Bourke 6 July 2014

Heather had a great time talking to all the people she knew from when she lived in Walgett. While some people thought that it hadn’t changed, other locals were in despair over the changes that had occurred over the years and the exodus of people from the town. It gave us the impression that people had stopped caring about Walgett and were letting it slowly fall apart. We drove onto Brewarrina for lunch on the same bone shattering road. We saw lots of emus and goats along the road as well as masses of dead kangaroos. This is a smaller town with the same boarded up shops and offices and although quite deserted, didn’t feel as menacing as Walgett. The grey countryside slowly changed to undulating hillocks and dry creek beds, with the black soil merging into orange sand. Then onto Bourke, intending to camp outside at Mt Oxley, however as it had been closed we went onto Bourke and were advised to go to a caravan park because of the problems with security around the town. Stopped at a fairly ordinary (but expensive) campground, but with the reassurance of regular police patrols through the site! Bourke is larger than Walgett and has the same bars and steel shutters on the shops in the deserted CBD – first impression was rather depressing, however they have managed to retain many of their heritage buildings, which is great.