The Adventures of Roy and Lilian: White Cliffs
Blue Skies, Red Earth and White Cliffs
When Lilian and I first arrived in the Outback I was fascinated by a brochure advertising White Cliffs.
On it was a photo of a bloke having a beer at an underground motel.
Coming from a coal mining background, both in the UK and Australia, we had strict and sensible regulations that would not allow drinking alcohol, sleeping or smoking underground.
So in this very different environment, I was motivated to try the experience!
Cobar to Wilcannia
In July 2009 we got our opportunity to experience underground living for ourselves.
We set off from Cobar bright and early heading for White Cliffs via Wilcannia.
First stop was Emmdale, a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere, for a coffee and muffin for breakfast. While we ate we heard the owner’s stories. He had had enough and was ready to sell the business. Standing there behind the counter, he looked like he was ready for a change.
Next onto Wilcannia and another coffee stop. This time at the service station.
Many stories abound about the indigenous population of the town – some are true, some are urban myths – but they are enough to make you nervous.
On the day we called in there was a soccer match in progress between the local side and a team from Bourke.
Wilcannia is a sad story, with this bad reputation acquired some years ago.
People are either shunning the town completely, or driving straight though. This is a shame for the local businesses.
Wilcannia has some beautiful historical sandstone buildings dating from the 1880’s and a wonderful history, like most outback towns.
In its heyday Wilcannia was known as the ’Queen City of the West’, and was the third largest river port in Australia.
Wilcannia to White Cliffs
We travelled the last 356 Kilometers to White Cliffs.
Where is White Cliffs? It is mostly underground and it is fascinating.
The homes, and some of the accommodation, are excavated into the hill side. The wet areas, such as bathrooms and kitchens, are built outside.
The surrounding landscape looks like a moonscape, or perhaps a mining excavation.
Living like this in White Cliffs means locals and visitors alike enjoy all year temperatures of around 22 degrees celsius. This is the ambient temperature in these dugouts.
We stayed at The Underground Motel, a truly remarkable experience.
Lillian was worried about claustrophobia.
Forget it, the Motel has amazing, wide and well lit corridors.
With painted white walls and a soothing flow of fresh air, you could have been in any aboveground Motel in Australia.
After check-in we went for a tour of the town.
There are many things to see and do. White Cliffs is a rough and ready town with a lot of characters.
We met Jock, an old guy, with a dugout full of memorabilia from the past. In the city he could have made a fortune selling it to collectors, instead it lay all around his dugout.
Jock entertained us with stories, tall and true. His claim to fame is, although living in White Cliffs will send you mad, is that he was already mad when he arrived. He will tell you ‘even the dogs go mad’ here!
He was so interesting we went back and made a recording of his stories.
From there we went to visit an opal collection and were mesmerized by their beauty.
White Cliffs has the distinction of being the first commercial opal field in Australia, selling opals to many European countries.
We visited the historic graveyard, and were saddened by the number of infant graves. White Cliffs has seen its share of hard times. Many children were abandoned on the minefields, so many in fact, that a guardian had to be appointed.
We visited the site of the now non-performing solar power station. We did not find out why it was mothballed, although there is talk of its re-opening.
We were also amazed to see a golf course with no grass!
All that was thirsty work so we headed to the pub for a cool drink and to check out the publican. Jock had made reference to him being the only person in town to make money.
Going back to our motel, we had a short rest and then decided to explore the site.
Climbing a wide staircase to the roof of the motel we were delighted by the 360 degree views of a beautiful sunset. It was a little windy, but amazing. Others were enjoying a glass of wine.
We then proceeded to dinner which was a set menu in a communal Dining Room, shared with other clients and a bus group. We met some wonderful people.
By sheer coincidence we met some very good friends of one of our sons and his family, as well as some old clients from our days in Gunnedah. Small world!
The meal was beautiful and we washed it down with a glass of wine.
After dinner we took a glass of wine upstairs to view the stars, it was crisp and windy, but wonderful to see the night sky away from the lights of town.
After a very peaceful and deep sleep in the quiet of our comfortable room, we then moved on to enjoy the delights of Broken Hill.
Our conclusion? A delightful experience.
