Brewarrina, or Bree as the locals refer to it lies 100klm east of Bourke making this a very easy day of driving. The town has two free-camp site, both on the banks of the Barwon River, however, a torrential downpour last evening has turned both into mud-holes so, we have again opted for a park in town!

Bree is not the prettiest town in the outback! All the local businesses, shops and offices are surrounded by high fences and heavy grates on the windows and doors. It is declared a "no drinking in public" zone but it does have a large RSL and two pubs, but one pub only opens when they feel like, really, sometimes it only opens for breakfast and coffee till 9am....go figure???
 
We had read about the rich history of the area, both Aboriginal and European. Firstly though, Roscoe's mum called this morning to say that his Great Grandparents owned a pub here in the 1880's till early 1900's. We spent an hour at the Info Centre and came up with a couple of mentions (good of course) of brothers A.A.and E. Woolfrey, builders, Publicans(?) and Undertakers (build it for them, bill them, fill'em full of grog and bury them...yep could be relations)! Grandmother Mahoney was also born here so this story deserves further investigation.
 
The oldest manmade structure on earth is in Bree in the form of Aboriginal fish-traps made from large rocks forming pools in the rocky shoals of the Barwon River. These traps spread over a kilometre of riverside and were made and shared by five local tribes and this area became a gathering place for tribes from all over to trade food and implements. 
 
We had a local Aboriginal guide, Arti, who showed us the local river points and also took us thru an Aboriginal Museum. He spent over an hour with us explaing the heritage of the area, the implements they used and the individual languages and customs. He also told the story of the Hospital Creek Massacre in 1849 where, depending who tells the story, somewhere between 400 and 1200 Aboriginals were killed because a white man had gone missing. Unfortunately the white man turned up about two weeks later.
 
The day has been interesting, it has also been windy from the SW and much cooler.