Old Cork Station
By John Godwin
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The faces in the photograph are changing and I can’t believe he looks so much like me
For it’s been ten long years today since I left for Old Cork Station
Saying I won’t be back ‘til the drovin’s done
Hugh McDonald, The Diamantina Drover
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“Just flies and dust and not much else out there, mate!” Here we were In Winton,
Qld, the relatively contemporary words and evocative images of Hugh McDonald’s Diamantina Drover in our heads,
the history of Banjo Patterson all around, fired up to visit Old Cork Station, and the local servo owner tries to
bring us back to the present. How could you come to Winton and not venture out to Old Cork Station?
We had thought of camping at Diamantina National Park, but we were travelling alone, restricted to
UHF and a mobile phone, so we decided upon a day trip. We left our details with the Caravan Park manager
and headed off for the 320km round trip via the
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Kennedy Developmental Road and the dirt road immediately to the east of the Diamantina River.
The road crosses smooth flood plains, the dry stony creek beds of the Channel Country, wide gibber plains,
occasional jump-ups, and numerous small dry water channels. We didn’t see another vehicle all day, but there
are three stations along the way and the feeling is of remoteness but not isolation.
In the dry, the road presents little difficulty, but the ground clearance of a 4WD is probably necessary.
Even so, wonder at the history of an upturned Morris Minor about 50 metres off the track.
At a T-junction with the road from Lark Quarry there is a sign to Old Cork Station (4km).
Shortly after there is a fork in the road; take the left fork to Old Cork Station,
visible from the road, and at the junction of the Mayne and the Diamantina Rivers.
It is all ‘outback’. While we can envy writers with the ability to paint the pictures of the
landscape and tell the stories of the past, it is a bonus to be able to experience it ourselves.
The history and culture of our indigenous brothers and sisters identifies them with the land, but we can
also come close to the same connection. Whether we do, or whether we need to, as we become a nation that
is increasingly more urbanised, is a question worth considering around the campfire.
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