Lockdown at Rose Isle Station

13-30 August 2021; In Covid-19 lockdown for 17 days

Lockdown day 1: Saturday 14 August 2021

We had arrived at Rose Isle Station the previous day to find out that the Bourke Local Government Area (LGA) was in Covid 19 lockdown. We had accommodation in the shearers’ quarters at Rose Isle Station but with the Darling River in full flow we were keen to move on if we could. The Bourke police were fine with us continuing down the river within the Bourke LGA, but we needed a safe place to leave one of the cars for the car shuffle.

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We drove the 30km to Louth to see about accommodation there, but the inn owner refused and was very concerned about outsiders coming to the town. she was fine for us to leave one of the cars in the public area across the road, but this didn’t seem very safe. We spoke to two caravaners camped on the other side of the river from Louth who were undecided whether to stay put or head home. They were the only two options for them.

Our next planned stop had been Kallara Station, about 10km upstream of Tilpa, 153km below Louth (216km from Rose Isle Station). Some maps have Kallara in Bourke LGA (it’s actually not) so we were hoping they would allow us to leave a car there so we could continue down the river. Other options within Bourke LGA were Trilby Station and Dunlop Station. The Shearer’s quarters we were staying in had no mobile coverage, so it was necessary to drive up past the homestead to make phone calls. Having no Internet made finding out what was happening in New South Wales difficult, and while having no contact with the outside world was not a concern while paddling, it became problematic for planning to get back on the river.

Lockdown day 2: Sunday 15 August 2021

Ted headed back to Bourke to get fuel, some more food and grog, talk to Kallara station (10km upstream of Tilpa) and talk to the police again. At this point the LGA that Kallara was in, was not in lockdown, so it was unlawful for us to travel there from the Bourke LGA. Ted spoke to Julie at Kallara Station who initially thought it would be OK to leave a car there if the police agreed. The police view was that we were exercising, unlikely to meet anybody on the river, and they didn’t have any water police to stop us anyway. However, our problem was that we needed to get a car down the river so we could do a car shuffle and that meant we needed a safe place to leave it while we paddled down the river. It would also be desirable for us to have accommodation where we left the car. Leaving Bourke LGA also meant moving into the Wilcannia police region, and away from the Bourke police that Ted was getting to know too well. After speaking to the police, Ted spoke to Kallara again but they felt it would put their community at an unnecessary risk for us to leave a car there. We were reluctant to just start heading down the river as there was no guarantee we would be allowed back to Rose Isle Station once we left.

Lockdown days 3-15: Monday 16 – Sunday 29 August 2021

Those familiar with extended lockdowns know there is not a lot of variation between the days. Some would say we were in the ideal situation. We each had a shearer’s quarters to sleep in. There was a separate cook house with satellite TV, each day was sunny and 30+ degrees, there was a river to fish in, and we had ample food and grog (although the latter kept running out, requiring regular trips into Bourke to replenish). The only downside was the lack of internet, the $80 a day it was costing us, the missing of family and friends, and the frustration of not doing anything, while a river begging to be paddled flowed past.

Each day was pretty much the same:

• Have breakfast while watching the news, which was always the same as the previous nights, but with added, but necessarily informative commentary.
• Drive off to the caravan area and ring and text family.
• Talk (mostly Ted) to David and Nola from Bendigo, who had been camped there on their way to Queensland since May.
• If they were around talk (mostly Ted) to our hosts, Samantha and/or Gary about the state of the nation/world/farming/lockdown
• Back to the shearers’ kitchen for lunch and watch the news.

At this point Ted and I would usually part ways, with Ted heading down to campsite 15 (like most stations on the Darling River Run, Rose Isle Station charged travellers to camp on the river banks on their property) to check his shrimp net, yabbie nets and fish. Ted had attached his yabbie net to river red gum, but the next day the gum had fallen into the river. I tried fishing one day, but after an hour that felt like five with no luck I gave up and walked back to the quarters. Immediately after leaving, Ted had a yellow belly on two lines at once, and ended up with 5. I clearly have no capacity to fish.

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Alternatively, Ted would head out to one of the dams with David to check the yabbie nets there. Along the way checking his game cameras to see if there was anything around worth shooting. Meanwhile I would stay watching the news, reading, washing clothes/dishes and trying to sort the pots, pans and dishes that had accumulated in the shearer’s kitchen over the years, along with a thick layer of red dust. Occasionally, when sufficiently bored, I’d attempt to create a video on parts of Rose Isle Station or some other aspect of the trip.

The two old Teds had been taking photos of the various birds they had encountered on the way down the river. At Rose Isle Station, the presence of a list of birds identified by members of ‘Birdlife Northern Rivers’ who had visited in September 2020, and a photographic field guide to Australian birds at the station enabled these photos to be identified. This spurred Ted to try to photograph even more birds and to compile his own list while waiting for the fish to bite.

Emu	Little Wood Swallow	Black Swan	Whistling Kite
Welcome Swallow	White-winged Chuff	Pelican	Black-breasted Buzzard
Mallee Ring Neck	Apostle Bird	Pied Cormorant	Black-shouldered Kite
Mulga Parrot	Magpie-lark Peewee	White-necked Heron	White-bellied Sea Eagle
Willie Wagtail	Laughing Kookaburra	White-faced Heron	Wedge-tailed Eagle
Little Friar Bird	Rainbow Bee-eater	Nankeen Night Heron	Australian Hobby
Common Rock Pigeon	Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike	Brolga	Black Kite
Crested Pigeon	Pied Butcher Bird	Royal Spoonbill
Bar-shouldered dove	Crow	Yellow-bellied Spoonbill
Galah	Grey-crowned Babbler	Great Egret
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo	Black-backed Magpie	Darter
Little Corella	Australian Raven	Pacific Black Duck
Jackie Winter		Great Duck
Black-fronted Dotterel		Wood Duck
White-plumed honeyeater

Occasionally there was excitement, such as when Ted got his test results (negative). In spite of our tests being taken at the same time and our surnames being similar, mine didn’t come through for another 5 days. You’ve got to love NSW Health. During this period all of regional NSW was put into lockdown. So in addition to potentially running into the Wilcannia police and copping a fine while doing the car shuffle, and trying to find secure parking for the car, there was the complication of where we would stay once we got to wherever we had managed to park the car.

Most nights were spent watching the ABC news (there was also Imparja TV, but I’d lived with that in Alice Springs, and I felt it my duty to wean Ted off his abhorrence of the ABC), discussing the different approaches of the various State Premiers, particularly Gladys and Dan, and the PM ScoMo, and what our options for the next day might be.
In terms of moving further downstream we faced two challenges:

• A potential fine if the police pulled us up. This was unlikely given the remoteness of the area; and
• Finding safe places to leave our cars to avoid the risk of theft and/or vandalism.

Since no-one was prepared to mind our car further downstream, one possibility was to car shuffle and canoe in single day stages. We could possibly drive both cars 20-30kms downstream, drive back to the canoe, paddle down to the car, drive back to the start to collect the second car, and then drive both cars back to the canoe, ready to repeat the process the next day. This would require finding relatively safe places to park the cars near the river. To see if this was feasible we drove to Tilpa to check out places we could get a car in close to the river. There were a number of places south of Louth that were possibilities, and a caravanning couple in lockdown at the Tilpa weir campground that were prepared to mind our car. We refuelled at Tilpa, after ringing the pub owner who was out doing some fencing since the pub was closed, to come and open the bowsers, and returned to Rose Isle Station to think about it. We were still unsure how we could get past Louth, so put it in the too hard basket and settled in for more days watching NSW descend into more Covid-19 disaster and Victoria try to follow.

We drove back into Bourke on the 20 August (day 7 of lockdown) for supplies. In addition to the usual food and alcohol, we purchased a fuel jerry can and fuel for the VW van in case any future daily car shuffling ran the van dry, a 12 volt sport battery and cigarette lighter socket to try and get the the solar blanket functioning when we no longer had access to mains power, and more cash to pay for the Rose Isle Station accommodation.

At the supermarket check-out line a loud argument between two women occurred for no apparent reason:
W1:“What did you say?”
W2: “We f…ing weren’t talking about you!”
W2 male partner: “Yeah, mind your own f…ing business, you f..ing c..t!”
W1: unintelligible
W2: “We were talking about my cat, you bitch“
The security guard stepped in (says something about Bourke that the supermarket has one) and separated the parties. As W1 was leaving and walking past us, and maybe for our benefit:
W1: “Jeez, that Janette, she’s gonna be real embarrassed when she gets off those drugs”.

We went back to Bourke again on the 25 August (day 12 of lockdown) as we had been told the previous visit that a walk-in COVID vaccination clinic would be established there. Ted had received both his Astra-Zeneca (A-Z) vaccinations, and I was keen to get my second vaccination before leaving Rose Isle Station. By now Bourke had become one of NSW’s major Covid-19 hotspots, along with Wilcannia, our intended final destination, and we were pulled over by the police on our way into town to find out what we were doing. The policewoman was with an Australian Defence Force person rather than another police person so they were able to double the number of police cars on patrol. Ted explained that we were at Rose Isle Station and I was heading in to get my vaccination, and another Covid test, so all was good and no fine received.

At the Covid vaccination site, they only had Pfizer, and refused to mix that with my A-Z without NSW Health approval, which would take a week to obtain (you’ve got to love NSW Health). The health professional suggested I try the chemist as they were authorised to provide A-Z. After much waiting and discussion with various personnel at the chemist they decided they weren’t authorised to vaccinate me after all. It was unclear whether this was because they didn’t have the vaccine, were not setup to vaccinate, didn’t know how to, were too busy, or couldn’t be bothered. They suggested I try the local Ochre Health. I explained that Ochre Health didn’t answer their phone, to which they replied that Ochre Health had just changed their phone number, but had not updated their contact details. The new number got through to their receptionist who thought they were providing vaccinations, but it was in a separate building so I could turn up there to find out. Finally a drive around the corner to some chairs set out in the sun and I was in line for my 2^nd A-Z. More shopping, a meat pie, coffee (undrinkable, it was made using an espresso machine, but possibly the only coffee I have ever been unable to finish), and cream horn (nowhere near as good as I remember from my childhood) from the local bakery, before returning to the Covid-19 testing site, now permanently established at the sports ground, for yet another test.

Another couple, Rod and Liz, who had been camped at Rose Isle Station campsite 5 since early August, decided they had had enough of lockdown and were heading home to their property at Wingham, near Taree, NSW. Before retirement Rod had run a motorbike repair business, and since retirement had been restoring old BMW bikes. Ted had spent lots of time fishing and shrimping with Rod, so they invited him to stay on their property if he couldn’t get out of NSW. Given the approach the rest of Australia was taking to Gladys this was becoming more and more likely.

The final remaining couple at the Rose Isle Station caravan park, David and Nola, told us that the owners, Samantha and Gary, had a property on the river 30km (by road) south of Louth, and David offered to drive and leave my car there when Gary was next going to visit it. This property is about 120km by river from Rose Isle Station, so would give us another 4 days paddling. The river height was starting to fall, exposing its muddy banks, potentially making camping less pleasant the longer we waited. Therefore we took up the offer. It was actually Samantha who drove the VW to the take-out site and left it there on Wednesday 2 September 2021. She said sitting on 90kmh because she wasn’t sure how the car would handle the dirt road corrugations was “the slowest drive she’s ever had to Louth”.

After 17 days of being in lockdown at Rose Isle Station we were about to get back on the Darling River on Monday 30 August 2021. Sunday was spent washing, packing cars and canoe bags, and cleaning up the shearer’s quarters and kitchen.

Carbon Farming

While talking to Dean the hotel owner at Bourke, he mentioned that he has a property north of Bourke that he earns money from by ‘carbon farming’. Gary at Rose Isle Station told us it was a Federal scheme (introduced by the minority Gillard Labor government in 2011 and modified in 2020) whereby the government pays landowners not to remove vegetation or overgraze. After applying to participate in the scheme, scientists use satellite imagery to assess the types of vegetation on the property, then collect material from each vegetation type to determine the amount of carbon each type holds per hectare. Land holders are entitled to clear 20% (or is it 80%?) of the vegetation on their land, so if they choose not to, they are payed for the amount of Carbon contained in the vegetation they leave. The level of stock they have is also specified to ensure the property is not overstocked, but also to ensure enough to reduce the fire risk. Depending on the size of the property this may amount to millions of dollars. Unfortunately for the land holders this is considered ‘off-farm’ income so it can’t be offset against farm debt. Because of this it is often used for unnecessary infrastructure such as farm sheds and fences rather than reducing farm debt.

Goat Farming

North of Cobar, NSW, goats are everywhere. Ted used to be employed to shoot feral goats in an attempt to control their numbers. Now they are considered lucrative earners for the landowners, selling for $4-5/kg at farm and $10-15 at the abattoir. They require zero maintenance, are extremely hardy and drought tolerant, and will eat just about anything to survive. Consequently, they are probably disastrous for the fragile arid environment. The goats belong to whoever’s land they are on, and since the fences only constrain sheep and cattle they roam freely. Some landowners are now putting in goat-proof fences (from carbon farming money?) to try to constrain the goats to their own property.

The two old Teds dodging Bourke Covid-19 case locations:
Friday August 13: Khans IGA 5:55-6:00pm (Both Teds were there ~11:15-12:30)
Saturday August 14:  5:55-6:00pm (Ted was in Bourke Sunday 15 August)
Monday August 16: Khans IGA 10:10-10:20am
Sunday August 22: Khans IGA 10:00am-5:00pm (Both Teds were there Friday 20/8)
Monday August 23: Khans IGA 4:00-4:10pm; Spar 2:10-3:10pm, 4:55-5:00pm
Tuesday August 24: Spar 4:00-5:00pm
Thursday August 26: Spar 3:20-4:20pm (Both Teds were there Wednesday 25/8)
Saturday August 28: Khans IGA 1:00-1:15pm, 6:45-7:00pm
Sunday August 29: Khans IGA 6:00pm-6:30pm; Spar 6:20-6:30pm
Monday August 30: Spar 8:00am-8:00pm
Tuesday August 31: Khans IGA 1:20pm-1:40pm, Spar 8:00am-8:00pm
Wednesday September 1: Spar 6:40-6:50pm
Thursday September 2: Khans IGA 6:05pm-7:00pm, Spar 12:20-1:00pm
Friday September 3: Khans IGA 10:50pm-11:50pm, Spar 10:00-11:20am, 11:30am-12:30pm