A bushman with his dog and horse outside a humpy. This picture is thought to have been taken in the Hughenden district, QLD, around 1910-1920. By the looks of it it's made from canvas and branches and you can see cooking utensils near the entrance. A humpy (or gunyah) was traditionally used by Aboriginals as [...]
Central West Queensland is a vast area. Bordered by the Northern Territory and South Australia to the west the region covers about 400,000 square kilometres but is sparsely populated. Towns such as Longreach, Winton, Birdsville, Blackall, Barcaldine, Boulia and Muttaburra help to tether this strong agricultural district, dogged by drought over the centuries. Partly criss-crossed [...]
There’s an art in making billy-tea and when properly made the average bushman will tell you that it’s ‘the drink’, far surpassing the kitchen-made variety. The billy or billycan is only at its best when it’s stained and blackened from usage. The sundowners – those restless souls of the past who would arrive at a sheep station at [...]
The 143-year-old Kinchega Woolshed built from corrugated iron and River Red Gum, is one of Australia’s most historic woolsheds. Here visionary pioneers and ill-fated explorers form part of history on ancient land. The Kinchega property is situated just over 1100 km north-west of Sydney, south-east of Broken Hill. The antiquity of the surrounding land goes [...]
‘There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around That the colt from [...]
Alice Springs the city wasn’t always known by this rather optimistic name. The settlement came about after John McDouall Stuart led an expedition through Central Australia in 1861-62, to the west of what would eventually become Alice Springs. Stuart was the savvy explorer that established a route from the south of the continent to the north [...]
