When I’d seen the trip to the Outback on my itinerary I couldn’t wait to get back there. After visiting in November and having such a good time taking part in the Outback Trailblazer event to raise money for Angel Flight, I skipped across the tarmac to get onboard the awaiting Qantas flight to Barcaldine.

Now there’s been a fair bit of seasonal rain over the Queensland interior over the past few days and I was hoping to see some evidence of this from the air. It’s a huge wide-open space and the rain just seems to have disappeared…

But there’s a massive difference that’s really obvious – the entire landscape as far as the eye can see is GREEN and I mean African savannah green. Totally different from the dry, red, dusty environment that greeted us last time.

The locals love it! This is the sort of thing that transforms a community. The interior of Queensland has been suffering from drought conditions for the last seven years and now with the dams at 94% capacity agriculture and grazing can once again thrive.

As we touched down at Barcaldine, Melissa one of the hard working tourism officials was there to meet us. Our stopping point for the day though was a short drive down the road. I say short…in terms of the Outback it’s short at only an hour away!

As we drove along the long straight roads the greenery all around was awesome, where before there had been kangaroos scratching at the smallest patches of lawn in towns now they were nowhere to be seen. The bountiful supply of fresh grass scattering them far and wide and out of our sight at least.

We did spot a couple of emus waltzing across the road. They’re strange creatures and to me appear almost prehistoric with their funny three-toed feet that look like something out of Jurassic Park!

Blackall arrived soon enough and with the help of John, one of the local council members, I made my way to the local school. I’d setup a meeting with Blackall State School to discuss the possibility of twinning up with one of my old ones – Ropley School.

In the future they hope to work together in a bid to educate the kids as to the very different lives they lead on opposite sides of the planet. At the end of the day they’re both country schools but out here there’s just a little further to walk to class!

Dinner was a little special; one of the traditional methods of cooking out here is to use a camp oven. A huge lump of cast iron fired by wood creating a monster cooker in which our roast was being prepared.

Our location for the meal was the Woolscour; one of only 52 in Australia and the only steam-powered one still in existence. There’s an incredible natural resource available here, piping hot water which flows from Artesian wells deep under ground. The flow is supposed to come all the way from the slopes of Papua New Guinea where is seeps under ground and flows south under the ocean floor towards Australia. Even though the Outback is renowned for being a drought affected place it actually has one of the most bountiful supplies of running water in the world…it’s just at 60ºc and smells of sulphur!

After a corking meal of roast beef, lamb and all the trimmings we head back to the Acacia Motor Inn and bed down for the night. Early start in the morning.

I’m up here for the short trip to officially launch a new online portal for the area known as ‘Oi’ – Online Induction With the seven Shires here in the Central West region being spread so far and wide (700kms between the furthest) it’s sometimes difficult to know what’s on offer to tourists past the end of your own back yard.

This new information portal showcases each Shire, town and tourist attraction with movie clips, photos and information about each and is there for anyone to use be they Grey Nomad, tourist or anyone of the population living here who just want to find out a little more about their neighbouring towns.

Every attraction is covered with over 200 movie clips, 2,000 photos and links straight through to the relevant website making it an easy way to find out more about the area before you even get there.

In the Outback it could be a long way to travel just to find out it’s not what you were looking for!

There are representatives from all around the area at the launch, the local mayors, tourism representatives and operators are all in good spirits and the good feeling runs through the entire morning. It’s been a long time developing this facility and when I finally press the big red button to send the site live onto the Internet the happy faces are obvious.

Well done to all involved; RAPAD, the Shires, the content providers and the programmers. Let’s hope we can get people out there to experience the unique amazing sights, experiences and landscapes that make this part of Australia such a tempting proposition!