KNOWN BY LOCALS AS BARKIE, THE OUTBACK TOWN OF BARCALDINE HAS ONLY TWO PUBS, IS RICH IN HISTORY, AND IS HOME TO SOME INTERESTING SCRAP METAL SCULPTURES, FOSSILS AND DUNRAVEN STATION, ONE OF THE FIRST SHEEP STATIONS IN THE DISTRICT.
In episode twelve of Living Proof’s Hidden Gems segment, enthusiastic travel host Graham Moore takes us to visit the rustic and rural Queensland town of Barcaldine. Steeped in history, the town has an expansive, lush landscape which began with an Aussie homestead surrounded by quintessential red dirt.
“The town was one of the first outback railway towns established, and is said to be the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party and a focal point of the Great Shearer’s Rebellion of 1891 as its headquarters,” Graham says. “It’s 11.5 hours west of Brisbane and home to an important memorial once known as the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ which was a eucalyptus papuna (Ghost Gum).”
Estimated to be more than 200 years old, the tree grew outside the railway station until May 2006 when someone poisoned it. The tree never recovered but earned its place in history as the reputed birthplace of the party.
Graham introduces us to some of the locals, including founder and creator of the Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail, Mylinda Rogers, also known as Scrap Metal Sheila.
“It started as a hobby where I placed my sculptures on the trail on my property and it grew from there,” she says. “I just kept adding to the trail and it has now become a popular tourist attraction.”
Graham also takes us on a tour of the working sheep station known as Dunraven Station where Peter and Roberta Doneley run tag-along tours with the help of their son Paul, daughter-in-law Ali and grandson George.
“I had a cousin from Brisbane who came out with his kids and the kids said there’s nothing out here and that tempted me to open a place for people to show them how great this place is,” Peter says. “When we built the property, the
town of Barcaldine didn’t exist and there were about 30 to 40 people here including cooks and housemates and cowboys to cut wood.”
Dunraven Station has 63,000 acres of land that has been passed down on the female side of the family for about four to five generations. The family has done extensive work to the property and also made significant contributions to the local area’s infrastructure, which has enticed new residents to make Barcaldine their home.
“You’ve got to keep the wild dogs at bay, so we built about 160 kilometres of fencing to protect the cattle known as the Santa Gertrudis,” Peter says. “There are remnants of an old sea called the Eromanga Sea here as well, where they have found fossils.”
Peter’s wife Roberta shows Graham the shearing shed and explains the whole process of shearing from start to end.
“It’s not easy, shearers take about three minutes to shear a sheep but there’s so much in between.”
Barcaldine is rich in history and culture and a great town to visit.