Here she is! Our new home – Barcoola – Jenn J McLeod

On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,

And men of religion are scanty,

On a road never cross’d ‘cept by folk that are lost,

One Michael Magee had a shanty.

From: ‘A bush christening’ by A B ‘Banjo’ Paterson (1893)

In their brochure, the designers of our new home (Southern Cross Caravans) called this 4WD edition “The Barcoo” so when I Googled the word I found the Macquarie Dictionary has three references featuring Barcoo:

‘Barcoo Rot’ a scurvy-like ailment from poor diet resulting in skin lesions, sometimes described as ‘outback scurvy’ and the scourge of explorers, stockmen and drovers.
‘Barcoo Salute’ meaning the ‘waving about of hands to keep flies away from your face’
and the ominous ‘Barcoo Spews’ which is vomiting caused by extreme heat.

Okay, so not a great start to our big adventure!

Thomas Ingham “Barcoo Rot Ointment” potlid, c. 1890’s. IMage and reference source John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

I then discovered the word ‘Barcoola’ is an Aboriginal word and the Barcoo River divides country belonging to two tribes, suggesting the Barcoo River serves as a boundary between two groups in the region [Yandjibara and Dharawala in the Blackall Region which is the headwaters of the Barcoo River].

THEN… I discovered that in these tribal languages ‘Barcoola’ is given as the word for ‘two’.

So, here we are – “two in a Barcoo” – writing in and under the southern cross – no scurvy, spews or rot in sight!! (But I do hope theBarcoo Hotel still welcomes country pub dwellers.)

Mail Coach at the Barcoo Hotel Blackall, 1897 Photo courtesy of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

Come August 21, 2014, we will be grey nomads, wandering writers and “of no fixed address” – time period unknown. I hope you will join us here (or as my friend/follower on Facebook) as we hit the road.

My thanks to John Oxley Library, State Library of QLD. For more reading: http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2012/05/22/the-meaning-of-barcoo/

9 thoughts on “Here she is! Our new home – Barcoola”

Rae Roadley

15/08/2014

Cool post. And aren’t ‘bar cooler’ the words you’d utter when, after being broiled in the Aussie sun, you down a brown one in a country pub. Travel well.

Jenn J McLeod
15/08/2014

Thank you lovely Rae. Looking forward to it.

Maggie Christensen

15/08/2014

Let me know when you’ll be up our way in 2015 so we can put you into our Friends of the Library events calendar for an author talk. We’re putting our 2015 calendar together v soon.

Maggie C