There's more to Mungindi than meets the eye

On Easter Sunday we drove to the One Ton Post, erected by John Cameron on the 29th parallel south of the Equator to delineate the border between Queensland and New South Wales.  This is the spot where the border changes from the squiggly line of the river Barwon to the straight line that goes west to the corner where South Australia, Queensland and NSW meet.  The post is very large, presumably weighing a ton at the time of erection- it is still standing over a hundred years later.  It's three miles west of Mungindi.

On the way back we stopped at the riverside park, where almost all the residents of the town had gathered for their annual raft race.  We missed the raft race, if in fact it took place, but we were in time for the Iron Man auction, where they raised money for the aged care home by "auctioning" 8 or so fine young and not so young men.  Most were well muscled and obviously used to hard work as there are no gyms near here.  They raised an average of $100 per man, so nearly $1000 raised.

The race consisted of swimming the river, running about 100 metres along the bank (itself an obstacle course) to be given a raw egg to eat, then swim back to the original side, and run to the start to down a coldie (they may have actually downed a coldie at the start, we couldn't see)- then they repeated the whole thing.  They were well and truly strung out by the end!

We've been watching the road trains coming and Many of them stop at the little servo over the road so Chris had a chat with a driver while the tank was filling.  He said he is one of 24 truckies working for a single cotton farm, and that they drive to a cotton gin at Collarenabri, which is not even on this road- the servo's diesel is 6 cents less than any others around so that's a big saving with their big tanks.  (Chris went to fill up our tanks too).  The trucks tow two trailers, each with 6 huge bales of cotton. Most of them that we see here are going to a different cotton gin, near Moree, so the trucks actually pass each other on the way.

Mungindi is normally very hot and dry but they've had a cool summer, like the rest of us you think, but their idea of cool is not many days over 40 degrees.  We've had a couple of 35 degree days here, but it was cooler this morning (Monday).

The migrant workers staying here in the caravan park come from various Asian countries and they work in the farms, usually as stick pickers for $15 an hour.  The harvesters can't handle sticks, so the cotton rows have to be cleared of sticks before the machine goes in.  A chap we spoke to this morning said they use crop dusters three times, to fertilise in the first place, then when nearly due for harvest they use chemicals to defoliate, twice. (That's a lot of chemicals these workers are dealing with).  The harvest last year was a bumper one and they are hoping for better this year.  One load on these trucks can be worth up to $27,000 so it's big business.

I felt sorry for the migrant workers as their living conditions are pretty poor.  Most seem to be staying in very, very old on-site caravans, and we watched 4 young girls yesterday as they scrubbed the van from top to bottom.  They brought out an extremely dirty mattress to air.  They have very little English and I can't see that there is much enjoyment in such hard work and no chance of fun in this town for them.

 These are a sort of tumbleweed that blows everywhere in the area.  This was taken on the road to Collarenabri.

 Chris with a foot in each State, right foot in Qld, left in NSW, at One Ton Post

 Pedestrian bridge damaged in recent flood, Barwon River, Mungindi

 Road train filling up with diesel at small servo (what a goldmine!) Mungindi

I thought I was seeing a ghost when I glanced out of the caravan to see a white cat asleep on the concrete pad, but no, it wasn't Ziggy, RIP- just a little intruder.  Goodness knows where he came from- he disappeared right after this.