For your Outback accommodation
BOURKE Bourke
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Bourke Outback Beds |
"if you know Bourke, you know Australia" so wrote the famous Australian poet Henry Lawson in 1882. Although Bourke is a town, it is something that is etched in the psyche of Australia and is a commonly used as a reference point to the start of the true Outback. 'Back o Bourke' is a colloquial term for something a long way from anywhere. But being a long way form somewhere is a relative term in Australia as something several hundred kilometres away can sometimes be referred to.
To the traveller though, the further 'out' one goes, the closer one gets to the real essence of the land; maybe that is to what Lawson was alluding. Early Australian explorers believed in the existence of an inland sea and the first explorer to test the theory was Charles Sturt in 1828, complete with boat arrived at the area that is now Bourke and discovered the Darling River which unfortunately had no water in it. Major Mitchell followed 1835 to continue Sturts work and set up a stockade to protect provisions for further exploration of the interior. Fort Bourke was the first European structure built in the area and formed the basis of the a settlement. With the subsequent opening up of the Darling River and surrounding lands by the river trade, Bourke became a major port by the 1890's servicing southern Queensland and northern NSW providing a hub for transport of the regions wool clip downstream to Wentworth and onto Echuca or Adelaide.
The opening of the rail system in Australia and the unreliability of the river flow saw the gradual demise of the 'River Highway' by the early 20th century.
This by no means spelled the end of Bourke and today it is a town that still, in essence, is the same it was back then; a town on the edge of the wilderness with great historical, cultural and geographic significance.
Today, Bourke is a wonderful town set beautifully on the banks of the Darling with lots for the visitor to do and see. The recently completed 'Back 'O' Bourke' Centre is a state of the art exhibition and interpretive centre that is a 'must-see' for the visitor.
