Queensland

Paroo Area

Where the artesian water runs hot and the bird count runs high

Cunnamulla anchors the shire, its bronze Cunnamulla Fella statue named for a Slim Dusty song that made a stockman tribute famous. Soak in the town's new hot springs or head to Charlotte Plains station for open-air artesian baths. The Warrego River offers easy kayaking and fishing, and Bowra Sanctuary nearby holds over 200 bird species, the Pink Cockatoo among them. Further out, Currawinya National Park protects one of the country's largest bilby populations, and the Paroo River itself runs wild and undammed, one of the last of its kind in the whole Murray-Darling system. Out here, the water and the wildlife do most of the talking.