OUT AT THE PRAIRIE

The next part of our journey was directly west of Townsville. We had had difficulty getting accommodation in Winton and had to delay our trip for this reason, staying in Townsville. This had actually turned out to be a great thing. We had also had to find somewhere to stay before Winton, and as Hughenden was also booked out, Paul noticed a small dot on the map, 45 kms before Hughenden, called Prairie. There was only the hotel for accommodation so he rang and it appeared we could have 1 of the 2 motel rooms. We said yes, not knowing what we were going to get.
The trip took us back out through Charters Towers and we had coffee again at the cafe in the old Stock Exchange Building. Then another 2 ½ hours to Prairie. We had travelled a long way without seeing any sign of activity on the land – no cattle, sheep, crops, even emus or kangaroos. There had been a lot of very long trucks – mostly with 3 trailers but some with 4. Overtaking was a tricky thing as there was always something coming the other way. This is the direct route to Mt Isa.
We arrived at Prairie. A real dot on the map. There was a small school (total enrolment of 15), a couple of houses and the pub. It was one of those corrugated iron buildings with a hitching rail out the front (with old saddles on it), kegs for tables and some flowers. Cute in a messy outback style. We walked to the door and Tom looked up from his coffee. Yes, he did have a room, yes he’d get the key. I asked if they did dinner, yes they did. Not a lot of communication. Anyway we checked out our room and were grateful that it was quite good inside, despite outside appearances. Around 5 we wandered into the bar for a beer. There were already 3 at the bar (turned out to be mannequins). The bar had hats over the roof and walls and there were bits and pieces of everything everywhere. Tom was watching Millionaire Hot Seat, but managed to get us a beer. Shortly after John came in. He worked for Elders and was staying overnight in the other unit. We got chatting and were soon joined by another couple, Colin and Joy, who were staying in their caravan out the back of the hotel. We all asked if anyone knew much about dinner. Noone did. Joy said they were just told to be in the bar by 6. We were soon joined by Andrea, Tom’s wife. She was friendly but didn’t want to answer questions about living in the pub, their life outback etc etc. she said everyone asks these questions. She did tell us that they have 3 daughters, Lily 14 who has to go to boarding school in Charters Towers, but that she drives her there very early Mon mornings so she can have normal weekends with the family. Then there was Bella 11 and Cherry nearly 8, who go to the small school. She said she had lived out here since the 1990s. Anyway she excused herself to get dinner and we chatted on. Around 6.30 she announced dinner was served. We moved to the room next door, the dining room. One of the girls stood waving us in! There were several tables but one seating 12 was set for the 5 of us and our meals were sitting there. It was chicken schnitzel, chips and salad. The room looked good (not sure about in the daylight). There was a huge chandelier above the table and candles on the table. All around were bits and pieces from grandma’s house. The 5 of us had a very pleasant time – just like we were at a dinner party.
It was not a quiet night. There was the goods railway on the otherside of the road, parallel to it, with several trains running by through the night. Then there were the big trucks, still rattling through all night. They didn’t worry Paul too much, but I heard a lot of them, the worst being around 4am when one stopped right outside and left the engine running for at least ½ hour. All I could guess was that he had stopped here for a shower (they had showers and toilets outside for the other 2 rooms they had available). Anyway, eventually he took off. My other problem was when I went to the toilet in the night and found a green tree frog in the toilet! I didn’t even wake Paul, tried to take a photo and he disappeared into the water??
That was Prairie, a great experience of outback Australia. Glad we did it.