Day 227 Bourke, NSW

 Bourke.......Gateway to the REAL Outback.......or so the sign says

I have to beg to differ though because to me the real outback is in the middle of the Northern Territory with hundreds of kilometres between rural properties and townships.  Bourke, in comparison, is like living in the suburbs but I guess many would disagree.

Bourke is on the banks of the Darling River and evidence of the extremely high water levels are first noticed just outside the township.  The town will not go under water but the water level of the Darling is extreme.  All this water is coming from the rain experienced in South West Queensland. The Darling River eventually runs into the Murray river system that then winds its way into South Australia and eventually out to sea.  It is really quite remarkable.  When we arrived into Bourke we drove down to the Old Wharf where the Paddle Steamers moored back in the 1800's.  It is almost entirely underwater.

Bourke is a very green town at the moment and the main streets are beautifully landscaped to enhance the Heritage Buildings. The late 1800's really were an important era in Australian history for these Western New South Wales townships.  

Mitchell Caravan Park, Bourke

We visited the Back'O'Bourke Visitor and Exhibition Centre after lunch.  On this journey we have read so many reviews of different visitor centres that tell us it is the "best" and "You shouldn't miss this" but rarely do they live up to expectations.  Today was the first Visitor Centre/Exhibition Centre that we have been to that absolutely lives up to expectations.  It was a fantastic experience.  From the moment we entered the theatre to watch a 20 minute documentary to the very last building we entered (there were three) it kept us enthralled.  Yes, there is a lot to read, but we just picked out the things that we found of interest.  You would need many days to read everything that is written.  The displays are magnificent right down to the old Fairfield home from 1884.  A small section of it was transported from its original place and carefully rebuilt inside the centre.  It was well worth the two hours that we spent there.

We have struck our first "road closed" (due to flooding) today.  Our intention was to drive from Bourke to Brewarrina but we now have to detour via Cunnamulla.  It will add around 200kms to our journey but that is just the way it is.  The strange thing is that we have been following road reports on a couple of different websites but we found out today that most of them are not kept up to date.  It was suggested to us that we ring the Shire Council or local Police, in the area that we want to travel to, as they have the most up to date road reports.  

So tomorrow we will drive 257km to Cunnamulla.  After that is anybody's guess.