84 Kms Jerico to Barcaldine

Day 12

We planned to spend some time in Barcaldine but due to being off season, many things were closed.

We did visit the Tree of knowledge, here are some notes from a local web site about it ....


The tree of knowledge is a ghost gun (Eucalyptus Papuana) growing in the main street in Barcaldine. It is situated in front of the Railway station and is celebrates as being the central meeting place for the Shearers' Strike during the upheaval in 1891.

Although the shearers' strike spread far and wide, Barcaldine became the central point of the strike leaders who were sentenced with conspiracy receiving three years hard labour. Although the dispute was settled before this the 13 leaders still had to serve their three years.

This disturbance eventually led to the formation of the Australian Labour party. The Tree of Knowledge committee commemorates the 1892 struggle with a beautifully landscaped garden. The tree is said to be at least 170 years old.

The Tree of Knowledge was included in the National Heritage List on 26th January 2006. Sadly it was poisoned in 2006 and did not recover. However a memorial has been erected and was opened on 2nd May, 2009.

We also tried to visit The Australian Workers Heritage Centre, however this was one of the things that was closed. We did get some photos from outside though.

We stopped near a nice park in the middle of town near the TAFE and Mum cooked us lunch in the van, but we sat at a picnic table in the park under some trees which was nice.

There was a mural saying Barcaldine in the middle of town which was painted by Les D'Arcy.