Senator Andrew Bartlett
Friday, April 08, 2005
 
A visit to Birdsville
A four hour flight to Birdsville, to be followed by four hours back the other way about 30 hours later, reminded me how tedious flying is. For people interested in planes I flew in a small King Air 6 seater.

Senators get a charter allowance each year to assist with getting around their states. The allowance is larger for the larger states, although perversely we only get a Travel Allowance entitlement of 6 nights a year, which means the expenses still add up pretty quickly if you're a backbench Senator.

I am attending the annual conference of the Western Queensland Local Government Association. The Western Queensland Local Government area covers over 30% of the area of Qld, but has about 1.1% of the population. Diamantina Shire, which covers Birdsville, has an area bigger than Tasmania, and has a population of less than 400.

Inland Australia's vast expanses of space always make an impression. There was a consistent smattering of low-lying cloud throughout my flight, but the open brown landscape still seemed to stretch on forever. The water markings in the floodplains below was a reminder of how the issue of water is always present, even when the water itself isn't. No doubt it will be discussed at the conference.

Birdsville is best known for its annual horse race, when heaps of people reportedly descend on the town and drink lots of beer. I've never been to a horserace in my life and have no great desire to go to one, and I've never understood the fascination many people clearly hold for them.

Far more interesting to me is the fact that Birdsville also had a geothermal power station which used the near boiling water from a 1280 metre deep bore into the Great Artesian Basin to produce half of the town's power.

According to Qld Government material, "the Birdsville geothermal power station provides a unique base of experience for Queensland to become a world leader in low-temperature geothermal power generation."

Unfortunately, this 'unique base' was shut down at the end of 2004, leaving the town fully reliant on diesel and gas generators again.

I'm staying in the Birdsville Hotel, which is the main pub usually featured in stories about Birdsville. I had a quick walk around the town and found a coffee shop/gallery run by a long haired guy with a beard and waistcoat and a rainbow coloured windsock outside. Not what I expected to find in Birdsville, but as an inner-city chap I was relieved to see I could have a latte (not that I actually drank lattes). I did have a coffee there though and talked with the guy about the "3 Monkeys" coffee shop in West End in Brisbane.

In the evening there was a BBQ dinner for many of the people attending the conference, held in the beer garden at the back of the Hotel. I suspect I was the sole vegetarian, but they kindly catered for me while everyone else feasted on what I was told was organic beef.

I talked with one of the local pastoralists, a former Mayor of the Shire, who is heavily involved in organic meat. Interestingly, it was a similar conversation to one I'd had just the night before, 1600 kilometres away in New Farm (inner city Brisbane again), at a launch of an organic cookbook, sponsored by the Biological Farmers Association, where there was also a lot of talk about the developing major market potential of organic food.

At the BBQ I also chatted with Councillors from Bulloo, Ilfracombe, Longreach, Tambo, and Barcoo Shires, as well as the local Diamantina Shire. I had a number of long conversations about many aspects of renewable energy, which is clearly a topic of interest to many people in this region. The lack of sealed roads was also a big issue for many locals, as people still have to drive over hundreds of kilometres of dirt road to get to Birdsville, despite the tourism potential that politicians are fond of talking of. Frankly I'd feel much happier with a billion dollars being spent sealing roads in the outback than building tunnels and freeways in the cities which just generate more traffic.

I'm looking forward to the conference tomorrow, mainly for a chance to hear from more people from the surrounding Shires, although the actual conference program has some interesting sessions too.

I also discovered that I can check my email from the rooms of the Birdsville Hotel (31.2 kbps down the phone line, although not surprisingly no mobile phone coverage). I've decided to celebrate this fact by posting this on the blog, as I may not get a chance again before having to fly out tomorrow night.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Friday, April 08, 2005 Permalink
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