Charleville………………..Day 97

29 June 2014

This is our last night in Charleville.

We left the tiny town of Morven on Friday 27. The geese came into where we were all parked to see who was offering them food. They belong to no one and fend for themselves. The council worker who I talked to said he feeds them every morning with a couple of loaves of bread. People around town sometimes hand them food, but it is mainly up to the geese themselves.

We arrived at the Red Lizard Camping Ground just 6 kms outside Charleville around lunch time. We were greeted by the owner’s dog in the back of his vehicle.

We went into Charleville to have a look around. John and I booked into to the 9pm session for the hour long session in looking at the night skies through powerful telescopes. We received a talk before we were invited to look through the telescopes. We saw the Southern Cross through the telescope and discovered the southern most star is actually 3 stars.. We also saw star clusters, coloured stars and finally ended with looking at the rings around Saturn.We were both impressed and enjoyed the show.

Saturday saw us doing some much needed shopping with Kurgan’s food high on the list. We had a drive around town.

This is the Hotel Corones above. Building commenced in 1926 and completed in 1929. In 1990 the flood waters entered the ground floor. It has since been restored.

The Red Lizard Camping Ground is for caravans as well as campers. The owners put on Pizza Nights. We order our pizzas which they cook in a wood fired oven while we all sat around a great camp fire. What a great time we had.

Today Denise’s sister rang to say they also were in Charleville so we all met for morning tea at the Cosmos Centre, which is also the information centre. We stopped to look at the Vortex Guns. In 1902, the longest running drought had made the residents of Charleville desperate. Vortex Guns were used in Europe to dispel hail bearing clouds. These guns seemed to be the answer for the residents of Charleville. The guns, fired vertically into clouds, were expected to force the clouds to release rain. Unfortunately the Vortex Guns were unsuccessful and fortunately at the end of 1902 soaking rains finally fell.

I also went and had a look at the Royal Flying Doctor display at their headquarters in Charleville. This console was commissioned from 1973 to December 1995 and was used for emergency medical calls and radio telephones calls.

Looks like we are going to be joined by Bill and Leanne tomorrow as we leave for Augathella.