Timeless Memories in Bourke Cemetery (Australia)

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Living in outback Australia in the earlier days must have been demanding. Nothing highlights this more than the epitaphs in Bourke Cemetery – “found hanging in the bush”, “drowned”, “shot dead by police” and “perished in bush”. Like many rural cemeteries, the inscriptions speak silent stories of a history of paddle steamer operators, drovers, farmers, bushrangers, Afghan camel train drivers, brave policemen, publicans and local celebrities.

Set in the burned khaki plains just outside town under the soothing beauty of coolibah trees swaying gently in the heated breezes, the sea of gravestones offers a fascinating hour reflecting on times past.

I like cemeteries and have wandered a number around the world – not in a morbid way – but as a window opening onto a town’s history and culture.

At one edge of Bourke Cemetery sits a small corrugated building. It was an early mosque and a place of solace for the Afghan cameleers that realised their expertise suited the parched outback of Australia. Their graves face Mecca one man living to a remarkable 107 years of age.

Haunting is the large number of youngsters that succumbed to either an outbreak of disease or reckless endeavour – one horrifying incident with moving inscriptions claiming three young lives when a horses shied at an 1888 picnic day. In another section, a formal row of nuns reminds of the times when a convent helped support the Catholic tradition in Bourke.

A reminder of the frontier feel comes with the inscription to a policeman who dies of gunshot wounds inflicted by notorious and infamous cattle duffer (thief) and bushranger, Captain Starlight. The bushranger’s story has been told in book and film on several occasions making these men into a kind of hero for their bravado and daring.

Another tale tells of a local kind-hearted madman, Barefoot Harry Rice who after failing to save his wife from drowning because he couldn't remove his boots quickly enough, wandered the riverbanks barefooted for years afterwards in readiness to save anyone else from the same fate as his wife.

Most treasured in the cemetery is the plot of world renown eye surgeon Professor Fred Hollows. From having met the man and been deeply moved visiting one of his early eye hospitals in Kathmandu (an article for another day), Hollows is a personal hero of mine. The Hollows Foundation is my preferred charity – I can hardly imagine a finer gift than the gift of sight.

Buried within a motif of an eye made from small rocks (64 of them - one for each year of Hollow's life) near an elegant but simple smooth granite sculpture and under poetic native trees, his grave area so tells the story of a simple but driven man who shunned the limelight but whose initiative against cataract blindness and trachoma has bought vision to more than one million people worldwide. His epitaph reads "Fred Hollows, Eye Doctor. The key he used to undo locks was vision for the poor". People are encouraged to touch, climb or sit on the granite sculpture and contemplate the peaceful and beautiful surroundings.

It is a moving and simple tribute to a man whose life work has touched and continues to touch so many around the world.

Pick up an excellent little brochure from the local tourist office to help guide around the cemetery and wander through the decades of this historically-rich rural town.

This is the final article in the outback Australia series.

Photo of the Week: Lift Bridge (Bourke, Australia)

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Built in 1883, this bridge was one of the first lift span bridges built over the Darling River. Designed to accommodate the 200 or so paddle steamers plying the inland waters of Australia by hand-cranking the centre section upwards, it was constructed in England and brought to Bourke in sections by paddle steamer. It was finally replaced by a newer bridge in 1998 (visible behind the old bridge) and remains open for delightful strolls near the superb river gums and across the Darling River.

Past floods mark the centre pylons as Bourke braces itself for more flooding in early March (more on Bourke floods and droughts). Expected to reach almost 14 metres, it will have water sloshing around the iron girders just under the wooden slats of the bridge.

A Town Centred on Rocks (Cobar, Australia)

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Driving south 150 kilometres from Bourke, along a sunburned highway past the enigmatic Gundabooka National Park, visitors arrive at Cobar. The town sign leaves an immediate impression as to the history of Cobar. Pinned against a giant slag heap, ore hoppers topped with a large metallic sign greet drivers. Slag heaps litter the fringes of the town. A few yards further on, the heritage park contains giant pieces of mining equipment with mysterious names like a poppet-head and a stamper battery. A fine two metre statue of a miner oversees drivers entering town.

Copper was discovered in Cobar in 1870. The story has it that three failed gold prospectors were travelling out west guided by aboriginal trackers when they camped overnight near Cobar. Seeing the unusual water colour and the tell-tale green rock markings, the prospectors believed that they had stumbled across a great find, later shown to be one of the richest copper deposits ever discovered. The red ochre earth used by the indigenous people for body decoration was called kubbar in the local language and the town got its name.

The undoubted mineral wealth of the area is still visible and best seen from two vantage points. Within the grounds of the truly excellent local museum (maybe the finest rural museum in New South Wales) is the original 1870 Great Cobar Copper Mine where huge pits were dug by hand and hauled by horse and cart. At its peak, 12 smelters bubbled and brewed away extracting the rich copper deposits from the rough dark rock. Some of the waste rock has been well utilised for building or as the base for the town’s roads.

World War I saw a dramatic drop in mineral prices and soon after the war the mine closed. The main pit (over 150 metres deep) is filled with water and makes for a striking sight against the rich red environment. A second mine in the area also closed in 1920 from a fire that burned for 16 years! Copper and gold and more continues to be successfully mined today.

The outstanding museum (housed in a 1910 heritage mining office) has many humbling reminders of the harsh life and deprivations of mining families in such remote areas. The museum is presented chronologically starting with Aboriginal occupation and displays of artifacts and bush foods and moving to displays on the issues of water shortages. It highlights the bush skills required by Europeans settlers to survive the harsh weather and inhospitable land moving through to more modern times growing up in Cobar. The second floor includes historic displays on the mining of copper, gold, silver and other minerals (including a small recreated section of mine) and a farming section including a realistic local woolshed of the time (shearing must be at least as tough an existence as mining).

Outside are a fine collection of old vehicles, farming and mining equipment. Most memorable is a carriage of the Far West Children’s Health train which visited the area on occasions to bring some healthcare and medical assistance to mothers raising their children.

Overlooking Cobar is a second fine vantage point known as Fort Bourke Lookout (see top photo). A deep russet brown seam runs for miles bringing wealth to the companies and to Cobar itself. Like all mining towns, the fortunes and population of Cobar has seen steady rises and falls over the last century as the demand for copper, gold and other minerals fluctuate.

With an entrance road that curls like a wonky nautilus shell, the massive pit is the entrance to a giant underground mining system for gold. The scale is immense, the wheels on the vehicle being taller than a human. Operating every hour of every day, trucks meander up and down the slope and along the underground road travelling several miles to the main worked area.

The main street of Cobar has a number of fine historic buildings. Most attention seeking is the Great Western Hotel (1898) which has a glorious cast-iron lacework verandah that is supposedly the longest balcony in the Southern Hemisphere at over 100 metres in length. Another is the fine courthouse and its neighbouring Courtyard Hotel (maybe the accused and the court officers needed found some solace with a refreshing ale).

Cobar is a spirited town and makes for an interesting diversion with its rich mining history so apparent throughout the town and a superb local museum bring to life the demanding family life of yesterday.

Photo of the Week: Emu and Rock Art (Gundabooka, Australia)

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Native to Australia and second to the ostrich in size, an emu in full stride is a spectacular sight. Reaching speeds around fifty kilometres (30 miles) per hour, emus run confidently through the Australian bushland, superbly built for such speed and agility.

The indigenous rock art at Gundabooka shows several emus with their three prominent toes, highlighting the importance of the statuesque bird as a source of food and feathers.

This photo is from the driver's car window in remote Gundabooka National Park. Trying to time the gaps between the roadside trees and keep the car in a straight line, this photo gives some impression of the speed and agility which emus move.

The females lay deep green eggs around the size of a human hand. In a reversal from most of the animal kingdom, the females woo the males. After partnering, the males sit on the eggs while the females leave and partner a second and even third time laying another clutch of eggs.

Rock Art and Red Soil (Gundabooka, Australia)

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The rocky plateau of Mt Gundabooka rises awkwardly in a protrusion of rust coloured rock and olive green bush a few hundred metres above scrubby arid plains, the mountain visible for vast distances around. Fifty kilometres south of Bourke, it represents an important landmark for the Ngemba Aborigines or Stone People, a meeting place for millennia for various tribes and a source for shelter, food, medicines, tools and water. Cliffs, gorges and ancient waterways mark this ancient remote land estimated at nearly 400 million years of age.

Over 40,000 hectares of Gundabooka National Park is broken only by a red ochre highway and a couple short spur roads to major highlights. Native animals abound. Kangaroos bounce along the roadways or munch watchfully on the thick vegetation while shaggy emus use the main road as their own personal highway to ease their path through the park. Wild pigs (assuredly the least popular animal and hated by park rangers) scarper for cover while snakes bake joyously on the russet road.

Walking across rough rock country and over a small stony bluff in searing heat, a marked path leads to one of Mt Gundabooka’s most treasured sights, the Aboriginal Rock Art Gallery.

Karra mayingkalkaa, Paliira yuku ithu. - Welcome to our country. A sign welcomes visitors to this beloved Aboriginal land reinforcing the ongoing unity between Australia's indigenous people whose history goes back over 40,000 years and their country.

Under an idyllic natural rock cave that could provide shelter for numbers of people, stories of essential elements of aboriginal lives are told in yapa (rock paintings) in pipeclay and ochre. Graphic images of ceremonial dances (or wakakirri) are mixed with food sources such as emus and kangaroos and tools such as boomerangs, spears and fish-traps. Seemingly made in a different era (as they generally appear more faded), familiar hand stencils produced by spraying ochre from the mouth share the gallery.

Mt Gundabooka is managed in close discussion with its traditional owners ensuring both the artworks and sensitive spiritual values are preserved while maintaining access to this cultural treasure.

Nearby, small rock pools and a tiny shaded stream bubbles peacefully across sandy banks – a source of valued water (especially in periods of drought) and mild refreshment from the harsh summer sunshine. The Aboriginals knew that Gundabooka has a good supply of water, even in dry times, not only supplying a source for drinking but also a source of wildlife for food. By contrast in winter, warming fires near the rock cave could provide much needed comfort and protection from the savage night cold in this unyielding environment.

Other highlights include the short but aptly named Valley of the Eagles walk as visitors may be fortunate to spot the giant raptors soaring effortlessly on the thermals while smaller birds of various kinds twitter from the tree branches. Panoramic vistas highlight the featureless but enchanting flat land for miles around in all directions.

Gundabooka has an exceptional feeling of wilderness and remoteness, providing great views perched over the surrounding landscape and a tiny window into the spirituality and harmonious relationship the indigenous Australians shared with the land.

Photo of the Week: Charcoal Cooler (Cobah, Australia)

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Continuing the journey in Outback Australia, the photo of the week shows an early evaporative cooler used to counter the harsh heat. This charcoal cooler and others using similar principles were used in the heat of outback Australia as a refrigerator from the late 1800s through to the mid-1900s, when electricity or generators were not around. Water in a tray under the fridge is drawn up through the charcoal by the chimney at the top cooling (and de-odourising) everything inside.

Based on the invention of the Coolgardie Safe which relies on wet hessian bags for a cooling effect, various cooler models sprang up around Australia in early times before electricity was available in many remote areas. Natives in Africa and the Australian Aborigines are known to travel with wet animal skins to help preserve their food for a few extra days using the same idea of a cooling airflow.

This model is located in the excellent Cobar Museum which captures so much of early living in outback Australia. Cobar is a mining town around 150 kilometres south of Bourke in western NSW.

Of Drought and Flooding Rains (Bourke, Australia)

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For several decades, Bourke (and most towns far around) have been protected from flooding waters by giant levee banks. Like comforting blankets, these raised banks track the river through Bourke and sweep around its outskirts. Life-giving flood waters revitalise parched soils and rivers, slowly creep down across the flat lands from the north but no longer inundate the town centres. The waters ixexorably and unyieldingly sweep south at only 100 to 150 kilometres in a week with the floods arrival being able to be predicted weeks in advance, often to a few hours of accuracy.

Long term residents speak in hushed but relaxed tones about times of floods and river heights. Sipping at a beer one steamy December evening, Steve spoke to me confidently in early December "It shouldn't reach more than 11.5 metres and probably will get to us just after Christmas". (The flood map to the left showing day/month of peak flood point in each town is from 2010-2011 to give an idea of the slow meandering nature of the flood waters.) There was no cause for panic in the knowledge of the importance of the flood waters goodness despite a likely few days or weeks of isolation from cut roads.

For most of the past decade, there was no talk of floods for most of Australia was in drought. The parched red-soil plains ran bare to the far horizon only sprinkled with warrior gum trees and rugged green saltbush scrub - crops and livestock impossible to maintain, the cotton gins idle, the fruit-pickers eerily silent, the endless crooked fencelines guarding empty lands. The stories of drought are much harsher, the hardship of no rain more palpable, the stoic nature of the people tested to extreme, the pall of near despair apparent in rural towns all around.

Yet even the first few sprinkles of rain springs life into the thirsty soils, verdant new growth thrusting from the ochre grounds, life and vigour returns to the population.

Famed Australian poet Henry Lawson said "to know Bourke is to know Australia". This iconic Australian outback town is a barometer of Aussie life and a journey that both residents and visitors to Australia should make.

Photo Credits: flood, map, drought

Photo of the Week: Red-Tailed Cockatoos in Silhouette (Bourke, Australia)

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A favourite photo (click on it to enlarge), mildly in the style of moving picture pioneer Eadweard Muybridge, showing three magnificent red-tailed cockatoos each in different aspects of their flight. The explosion of scarlet tucked under their tail can be seen on the front bird and a superb sight when viewing a flock from below.

Historic Court House: 100 Years of Change? (Bourke, Australia)

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Bourke has a most distinct and unusual courthouse, one of a number of historic buildings. Built in a colonial style surrounding a small garden area for cooling and for legal folks to commune and contemplate, remarkably little has changed since its construction in 1899 (for the princely sum of 9,500 pounds) as the archival photos show. As Australia's only inland maritime court (the crown on the spire indicates this - click on the photo to see it enlarged), it has heard some significant cases over the years and continues to mete justice out today.

Isn't it striking how the archival photos show uncluttered streetscapes - no mobile phone towers, no electricity poles, no street signage. All those elements of modern life!!

The garden has a little less style now and it is certainly due a good mow.









Historic photos courtesy of State Archives NSW

Historic Buildings (Bourke, Australia)

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Now the Gidgee Guesthouse, the London Bank building was constructed in Bourke in 1888, still retaining its sense of grandeur and opulence of Bourke's golden period as a major inland port. Today the guesthouse has an eclectic feel with their rooms leading to a garden courtyard filled with native plants and various knick-knacks.

Around the corner, the equally fine Lands Building (built in 1899) shows the creativity of early architects with air flowing under the building over rainwater cisterns and up through the wall cavities to create a natural air conditioning throughout the building (similar in idea to India's Amber Fort). Today regular air-conditioners have replaced this ingenious method that kept workers comfortable for nearly a century.

Bourke and Outback Australia

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Outback Australia is an immense sparsely populated timeless land of arid plains and rugged country. Ochre red ancient landscapes meet cobalt blue skies. Slow meandering rivers bursting with birdlife give life to the parched lands. Small towns and communities, often on a river are separated by vast distances. Between remote settlements, the areas are shared between treasured national parks, some of the world’s most lucrative mining and huge farming properties, a few even bigger than European nations or US states. The sense of empty space is exhilarating and entrancing.

The landscape has become a canvas for artists capturing the vastness, light and colour in imagery, while the harshness and remoteness has been immortalised in prose by fine Australian poets including Henry Lawson and Dorothea MacKellar. The latter’s eponymous My Country captures the outback and includes the lines:

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

Bourke, 800 kilometres north-west of Sydney, is the iconic town synonymous with this remoteness. The majestic Darling River lined with aged river gums runs through the centre of Bourke. The large multi-layer wharf reminds everyone of the town’s rich history as Australia’s largest inland port, the wharf containing different tiers to account for the dramatic difference in river levels between times of flood and times of drought. For many years river steamers carried wool and other goods thousands of kilometres to sea opening up the huge tracts of inland Australia for its agricultural and grazing value.

Today the replica 19th century paddle steamer, the PV Jandra runs cruises along the river and under the North Bourke lift bridge, constructed with a large sweeping bend to accommodate bullock drays as one landowner wouldn’t sell his land to house the other end of the bridge.

The main street is littered with reminders of a golden past including the grand scallop pink post office (photo), the unusual court house (that even heard maritime cases) and old hotels and guesthouses with their ornate wrought iron verandahs.

Jenny Greentree, a fine and talented pastel artist beautifully captures the region in her work shown at her Back O Bourke Gallery (which shows some of Jenny's artwork) describing with passion the varying moods of the country, its spirit and its occasional cruelty. Jenny's superb Vision Splendid series captures the spirit of the lands in a rainbow series of seven images. Jenny showed me two artworks from the same location only drawn six months apart, one of a dry seared land of rich red soil and another of soaking waters, dragonflies humming across the surface.

As I pen this article, the land around Bourke is lush with life replacing the scorched drought-ridden lands of a few short years ago. Large flocks of birds of many species populate the skies and trees feeding on the seeds and grasses. Most striking are the red-tailed black cockatoos with their shock of scarlet feathers among a black satin coat.

Most memorable in the area are the stunning sunsets. In dry times, the dusty skies ignite in a vivid crimson but even in damper times, golden skies reflect gloriously off the small billabongs (waterholes) and lakes, the endless land sleeping again for another day bringing some relief from the searing heat of the summer days. With little city lighting, the night sky sparkles like a jewel box, the milky way gleaming as a celestial highway.

No journey to Australia is complete without escaping the cities and exploring folkloric outback Australia, and no place engenders the spirit of the outback as well as the legendary town of Bourke. Gain a new perspective for rural life, a rich cultural past and stunning natural vistas.

Three or four follow-on articles on outback Australia will appear in the following weeks.