This is just going to be a short blog, well short for me!  I have decided our morning tea stop is worthy of its own blog, rather than incorporating it into the Winton blog!

Once again we were ready to leave before the planned time of 9.00am, so we hit the road to travel the 212 kms to Winton.  The Kennedy Developmental road was rough and the wind was blowing, so the trip was slow going.  Tumbleweed was blowing across the road and piling up on the fences, so we were very much reminded of what it can be like at home!  The 'Tumbleweed' is a bit like what we call 'Roly Poly', but it doesn't grow as big over here.

We stopped at Stamford as there were a few buildings around.  Wiki tells me that Stamford was once an overnight stop for Cobb and Co Coaches travelling from Hughenden to Winton. A rail line to Stamford was opened on the 13 December 1897 and became a busy railhead for local wool graziers. The Stamford of today is a much more relaxed place with a population of three people and a newly built roadhouse.  Stamford is 61 kms from Hughenden, so it was a little early for morning tea and with the freezing cold wind blowing we decided to go a bit further.  John had been looking at his map and there was a road stop in another 45 kms.

Well I stopped tapping away on the computer a bit further down the Developmental Road and decided to check out the Camps Australia book, deciding that Corfield had a rest area and it may be better to go a little further to there.  There hadn't been anywhere much to stop and Wiki Camps had given the rest area a few stars.  Peter had drunk his coffee by the time we stopped at Corfield.  The mug he purchased in Mount Isa is useless, so hopefully the ones we have purchased online from Target will be waiting for us in Longreach.  John and Dorothy are getting a mug too.  Three mugs meant we didn't have to pay postage.

Well what a surprise Corfield turned out to be.  We stopped outside, what appeared to be a bit of a hall, rather than go a little further to the rest area where the dirt was blowing a bit.  We had noticed signs as we came into the little settlement about the Corfield Races and the date had been the 4th August.  John suggested we could have a hamburger for morning tea, as he had taken notice of the sign out the front!  Peter hadn't seen the sign, nor did he hear John or he would have been onto it!

We got our biscuit and cheese from the vans and drank our coffee out the front, feeling a little guilty at where we were parked.  We'd been there 10 minutes or so, when a lady came out for a chat.  Well......we ended up spending a really stimulating half hour or more with her and feeling guilty when we left that we hadn't purchased anything.  Peter even went to the car and came back with $10.00 thinking he would give it to her.  I thought she may have been offended,  so we decided against it.

We didn't get around to introducing ourselves, so we don't know their names.  Disappointed with ourselves about that fact!  Corfield has a population of seven and was a Cobb & Co staging point.  Once the railway line was closed, it was the end of the town.  It was this lady that said to us "That Hughenden was turning into a ghost town now the railway had gone"!  The story of Corfield and the couple that open the pub/cafe for a few hours each day goes something like this.   

The lady said "She has been there far too long"  when asked the question.  I think they used to live on a station just up the road.  Now they live just two houses from the pub/cafe that has a little kitchen at the back.  A couple of younger women cook up to 35 meals on a Friday night when the graziers come in for their social interaction.  The men do the bar that night.  The 'Corfield Pub' is a community hotel and the community organisation runs the Corfield Races, the Tennis Club and the Hotel/Cafe.  The hotel was across the road, but it burnt down some years ago, so the hall and whatever else this building has been used for over the years, was turned into the pub.  And what a surprise we were in for when we went inside for a look!  The pub is so quirky with this well equipped kitchen at the back, even has a coffee machine.  So many people calling into Sandfire Roadhouse in WA for fuel  and they don't do coffees!

The Corfield races have been happening in this little town since 1899, far longer that the Caulfield Cup has been running in Melbourne.  The first weekend in August is the Big Event and we had just missed it.  The green house on the other side of the road is the only original house left in the town.   The lady told us she gets cranky from time to time and her husband/partner says "It's time for her to go south to the family for a visit".  She has her bags packed the next day.  It is a two and a half day drive though, as the family live way down the coast in NSW.

Our stop off at Corfield made our travel to Winton very memorable.  So our recommendation will be to anyone travelling through Corfield, do stop off for a chat and a coffee with this lovely lady who is helping the Corfield community keep this business open.  We take our hats off to another special person in 'Outback Australia'.