It is in the middle of some extensive grazing country and it is
known for Captain Starlight, aka Harry Redford Cattle Drive.
History
The area was first explored in the 1850s. The town was first called
Marathon and it was a major outback town until Barcaldine
grew larger. There was a tramway between Aramac and Barcaldine, and the
tramway museum is till in town, with historical stuff in both indoors
and in outdoors displays.
Sign. by yewenyi via Flickr.com
Captain Starlight's White Bull
But the most obvious thing is a statue of a while bull in the main
street. It's a replica of
the bull that was stolen by Captain
Starlight
- Harry Redford - Australia's most famous cattle thief. He was working
on a nearby cattle station when he stole a mob of 1000 cattle, and
drove them all the way through Australia's central deserts to South
Australia
- an achievement so great that he was left without punishment.
In SA he
sold the cattle but a white bull was later recognised. Redford later
made some other long cattle drives across the continent, was sentenced
for stealing horses, and lived on and owned cattle stations until he
drowned in a flooded outback creek.
Captain Starlight's White Bull. by yewenyi via Flickr.com
Nowadays there is the annual festival in May-June, Harry Redford Cattle Drive
that also includes entertainment, a camp cooking competition and Aramac
Races. The town's pub is in the main street, and there is also a
council-run
camping ground.
Church. by yewenyi via Flickr.com
Outside the town is Grey Rock, and further out is the freshwater
Lake Dunn - a good place for fishing and yabbying.
Grey rock. by yewenyi via Flickr.com
Here's a map of the town. You can
double-click
anywhere on the map to zoom it in and see the places
closer. Drag the map to move around, and if you want to see the
satellite image with Google Earth, click on "Sat" in the top right hand
corner.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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that all the information on this site is correct,
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