Move over, 20-mule teams!

[Candace66]

I'd meant to share these pics before on the old site, but I never got a round tuit.  

I saw these b&w prints last year at the Old Timers Traeger Museum in Alice Springs, Australia.  They depict a 30-donkey team pulling a cart.  At least that's what the caption says...it's rather difficult to count them! 

No date on the images, but they were probably taken in the 1930's, somewhere in central Australia.  Kulgera is about 170 miles south of Alice Springs.

It was interesting to see the "cousins" of mules being used as beasts of burden in the Oz deserts.  Previously, I don't think I'd been aware they were used at all, though I knew camels were widely used.  But then I saw pics of donkeys in this collection, and also at the Central Australia Museum.

The icing on the cake:  only a few days later, I actually saw some donkeys while driving back to Alice Springs from Chamber's Pillar!  A pic of them is included.

P7250116 by Candace66, on Flickr

P7250115 by Candace66, on Flickr

P7280005 by Candace66, on Flickr

[Kauri]

Wow, that is cool! Reminds me of an old TV series called Whiplash I found many years ago, about the Australian outback, but it was set a bit earlier, during the 1860s.

[David_Bricker]

I wonder if those donkeys are descendants of ones cut loose / lost/strayed from prospecting activities.

David Bricker / SYR - ITO

[MojaveGeek]

Ha, those are good pix!

I noticed when out at FC in March that there seems to be a much nicer display of big equipment from the old museum out near where the general store is now. Some really nice stuff there if you like big old steam gear.

[netllama]

I love those old photos, capturing a time & place that no longer exists. Oddly, much of outback Australia hasn't changed much in the past century. I recall driving through that part of the country back in 2015, and its quite similar in many ways to Death Valley (harsh environment, mining history, etc).

Some day, when the normal world returns, I will need to revisit that sun burnt country.

[David_Bricker]

I visited Ballarat about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, it was such a whirlwind trip, I don't remember much of it (day trip out of Melbourne). the thing I do remember is having a kangaroo jump in front of our car, and seeing nothing but animal in the windscreen. That was a big scary. Fortunately, I was going fairly slow, and it passed unharmed.

David Bricker / SYR - ITO

[netllama]

I visited Ballarat about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, it was such a whirlwind trip, I don't remember much of it (day trip out of Melbourne). the thing I do remember is having a kangaroo jump in front of our car, and seeing nothing but animal in the windscreen. That was a big scary. Fortunately, I was going fairly slow, and it passed unharmed.

David Bricker / SYR - ITO

When I was in AU in 2018, I hit a kangaroo in northeastern Western Australia. It hopped onto the road, and despite my efforts to swerve out of its path, it was determined to end up in my path. It went under the passenger side wheel. Thankfully the Hilux was unharmed, but the kangaroo did not fare as well.

[David_Bricker]

Apparently, kangaroos are one of the major causes of human deaths on the roads. Not from the impact, but because they come through the windscreen, and flail about trying to escape, seriously injuring and/or killing the passengers. It appears they come through the windscreen far more often than deer do in our neck of the woods.

David Bricker / SYR - ITO

[Candace66]

And that is a major reason why Aussie companies that rent vehicles don't want you to drive at night!

[netllama]

And that is a major reason why Aussie companies that rent vehicles don't want you to drive at night!

My incident was in broad daylight.