26th May 2026: We went to the Charleville Bilby Experience at Charleville Railway station, which has 2 trains a week from Brisbane but currently not running.
This is part of a project to increase Bilby numbers by developing some large fenced off areas within national parks where predators (feral cats and foxes) are kept out and bilbys are reintroduced into these areas. There is a breeding program in Charleville to provide bilbys from genetically different populations to populate these areas. They rotate a few bilbies from this program to an area which serves as a viewing area so that the public can observe bilbies in artificially dark conditions so they may be observed under red light. This raises awareness and money for the Bilby cause!
We then drove along the Matilda Way, stopping at Blackall to observe the Black Stump- used by surveyors to anchor their theodolites in the 1888 to accurately survey outback Qld.The original stump burnt down in 1987. It presence has subsequently been marked with a petrified wood stump (1988) and a sculpture (2018).
We arrived in Barcaldine at about 4pm, refuelling at Ampol ($2.65/l) and we were in time for damper and billy tea at the caravan park. We walked the 2 km into town to see the “tree of knowledge “ under whose branches shearers on strike used to meet, during the Great Shearer’s strike of 1891. It was also associated with the beginning of the Australian Labor Party. We then had dinner at the nearby recently renovated Balcaldine hotel.
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