We left Blackall for the drive to Charleville and our first stop was in Tambo. We looked around the town inspecting some old vehicles. Tambo is famous for the “Tambo Teddy” so we had a stop at the Tambo Teddies shop. We enjoyed looking around the shop then Ian insisted on purchasing one of the Basil Tambo Teddy Bears by the name of “Wyanga Wilbur”. Every Teddy is serial numbered, named after one of the local stations and is recorded in their Teddy register. Wilbur is named after the Wyanga Station.

Our next stop was Augathella where we took some photos of murals, the resident giant meat ant, filled up with some diesel and continued on our way.

We arrived at the Evening Star Caravan Park and checked in before heading into Charleville for a look around and supplies. We arrived back at the caravan park in time to attend happy hour and meet the owners and campers. We were even brave enough to try their Blue Mulga Gin that they had made, which was not a bad drop.

We went for a walk around the caravan park property visiting the woolshed and the night viewing location before walking around the perimeter of the property, along the dog fence. We stumble across a clay pigeon launcher and an experiment by a university that appeared to be testing nets and roofing sheets.

We booked in to attend the Cosmos Centre for a night viewing which made our decision to stay another night so that we didn’t have to hit the road after a late night star gazing. The star gazing at the caravan park had ended for the season as has the Bilby viewing in Charleville.

The Cosmos Centre was amazing with lots of displays to learn about our solar system and videos as to how it came into existence and what will happen to it, eventually. The night viewing was outside starting in a building with a couple of telescopes. As the introduction began the building spliot in to and retracted away from us leaving an unobstructed view of the night sky. After a cloudy day we actually had clear skies for the viewing. We looked at

  • Canopus, the brightest star in our sky,
  • Large Magellanic Cloud, Globular cluster
  • Small Magellanic Cloud, Globular Cluster
  • Pleiades star cluster, aka the seven sisters
  • Jupiter, along with four of its moons
  • Saturn, including seeing it rings
  • Shooting stars, during the evening

We then enjoyed a day of rest before heading off along the “Natural Sciences Loop” to Cunnamulla.