Charleville to Chinchilla QLD

Wednesday 6 July 2022
Today we woke top overcast skies with a fine misty rain. It was so fine we weren’t sure if it was rain or just mist from the fog. We headed off close to 10am with the intention of going as far east as we could manage today. Firstly, before we left town we went to the Royal Flying Doctor Service museum at the RFDS head quarters in Charleville. David was hoping to see a plane arrive or take-off but no such luck today. We watched a short video and it is always more interesting when you know the towns mentioned and are aware of how remote they are. So grateful for where we live and the services we take for granted. The RFDS seems to foster community life with its clinics and services. Such an amazing service to the people from remote towns and communities.

Following that we drove in and out of light rain throughout the day. I drove about 150km at the end of the day.

We drove through many tiny towns with very Aboriginal sounding names like :-
Mungallala – The name Mungallala derives from a pastoral run and comes from the Kunggari language with from mungar / kungar meaning bird and yaya / lala meaning shout, implying the sound made by the claws of running emus.
Womalilla – The town’s name is derived from a pastoral run name used from 1862, reportedly an Aboriginal word group for trees by a creek (from womalmeaning tree/timber and illa meaning creek).
Muckadilla – The name Muckadilla was first used as the creek name, which in turn is believed to be an Aboriginal word (language and dialect unknown) to mean plenty of water.
Wallumbilla – The name Wallumbilla was the name of a pastoral run leased by Charles Coxen, The name is presumed to come from the indigenous Mandandanji language and reportedly means wallu=plenty and billa=jew fish.
Columboola – The town takes its name from Columboola Creek, an Aboriginal word, meaning plenty of white cockatoos.

It was a nice drive on a bumpy bitumen road. We even had overtaking lanes today, the first we have seen in a long time. We also passed many signs indicating Brisbane, so we are definitely getting closer to the east coast.

We are staying in a motel tonight at Chinchilla, enjoying the warmth of a home and some takeaway pizza for dinner whilst David does a little work.

Hope you are all surviving the rain and floodwaters. xx