The Tibooburra Shortcut
Bogged Near Innamincka I had decided on the Tibooburra shortcut at the end of the yard building work. By the time the new stock yards at Koorliatto Waterhole were finished we had become close friends with Kevin and Ewin. So it was a sad parting as Kevin prepared to leave for home in Queensland and we headed in the opposite direction. An Aboriginal stockman had delivered river gravel for concrete to the building site a couple of times during the week. He said he knew of the Tibooburra shortcut which would save us going back through Thargomindah. Between the stockman and I we had drawn a map on a small piece of paper. Then when we found that wasn’t big enough we continued drawing the map on the bonnet of the ute. We headed off early one morning and were pleased to make it out through the water to the main road without getting bogged. Then as we turned onto one of the tracks marked on the map we were confronted with a waterhole over 500 metres long across the road. The ute made it about halfway through before it became stuck. The ute only had half the ground clearance of the Toyotas that had made the tracks, so it grounded itself on the mud ridge between the wheels. I started unloading all of the heavy gear from the back of the ute and half carried and half floated everything across the water to dry land on the other side. The waterhole was teeming with Shield Shrimp which made life even more uncomfortable by nibbling at my legs as I struggled through the water. I then got the shovel and started digging the top off the ridge to free the Datsun. The mud was like potter’s clay and stuck to everything, especially the shovel. After a couple of hours battling mud, Shield Shrimp and mosquitoes the ute was on dry ground and our journey continued. As it started to get dark I began to realise our map had a few shortcomings. Everything seemed to be back to front and we were heading further into Queensland rather than towards New South Wales. When we got bogged in a dry sandy creek we decided to camp the night while lamenting the fact that by now we should have cashed our fat cheque and be living it up in the Two Storey Pub. The Tibooburra shortcut wasn't living up to its name! In the morning I used the bullock driver’s trick of carting dry clay from the creek bank to put over the loose sand in the wheel tracks and was able to back the ute out of the creek. We were then able to cross using the stone causeway we had missed in the dark! Apart from running out of petrol and borrowing some from a very helpful station owner, then finding an expensive camera in the mud, the trip to Tibooburra was pleasant and uneventful. I handed in the camera at the police station but the policeman returned it a couple of days later saying he had no reports of a missing camera. I still use it today. I then bought a gift and 20 litres of petrol to repay the station owner and headed for the pub. I happened to mention the reverse directions on our map to an old drover in the pub. He had an interesting explanation. He had found that the Aboriginal people he had asked directions from tended to mentally go to the destination and give their directions from there. Thus a turn to the right became a turn to the left. If you think the explanation is confusing you should have seen the confusing state of the map after it had been covered in mud!
Underside of Shield Shrimp
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