November 11-16, 2021
Not the way we intended to arrive in Hughenden – by tow truck! About 25km West and we had a water pump failure in the cruiser; parked up on the sloping shoulder, hazards on and bonnet up and thank you to all our fellow tourists who didn’t stop but the Road Train driver who did and gave me a ride into town (We were just a few km out of phone range) and a good chat along the way. Found the RACQ contractor, made a phone call and back to the site in the tow truck having organised the new part on the way out of town.
We were last here in 2014 and as the town has only one Caravan Park here we are again, this time being paid for by RACQ. Being Thursday the new pump was arriving Friday and the job then being done Monday allowing us to leave on Tuesday.
The town has not changed much in seven years and, unlike many small outback towns, business seems to be buoyant, the local museum and dinosaur centre is undergoing an extension but unfortunately the town last the historic Grand Hotel, destroyed by fire in 2018.
Since our last visit, the local Council with a grant from the Commonwealth has constructed a Recreation Lake on the edge of town where a couple of local creeks run to the Flinders River.
