Home, for now. This is mulga country, Bidjara country, just beyond Charleville, in south-west Queensland. It’s been a long while since I lived somewhere with a red dirt driveway. In recent times, we had been slowly plodding along through outback Queensland in Bronte the bus, free-camping by quiet rivers in small country towns. We were planning to head towards the Northern Territory (and ultimately Western Australia) when the COVID-19 health crisis began to escalate in Australia. With the sudden closure of campgrounds, national parks, free camping reserves and many caravan parks, we had to make some quick decisions. Like thousands of full-time travellers across Australia, we had no actual ‘home’ to return to. We either found a caravan park that was still open for ‘essential travellers’, some land to park the bus on or we rented a house somewhere close by. With the prospect of being locked down for six months or longer, we decided that the best option was to find a rental property. We were so very fortunate to find the perfect homestead for rent nearby.
The property is just beautiful, with extensive gardens surrounding the house, a river nearby and lots of space for everyone to breathe. It’s remote but we’ve always enjoyed solitude (it reminds me somehow of our lighthouse days). We are living in the bus at the front gate to the house. There’s no furniture in the house, but Sam has an office in the house to continue her remote working arrangements and the boys have a dedicated Lego room (which everyone is pretty happy about). I have been kept busy with some physical work around the property like mowing lawns, tending to gardens, checking pumps and tanks, fixing irrigation and getting the veggie garden started. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to stop here for a while and acknowledge how privileged we are at this moment to still have an income, somewhere to live and our health.
This is my first post for 2020 (with huge thanks to Sam for keeping the social media going in recent months) and I am hoping to share more photos of our outback life in the coming weeks. Thanks for following along. Hope you are safe and well. – Keiran.
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