20120804 Qld Barcaldine

20120804 We couldn't get over the amount of roadkill after leaving Winton, that why we don't travel at night.  Barcaldine here we come, arriving around 9.30am Des parked the van and we walked the town.  My first photo of the day was of the large hotel which stood on the corner of this small town, which, reeked of history, only to find out if no one buys it the council is going to knock it down, so I sent a protest letter.  We tend to check out the information center so I can collect my visitors guide and area maps.  The maps carry all the interesting highlights in the town to visit and a bit of a story about each place.

In Sep 1846, Sir Thomas Mitchell was the first recorded white man to explore the Barcoo River.  While exploring the river he reached the Alice River which later became the southern part of the Barcaldine Shire.  Mitchell named the Alice River and as a result Mitchell’s name was adopted for the pastoral district and for its famous grass-Mitchell grass. In October 1863, Donald Cameron, his son John and James & William Crombie walked sheep from the New England district of N.S.W and pastured them along a forty-mile frontage of the Alice River.  They called their homestead block, Barcaldine after a family property in Scotland.  The government passed new land Act in 1884, under which all blocks were to be property surveyed and leases consolidated into registered holdings in which payment of rent could be enforced.  Under its provisions each large property lost a portion of land which was resumed for closer settlement.  The work took time and in the Barcaldine area, consolidation coincided with the birth of the town in 1886.

100 years of Queensland history is facing the bulldozer, the watering hole holds a unique place in Queensland’s political history, with its links to the shearers’ strike & the formation of the Australian Labor Party.

Artesian Hotel

 Unlike most of the 11 hotels in Oak Street it was not demolished or burnt down.  Built in 1887 the cellar is red cedar and was originally the Royal Hotel until 1978.

The Artesian is the first hotel I have seen on my travels run by a kiwi,"there everywhere, there everywhere".

The Commercial Hotel

First built in 1887, destroyed in 1909 by fire along with 17 other buildings.  It was burnt down again in 1921 with 6 other premises.

Radio Theatre

Opened in 1926 it’s a large ‘shed’ like building; a bit like an old WW11 hanger and some of the old fixtures in place give it plenty of old charm, including the old style canvas cinema seats.  The theatre initially screened silent movies & moved into screening movies with sound in the 1930s.

  

Mosonic Lodge

Barcaldine first lodge was first erected in Dingo in 1876 and arrived in Barcaldine in 1886.  A masonic lodge is an organisation that formed in the 16^th & 17^th century.

The Tree of knowledge

The site of the 150 year old, 10 metre Ghost tree in the centre of Barcaldine is a symbol of an important time in Australia’s political development.  Used as the meeting place for shearers during their unsuccessful strike of 1891.  During that strike and the maritime strike of 1890, a crucial & historical connection was forged between union & what became the Australian Labour Party.  In April 2006 the Tree of Knowledge was poisoned & did not recover.

The lasting historical marker of the shearers’ strike was the Tree of Knowledge a huge ghost gum that stood beside the railway station.  The railhead was the arrival point for troops & blacklegs, and the tree’s shade was a natural gathering place for strikers.  Legend claims that the Australian Labor Party was conceived beneath this tree, though its constitution was clearly signed elsewhere.  The tree of knowledge’s legend persisted, however, & when the ageing eucalypt was fatally poisoned in 2006 it attained martyrdom.  The ghost of the giant gum is central pole, its wrinkled hollowed & patched trunk supports a few forlornly writhing final branches.  It was a venerable old life form, near to the end of its day before the poisoning.  The preserved remains have been returned to their exact origin.

On our way to Jodie and Michelle's place for a couple of days as long as we can find it, apparently it's about 24ks out of Barcaldine.