Day trip to Eromanga.

Having resolved our electrical problems we now felt confident to venture off the beaten track once again. Consequently it was decided to drive the 106km from Quilpie to the remote settlement of Eromanga and have a look at the oil fields in that area. Eromanga is also best known for two other things. The first being its geographical location, the second as being the place where Steve Fossett, the round the world solo balloonist made his unplanned decent back to earth, having flown across the Indian Ocean but miscalculated his planned landing spot in Western Australia.
They have retained a number of artifacts from his equipment which are on display along with photos in the cafe.

Geographically, Eromanga is the town furtherest from any coastline in Australia. Hard as this may seem to believe, I actually took dividers on a map of Australia and found it to be true. Whilst we may think that Alice Springs or other similar isolated towns would be furthest, consider such coastlines as the Gulf Of Carpentaria for example.

Extensive oil fields have been found in the area and we observed many "donkeys" pumping oil from the ground. They have established a mini oil refinery at Eromanga which strangely enough has a retail outlet at prices similar to everywhere else. Work that one out!

The town is very small, having a Hotel, Caravan Park/Motel, a primary School, Cafe and Police Station. We saw the school kids, six in total playing in the school yard with their teacher and five emus also in the yard. Not a sight you see everyday!.
Most of the housing is of a portable nature with a few exceptions. Oh and yes, they had a combined CWA and RFDS rooms and clinic. The road is sealed all the way from Quilpie, so it was refreshing to be able to zoom along without the caravan for a change.

Kevin and Gail.
View a small sample of our trip photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/kevinh055