Bedourie, Australia, Home Of The Bedourie Oven
Bedourie is an outback town in far west Queensland, Australia
Jul 25, 2009
Bedourie is located about 190 kilometres north of the famous desert outback town of Birdsville; with the outback town of Boulia about 220 kilometres to the north. The ghost town of Betoota lies 310 kilometres to the south east.
All the roads that carve through the central Australian deserts in this area are dirt roads, requiring travellers to be suitably equipped.
Dust storms from the deserts surrounding Bedourie are known as “Bedourie Showers”.
Bedourie GPS Coordinates
The GPS Coordinates (Decimal Degrees) for Bedourie are:
-24.359695
139.469579
History Of Bedourie
Like most the towns in this remote part of Australia, Bedourie grew from a watering stop for cattle on droving runs in the late 1800’s.
The historic Bedourie Royal Hotel started business in the 1880’s and is still operating. It was built of adobe bricks and is generally the same structure, except the original thatched roof has been replaced with iron.
Annual Events At Bedourie
A number of annual events at Bedourie make the town come alive:
- ks around Bedourie providing a home for numerous species of birds.
Carcory Homestead
About 100 kilometres south of Bedourie on the road to Birdsville is the Carcory Homestead ruins. These are the remains of a homestead built from local sandstone by Hector and Norman Wilson in 1877. After a long drought and the loss of around 4,000 bullocks the harsh environment forced famous cattleman, Sir Sydney Kidman, to abandon Carcory Homestead in 1906.
The ruined shell of Carcory Homestead stands beside the Eyre Development Road as a stark reminder of the harsh environment faced by the early pioneers of this area of western Queensland.
The ruins are listed by the Australian National Trust, and sits on Roseberth Station.
The Bedourie Camp Oven
The town of Bedourie lends its name to a unique piece of outback cookwear.
The Bedourie Camp Oven is based on the old style of camp oven that was used by the early pioneers. The original oven is a large cast iron pot in which food such as meat, bread or cakes can be baked by placing the oven in hot coals. A lid allows coals to be placed on the top to get an all-around heat.
However, when these cast iron camp ovens were used on the Bedourie Station during the early droving days in the late 1800’s, the cast iron broke if the oven was dropped, such as falling off a horse.
The solution was to make the oven from spun steel, making it lighter and able to take heavy knocks. A further modification is the lid fits right over the top of the oven keeping the coals out while cooking. The lid can also be used as a frying pan.
 |
 |
 |
 |
