An early morning walk around Richmond was an eye-opener. The oddest site - A man in a red jump suit ski-ing down the main street on a set of roller skis. No we were not suffering from the after-effects of a hard night at the pub.
The main street was dotted with signs which outline a short history of the buildings or the block. Bob remarked at one point how almost every building had been destroyed by fire at some time or other. "Well, at least they didn't have to worry about cyclones out here."
The very next sign decribed how the original building was destroyed by a cyclone! So much for our generalizations.
Departure included a swing to the north to look at the big cereal farm. From the air it was even more impressive.
From there we headed south to Barcaldine - or as it's known "Barcky".
Hew arrived after a delayed departure from Cairns and we now had the full complement of SMBer. We were met at the airport by our refuellers and Tom Lockie, our tour guide and his driver. Tom is operator of Artesian Country Tours and he did a fantastic job of showing us around the town.
Barcky has a lot to see and was a highlight of the trip. Tom took us to the museum which houses an amazing collection of stuff from around the area. He also took us to see a mate of his who builds scale models of trains, machines and windmills. His working steam train engine has to be the best model any of us has ever seen. Everything was hand made and has to be seen to be believed. His working model windmills are exact scale replicas of the well-known outback icon.
