Category: Travel & Research

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Here she is! Our new home – Barcoola

On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,

And men of religion are scanty,

On a road never cross’d ‘cept by folk that are lost,

One Michael Magee had a shanty.

From: ‘A bush christening’ by A B ‘Banjo’ Paterson (1893)

In their brochure, the designers of our new home (Southern Cross Caravans) called this 4WD edition “The Barcoo” so when I Googled the word I found the Macquarie Dictionary has three references featuring Barcoo:

Here she is… Barcoola.
Here she is… Barcoola.
  1. ‘Barcoo Rot’ a scurvy-like ailment from poor diet resulting in skin lesions, sometimes described as ‘outback scurvy’ and the scourge of explorers, stockmen and drovers.
  2. ‘Barcoo Salute’ meaning the ‘waving about of hands to keep flies away from your face’
  3. and the ominous ‘Barcoo Spews’ which is vomiting caused by extreme heat.

 

Okay, so not a great start to our big adventure!

Thomas Ingham “Barcoo Rot Ointment” potlid, c. 1890’s. IMage and reference source John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
I then discovered the word ‘Barcoola’ is an Aboriginal word and the Barcoo River divides country belonging to two tribes, suggesting the Barcoo River serves as a boundary between two groups in the region [Yandjibara and Dharawala in the Blackall Region which is the headwaters of the Barcoo River].
THEN… I discovered that in these tribal languages ‘Barcoola’ is given as the word for ‘two’.
So, here we are – “two in a Barcoo” – writing in and under the southern cross –  no scurvy, spews or rot in sight!! (But I do hope theBarcoo Hotel still welcomes country pub dwellers.)

Mail Coach at the Barcoo Hotel Blackall, 1897 Photo courtesy of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
Come August 21, 2014, we will be grey nomads, wandering writers and “of no fixed address” – time period unknown. I hope you will join us here (or as my friend/follower on Facebook) as we hit the road.
My thanks to John Oxley Library, State Library of QLD. For more reading:  http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2012/05/22/the-meaning-of-barcoo/
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Thirty Years Ago Today

May 1, 1984 …

This was life – on the road, on the adventure of a lifetime, working our way around the country in a truck and a tent, no thought as to when we might stop or return to our Sydney suburb homes.

With $400 in the bank my family thought I was crazy. (What was a hairdresser/makeup artist going to do without a hairdryer and mirror for two or more years?)

The trip lasted almost three years, only coming to a close due to family illness.

Here I am thirty years later and the adventure has never ended. The things I’ve been able to do and accomplish have been a wild ride. (I’ve dined with queens, protected princes, and escorted stars – big and small. I’ve swum with crocs, jailed crooks, and hunted down ghosts. I’ve raised money for kids, made a difference where I can and right now I’m trying to be the best author I know how to be. (And if you’ve read the dedication in my latest book, Simmering Season, you’ll know who has helped me find my way through life.)

I am a great believer in sliding doors (in fact Sliding Doors is a favourite movie). Had I not done this, that or the other I would not be where I am now…

And where am I now?

Starting all over again, only with a little more luxury this time. (More on that later.) The house is on the market (wanna buy a house?) and my shiny new Southern Cross caravan is being collected later this month.

Soon, hopefully, it will be time to discover more small towns to inspire new stories.

Stay tuned. Life will start to get very interesting – a writer living in and under the southern cross! I may even make it to a town near you.

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As The Seekers used to sing….

“We’ll build a world of our own that only we can share…” (Oh, you’re probably too young to remember The Seekers!)

As writers we have to build worlds we can share with our readers, layering our manuscripts with info and images, sprinkling a little setting here, a few senses there.

For inspiration, I’m getting out, away from my desk and the imaginary characters and places I create, and into the real world. In other words, I’m doing lots of looking, listening, feeling, smelling and touching (oh la la!!). Seriously, it’s amazing what you notice when you focus on breaking down something as simple as a walk on the beach into touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell.

I also went to Ulmarra the other day. About an hour or so by car, it is a quintessential Aussie country town.

While my Calingarry Crossing is a fictional town, I drew a lot of inspiration from Ulmarra’s hotel (no come on, I mean inspiration from an architectural perspective!!) Even while drawing inspiration from an existing place, I think using a fictional town in your writing is much better than a real town. I recently started reading a novel but in chapter eight the author slams Coffs Harbour as both a place to live and visit.

Why do it? Why alienate readers when you can make up a town that is slightly north or south, give it cute name and get on with a story that keeps people interested?
I stopped reading.

So I’m sticking to building fictional worlds. Here are a few pics of Ulmarra.