From Broken hill we turned North and headed into Corner Country. We were on our way to Tibooburra, with the ultimate goal of reaching Cameron Corner, the intersection point of the NSW, SA and QLD borders.
The first pleasant surprise was that the road to Tibooburra was paved all the way, some 350km. We had expected dirt but apparently it was completed in 2020.
The road follows the route of Charles Sturts ill fated trek in search of an inland sea and there are information rest stops the length of the trip covering his expedition, as well as local indigenous culture, and flora and fauna. Very interesting.
Although he failed to find a sea he is credited with opening up the region and was followed by many pastoralists establishing farms. Many of those failed too but the area is still used today to run cattle and sheep. Feral goats were also a common site.
While the countryside is generally sparse with very few trees, we crossed dry creek beds surrounded by trees at regular intervals, every 5-10km, which gives you a sense that there must be some heavy rainfall at times or water coming down from the north.
Halfway along was Paddlesack, another classic outback roadhouse. It was a good stopping point for lunch and I would have loved to have had a beer in their pub but we had a long drive ahead so I settled for a coke.
Another 100km up the road we reached Milpirinka, an abandoned Gold mining town that is being restored and brought back to life by the heritage society. It had an awesome pub too so this time I couldn’t resist.
And not long after we had reached Tibooburra. Tibooburra was originally established as a farming town but it’s boom time came with the gold rush. It was said that they were finding gold on the Main Street, a lot of people left town broke. In modern times it has found its place as a regional hub, as well as an important stop over for tourists wanting to travel through and access the corner and channel country.
Tibooburra is also known as being the hottest place in NSW. There had been a heat wave the week before but fortunately while we were there the weather was beautiful, 15min/27 max, clear skies and dry heat.
After a quick look around town we stopped at the local pub, the Family hotel, which was made famous by its Clifton Pugh mural that he painted on one of his many visits.
While there we met with the pub’s owner, Melissa, who was very friendly as always and was able to give us information on the road conditions for our planned travels. She recommended we just day trip into the Corner and leave the van in town.
So bright and early the next morning we left the van and hit the road to Cameron Corner. The drive was about 140km to the corner through a cattle station and then the Sturt National Park.
In the National Park they have built a sanctuary that has been established for the reintroduction of regionally extinct species such as Bilbys. It had a special type of wire fencing to keep out feral cats and foxes who were the main threats.
After around 2 hours of driving we reached the gates to the Dingo fence on the border with South Australia.
After passing through the gate we turned right 100m later and entered Queensland!
We had reached Cameron Corner!
And it wouldn’t be Australia if there wasn’t a pub out here, so we had to take a visit. It was only 10am so we settled for a couple of instant coffees and a nice piece of fruit cake while chatting with a couple backpakers working there. They had driven in in a holden astra, they said it was terrifying and were looking to upgrade.
After looking around and enjoying the local company we made the journey back. We were both on a bit of a high. It’s hard to explain why but we think the remoter you get the more it heightens the sense of adventure. It’s such beautiful country out here.
Once back in town we hunted down the original Cameron Corner marker which is kept at the national parks centre in Tibooburra. Cameron, btw, was the surveyor that marked the spot. So I guess it’s old school graffiti.
We finished our stay in Corner Country with a fire and cooked up a storm in the camp oven – Nachos using left over chilli con carne. Perfect.
