Travelling in the Outback provides many surprises!
Every few weeks, I’ll put up a picture taken somewhere in Australia — usually the Outback — and challenge readers to add a comment explaining where it is, and maybe some background information. No prizes — just the honour and glory if you get it right.
Here’s Picture Challenge #1:
This is an easy one for many Bobby Dazzler travellers. Let’s hear from you!
Finally you have a response from me Rob!!! I can’t claim to remember where this was but according to the resident observer/recorder on our tour, Peter Wanger , this is the bus where Joshua Yeldham was artist in residence. I believe we stopped there whilst taking a shortcut on the Lyndon Station track on the way from Montecollina Bore to Tibooburra Hotel. I am not good on places but have great memories of climbing inside, having morning tea and Sue feeding the magpies. Sound familiar!!! Judy B
Hey, that’s right, Judy! The story I’ve heard is that someone drove the old bus from Sydney, and that it broke down on the road between Cameron Corner and the Strzelecki Track. Service stations — and indeed service of any kind — are pretty hard to come by out there, so the bus was abandoned.
Artist Joshua Yeldham subsequently lived in the bus for some time, after his Combivan broke down, sometime about 1994. A book of his paintings was subsequently published, entitled “Solitude’s Bride” (ISBN 0-9581277-0-0). A number of the paintings feature the bus, and many include his (presumably absent) muse Eliza. His introduction claims the bus was located on Wild Dog Flat (which is in Queensland). This is either incorrect, or else the bus was moved (very unlikely).
“Eliza” clearly refers to a woman — Eliza Kennedy — whose grave is beside the Silver City Highway, about 100 km south of Tibooburra, near Lake Cobham. (Yeldham says it is “not far from my campsite” at the bus, however it’s about 300 kms away.)
Eliza died in 1886 aged 32 years. The tombstone says “Her charity covereth a multitude of sins.” I’m told that Eliza worked as a barmaid in the long-since-gone Lake Cobham Hotel.
Stand by for another Picture Challenge.
I think there may be a few of these buses dotted around the outback. There is an identical one slowly falling apart behind the Betoota hotel between Windorah & Birdsville.
Cuppa, I think you’re probably quite right. If I remember correctly, there was a time — many moons ago — when you could buy an old clapped-out double-decker bus for a fairly modest sum from the government transport people, and the idea was you could load up a few of your mates and set off — at a fairly modest speed — on an adventure with your own maxi motor home. But the catch was that sooner or later it’d have a serious heart attack somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, and your chance of getting it going again was pretty much zero. So you just left it there, and cleared out before someone told you you couldn’t just leave it there.
I’m sure Cuppa wouldn’t mind me suggesting you have a look at his excellent web site: http://www.cuppa500.com/Home.html.
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