Easter Road Trip Day 4 The Outback

21 April 2019

Today I have crossed into a part of Australia I have never been to, “The Australian Outback”.

For my friends around the world, I live in a state (NSW) 809,000sq km (312,000sq miles), it is larger than Texas 695,000sq km (268,000 sq miles). The population of Texas is 28 million and NSW is 7 million. Texas has 3 million more people than all of Australia, yet all of the USA continental states fit inside Australia. You can fit all of Europe in Australia.  This gives you an idea of how large Australia is but our population is concentrated along the coast as the centre is mostly desert. The Outback is similar to New Mexico.

This part of the Outback is mining country and I love the pubs along the way.

 

The smallest town so far is Nevertire. How cute is the name? Population 103. The road trains in the Outback are huge. They are bigger than anything I saw in the USA. Oh, other than RVs towing, a boat, towing, a car, towing a golf cart.

The trains are not as long as the USA but this is quite impressive.

Stopped off in Nyngan, in the Bogan Shire, on the Bogan River.

Bogan is also Australian slang to describe an unrefined, unsophisticated person. The “bogan” comes out in me when I go to watch my rugby league team play.  Nyngan has a large statue “the Big Bogan” which has caused a bit of controversy, but this falls within the Australian humour and our larrikin (an uncultivated, rowdy but good hearted person) behaviour.

Cobar has a population 3,800 and is mainly a copper mining town, although there are also gold, silver, lead and zinc mines.

There is so much controversy about open cut mines and what they do to the landscape but this is awesome. It looks like a piece of art.

It is so dry here that I taste dirt, my eyes and nasal passages are very dry.  This is the local football field.  No grass here.  They breed them very tough in Cobar.

I wasn’t even in Cobar for 2 minutes before I had the red and blue lights flashing.  I was so surprised as I have been careful the whole time driving as it is double demerits and I want to be careful not to hit any animals at all, but definitely not going over the speed limit.  I realised that this is a small town and I was a new car in town and a new target.  They were disappointed as I won’t even have one drink the night before I drive on a roadtrip.  Cannot afford to not be 100% alert.

The Great Western Hotel has the longest balcony in the State.  It was lovely having dinner on that balcony overlooking the main street of Cobar.

Cannot go through Cobar without getting a photo of the biggest beer can.