For those who visit this blog (and looking at my stats there are a few) - apologies for the lack of posts since May 8.
There are two reasons (excuses?) for this. One is that the blogger website has been down - the other is that I've been at Muckadilla.
This came about (my sojourn at Muckadilla - that is) because I foolishly left it too late to book accommodation in Roma. Until about twelve months ago, i could book a week ahead. Not any more. A month might cut it.
This is basically because the mining companies block book the motels in Roma for their crews. You can tell when you drive past by the conglomerations of work trucks parked outside on the road because they're too big to be parked inside.
This left me to find somewhere to stay close to Roma, where most of my work was last week. Wallumbilla is 40 kms East, but all pubs and Caravan Parks were also booked out there. Muckadilla (40kms to the West on the road to Mitchell) was all that was available, so that's where I ended up.
It was OK, given the building I stayed in went up in 1961, and had air-conditioning but no heating to speak of. There was a plug-in heater fan device, but given the cold snap (zero on my last morning) it was barely adequate. I soon woke up to the fact that the room could be kept warm enough if the bathroom door was closed, but the first trip to the bathroom in the morning resembled walking into a freezer. The bathroom had permanently open ventilation windows.
The publican and his offsider were the only staff, so they had to work their butts off. On my second day, the offsider got a migraine, so the publican ran the whole show single-handed until she recovered.
He told me over breakfast on the second day that they used to rely on employing backpackers, but they have been notorious by their absence since the publicity about the Queensland floods. Seems that a message has gone out in backpacker land which says that most of the state is still underwater.
The township owes its existence to an artesian bore that had medicinal qualities. It petered out eventually.
Locals from Roma used to head out to take the waters and the pub and other infrastructure followed. Not long after the bore ran out, the pub burnt down. There may well have been a connection between these two events. It was rebuilt bigger and better in the sixties.
I reckon the place would have made an ideal place for Osama Bin Laden to hide out.
3 comments:
I overnighted in a hotel like that in Bathurst once. Ended up sleeping in all my clothes in order to keep warm - that included a suit.
Well if you wuz prepared like I was in my travelling the Riverina in the 80s and 90s,you'd have a sleeping bag in the boot of the car.
I still have one to take with me on our volunteer outreach programs to help war veterans and war widows in some small communities. They don't have access to experienced pension officers and advocates. We do it on the cheap and often share rooms.
My mate is quite tall, so he has the double bed and I end up with the single bed. No worries - I laid the sleeping bag on top and had a reasonable nights sleep.
Next morning as we were leaving, my mate does the idiot check to make sure we didn't leave anything behind. He notices that the single bed doesn't look like it has been slept in, and not wanting the operators to think that two blokes shared a double bed in case we need to come back at some time in the future, he pulls the single bed sheets and blankets apart!
Hilarious!
I should probably buy a swag......
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