Hey JaBear,
Just picked this up on Yahoo and thought you could verify the accuracy of the story. There is even a train depot that I might be able to model on my best day.
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/australia-s-smallest-town-1383600102-slideshow/
Bob
Bob,
Remember that Australia is the Island Continent, while New Zealand is Two Big Islands. They are kinda in the same neighborhood, though.
Looks as big as Walkabout Creek. [(-D]
Yeah! But they are both,upside down. [:)]How about it, Bear ?
Cheers, [D]
Frank
Gidday Frank, I just don’t know where you get this idea from ??? [swg]
Gidday Bob, Yeah Mike and Frank are both right in that I am on the other side of The Ditch (Tasman Sea) and though Australia is our closest neighbour, they are different, they even speak differently. I say Gidday , they say G’day, and if an Aussie approaches you and says the word "Sex", don’t worry, he’s only counting and referring to half a dozen.[;)]
That said I have lived and worked in Australia and though my time in Queensland, apart from a night in Cairns, was spent on Horn Island in the Torres Strait, I have absolutely NO reason to believe that your link is NOT genuine.
Apart from a coastal strip Australia, especially the center is pretty inhospitable, though the people that inhabit the Great Red Center aren’t , and so Australia is sparsely populated, I had to look this up, (so that I could give you a sensible answer) with a population density of 7 persons per one square mile; the USA is 83, out of curiosity New Zealand is 40, and Shenandoah County is 68.
Back in 1980?? I spent a long weekend in a small country town up on the New South Wales/Victorian Border. The town consisted of a hotel, store/ gas station that virtually sold every thing from a tin of baked beans to combine harvester parts, a few houses and 3 or 4 Large grain silos with a rail link. There were road signs warning of
It’s real alright, I have visited Cooladdi myself, last year! It’s about 650km west of me here in Queensland.
Train “stations” like in Cooladdi were once very common throughout Queensland, more or less anywhere with more than a handful of residents would have a timber platform, typically long enough for one freight car or half a passenger car to stop at. In the by gone days it was how towns received supplies, even the mail and newspapers, because the roads out west were poor (mostly dirt) and frequently washed out by rain and flood.
Cooladdi is not far from a fairly large town, Charleville which means it is now easier to get supplies delivered by road. It seems to survive purely as a fuel stop before moving on to the next “roadhouse” or to get a bite to eat (good food!)
If you ever get the chance… visit!
Hi Jabear
I see you have the map the right way up.
At least we spell and pronounce Fush with an I Fish [:D][:P]
To be fair both NZ and AU railways where never built with the idea of making money
They where built to provide a public service and promote settlement of the interior farm lands, with large doses of political argee bargee thrown in for good measure.
Which is why for both systems privatisation isn’t working all that well.
To many one horse towns where even the horse has left town.
But oddly most of these places would make for good basis for model railway towns[:D]
regards John
Gidday John, all your points are dead right.
Can’t comment about Oz, but when I think of some of the NZ branch lines, you could virtually model a static diorama. [(-D]
Cheers, the Bear.
I know of some here in the West where we could argue the NZ AU test matches Wallabies, All Blacks games the NZ AU ladies sports a few obscure events, just for good measure.
And still find enough time for real time prototypical operation and a few nice dioramas as well
(For the benefit of US readers there is a very strong but friendly sporting rivalry between Australia and New Zealand)
regards John