feather and flora

Last week, I had the best time birding in Corner Country – that’s around the town of Tibooburra (great spot!), Fort Grey Campground and Cameron Corner, the point where Qld meets SA meets NSW. Bourkes parrots, crimson chats and a million budgies were among the rewards – oh, and the magnificent flora-laden landscape. Magic!

GETTING THERE

I headed up from Melbourne, so Wentworth was my first night’s stop. Then the second day was up the Silver City Highway to Broken Hill, then three hours further north to Tibooburra. Here are a couple of my observations:

• I find six hours of driving in a day rather a stretch and I like to stop and enjoy the country so next time, I’d break the Wentworth to Tibooburra leg into two days, at least.
• There are three great stops between Broken Hill and Tibooburra, and I’d be happy to stay at any of them:
  • Fowlers Gap (UNSW has a research facility there, one hour past BH  – see eBird for high bird counts – and you can book accommodation. Otherwise it’s restricted access.
  • Packsaddle Roadhouse which looks clean and welcoming with accommodation and meals – and fuel;
  • Milparinka, just 40km before Tibooburra. It’s an historic site, very well-maintained, with a working pub and accommodation.

I really started to ogle at the scenery after Broken Hill – it’s flat in places, but dotted with many hills and rises, and birds too if you slow down. Flowers were out in full force, which made a real spectacle. Watch out for fauna on the road: all up, I saw roos, emus, pigs, goats, wild horses and donkeys – and unfenced sheep and cattle. Best not to leave your arrival into Tibooburra until dusk – which I did. The road was teeming with critters.

AROUND TIBOOBURRA

I really warmed to the township: two pubs (the Two Storey was the one I tried and the meals were excellent) and two general stores for basic foodstuffs (both sell fuel but the more northern one was much cheaper). I stayed in a cabin in the caravan park, and sadly it left a lot to be desired. Dilapidated and dirty. Disappointing.

I thought Dead Horse Gully (which is better than it sounds) was the best birding spot in this area. Just 2km north of town, you even still have a phone signal (good for safety). The camping facilities and amenities looked brand new and excellent condition, but mainly you’re out among the granites (very picturesque) and a gazillion birds: budgies, cockatiels, woodswallows, trillers, kingfishers – and my companions saw a cinnamon quail-thrush (which I dipped on). It was most enjoyable and the bird action seemed to just keep happening.

Twenty kms further north is the South Myers Tank, a really picturesque spot landscaped for birds and birding. Brilliant. Plenty of birds there but windy conditions made this less fabulous. It’s also out on the gibber plain which is really interesting to see, and though we looked hard for gibber bird, no luck on this occasion. Next time!

We also tried Mt Wood campground – the waterhole was not that great for birds (miners had taken over) but we saw a great variety of birds around the nearby Shearers Quarters. Anyway, here’s a short visual summary….

OUT TO CAMERON CORNER

Our biggest excursion was an all-day affair to Fort Grey Campground, Cameron Corner, and thirty kms into SA looking for Eyrean grasswren (no luck, but crimson chats were a great consolation prize). We headed south a few kms from Tibooburra and took the unsealed road which was in excellent condition (corrugations for about 30kms before the Corner), though heavy rain a month earlier had made it impassable.

Once again, the scenery was spectacular – abundant flora. And it’s all so isolated: except precisely in the middle of a salt pan way along this road, a coffee caravan…huh? Good on them! Fort Grey was our first proper stop, and garlands of Sturt’s Desert Peas greeted us by the roadside. Facilities at the camp looked good, with new amenities under construction. We set off to walk through the woodland to the lakeside of the enormous Fort Grey Basin. The woodland was gentle and pretty flat, and heaving with birds. We were all hoping for Bourkes parrots and there they were: we saw at least twenty. Such gorgeous gentle parrots (they make a guest appearance in the You Tube clip below). But there were plenty of other great birds here too.

After a hearty lunch, we continued our convoy to Cameron Corner (and an ice cream – it just felt like we should!). This was a good looking pub with promising meals but not the right time for us.

After visiting the border marker, we decided to go an extra thirty kms into South Australia to look for grass wrens. From the Corner, the road deteriorated quite bit – evidence of recent heavy rain, and we were traversing dunes covered in flowers, with plenty of waterholes around.

Thank goodness one of our party wore an analogue watch – we nearly missed the time changes at the border which would have meant a return to Tibooburra in the dark. So easy to miss small details like this in the remote areas.

Here’s a summary:

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I loved the drive back, especially the golden hour when the landscape reflected the hues of the setting sun.

To be out in those wide open spaces, miles from the hassles of the wider world, just makes my soul sing, and the song that comes to me is one you probably know.

Thank you, Dorothea Mackellar.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!