Time to get back on the road again and head further north.
When we leave Bathurst to head north, we travel on the Mitchell Highway. We took a detour on the first day, from Orange to Narromine, but after that have been on the Mitchell Highway all the way from home. This is the end of it, being just over 1,000 kms long.
Our first stop for the day was the small town of Augathella. There is now a painted water tower, which wasn’t there last time we came through.
And, of course, the photo with Frank truck.
Speaking of trucks, you have to get a photo of a road train on trips like this.
Augathella has a nice looking shire hall with war memorial out the front.
We notice that the front door was open and a small meeting was taking place inside. They didn’t mind if we had a quick bo peep. It has recently had some major upgrades and is looking rather good.
There are a few murals around town.
It is apparently meat ant country and there is a large sculpture of an ant. There used to be ant sculptures all up the main street, but they seem to be gone.
There was a nice looking little butchers at Augathella and we bought some tasty meat there. We were surprised at the variety on offer. I dare say the travellers are keeping him in business, as many items were packed up in small quantities.
Our destination for the day was the next town north, Tambo. We had heard good things about it and the free camp site just out of town. That is where we headed first, and arrived just on lunch time, which meant we were able to snag a rather nice site by the creek.
We walked into town after lunch and had a nice wander around.
One of the main things that Tambo is famous for is Tambo Teddies. No teddies came home, as Charley Bilby might get jealous.
How many towns have a teddy crossing sign?
Tambo is another little town that appears to be punching above its weight. There is a steam punk truck sculpture.
Which is located in front of a glass fronted transport museum.
The street is lined with beautiful bottle trees.
They are some of the fattest we have seen.
There is a museum housed in what was the old post office and telegraph office and house next door.
One interesting exhibit was the World War I uniform of Sister Greta Norman Towner. She is interesting to read about.
After our wander, it was time to go back to the van to have a bit of lazy time before getting ready for our evening out. This was what we hoped would be a highlight of our visit to this small town.
We wandered back up town in the late afternoon, with our destination being the Royal Carrangarra Hotel, which is touted as “Outback Queensland’s oldest hotel site”.
What was the attraction? Ben’s Chicken Racing. What a hoot. So what is it all about? Well, each night from April until the end of October the publican, Ben, runs these chicken races, to provide some fun, attract people to his pub and town and to raise funds for charity while he’s at it.
How does it work?
You turn up, and if you order your meal before 5pm you can get a very cheap meal. Mick went the Bangers and Mash and I had the chicken Alfredo, as the schnitties had sold out. Also, if you buy a drink before 5pm you get a wild card to go in a raffle for one of the racing chooks.
The bar gets rather busy. Notice this pub has a U shaped bar, like the one in Charleville, but not as long.
Then, everyone assembles outside to watch the chicken racing…..and it’s delayed a little, so you can go and get another drink and raffle ticket for that wild card chook. Smart….
Then, the event starts with a run down on the different coloured chooks and their race form, before they are auctioned off. The colours are from food colouring, so no harm to the chooks. The “sale” money is then the prize money. The “owner” of the winning chook gets 50% of the prize pool, with the other half going to the charity “Little Windmills” that supports rural and remote children needing medical attention.
The race works by the chickens chasing a remote controlled car with chicken feed in a bucket on top for six laps. The winner is the first to cross the line (the bar mat laid on the ground in the centre that you can see). Some chooks will chase the car, others will just wander around aimlessly. As I said, the winner is the first to cross the line after six laps. Now that chook may have just sat down next to it for most of the race and happened to walk across and it would be the winner. Let’s face it, you can’t really get chooks to all do the right thing. Anyway, the winner was the green chook. The winners paid $100 for their chook and won $547.50, with the charity getting that much as well. And that wild card chook that everyone got a raffle ticket for? Well, after the race Ben advised that it has never won a race. It was a hilarious, feel good event and we are so pleased we had heard about it and made a point of staying in Tambo to attend.
After that, it was into the pub to have our dinner. The pub emptied out very quickly after that, but we stayed for a while. There was a fellow playing music in a corner, which was good entertainment. When we were ready to go home, we caught the courtesy bus, that went back to our camp site. We hadn’t really wandered much around it, having camped near the creek. In the bus, we realised it was a huge area and we were lucky to be where we were.
Well done Tambo. A great place to stay.
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