Cycling,  Footbiking,  Interesting Places,  RUN DOWN UNDER VIRTUAL WALK / RUN CHALLENGE,  Walking

Rundown Under Virtual Challenge Update

December 31, 2021

As I haven’t posted an update on my progress on the Run Down Under Virtual Challenge since April, and as 2021 has now now finished, it seemed like a good idea to do an end of year update for that challenge. So here goes…

On 9th April 2021, I reached the 1000km point of the challenge. This was a fairly major milestone, even though I still have many thousands to go until I finish the challenge.

20th April 2021 – Byron Bay

“Byron Bay is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cape Byron, a headland adjacent to the town, is the easternmost point of mainland Australia. The local Arakwal Aboriginal people’s name for the area is Cavvanbah, meaning “meeting place”. Lieutenant James Cook named Cape Byron after Naval officer John Byron, circumnavigator of the world and grandfather of the poet Lord Byron.

The reputation of this famous beach town precedes it to such an extent that first impressions may leave you wondering what all the fuss is about. The beaches are great, but there are spectacular beaches all along this coast. What makes Byron special is the singular vibe of the town itself. It’s here that coastal surf culture flows into the hippie tide washing down from the hinterland, creating one great barefooted, alternative-lifestyle mash-up.

The town centre is low-rise and relaxed, and the locals are dedicated to preserving its essential small-town soul. Of course Byron does get crowded and it also attracts its fair share of off-the-leash teens. Yet its unique atmosphere has a way of converting even the most cynical with its long, balmy days, endless beaches, reliable surf breaks, fine food, raucous nightlife and ambling milieu.” (From Rundownunder Email)

2nd May 2021 – Queensland / New South Wales Border

“SINCE 1859 the State border separating Tweed Heads (NSW) and Coolangatta (QLD) has presented a unique array of challenges to numerous generations. Differing time zones and laws stand out as obvious inconveniences, but the implications of the Queensland/NSW border extend as far as technological glitches and even provide glimpses into the demographics of the region today. Read here for some interesting stories on the struggles of living in a border town.

World famous beaches, Theme Parks (including Dreamworld, Seaworld, and Movieworld) spectacular hinterland and an abundance of shopping are just some of the things to do at Australia’s Number 1 tourist destination. Around 10 million tourists visit the Gold Coast area every year: of 849,114 international visitors, 3,468,000 domestic overnight visitors and 5,366,000 daytrip visitors. Tourism is the region’s biggest industry, directly contributing more than $4.4 billion into the city economy every year and directly accounting for one in four jobs in the city. There are approximately 65,000 beds, 60 kilometres of beach, 600 kilometres of canal, 100,000 hectares of nature reserve, 500 restaurants, 40 golf courses and 5 major theme parks in the city. Gold Coast Airport provides connection across Australia with international services from Japan, New Zealand, China, Fiji, Bali, Singapore and Malaysia.” (From Rundownunder Email)

On 11th May 2021, I did my longest walking activity in the challenge to date – 14.04km.

21st May 2021 – Brisbane, Queensland

“Brisbane is the third most populous city in Australia. The Brisbane central business district stands on the original European settlement and is situated inside a bend of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. Brisbane is named after the Brisbane River on which it is located, which in turn was named after Scotsman Sir Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825. The city played a central role in the Allied campaign during World War II as the South West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur. Brisbane has hosted several large cultural, international and sporting events, including the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo ’88, the final Goodwill Games in 2001, and the 2014 G-20 summit.

Australia’s most underrated city? Booming Brisbane is an energetic river town on the way up, with an edgy arts scene, pumping nightlife, and great coffee and restaurants. Lush parks and historic buildings complete the picture, all folded into the elbows of the meandering Brisbane River.

“Brisbanites” are out on the streets, the weather is brilliant and so are the bodies. Fit-looking locals get up early to go jogging, swimming, cycling, kayaking or rock climbing, or just to walk the dog. And when it’s too hot outside, Brisbane’s subcultural undercurrents run cool and deep, with bookshops, globally inspired restaurants, cafes, bars and band rooms aplenty.

East of ‘Brizzy’ is Moreton Bay, with its low-lying sandy isles, beaches and passing parade of whales, turtles and dolphins. To the west is the rural inland hub of Toowoomba (also underrated)” (From Rundownunder Email).

26th July 2021 – Miles

“Formerly known as Dogwood Crossing, the town of Miles is situated on Dogwood Creek, named by German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt in 1844 on his journey to Port Essington in the Northern Territory. The town was renamed Miles in honour of the Queensland Colonial Secretary, William Miles. Miles Post Office opened on 3 January 1878. The Miles War Memorial and Wall of Remembrance was erected by the Murilla Shire Council and dedicated on 25 April 1967.

In 1878, when the railway from Brisbane ran into trouble crossing Dogwood Creek, railway workers settled nearby. The small town became, for a time, the railhead for supplies to the west.

The highlight of the excellent Miles Historical Village and Museum is Pioneer Street, an accurate recreation of a Queensland country town’s main street at the turn of the century. It contains a post office, general store, a bakery and a pub. The complex also features the old Australian Bank of Commerce, the Murilla Express building, an old cafe and Andersen’s Smithy where the famous Condamine Bell was first made.

Also a must see is the Dogwood Crossing @Miles Centre, which was opened in September 2002. One of its roles is to display snippets of the social history of Murilla Shire by recording local stories. It was designed to compliment the Miles Historical Museum as well as housing an Art Gallery, Library and IT Centre.” (From Rundownunder Email)

17th August 2021 – Roma

“Roma….. the quintessential country town, rich in pioneering history. As a visitor you can be assured of a warm welcome, plenty to explore and all the services a traveller could want. There’s a varied calendar of events from Picnic Races, the Roma Cup and Easter in the Country, to the multicultural Food and Fire Festival and all the fun of the Roma Show, so plan your trip to mix it with the locals. To get a real feel for the town, take a walk along the heritage-listed Heroes’ Avenue planted with more than 100 bottle trees – each a memorial to a local soldier who lost their life in World War I. It is also worth a visit to the Mt Abundance Homestead – built in 1860, the site of the region’s first settlement, which had important links to early explorers Sir Thomas Mitchell and Ludwig Leichardt. Don’t miss the Big Rig Oil and Gas Interpretative Centre and Night Show for an interactive insight into the hardships and heroic stories of oil drilling and exploration. Visit the ‘Oil Patch’ to get up close to impressive rigs and one of the first diesel powered rigs ever used in Australia. And remember, if you’re keen to perch on a fence and watch the action at Roma Sale yards – the largest in the Southern Hemisphere – be sure to time your visit for a Tuesday or Thursday and you can witness the sale of up to 12,000 head of cattle in a single day.

For a town of less than 10,000 people, Roma has produced a large amount of Australian identities – particularly in the world of Rugby League. You should consider yourself exceptional for clocking up 1,717kms with Run Down Under, so put your name alongside these legends that have been produced out of Roma.

9th September 2021 – Tregole National Park

“Towns are now becoming sparse as you travel across this huge and sparce country. Time for just a quick break as you arrive at Tregole National Park in QLD. Take a seat and calculate your average kms you have covered so far in YOUR journey. By arriving here, you have clocked up exactly 1,900km, so divide that by the week we are up to and that’s you average kms per week since you started. Are you on target for what you set out to achieve? Did you know that on your dashboard there is an estimated finish date for YOUR journey around Australia, PLUS there is a leader board that ranks your finish. This is updated daily so you can estimate when you will arrive at the finish line of your virtual Run Down Under.

Until the gazetting of the park in 1975, Tregole National Park was a grazing property. The park is located where the brigalow and mulga biospheres meet and has a representative sample of semi-arid ecosystems. The park contains almost pure stands of the vulnerable Ooline tree. The Ooline stand in Tregole is unusual as the climate is hot and dry. The park has no camping facilities. A day-use area is 10 kilometres south of Morven on the Morven-Bollon Road. There is a short (2.1 km) walk in the day-use area.” (From Rundownunder Email)

24th September 2021 – Augathella

“Nestled on the bank of the Warrego River, 760km west of Brisbane, Augathella holds quite a few nice surprises. The notoriety of Augathella would undoubtedly be its claim to fame as ‘Home of the Meat Ant’, a large ant which can carry 100 times its own weight. Meaning ‘waterhole’, traditionally the town was a popular stopover for passing bullock teams resting their teams. These days there is no sign of the bullock teams, having been replaced by the constant flow of ‘Grey Nomads’ discovering the delights of this unassuming little town.

Augathella, with its fascinating history of bushrangers, bullockies and bullock teams, has some memorable Outback experiences. Don’t just drive through – stop and enjoy Augathella’s colourful history, characters and humour. Start with a screening of the 20-minute ‘Outback to Augathella’ documentary and then head off to explore the colourful murals and rustic metal sculptures throughout the town. Explore Augathella by following the Heritage Trail and the River Walk. Don’t miss Kenniff’s Tree of bushranger fame. Or venture out along the plotted 4×4 stock route trail.

Get dust between your toes in true Outback style at the Augathella Diggers Rodeo and Races, held annually at Easter. Music and mayhem fill the air as you take in the excitement of the bull and bronco riding and head trackside for a traditional country race meet.” (From Rundownunder Email)

13th October 2021 – Tambo

“Tambo is a great little outback town. With only 500 locals and few pubs to boot, Tambo makes a great stopover on the drive from Charleville to Longreach. Tambo has a range of accommodation houses including motor inns, caravan parks and camping facilities. The attractions include historical houses, the Influenza Memorial, and a visit to the old post office is like taking a step back in time.

Located in Central West Queensland, Australia, on the banks of the Barcoo River. The town was settled in 1863, making it the oldest town in western Queensland. Originally established in the 1860’s, to service local pastoral properties, today Tambo boasts a healthy economy supported by wool and beef. Like much of the west, sheep became the mainstay of the economy. The town takes its name from an Indigenous Australian word, meaning “hidden place”, or, “resting place, fish, shady waters, hidden waters, a secluded spot, hidden place and native yam.”

Today, cattle and tourism are of major importance to the town. A number of heritage buildings survive from the earliest days of settlement. The Carnarvon National Park (Salvator Rosa section) lies to the east of the town.” (From Rundownunder Email)

19th October 2021 – Blackall

“Welcome to Blackall! Stay a while, and let a soak in the famous artesian spa rest your weary traveller’s bones. Or enjoy a host of other local attractions. And fair enough too….you have covered over 2,000kms in your journey to arrive here.

Blackall is an appealing country town with tree lined streets and heritage buildings. Positioned to support Central Queensland’s prominent sheep and cattle industries, Blackall has a strong community focus and offers a quiet and relaxed outback lifestyle ideal for those who want to experience a close-knit community. Blackall’s heritage experiences include unique links to Jack Howe, “Beyond the Black Stump”, water that flowed off the dinosaurs back and a fully working steam driven Woolscour. Local legend also says that if you pass the Barcoo River ten times then you are here to stay! So be warned. Blackall is located on the largest grassy ecosystem in Australia, the Mitchell Grass Downs.

Blackall has a fresh country atmosphere; tidy, pollution free, and renowned for its glorious sunsets and clear night skies. Blackall is also the home of the original Black Stump, which marks the original Astro Station established in 1887. Places west of this point are said to be ‘beyond the black stump’.” (From Ruwndownunder Email)

22nd November 2021 – Barcaldine

“Barcaldine is a rural town 520 km west of Rockhampton, at the intersection of the Capricorn and Landsborough Highways. It is best known as the ‘birthplace’ of the Australian labour movement.

The Barcaldine area was crossed by Sir Thomas Mitchell’s and Augustus Gregory’s expeditions (1846, 1858). In 1863 Donald Cameron took up a pastoral run on the Alice River which he named Barcaldine Downs, after Cameron’s family property in Ayrshire, Scotland. The run was partly resumed for closer-settlement holdings in the 1880s.

Barcaldine town lots were sold in 1885 and within a year several buildings were under construction. By the end of 1886 the town had been surveyed and the railway line had reached there from Jericho and Rockhampton. This was a promising beginning for the town. Numerous buildings were transferred from Jericho (bank, Masonic hall, Methodist and Catholic churches) and from Pine Hill (railways buildings and a court house). In 1887 a progress association was formed, a government school was opened and, most importantly, a free-flowing source of clear bore water was found.

Barcaldine started off with a rush of success, although the pace of growth overlooked hygiene precautions and there were chronic health problems and few safeguards against the supply of opium to Aborigines. In the late 1880s Barcaldine became a centre of activity in western Queensland for the organisation of shearers and rural labourers. Pastoralists, concerned about this growing assertiveness, formed the Pastoral Employers’ Association in Barcaldine in 1889, and reduced rates of pay for shearers. The response was a firming of union membership, and by early 1891 hundreds of shearers and rural workers were camped around Barcaldine waiting for work and threatening to take action if non-union workers were brought in. Mass meetings were held under a ghost gum, Eucalyptus papuana, the Tree of Knowledge, now commemorated as the birthplace of organised labour, trades union and the Australian Labor Party. Clashes between police and strikers in March 1891 led to 13 leaders being gaoled on St Helena Island in Moreton Bay. (Nearly 30 years later one was elected shire chair.) The shearers’ strike camp site and the Tree of Knowledge outside the railway station are listed on the Queensland heritage register.

After a settlement of kinds was reached between pastoralists and unions, Barcaldine resumed rural and related activities. An industrial sector at one end of the town had a meat processing factory, a wool scouring works and a piggery, all generating industrial effluent. During the remainder of the 1890s a school of arts, a convent and a hall for the divisional board were opened. There was then a slump during a three-year drought (1899-1902), although the Masons constructed a handsome two storey tin and timber hall (1901). The hall is heritage-listed, along with the Church of England and the war memorial clock.

A proposal in 2015 for an 80,000 panel solar farm on 35 hectares on the eastern outskirts of Barcaldine aimed to take advantage of the intensity of solar radiation in the area, and would make it the State’s largest solar farm.” (From Rundownunder Email)

On 30th November, I was approximately halfway between Barcaldine and Longreach, and about 230km from Winton. So I set myself a challenge – to make it to Winton by the end of 2021. This meant I would have to walk at least 52km a week (ie, about 9km a day, 6 days a week) on average.

5th December 2021 – Longreach

“Longreach – a town in Central West Queensland approximately 700 kilometres from the coast. The town is named after the “long reach” of the Thomson River on which it is situated. The town is on the Tropic of Capricorn. The main industries of the area are cattle, sheep, and, more recently, tourism.

Longreach is also the home of the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, which was officially opened in 1988 by Queen Elizabeth II. The purpose of the centre is to showcase the history and the culture of life in rural Australia. Since its opening, over 1 million people have passed through its doors.

Longreach was one of the founding centres for Qantas, the Australian domestic and international airline. One of the airline’s original hangars remains in use at the Longreach Airport and is listed on the Australian National Heritage List. The town is now the home of the Qantas Founders Outback Museum, which includes amongst its displays a decommissioned Qantas Boeing 747-200 aircraft, registration VH-EBQ, “The City of Bunbury.” and QANTAS’s first jet aircraft VH-XBA (formerly VH-EBA), a Boeing 707, “The City of Canberra”.

Any day of the week in Longreach could involve an early morning stroll around some of the towns unique architecture, or garden walks (noting that all of the streets are named after birds), followed by a shop, or coffee and cake down Eagle St, then off to see one of the towns array of museums. A visit (and maybe a small donation) to the School of Distance Education or Australian Agricultural College, ending in a sunset river cruise or to witness one of the last true outback theatres.” (from Rundownunder email).

31st December 2021 – Winton

I made it to Winton on the last day of the year!

“Winton has a rich history as the birthplace of Waltzing Matilda and QANTAS and links to the Great Shearers’ Strike of 1891, but is just as well known today for something far more ancient…DINOSAURS! The region is home to diverse natural history and spectacular landscapes: rolling Mitchell Grass Downs suddenly interrupted by mesa formations, starkly beautiful red earth and Spinifex country, and Channel Country, undulating plains as far as the eye can see. This is big sky country.

As for running events, we found the signature event of the Winton Outback Festival is the ‘Australian Dunny Derby’ – where competitors race their fastest ‘outhouses’ over a 250 metre track. You can add that 250m to the 2,590km you have already clocked up in Run Down Under……sensational achievement!!

The Outback Festival is known for its unique and quirky Aussie events, plus a carnival atmosphere that welcomes city and country families alike to enjoy the 40-odd events. Other major events are the Outback Iron Man and Iron Woman event, Masters of the Outback, Outback Iron Kid, Outback Whip Cracking Championships, Bushman’s Egg Throwing, Bush Poets breakfasts, World Crayfish Derby Race Meeting, True Blue Aussie Sports, Live Music Concerts, Mardi Gras and Afghan Bazaar, Kids Meggsie Cart Races, Art Exhibitions, Roving performers, Children’s concerts and workshops, Truckies Reunion, Truck & Ute Muster, Grand Parade Spectacular and Fireworks displays.” (From Rundownunder email).

And that finished the year! Here are some statistics of what fitness activity I have done for the year. First, my Rundownunder walking / running statistics:

  • Decembe Totalr: 228km.
  • Whole year 2021 Total: 2265km.
  • Total walked for challenge: 2591km.

Here are some Kickbiking statistics for the year:

  • Conqueror Challenges completed: 2 – Lands End to John O’Groats (1744km in 143 days); Camino de Santiago (773km in 60 days).
  • Total Kickbiking for 2021: 4182km.
  • Total Kickbiking on my Kickbike Sport G4: 5247km.
  • Total Kickbiking all time: 6020km.
  • Number of Kickbike rides for 2021: 194.
  • Average Kickbike ride length: 21.5km.

I have purchased 2 more Conqueror Challenges to do in 2022: the North 500, and St Frances Way. I plan to do both of these as Kickbiking challenges.

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