We were keenly anticipating our visit here even before we arrived in the area. We had pre-booked the accommodation and had received a very welcoming letter from owners Rhonda and Jack Smith telling us something about what to expect. "Bluff Downs is a real-life cattle station that welcomes visitors rather than a tourist destination with a few cattle", they wrote. "It is not a luxury retreat, nor a gourmet restaurant, but we would like you to share a part of our unstructured lifestyle, living in the family homestead, and enjoying traditional bush meals".
We drove north from Charters Towers for 70 kilometres before we saw the Bluff Downs sign. It was a surprise to discover the homestead was 29 kilometres off the sealed road along a gravel/dirt road. At a few points the road was rough and in the middle of the wet season (January-March) it could be difficult in a conventional vehicle. When we arrived at the homestead we decided it was all worth while. The 100-year-old building is situated in a rich oasis on the bank of the Basalt River. It is magical.
Rhonda greeted us and showed us our room. Luxurious it was not; comfortable it certainly was. Modern bathroom facilities with shower, basin and flush toilet were just ‘along the veranda’. Then it was on to the huge back veranda for tea/coffee and fresh scones with jam and cream with other guests. Rhonda then suggested we might like to do a tour of the homestead complex. We saw the ringers quarters, the station workshop, the storehouse where 12 months provisions can be stored, the river and falls, and probably most interesting of all, the palaeontology museum.
Bluff Downs is the site of the only known Australian fossils from the Pliocene Age (4-4.5 million years ago). The fossils that are found are not of dinosaurs but of megafauna – giant kangaroos, cow-size marsupials, marsupial lion and giant goannas. Scientists come to carry out digs but Rhonda and guests also have the chance to fossick and find specimens. Rhonda’s collection is amazing. That evening we ate from rare crockery and gold cutlery in the formal dining room before retiring for a cozy night.
Over the next day and a half we helped feed the calves, kangaroo, pig, and deer that wander around the homestead grounds. We walked to the graves of the original property owners who settled here in 1863. Rhonda took us in one of the station vehicles to a watering point where hundreds of cattle congregate for water. We went to the cattle yard to see cattle being dipped as a protection against cattle tic. At other times they would be branding or loading. We walked to the bottom billabong to watch the colony of rock wallabies and flocks of white cockatoos. We sat in wonderment during the evenings listening to the stories from Bram, one of Rhonda’s cowboy sons. On the last morning we visited the fossil site.
This whole experience was something unforgettable.