Blackall and the Wool Scour

Has anyone been to Blackall?   On our last campervan adventure, we enjoyed the Woolscour, a historic wool washing plant and the only complete operation of its kind left in Oz.  The tour is worth doing where you learn all about the Golden Age of Wool and a tour of the complete area, including the shearing sheds, and wool scour.  They even fired up the old steam machines while we were there.  The wool scour also has one of the few remaining examples of a free flowing artesian bore.  They also do bush dinners on selected nights during the week – check out their website for more information.  Judging from the smells coming from the kitchen, you would want to plan your campervan visit to Blackall to include this.

Also famous for the ‘black stump’, and an old fella we met there – Doug Henderson – an old opal miner who gave us a few boulder opals, plus … a few stories of his time mining…but then thats another story!  It’s so fantastic the characters you meet in the outback.

Finally an excellent place to camp if you’d like a nice freedom camping spot is Douglas Ponds Creek, which is 23 km N of Blackall.  If you are using the Camps Australia Wide Guide the number is 687.  (On the maps it seems to be marked as day use 627.)  It’s a great spot for self contained campervanners where we enjoyed another fantastic evening with a campfire.  We were also treated to a spectacular sunrise in the morning – only for the early risers!