Back O’Bourke and Beyond

After leaving Wilcannia we drove eastwards to the mining town of Cobar, which was founded after the discovery of copper in 1870, but zinc, lead, silver and gold are also mined from several nearby mines. We took a walking tour of the town to view the many heritage buildings, including a stately two-storey Edwardian building erected in 1912 as offices for the Great Cobar Copper Mine; the St Laurence O’Toole Catholic Church, built in 1907; and the Great Western Hotel (1898), with its 100 metre-long veranda of iron lacework. Next we visited Rick the Miner, a bronze statue in the Miner’s Heritage Park which is dedicated to the many lives lost in Cobar mines. Also in the park are a poppet-head and winder and stamper battery. Lastly we drove to the Fort Bourke Hill lookout where we could see 150m down into the open-cut gold mine to the entrance of the decline.

Our next stop was Bourke, where we walked around the town centre and admired several heritage buildings, including the magnificent courthouse, built in 1900 at a cost of £9,500. There is a crown on the spire which indicates a Maritime Court, the furthest inland in Australia. Another outstanding building is the Lands Department Office, built in 1898, a fine example of arid zone architecture from the days before air conditioning, where air was passed over water stored beneath the building, and expelled through shutters in the roof. We visited the Port of Bourke where we looked down into the Darling River from a replica of the original wharf, built in 1898 to load wool and other goods onto paddle steamers. Also at the port we saw a Crossley Engine, an early four stroke diesel/oil engine, being fired up. It was built in Manchester in 1923 and was first used to generate power in Sydney. At the local cemetery we visited the grave, situated under shady coolabah trees, of Professor Fred Hollows. Fred chose to be buried in Bourke after falling in love with the town when conducting eye clinics amongst the Aboriginal inhabitants. At North Bourke we visited the old lift bridge, imported from England and erected in 1883, and took a cruise on the PV Jandra, a replica paddle vessel which passed under the bridge as it chug-chugged down the river towards Bourke. Back in town we walked through the Back O’Bourke Exhibition Centre, which tells the stories of the history and legends of the area, including Henry Lawson and ‘Breaker’ Morant.

We felt like a James Bond cocktail – shaken, not stirred – after the drive from Bourke to Lightning Ridge. The roads were the worst we’ve travelled on so far, but thankfully the caravan and everything within survived the journey. Lightning Ridge is completely different from White Cliffs and Coober Pedy; there are no underground homes due to the earth being too unstable. We took the Yellow Car Door Tour around the opal fields, where we saw lots of small mine shafts and heaps of stone, and the shanties, including some very old caravans, belonging to the miners. The highlight was an old church built of rusty corrugated iron for the movie, “Goddess of 1967”. Before returning to town we drove out along the highway to see Stanley the Emu, an 18m high sculpture created by artist John Murray from VW cars and other scrap metal. Next we visited Amigo’s Castle, built single-handedly by an Italian immigrant from ironstone rocks. He commenced the work in 1981 using scaffolding of 44-gallon drums and planks of wood arranged tier upon tier – no occupational health and safety on his worksite!

And yes, Julie did get her opal – a beautiful blue/green stone set into a silver ring!