Channel Country

Aptly named the Channel Country, it covers a huge area, over 200,000 square kilometres, or by another measure it is a significant bite of Queensland’s Outback. Sparsely populated, less than 2,000 residents call the Channel Country home, but what this country lacks in population it makes up for with cattle; it is graziers territory.

This part of Australia is a series of ancient flood plains within an arid landscape. However, when the area gets enough rainfall, the Channel Country comes to life – from dry dessert channels to flowing waterways – from cracked golden earth to a lush green carpet of grass…and those once in a decade rains arrived earlier this year. As the water flows downstream on its long journey to a normally dry Lake Eyre, it forms a myriad of channels and spreads across wide open plains. 

What better way to get the full Channel Country experience than a birds-eye-view from the trusty Comanche. Then touch down at some of its small remote settlements to meet the people who live and work on this outback land. The Bazflyers did just that…

YBOU = Boulia, YWTN = Winton, YHUG = Hughenden 

Boulia - a tiny almost forgotten settlement on the crossroads to everywhere else. In a much earlier time the tiny town had pubs, lots of pubs where itinerant shearers congregated. Today there’s just one pub. It was busy in the evening serving grub and drinks, but then in the words of a local inhabitant our stop-over coincided with the tourist season, an annual phenomenon of outback travellers passing through that lasts perhaps a week before the heat and flies again return. 

History and stories abound. There was a chat with Mary. Now in her middle years, she was born in Boulia and lives on a station property just outside of town, about an hour’s drive away. A third generation grazier who’s experienced her share of droughts, hard times and bad times. Today with the Channel Country coloured green and waterholes overflowing, Mary and her family stand on the cusp of an infrequent very good time for farming in the outback.

Winton - is another Channel Country town with its own unique stories to tell. Around 95 million years ago the vast surrounding lands were lush forests on the shores of a huge inland sea. An environment that hosted Dinosaurs and an abundance of prehistoric sea life. Winton affords an unique opportunity to view rare fossils, dinosaur footprints and bones. It’s a place where the imagination can be transported back to a time, an almost incomprehensibly long time ago.

Not nearly so long ago, 1895 to be exact, the iconic Australian poet Banjo Patterson was staying in Winton when he was inspired to deliver the first performance of his great Australian anthem, ‘Waltzing Matilda’. 

Hughenden - another small Channel Country town was founded by pastoralists, riding on the sheep's back with a thriving wool industry. But droughts, mechanisation and poor commodity prices have greatly reduced its population over the years. Today there are only a few hundred people to fill the town’s ultra wide streets. 

Remarkably, Hughenden’s declining population and fortunes is being turned around with economic diversification. Better utilisation of the region's water for crop irrigation, and two large scale solar and wind power schemes. Haley’s an entrepreneurial young person who left the area after finishing school but recently returned and operates a thriving coffee cart located beside the main highway bisecting the town. Hughenden has every prospect of fulfilling her ambitions and anyone else who decides to seek their future in the Channel Country.