After Blackwater and our negative COVID results, we pushed on to Emerald not knowing that some good friends and neighbours from Eudlo were just arriving in Blackwater to overnight on their way home from north Qld. They had just been through Emerald and opted to go further to Blackwater for the night. A missed chance encounter and disappointment for everyone when we realised what had happened. In contrast, a few days later at Lara wetlands, by accident we camped beside the friend of another neighbour from Eudlo. A short stop in Alpha gave us a chance too witness the beginning of a weekend long Campdraft.

Lara Wetlands were the highlight of this next leg of the journey. We charged in Emerald at an EV friendly motel and the next day targeted a similar motel in Barcaldine. Barcaldine, with its Australian workers heritage museum and other highlights (heritage buildings, 

Tree of Knowledge, shearers’ strikes and showgrounds full of 3 phase chargers) makes it a perfect destination. Even more so because of its proximity to the Lara Wetlands camping area. We spent two nights in our tent and a full day mostly sitting and watching the courtship and nesting behaviour of Black-tailed Nativehen and Cockatiel.

Despite the somewhat crowded camping, the thermal pool and close proximity to relatively fearless birdlife were well worth the stay. The 13 km dirt road into the wetlands was a breeze for the Tesla (Rosella) and we are becoming more confident about its capabilities! Yet to be tested to the full!

The Emerald Encounter.

During our travels in regional Australia each of us has been occasionally gobsmacked by blatant racist and other narrow perspectives on society and science, which has been enthusiastically expressed by some people. Our usual response has been to ignore or avoid any further discussion. This time, at a random sitting over a Girl Guides fund raising meal at a caravan park in Emerald, we were confronted by such a person.

The conversation initially included another couple who agreed that unjust outcomes may well result from the way mining rights often take precedence over property rights, including aboriginal land rights. However, this couple departed as the conversation being steered by the gent was becoming uncomfortable.  His wife took the opportunity to take off too.

We took up the challenge and stayed. Our mostly civilised “chat” trawled from land rights (Aboriginal people never owned anything so how could anything have been taken away from them?), indigenous culture and history (they’ve only been here 6000 years) government funding of services etc, his cynical attitude towards climate science, (the bureau of meteorology is falsifying temperature records to enrich climate scientists), his negative view of the ABC, disparaging remarks about the IPCC, to the validity of the opinions espoused by a couple of discredited academics from JCU, and flood mitigation in south east Qld. This person enjoyed robust engagement, and often changed the subject when invited to disclose more detail about his sources. We eventually excused ourselves, emotionally drained but still on speaking terms, when the topic of water management and the Murray Darling basin loomed.