East o’ Bourke, West o’ Bourke and Back o’ Bourke  

We had originally planned to go south from Broken Hill to Griffith, but changed our route at the last minute and decided to go via Bourke and Brewarrina instead. This route would keep us in the outback a bit longer and get an opportunity to visit a couple of Aboriginal (or First People’s) sites along the way.

We shared the long, straight road out of Broken Hill with lots of dead kangaroos (and only one live sighting), many emus, and lots of the huge multi-trailer trucks called road trains that ply the outback roads.

We had a short outback picnic along with one of these behemoths.

We also stopped in Cobar, as I was dying for a cup of tea for some reason, and found the perfect place- a little tea shop that brewed an excellent cup of strong black tea and had a selection of gluten free cakes to boot!

When we changed our plans, we had to scramble to find a place to stay one night in Bourke and settled on the Port of Bourke Hotel, where we paid $100 Australian dollars for the barest room we have ever seen. The bathrooms were *ahem* ‘adequate’, but far down a long, shabbily carpeted hall that had no motion lighting, which made for a perilous trek in the middle of the night.

We knew our room was not going to have a private bathroom, but we were unprepared for just how spartan the accommodations were going to be. If you were looking for no frills, the Port of Bourke hotel was just the ticket. We ate there too- a rather drab dinner in a drab, soulless outback hotel.

Bourke used to be a thriving river port and still has the remnants of one of the huge wooden wharves that used to line the river to unload goods.

That was about the only highlight of Bourke save the very busy bakery across the street where we, along with every cop for 100 miles around stopped in for coffee the next morning –and they also had gluten free pastries!

Tom had been befuddled by the absence of an Aboriginal (First Peoples) presence on out little outback tour, but that changed a bit on our drive away from the outback towards the Blue Mountains. I had read about the Brewarrina fish traps and wanted to see them, so we detoured a bit to that town east of Bourke.

Before first contact, this part of the Barwon River had been a traditional eel and fish trapping area and over thousands of years, the First Peoples had built elaborate rock structures that funneled the fish into pools so they could be more easily caught.

The structures were large enough to impede river navigation by European boats, and for that reason, and the usual disregard for native customs and ways of living, the fish traps have been steadily dismantled over the past 200 years.

Very belatedly, before the last traces of them were swept away, the state declared them protected, but not before it had destroyed the native weir and replaced it with a concrete one.

While we were there at the site, which had no information or orientation boards we saw a couple of tents with the sign ‘Ngemba Embassy’ so we stopped to talk with ‘Auntie Doreen’ and her niece Sharon who were camped there to claim their right to the sacred fishing grounds.

It was quite interesting talking to them about their feelings about the recent vote in Australia to recognize First Peoples in the Australian Constitution, which failed. They had all voted ‘no’, surprisingly, because they objected to the labels ‘Aborigine’ and ‘Aboriginal’ and did not want to be circumscribed thusly in the constitution.

They talked to us about land rights and education, about the loss of language and culture, about the invisibility of First Peoples even in the towns where they predominate, and about their efforts to reclaim their rightful heritage in Australia. They were extremely friendly and welcoming, and we contributed a bit of money to their cause.

Leaving Brewarinna, we passed through the several small outback towns including Nevertire and Trangi, each with their distinctive double veranda hotels, and crossed the Bogan River (which gave me a laugh as ‘bogan’ is in current usage a descriptor for a particularly loud and obnoxious type of Aussie).

Between Molong and Orange, we saw a sign for an Aboriginal grave site and decided to check it out. It turned out to be a very significant site, as the only one in Australia where native and European burial practices co-exist. The grave is that of Yuranigh, a native who accompanied early explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell in the 1840s.

When he died, he was  buried according to the custom of his people the Wiradjuri, among a group of trees, five of which were elaborately carved in his honour. Four of the trees still stand although the carving are no longer visible.

However, a fifth tree that died has been preserved on the site and the carving is clearly visible on its trunk.

Sir Thomas Mitchell also wanted to honour his guide so he had a marble headstone placed over the grave, giving this man a unique burial site in all of Oz.

Our final brief stop before the Blue Mountains was Bathurst, which is an exceptionally pretty city full of interesting architecture that was  particularly attractive  in the late afternoon light.

Bathurst was the first city established west of the Blue Mountains in the early years of Australia’s European development and it wears its historic significance proudly.

It was another long day of driving for us and we were happy to finally reach Katoomba after dark, checking into our cute little Airbnb for our final few days in Australia. The outback was behind us and we looked forward to taking in the spectacular vistas of the Blue Mountains in the coming days.