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.

Comanche Corroboree

Corroboree is a word coined by the European settlers of Australia for a customary gathering of the country’s Indigenous people, usually accompanied by rituals and music. So when a group of pilots, all owners of Piper Comanche aeroplanes, gathered together at Alice Springs, a town situated in the very heart of Australia, it could aptly be described as a Comanche Corroboree. Fortunately in a traditional sense, Corroboree’s welcome outside participation and it was in this spirit the Bazflyers flew the trusty Comanche 2,400 NM (4,400 km) from New Zealand to also be in Alice Springs, once again.

Australia is one big country and this means it’s a long way to Alice Springs from almost anywhere. Like the other Comanches making their way into Alice for the Corroboree, the Bazflyers also opted to include an on route overnight stop and the remote, small settlement of Birdsville was chosen for this privilege. The latter part of this westward flight was into a spectacular setting sun and ended with an evening arrival. 

Deep in the heart of wild and isolated country, Birdsville is remote. Normally home to a population of just 140 folk, the pub was buzzing when the Bazflyers arrived. During the cooler winter months thousands of Australians hitch a caravan to their 4x4 vehicles and head off out into their own big backyard. Then there was also early arrivals for the Big Red Bash, an iconic multi-day music festival held annually in the nearby dessert. 

Next morning four other Comanches flying from locations further south, stopped in at Birdsville to take on fuel. The Bazflyers joined them for the remaining two hour run into Alice. The downwind leg for landing on Runway 12 at Alice provided a bird’s eye view of many airliners still in Covid storage. 

As for the ensuing three day corroboree….the ritual was talking about and comparing Comanche aeroplanes, while the music was at night huddled around a campfire. 

Seventeenth Time

There happens to be nothing significant about the title of this blog other than it records my seventeenth flight over the Tasman Sea in the trusty Comanche, ZK-BAZ. The flight was from Kerikeri in the north of New Zealand direct to Coolangatta Airport south of Brisbane. Furthermore, this achievement was undertaken on my own as Bazflyer2 had flown commercial to Australia about a month earlier.

Like all of the sixteen previous crossings, this one followed prior analysis of weather forecasts in an attempt to choose a suitable day in time. June is winter down under, a time of the year that is not exactly renowned for settled weather conditions. Not too much of a headwind is critical, and of course a tailwind component would be optimal. Then there is the matter of cloud along the way. Because of low ambient air temperatures at this time of the year, cloud can always hide icing and this is definitely to be avoided. 

As luck goes, I got lucky. The clockwise recirculating air flow of a Southern Hemisphere low pressure system off the north of New Zealand was offering a ‘sling-shot’ tailwind effect along with favourable flight conditions out in the Tasman Sea. 

Apart from the prospect of a wet beginning, the cloud forecast at my proposed 8,000 feet cruising altitude promised a sunny journey. 

The day was chosen and Custom’s notified. Then right on form it was a wet instrument departure out of Kerikeri but even while climbing to cruise altitude the ground speed teasingly indicated 160 knots. An hour later rain and cloud gave way to sunshine and best of all, a continuous ground speed that was never less than 170 knots. 

This all added up to be my fasted westerly Tasman Sea crossing ever…1,145 nautical miles in 6 hours 45 minutes. With Customs and Quarantine formalities complete the Bazflyers were reunited again and ready for another Australian adventure. Perhaps ‘seventeen’ is significant after all….