Idalia National Park - West of Blackall

Originally the Collabara Grazing property, but it was never meant to be successful. 51year old Herbert Goldring and his wife Katie bought this 45,325Ha property in 1919.

The new purchasers, John and Winifred Taylor were so poor they had few cloths and ate bust tucker ( yams) to help them survive.

FACT: That Pricky Pear I thought was bought to Australia for ‘English gardens’, but NO !

It came on the first fleet as it is the host plant of the cochineal bug. That bug provided the red dye for the soldiers informs.

It’s only a small gully but has the name ‘Rainbow Gorge’.

Wave Rock

Once considered a vermin during 1880 to 1918 that thousands were shot, until the 1930’s that they were thought extinct.

In 1973 a small group was found by a fencer near Dingo, and a new colony established here in Idalia.

When grasses are in short supply the Nailtails exist on bark, herbs, dry leaves, seed pods and even Emu droppings - It pays not to be choosy when you want to survive.

West of the park is the one building town of Emmet.

Once a thriving settlement that formed part of the 1911 Great Western Railway from Blackall towards Windorah.

It never even made it that far.

Like so many government projects this major 2000km railway construction was approved by parliament with little true investigation as to its viability.

The family that owners the one establishment purchased it 50 years ago, and survive on breading a few sheep and cattle, and selling the odd ice cream, to remote travellers.

Our camp on the Barcoo River

For Sale:

Dray Restoration Project - needs some TLC. Was operational by the last owner.

Arrilalah a Ghost Town

The site was originally a camp for drovers and teamsters using the eastern bank of the Thomson River to rest their beasts.

When the Central Western rail line from Rockhampton reached what would become the town of Emerald in 1879, Forest Grove’s future seemed assured as it was rumoured that it would become the terminus.

These rumours became ‘certain fact’ in 1884 and the first hotel was opened. It was the Commercial Hotel and then the owners built a store.

A second hotel was underway when the government sent in surveyors and 139 commercial and residential allotments were surveyed.

About 125 allotments were auctioned in October 1885 and 75 were sold – many for prices which were reported to be a record for any western town.

The speed of change to the old drover’s camp after the land sale was remarkable.

Within a year or two, there were three hotels (the Commercial, the Club and the Royal), a large general store and a smaller store, two baker’s shops, a chemist, two saddler’s shops, two blacksmiths, two butcher shops, a boot maker’s shop and a billiard saloon in the 1860s with the name "Forest Grove", but the name was changed to Arrilalah, a word with an uncertain origin, in 1885.

The town began a long decline when the railway bypassed it, instead connecting to the nearby town of Longreach.

By the turn of the century all that remained was the Club Hotel and a few homes. The Club Hotel catered to travellers until 1949, when it too closed and the last of the townspeople moved away.

View from the top of the Bladensburg Nat park

Fossilised crocodile and yes they did eat dinosaurs as the small bundle from his stomach is a chicken sized Ornithopod ( Dinosaur)

Courtesy of the ‘Age of Dinosaurs ‘ exhibit