The name 'Channel Country' comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets that flow intermittently across 150,000 sq km in Queensland and parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales.
The principal rivers are: Diamantina & Georgina Rivers and Cooper Creek and when there is sufficient rainfall these rivers flow into Lake Eyre.
Diamantina Lakes Station (a pastoral property) was purchased by the Queensland Government in the 1950's and dedicated as a national park in 1992. This 507,000 hectare park conserves the vast open plains and sandstone ranges of the Channel Country in far south-west Queensland.
The trek from Winton to Lark Quarry and onto Carisbrooke was approx 180 km (plus driving around the property).
The remainder of our journey into Diamantina NP, the 90 km Warracoota Circuit Drive we plan to do, and then onto Bedourie will be just shy of an additional 600km (making a total from Winton to Bedourie of approx 780km).
Most of it towing the campers and most in 4wd mode - so fuel economy will be lessened.
It is a challenging journey requiring us to be well prepared as there is no fuel, food or water for the 780 km we will be travelling in this remote area. Hence the need for us to carry the extra 80 litres of diesel.
From Carisbrooke Station we headed along the "The Cork Mail Road" to Cork and then the "The Old Cork Mail Road" to Old Cork.
Leaving Carisbrooke there we lots of kangaroos and emus around the paddocks of the properties we were passing through so we were on full alert.
We passed mesa formations and the first of the thousands of red sandhills that ripple across Australia to Broome.
This called for a serious photo opportunity
- with Russ posing on the Kimberley!!
Moores on the tvan
And Ruth having to do the "Oh what a feeling" jump!!
Isn't this little yellow wildflower and grey leaves stunning against the red sand!
We stopped briefly at the The Old Cork Homestead for our morning tea. The property was first settled in the 1870's and became the local mail distribution point before the establishment of Winton.
The remains of the original sandstone homestead:
From here we travel on the Diamantina River Road into Diamantina NP passing by the Mt Windsor Station mail box - which is arguably one of Winton's largest mail boxes and the mail arrives here once a week.
Our journey today through remote desert areas with spectacularly variable landscape and scenery left us just awestruck!!!
Just before we reached the Park Headquarters Information Centre we took the bush track off to "Janet's Leap" lookout where we had a birds-eye view of the Diamantina Gates where the many braids of the Diamantina River converge and are squeezed through a narrow gap between the Goyder Range to the west and the Hamilton Range to the east.
It is hard to imagine what a sight this would be in the wet season.
From this vantage point we are also overlooking Hunters Gorge - where we would be camping this evening beside this permanent waterhole.
This is where our paths first crossed with a Swiss woman - "Helga" (we did not yet know her real name so we made one up for her) travelling on her own in a hired 4wd camper.
The turn-off to this campground is 10 km along the Boulia–Springvale Rd from the Diamantina National Park HQ.
A pit toilet is the only facility at this campsite - which Cindy and Moores just love -- Ha! Ha! They would rather go bush!
We set up or camp along the banks of the waterhole.
We had too pinch ourselves to take in this oasis - in the midst of all the desolate country we had passed through to get here.
We also could not believe how many flies joined us there.
We had forgotten to bring our fly nets - but Cindy and Russ had been smart enough to pack them which gave them some relief when trying to eat lunch. We had to make do with just a small piece of bush to use as a fly deterrent until the flies abated with the ensuing dusk.
There were already about 6x other campers here when we arrived and the Swiss woman ('Helga') arrived on dusk to set up camp just a bit further along the waterhole from us.
We spent the late afternoon watching the many 'Little Corella' that frequented the waterhole and quite a few Pelicans and herons.
We also saw a feral cat nearby when taking a walk along the bank of the waterhole.
The scenery about the waterhole as sunset progressed was quite stunning
- with Ruth even enjoying the view from the "loo"
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