Mitchell and Morven

Saturday morning the 22nd May, we woke to another beautiful morning. Being able to stay hooked up day after day is terrific as it saves so much time, rather than unhooking and hooking up. So we left Surat and headed to Mitchell. On the way there was this little town called Amby. It had a display of 'Scarred Trees' where aboriginals had carved bark and out layer of trees for canoes or food carriers. The scars remain on the trees.
We pulled into Mitchell. It had a quick walk up the street. I loved these old pubs with their big verandahs. I did not see any other buildings there that took my fancy.
I struggled finding a good spot for lunch and so headed to the Neil Turner Weir which is a great free camp that I have stayed at before so wound up having lunch there.
Then moved on to Morven where there is a very good cheap camp, $5 honesty box with great amenities. We found a good spot and decided to have a fire as we were offered some free timber. I just had to walk 500 metres to go an get it. No trouble, I am trying to keep fit anyway. So I walked over to these people’s back yard who had offered the timber. Had a chat to them and they had a couple of trees fall and so they were wanting to get rid of it. Whilst chatting I saw a large number of cattle in the distance and the folk there said that there would be a drover with them and would be heading to Roma. So I grabbed as much timber as was comfortable to carry and walked back to camp and started breaking and cutting the timber in readiness for a fire. The cattle then started coming closer and the drover came riding through past us and so it appeared we would be treated to a show. Sure enough, a big herd of Brahman cattle came past us with about 20 spare horses.
Another stockman, or stockwoman I should say, was pushing the herd from the rear. We got to have a brief chat to her. She was as ‘country’ as a person gets. Unfortunately the video file of her riding through was to large. The lead drover had come through on a grey horse and then changed horses, tying his grey up to the fence. So we went over to say g’day to the grey. I reckon one of those holidays you can go on where you go droving cattle would be awesome if you could get enough time on a horse beforehand so you wouldn’t be in huge pain.
Following our show we enjoyed the sunset and had a great fire. Another good part of this evening was playing some great music, mainly listening to Slim Dusty songs that featured the towns that we had gone through. There was Dirranbandi and Augathella that were mentioned in the ‘Cunnamulla Fella’. ‘Charleville’ was another of his great songs.
Next morning I could see that the herd had been contained and were motionless. It was in the distance but it was evident that some star posts had been put in the ground which means that an electric fence must have been erected. We had been wondering how they could contain the mob overnight and thought of the electric fence option. There had already been breakaway mobs so none of the droving team could get a nights sleep without a good way of containing the herd. The support crew had driven in with a huge horse float with sleeping quarters and another vehicle and van so the total crew must have been at least five personnel. So they started moving the mob on. A mob had broken away and came back near us. One of the crew turned up in a 4WD and started herding them back to the main herd.
We went for a walk into town and all of the spare horses had decided the sweet green grass in a vacant paddock in town was pretty good and so they were having a good feed.
In town there was an interesting display of a tin hut. There had been about six of these huts built in Morven during the depression. A timber frame was built using saplings cut down in the bush and then clad using kerosine tins. As basic as it gets but they did whatever they had to do to survive.
There was a pine growing which was a descendant of the ‘Lone Pine’ from the most important battle at Gallipoli. Morven is a nice town and they locals are obviously very proud of it.
Another look at the horses on the way back to camp.
Back to camp and got everything sealed up and drove out. However, the herd were all on their way back to the waterhole just near town. The drover was ahead of them so they had not all broken away from him. I am not sure what happened. By law the drovers have to move the herd 7km a day so maybe it was all in their plan but they weren’t making much progress. It might have been the case that the herd needed a bigger drink than they had been allowed. I’m sure they knew what they were doing. So the guy in front of me and I made our way through the mob and went on.

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