July 8

An absolutely freezing day – maximum was supposed to be 14⁰ but with the wind-chill was probably a lot lower. Mum did a couple of loads of washing early and we then headed out to visit the Fort Bourke Stockade. It was a historically interesting place as explorer Major Mitchell was supposed to have built a stockade on the bank of the Darling River – the one we saw was supposed to be a replica but if this was the case it wouldn’t have provide much shelter from a marauding kangaroo, let alone wild aboriginals. We also visited Fred Hollows grave in Bourke Cemetery and learnt more about this amazing Australian and his contribution to so many people, which was pioneered in the Bourke area.

Undoubtedly the day’s highlight was the Bourke tour, with Mateship Tours and guide Stewart, from the Bourke Information Centre. He was an excellent guide – humorous, full of information and very passionate and positive about everything to do with Bourke. He made the point that the only things people hear via the media are the negatives – the aboriginal issues, drunkenness etc and that Bourke was really a much better place than that. Despite his positiveness it was pretty hard not to notice that all the shops in the main street had their windows and entrances protected by roller shutters. The Commonwealth Bank doesn’t even have windows!

The first half of the tour was around the town – different buildings, local identities and so on. After stopping at one of the pubs for a drink break it was on to the agricultural part of the tour. We visited a lime orchard, saw lots and lots of grapevines and citrus orchards. One orchard we visited was under receivership because the state government had cut the water allocation by 2/3. The receivers weren’t interested in harvesting the fruit so the oranges were just being allowed to fall off and rot on the ground. The guide provided us with plastic shopping bags and told us to help ourselves. Seemed rather a waste but nobody refused the opportunity. Then it was on to a cotton gin – non-operational because of insufficient water to produce a crop this year. The next stop was at a farm water storage hundreds of acres in size where we were able to photograph a magic sunset across the water. The final stop was at a jojoba plantation. Jojoba is an interesting crop – it grows as a shrub about 1 – 2 metres in height; they plant 1 row of male plants to fertilise 19 rows of females; the seeds are produced as a crop about every four years and the seeds simply fall to the ground to be picked up by a machine rather like a street sweeper.

At the end of the tour it was extremely cold and we were very pleased to make our way into the caravan and turn on the fan heater. It’s only small but does a great job of keeping us warm!