Trip 21 - Part 2 - White Cliffs

WORDS BY: Fina
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

Well we are now into our 10th week in White Cliffs and we are loving it. Considering we were only planning to stay here for 3 or 4 days, our stay has certainly been memorable and enjoyable. So what has happened since our last report? Apart from fossicking for the elusive opal which happens practically every day, heaps of special things have happened, so here goes.

On Tuesday 29 July 2007 Brad and Hayley took us for a not so tourist drive around White Cliffs. Clancy's Hut was our first stop which is a mud brick hut built in the late 1800's by John Clancy. Even considering my short height, I still had to bend to get through the door. The hut itself is about 2m x 2m square with a small fireplace. Interesting to see how the residents of White Cliffs lived over 100 years ago. Our next stop was White Cliffs Tank No 3 where their main supply of town water comes from. Of course Brad being Brad he had to take us the 4wd way over old mine shaft mounds and through dry creek beds.

We also visited Macca, our mate who let us camp on his claim for free. Macca is the only miner in White Cliffs mining in the open cut fashion with a bull dozer and excavator. He is hoping to fill in the open cut shorly as the opal is wearing thin and he wants to discover another area of White Cliffs for opal.

As of Friday 1 August 2008 we have now been on the road for 4 months. So on Friday night we went to the local General Store come Takeaway come Restaurant for dinner to celebrate with a visit to the local pub afterwards.

On Saturday 2 August 2008, we visited Peery Lake approximately 60km out of White Cliffs via the Wannaring dirt road. Peery Lake is located within the Paroo-Darling National Park. Peery Lake forms part of the Paroo River overflow, the only unregulated river in the Murray-Darling Basin and sustains a diverse plant and wildlife habitat. The four of us, including baby Jessica, enjoyed our sandwich lunch beside the water's edge. On our way home we took a slight detour to try and find Mt Jack however just 5km from the mountain we come across mud and water on the road. So much water in fact that swans were swimming in the water in the middle of the rain. Good indication to not go through the sinking mud in our 4wds so we turned around and headed back into White Cliffs.

Saturday night was dinner at Brad and Hayley's but not the normal dinner you would expect. Instead we had a snack dinner of potato chips, hot chips, biscuits, dip and our new invention of Snack Wraps. Snack Wraps are freshly made hot picklets wrapped around a morsel of snack block chocolate. Very bad dinner but very yummy as we have to keep up with Hayley's (the pregnant one) cravings. That night I found out that Brad plays guitar so we had a bit of a jam session. It was great to jam with a fellow lover of music.

Every Sunday morning at 8am, the locals get together for a 9 hole game of golf with coffee at the General Store afterwards. So Don joined Brad this particular Sunday as his caddy. While the boys played golf, I went to pick up some rain water from Roundy's place. Roundy has 12,000 litres of rain water at his dugout however he is only in White Cliffs a few months of the year, so never would use it. He allowed us to fill up our camper water tanks with his water. Now that we have water, we can probably stay in White Cliffs a bit longer. Thanks Roundy for the water and thanks to Barry for the lend of his ute with a 250litre drum.

Our driveway or should I say the mound of dirt at Brad's place where we park got bigger on the weekend as Brad shovelled more dirt from out and around their campsite.

On Monday I took a trip out to Wilcannia to do some decent groccery shopping. Wilcannia is approximately 94km away from White Cliffs via a newly built bitumen road. It is a small town with a population of approximately 800 located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales. Wilcannia has a large Aboriginal community, being the traditional home of the Barkindji people (barka meaning river). Don't be scared to go to Wilcannia like everyone says for the people there are friendly and welcoming.

The rest of the week was spent fossicking for the girls and mining for the boys down Brad's mine shaft. I found a beautiful fossil of an opalised shell and another nice piece of opal probably worth cutting for jewellery.

On Wednesday night I volunteered my services at the pub to help out with a 120 people Landcare function. After serving them dinner, I ended up behind the bar and might end up scoring a job out of it.

On Saturday night, the 4wd Action magazine boys came into town doing a story on testing out some 4wds. We caught up with them at the caravan park and I took the photographer, Tommy, out for a recce to see where he can take some good photos of the cars going through some articulation scenarios. After subsribing to 4wd Action for a number of years and although Roothy wasn't there, I was still very excited to meet the 4wd Action guys including Slav, Shaun, Tommy, Cal, Fred and CT.

On Sunday morning Don and I met up with the 4wd Action guys at the caravan park at 7:30am. After they packed up all their gear into the test trucks, we took them slightly out of White Cliffs (near Clancy's Hut) for the photo shoot. The 5 test trucks were Toyota Landcruiser 200 series, Nissan Patrol 3L, the new Toyota Troopie, Range Rover Discovery and the Landrover Defender. The article will probably appear in either the November or December 2008 mag. After taking one shot of all the test trucks of the rear passenger wheel in the washout rut (and of course my truck), the 4wd Action guys headed off to Hungerford to continue their testing. Thanks for a great morning and it was a pleasure meeting all of you. Keep up the good work with the mag.

As Brad has been still trying to fix up their permanent camp in White Cliffs, I decided to take a trip to Broken Hill on Monday 11 August 2008 to buy some supplies for us and building supplies for Brad. Broken Hill is approximately 3 hours drive away from White Cliffs via Wilcannia and Little Topar. It is a thriving community on the edge of the NSW Outback. With a population of over 20,000 people it is the economic and cultural hub of Far Western NSW. A thriving mining and mineral industry and over 300,000 tourists per year provide an excellent basis for strong business growth and investment in the region. Broken Hill is a city that cherishes its heritage and abounds with lovingly restored historic buildings and monuments. With its well-developed infrastructure, good climate and many tourist attractions, Broken Hill is a great place to live or to visit. It is also the base for the 4wd Outback Challenge competition held every year in May.

During the first part of this week, we helped Brad and Hayley put in their shower unit and attached it to the shed. While in Broken Hill, I picked up some oil and oil filters to do the maintenance on the Patrol which the boys helped me out with.

Also this week my 3 monthly not-get-pregnant jab was due. Now, I know a lot of you are thinking, why the hell do we need to know that. Well, if you are ever out this way and you need a prescription filled, here's the go. Take it in to the hospital / clinic a week or two weeks before you need it. The Flying Doctor comes in once a week by plane to tend to any patients and pick up any prescriptions that need to be filled. The Flying Doctor then flies back to Broken Hill dropping the prescriptions off to the chemist. The chemist then fills the prescription over the next couple of days. Then the Flying Doctor picks up the prescription and flies back to White Cliffs on his weekly visit. Now if you are all wondering, this process takes approximately a week if there are no outback emergencies that the Flying Doctor needs to attend. If there are emergencies it could take 2 weeks before the medication is back in White Cliffs. So for all you city folk, it is not just a simple matter of ducking down to the chemist when you are in the outback.

Wednesday 20 August 2008 saw our last night with Brad and Hayley. They are going home to Stawell in Victoria after their 5 week mining holiday in White Cliffs. Thank you so much for making us welcome in both your house and mine. We will miss you guys and of course little Jessica Rose even though she is a feral. Hope all goes well with the birth of your new feral, Clay Riley, in November.

On Thursday and Friday, Don and I spent time together visiting the opal shops in and around White Cliffs as well as the photography gallery. Otto Rogge Photography gallery is one of the largest permanent photographic galleries in Australia. Most of the display area is located underground for which White Cliffs is famous for and offers cool viewing of over 200 prints. All works have been photographed by Otto Rogge and printed on location on watercolour paper with high colour fidelity and archival properties to rival paintings. Study pictures of rare and beautiful opals usually only found in private collections overseas. Mineral and rough opal specimens are also on display offering great informative and educational value. Souvenirs such as postcards, coolers, fridge and frame magnets, books, picture rolls and posters are also available.

Outback Treasures is an opal store with a difference. All the opals are locally found and Barbara is a silversmith who sets all her own jewellery. Very intersting pieces and well worth a visit.

Thursday night saw us at the pub celebrating Temille's 19th birthday. Temille is a beautiful girl who works at the general store week on and lives in Broken Hill on her week off.

After my volunteer stint at the pub, on Friday 22 August 2008 while Don went out fossicking, I decided to go online for my Responsible Services of Alcohol (RSA) and Responsible Services of Gambling (RSG) certificates. After less than $200 and approximately 7 hours work, I emailed the certificates to Graeme, the publican, and on Monday 25 August 2008 I did my first shift at the pub from 5pm to midnight.

On Saturday 30 August 2008 while I worked at the pub from 11am to 8pm, Don went up to PJ's Bed and Breakfast for a look. PJ's is another underground motel with spectacular rooms, antique furniture and unusual art pieces.

On Sunday as we were driving past the caravan park and into town, we noticed a tourist in the caravan park with the same camper trailer as ours so of course, we had to stop and have a chat with them. They had just come from Tibooburra after the rain and their cars as well as the front of the camper were stacked with inches of red mud. Good to talk to fellow Australian Off Road Campers owners.

On Monday 1 September 2008 Cookie (the local everything) and I went down to the Sports Club to try and organise the sound system for Father's Day. I was asked to provide the "light entertainment" for the night after Bingo, of course. As I don't have my own sound system with me, we used Cookie's speakers, mics, mixer and amplifier with my back up music on my laptop. After fiddling around with the sound for a few hours before we got it right, I met back up with Don at the pub were we met Tonchi. Tonchi is a musician from Victoria visiting White Cliffs for a few days to help the local kids at school write some White Cliffs songs. Fortunately, he had a better mixer and amplifier on board which he said we could use for Father's Day. Thanks for the lend, Tonchi. My couple of hours gig sounded terrific. For his generosity, Don and I invited him over for dinner. Thanks also to Cookie for the lend of his equipment.

On Wednesday 3 September 2008, Macca was drilling over on Barry's claim so Don decided to join them. Don learnt more about trying to find the elusive opal by drilling a hole 30 feet down before you dig. Unfortunately, they only found potch with no traces of opal.

On Monday 15 September 2008 a huge dust storm with strong winds hit While Cliffs. After 9 weeks of camping on Macca's claim on the west side of the fields, we and the camper have endure a lot of strong winds. However, this day was the worse. The annexe zipper ended up coming off and the annex went flying. While Don tried to hold on to the canvas, I managed to let all the poles down and get the annexe canvas flat on the ground. So with no annex and the wind continuing, we decided to pack up and move to a more sheltered spot while the annex is repaired in Broken Hill. Thanks to Smiley for the loan of his ute so I didn't have to pack everything away in its proper spot. In the meantime, we have settled under Roundy's shed in a lovely sheltered spot with the sunrise view instead of the sunset view of the west field. Thanks again Roundy, for letting us camp somewhere sheltered while our annex is being fixed.

On Tuesday 16 Septemer 2008, Don started his new job of "sheeping" out on a property 25km out from White Cliffs. "Rousting" is the usual term for "sheeping". That is, bringing the sheep in from the pens and urging the sheep to move up the ramp ready for the shearers or crutches. Shearers obviously shear the whole sheep while crutches only shear the forehead and bum. Crutching is done once or twice a year inbetween shearing to prevent blow flies occuring around the head and bum areas.

To end, White Cliffs is certainly a unique town with a tight knit community who help each other out whenever needed. If you get the chance to come here, get to know the locals, visit the pub and general store and try your luck to find that elusive opal. You certainly won't regret it. As a matter of fact, no matter what small town you visit, make sure you meet the locals at the pub even if you don't drink like me.

Until next time, take care and make the most of life.

Trip 21 - Part 1 - White Cliffs

WORDS BY: Fina

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

We left Tibooburra on Tuesday 15 July 2008 to head towards White Cliffs. While talking to other travellers, someone happen to mention Depot Glen and Milparinka as a must see.

Charles Sturt arrived at Depot Glen on Preservation Creek on 27 January 1845. His party of 17 men also had horses, sheep and cattle. The party had been moving slowly, establishing camps by good water sources. By the time they established a camp at Depot Glen at the peak of summer, Sturt's party were unable to find water ahead and what were thought to be permanent sources behind them also disappeared. The party was marooned for six months and James Poole became very ill with scurvy. Rain fell in July and some of the party were sent to take Poole home, but he died during the second day's travel. He was buried a short distance from the campsite at a nearby tree blazed with his initials. A beautiful spot to camp beside a creek and amongst slate rock mounds.

Milparinka is belied to be an Aboriginal word meanding "water to be found there", a reference to the water hole in Evelyn Creek. It's uch a surprise to come across a place like Milparinka where a small group of dedicated locals have adopted a whole-of-town approach to preserve the region's rich history of exploration and settlement. Today beautifully restored colonial buildings provide the venue for the Information Centre. An open shed full of artifacts is visible from the town centre. The old commercial bank building has not been restored however the courthouse and police barracks along with a couple of cells have been fully restored.

We were still having ExplorOz people stalking us along our travels, including Bob and Nora who own the same camper trailer as us. And as usual, we made our way to the Milparinka pub to enjoy a chat with the locals and a cold drink.

From Milparinka, we continued our trip to White Cliffs heading south and driving past a salt lake just before the turn off to White Cliffs. A small sandy track from the Silver City Highway leds to the salt lake's edge. The salt lake has extremely saline brown loams and clays with little vegetation. Salt Lake fills predominantly from the Koonenberry Mountains in the south. Palgamurtie Creek brings this water into the southeastern end of the lake. Various creeks join Palgamurtie Creek between the Lake and the mountains. Ponto Creek and Funeral Creeks drain the western side of the Koonenberry Mountains and join Palgamurtie Creek first. Wheeney Creek flows into Morden Creek which drains the eastern side of the Koonenberry Mountains and joins Palgurmurtie Creek about 10 kilometers south of Salt Lake. A small unnamed creek also flows into the lake from the north and may contribute to flooding but this is unlikely to be particularly significant. In the period 1987-1990, Salt Lake contained water a few times. While water covered the surface of nearly the whole lake, it was not deep and did not attract many waterbirds. Salt Lake was filled to capacity in 1993.

On the left turnoff from the Silver City Highway to White Cliffs, you will discover a Tool Tree and Baby Tool Tree which surprisingly has a sign on it "please don't water". Now why would you water a Tool Tree?

White Cliffs, another town renowned for opal, but more famous for the White Cliffs Pineapples, a sphere of minerals formed that are eventually replaced by precious opal. By some quirk of mother natures, these pineapples ave only ever been found in White Cliffs. You never know, Don may find one of pineapples during his opal fossicking here in White Cliffs.

Arriving in White Cliffs is like arriving in any opal mining settlement. It is immediately obvious that every regular activity comes a bad last to the one thing which drives the town - seeking a fortune! The pub is dusty and lonely, the general store is small and simple, the roads are rough and unsealed, the settlement is spread in every direction, and the attempts at 'civilisation' are crude and simplistic. White Cliffs housing operates on the iceberg principle with most of the town's 'buildings' being underground. For every building you see on the surface there are as many as ten more underground.

For Tuesday night, we decided to stay at the White Cliffs Underground Motel for the night. Room with a queen size bed only $99. This motel is the world's largest underground motel. After entering the side of a flat topped hill, you find a cool and spacious motel. It is 22 degress all year round. Sky lights in every room add to the sense of comfort underground with a soothing flow of fresh air and soft lighting. Sleeping underground is an unforgettable experience with the superior quiet, deep dreaming and the magical lighting. We decided to add a 3 course dinner ($35 each) and continental breakfast ($10 each) to our stay making the total experience memorable. Lucky the room had a skylight otherwise I think we would have slept in most of the day.

On leaving the Underground Motel on Wednesday 16 July 2008, Richard, the manager, told us to go and see Macca who operates the only open cut mine in town up on the hill called The Blocks. After looking at his opals and taking a small tour of the open cut, we asked Macca if we could possibly camp on his claim so that Don doesn't have far to walk for fossicking. There is a caravan park in town for $15 per night but after splurging out on a motel last night, free camping sounded very good. Although it is quite cold and windy up on the mountain, our view is spectacular with beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

For the next few days Don fossicked while I caught up on the website stories as you can see. We collected some firewood from the local garbage tip and had some wonderful camp oven meals. The days are quite warm but the nights are still fairly cold - thank god we bought that gas heater back in Yowah.

We have been on the road now for 3 1/2 months and are loving the life style - meeting very interesting people, seeing some quirky country towns, making sure we have enough fuel, gas, water and food to last us on our trips. Normal life? This is it!

Thursday night was so windy that we couldn't start a fire or cook in the kitchen without having to put up the whole canvas awning so we decided to head into town instead and have a meal and the local takeaway shop. Some fish and chips later and we were both full and ready for bed while the camper swayed with the north westerly winds.

Friday came and my beautiful stainless steel kitchen was totally covered with red bull dust that had blown in from yesterday. After cleaning it for an hour or so, I decided that the best option is to pack it away while the wind continues to blow. I stayed indoors again while Don went fossicking - did I mention I really HATE WIND!

Probably because of the wind, Friday night was one of the most spectacular sunsets I have every seen. Don captured some magnificant photos - take a look for yourself.

After the brilliant sunset, we had dinner at the local takeaway shop with Macca and some of his friends. Great time talking to the local opal miners. If you ever stop in White Cliffs go to the local takeaway shop on a Friday night and ask for the chicken schnitzel. It is massive. I don't know how Jessica is going to get all the way through it.

After such a brilliant sunset last night, who would have thought that sunrise on Saturday morning would result in images like this.

Saturday was a lazy day around camp. Too windy to do anything. I have come to the conclusion that not only do the White Cliffs people live underground in dugouts because of the heat in summer, but also because of the gale force winds and bull dust that blows around. However, I did manage to finish reading the RFDS book we won - lots of short tales about what went right and what went wrong on RFDS trips and evacuatons. Very interesting book - great to read stories and hear of places that we have been like Innamincka, Tibooburra and Thargomindah. The wind continued throughout the night so we didn't get much sleep at all.

On Sunday morning we awoke at 10am (big sleep in because of the windy night). After having some lunch, we decided to put the full annexe up for first time ever. That includes full annexe roof and walls. It will protect the kitchen more from this blasted wind - did I mention that I HATE WIND! Anyway, we did manage to put it all up in the wind and in some sprinkling of rain.

After lunch we visited Macca at his dugout. Even though we are camping on his claim, Macca lives in a dugout just on the outskirts of town and out of the bloody wind! Great, cozy dugout with main bedroom, spare bedroom, bathroom, lounge, dining, kitchen including shed dugouts on the outside. While we were there, an opal dealer from Germany, Christoph, and his wife, Petra and son, Feliz turned up and eventually bought all of Macca's opal pineapples and rough opals - $3,500 later and the deal was done.

Andy rang today to tell us he might turn up here on Monday to spend a night with us. It will be good to see him again.

Also it was good to learn more about Macca. John McCaskill, alias Macca, left school at a young age to assist his parents dairying in Gippsland, until the age of 200 when he joined the Victoria Police Force. Not retired, he spends the better part of the year mining Opal at White Cliffs. He has also written a book of bush poetry called "Sundowners, River Gums and Mulga". A great read and a true Aussie character. Once again, thanks, Macca, for letting us camp on your claim for a few days.

Andy messaged on Monday morning. Unfortunately he is having problems with his turbo - well it is a Toyota after all, so he won't be able to make it to White Cliffs - what a shame. We will have to catch up with him somewhere else.

The wind has died down bit but not altogether. Did I mention how much I HATE WIND! Anyway, now that we have the full annexe up, it is a lot better and at least can use the kitchen.

We spent time today and coffee with a couple we met at Friday night's dinner, Craig and Heidi, and their 2 girls, Ruby-May and Jessica. Lovely couple from the Adelaide Hills and lovely girls (for ferals that is). Hopefully, we will catch up with them one day when we are in South Australia.

Tuesday and Wednesday were much the same with Don fossicking and me having to deal with the wind. Lucky I enjoy my own company during the day and that I have lots of things to keep me busy such as reading, knitting, laptop work, music, etc.

The back driver's tyre was a bit flat on Wednesday morning so I pumped it up and kept an eye on it but unfortunately by early afternoon it had gone down again. Only a slow leak so we took it off and with a soapy squirty bottle found the small hole that was causing the slow leak. Funny how this is our first puncture after driving so many dirt roads and we get a puncture when we haven't been anywhere in over a week apart from the dump to pick up wood and the general store for supplies.

On Thursday I made picklets for morning tea for our guests Craig, Heidi, Jessica and Ruby-May and of course, Macca. The day ended up the same as usual (did I mention how much I HATE WIND!) and we hired our first DVD "I Am Legend" and ate chips and chocolate while watching the movie.

On Friday night, we had our first fire after a week or so of wind (did I mention how much I HATE WIND!).

On Saturday morning, we visited another local, Wendy who lives in a massive dugout with husband, Neville and their 2 girls. Again, beautiful people and a beautiful home which they have only just completed a month or so ago.

We have been hiring DVD movies over the last fews days to watch at night for $7 a pop. So, if you have movie DVDs you don't want anymore please sent them to the address on the right. Gets a bit boring at night after a fire and dinner and we have seen all of our DVDs now about 5 times each.

On Sunday night, White Cliffs held their Christmas in July celebration. For $25 each, you get all you can eat roast and vegies as well as hearing the local children sing Christmas carols. It was a very nice meal with over 80 people to cater for. Lovely desert as well. The locals gave Don and I a very warm welcoming.

Especially, Roundy and his partner, Janine who ended up inviting us over after the celebration for drinks at their dugout. We ended up sleeping over in their dugout as the drinking and conversation didn't finish till 3am in the morning. A massive dugout, Roundy has more toys than you can throw a stick at. Trikes, motorbikes, camper trailer, caravan, Wennabago, F250, utes, 4 wheelers, Mustangs, Harleys, just to name a few. His collection of match box cars scattered all through the dugout in glass cabinets are worth over $200,000. Lovely people who are very down to earth and we enjoyed their company immensely. On Monday morning, we awoke to spend breakfast with Roundy and Janine. We hope to meet up with them at the Louth races on 9 August. Thanks for letting us sleep over.

On our way home, we visited more locals, Brad and his wife, Hayley, their 10 month old daughter Jessica-Rose and Brad's mum, Sharon. They live in a shed on one of their claims and spend only 1 month per year here. Brad drives a GQ Nissan Patrol with a 5in spring lift, 2in body lift, 35in tyres and purple front and rear bars - very nice Patrol. Brad also has another claim away from his camp that he is starting to dig so we went fossicking there for the day. Needless to say we did find a bit of colour so Don was very happy. We invited them over for dinner that night and had a great night watching 4WD DVDs from Brad's 4WD club trips.

More to follow in the next couple of days.

Don't forget to check out "more photos".