Nonetheless, since the park's dedication in 1972 the vegetation is returning to what remains the best stretch of real outback desert to be seen in New South Wales. The reserve contains relics of both Aboriginal habitation (mostly middens and stone remnants) and European pastoral history.

The park's topography is startlingly different ranging from red sandhills rising up to 15 m above the claypans, to dry creek beds and small rocky gorges, to gibber plains (stony desert) and 'jump-up' country - isolated mesas which rise forlornly above their flat surroundings to a height of 150 m. The flora is predominantly mulga bushland and arid shrubland, although a rich carpet of wildflowers can emerge after heavy rains. The park is inhabited by red kangaroos, euros and a large variety of lizards and birds including emus, dotterels, the pratincole (which does an interesting broken-wing imitation to lead predators away from its nest), wedge-tailed eagles, kestrels and babblers (which characteristically follow each other through the trees and along the ground). A lake appears occasionally providing a temporary haven for waterbirds. At the western end of the reserve is Explorers Tree where Sturt once buried food.

Drives and walks are popular in this unique reserve and there are camping places at at Dead Horse Gully, Mount Wood, Olive Downs and Fort Grey. They all have toilets, gas barbecues and water. Camping fees apply, but bookings are not necessary, Ring (08) 8091 3308 for further information.

 

Golden Gully
Golden Gully, adjacent Dead Horse Gully camping ground, is a reconstruction of mining sites and methods with explanatory plaques. The turnoff is 1 km north of Tibooburra. 25 km east of town along the Wanaaring Rd, at the south-eastern section of the park, is Mt Wood homestead and an outdoor display of items from the old Mt Wood station, including a whim ( a device for drawing water from deep wells in the days before bores and windmills), a wool scourer and other old machinery. The old courthouse in Tibooburra itself is being converted into a museum to house indoor artifacts from the homestead (1884).

The rangers at the National Parks and Wildlife Service office in Briscoe St can advise on places to visit and suitable routes. Doubling as a local information centre it has pamphlets relating to both walking and driving trails through the park. There are two self-guided drives which take a number of hours and provide a good overview of the territory - Gorge Loop (100 km) and the Jump-Up Loop Road (110 km), the latter taking in the ruins of Mt King homestead and woolshed. There are clearly demarcated walking trails with interpretive signs to the summit of Mt Wood where the view is excellent, and from Fort Grey where Sturt's party built a stockade to protect their supplies and prevent their sheep from wandering. At the rest area 1 km south of Olive Downs Homestead (1880s) there are two Jump-Up walks.

 

Great Dingo Fence
Sturt National Park is bounded by a portion of the world's longest fence, the Great Dingo Fence, which spans 5614 km from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Indian Ocean. Originally constructed by the Queensland government to halt a rabbit invasion encroaching from the south it is still maintained in order to keep wild dogs from sheep grazing areas.

The park also stretches across to Cameron Corner (named after NSW Lands Department surveyor John Brewer Cameron) where NSW, SA and Qld all meet. 140 km north-west of Tibooburra, it was once a well-known stopover point for those headed to Innamincka along the Strzelecki Track.

The best time to visit the park is from April to September. There are four camping areas - Dead Horse Gully, Mt Wood, Olive Downs and Fort Grey. All have toilets, barbecue facilities and water but no showers.

Remember, the local roads are gravel and can be hazardous or impassable after wet weather. Phone the Roads and Traffic Authority on (08) 8087 0660 for an up-to-date report on their condition. Also, be sure you have a reliable and detailed map.

The Tibooburra Festival is held mid-year. The town also has golfing facilities and fossicking can be pursued in the area. One of the town's most spectacular offerings however is a simple view of sunset from the hill behind town.

 

 

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Tibooburra