Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

3/7 Birdsville

Today was a rest day. We spent the day walking and driving around Birdsville. First we went to the Diamantina River, just on the edge of town. We looked at the Burke & Wills coolabah tree. Not a tree Burke marked, but it is known that they went through this area due to Burke having Waddi tree seeds in his diary.
We then went to the Birdsville race track, where Kylie insisted she race and we pay for attendance!

We then drove out from Birdsville about 13km towards Bedourie (North). This was a trip to have a look at the Waddi trees growing there. The Waddi trees are an rare and ancient species of trees. The timber is so hard it damages axes and drills!. There is a small population of around 1,5 million trees covering an area of around 100 square kilometers here. These trees are up to a 1,000 year old and are protected.

We also investigated the Birdsville water supply. They have drilled a hole into the ground and get around 95 degree hot water coming up. The hot water is used to heat up gas (from liquid form to high pressure gaseous state) then the gas is used to drive a turbine and generate electricity. It supplies the town with some of the power required, but the rest is generated via diesel generators. The gas is a closed loop, but the hot water is then chilled, filtered and distributed to all the houses. Pretty clever, apart from the fact that they then use gas heaters to heat the water again in the houses!

No visit to Birdsville is complete until you go to the Birdsville bakery and pub. The bakery has great meat pies and bread. They also server breakfast and other foods, so it's popular with the tourist crowd.
The Birdsville hotel/pub is also popular. They do reasonable meals and having a drink at the pub is also a must.
Just outside the Birdsville roadhouse (Only grocery store in Birdsville) we noticed their recovery vehicle for stranded cars in the Simpson. We certainly hoped we wouldn't see that one again!!

Down at the Diamantina river they had a pier one can walk down onto. From there is a nice view up and down the river.

We ended the day by having drinks and dinner at the Birdsville pub. A great relaxing day.

At the Burke & Willis tree.

The racetrack

Kylie collecting money for her race

Kylie racing Sibba on the Birdsville race track

At the Waddi tree sign, 13km out of Birdsville

Waddi tree

The hot water used in Birdsville for generating electricity, plus cold water

Sibba as a statistician couldn't resist pointing out the gross statistical error on this sign. We have never seen potentially so many negative people in one place!!