Tibooburra & Cameron Corner — Tibooburra, Australia
What I did
Cameron Corner
Stayed at Tibooburra with the sole idea of visiting Cameron corner where the borders of SA, Qld & NSW meet. There is a lot more to see in this area, however are now on the run home for the 4th September arrival date, set before we left as we want to spend two weeks with Erin before she leaves for England, and intend to come back to Broken Hill and this area, as it is easy enough to get to from Adelaide.
The distance to Cameron corner is 140 Km of gravel and the lady at the service station said it is very corrugated and there are a lot of Wedge Tail Eagles feeding on the road kills, which you have to be watch for and be careful of as they are extremely slow getting off the ground, due to their size. A lot of the young people have hit them and broken their windscreens, which serves the young people right, as it does help if you don't drive like an idiot, but maybe they’ve been watching their parents. It doesn’t help the birds though, and think it would be good to see signs along the road warning drivers to be aware that the birds can be slow to get out of the way. At least the city people who are unaware might take some notice.
The first 30 Km was like a highway as the council have been busy grading, however the next 110 Km was relative slow going, but we were not in any hurry, had plenty of time and wanted to look around. There were plenty of Roo’s and Emu’s but no Eagles on the way out. The country is relatively flat and harsh.
At Cameron Corner we had a look around before opening the gate and driving through to SA and over to the Corner Store which is a pub, restaurant, service station, grocery supplies, accommodation and even has a 3 hole golf course. This time we had a coffee and I resisted on the beer. Amazing to read about the dog fence, which is more than 5500 Km long and is permanently maintained by people, each looking after a 60 Km section, and would not be an easy job, especially in summer, and also amazing to think that we are at the point where South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales meet, in the middle of nowhere.
On the way back we had lunch at Fort Grey which is a significant camp in the Burke & Wills exploration and back to Tibooburra where we, amazingly, saw the first fox of the trip, crossing a beautiful dry lake, and also saw two Wedge Tails. The trip to the corner is definitely worth the effort.
Back at Tibooburra, the town was busy with a local wedding, which was celebrated later on loudly and well in to the night, and we went up to a lookout which gave a great view over Tibooburra and the surrounding areas. This is a town most Australians are familiar with, at least by name and you conjure up thoughts of desert, sand dunes and heat, and while this is true, its biggest feature is sandstone boulders, almost everywhere you look. At the lookout we saw a lone Sturts Desert Pea, which is the first time we’ve seen one in the wild, and also many wild goats.
Back to our camp and starting the pack up for tomorrows 330 Km travel to Broken Hill which will be our last on the gravel road, this trip. Received a text from Sarah (Al’s daughter) the she and Kyle (Karl) are engaged, which is very exciting news.