We crossed the border!

But not after researching a Beebe family tree back to the 1500’s!

After leaving Mataranka we headed south for Tennant Creek, Dan was to check out some fossicking sights and then head to QLD, leaving Alice Springs for later on in our trip.

We dropped in to Daly Waters for lunch, one of those “iconic outback pubs” basically a tourist attraction in the middle of nowhere, where everyone leaves a piece of themselves, some a business card, a car number plate, a hat and so on… I actually thought it would be more like a cartoon pub, two storey, grand and a little wonky!

Instead it was a little more modest..

Anyway, as usual Daniel went and checked out a plaque on our 100m walk over to the pub!

Lo and behold, a park, officially opened by a Beebe!

Haha, all these Beebe’s but where do they fit in the family tree and are we even related? So we asked at the Pub, turns out the owner knew of the Beebe brothers who ran Ucharonidge Station, we took some notes and used the intermittent phone reception to try google the rest. We found out a Beebe family took up the lease of this station in 1946 and that they were pioneers in introducing Brahman cattle to the Northern Territory back in 1960. The Pub owner advised he’d recently seen a Country Women’s Association article in the newspaper with one of the Beebe wives, and that she would probably be able to give us some more info.

The previous statue we found in Katherine (with the plaque JW Beebe) is engraved with the name of Roy’s brother Mick (James William Beebe).

So very unconventionally we looked up Beebe in the white pages and found a phone number. I spoke to a lovely lady, who ironically (weirdly) is also married to a Daniel William Beebe, only a few years younger than my Dan. I explained who we were, that we’d seen all these statues and plaques and was wondering if they had any family history so we might be able to see if there was a connection. She was super helpful and we are still in touch. Although when I told Dan about his possible relative with the exact same name… he felt very jipped. He has come to the conclusion that he is not unique. Poor guy. No longer one of a kind. I reassured him that he is 😉

I then spent the rest of the evening trying to research as much as I could to see how and if our family tree’s linked up. Thanks to ancestry.com and other peoples research, I have traced back their family tree to 1535 in the UK, this is apparently where the Beebe name began, then in the 1600’s one of the descendants travelled to the United States and this is where this Beebe family originate from. We are likely related to them, but back at the beginning. I will have to work on Dan’s side of the family tree to officially connect the two. If anyone reading this has any leads, please let me know.

Banka Banka Station:

After lunch at Daly Waters we headed South for Banka Banka Station to camp the night. A very family friendly place to pull up and camp, with a bonfire and music, with marshmallows for the kids. No reception here, just good old fashioned chatting with your neighbours and animals for the kids to pet.

Tennant Creek:

This is our only photo (worthy of uploading) from Tennant Creek, taken when we visited the Tennant Creek Telegraph Station, a historical site built in 1872. It was a repeater station, part of the Overland Telegraph Line which connected Darwin to Adelaide. A couple we had seen at a previous caravan park offered to take a family photo for us.

We only spent one night here after Dan went metal detecting for the day out near the old gold mine, finding an old tobacco tin, fencing wire and a nail, we decided to move on.

Rest Area on the road to Mt Isa:

Leaving Tennant Creek for Mt Isa required a 2 day drive. So we drove as far as we could then found the next rest area. There are hundreds of these around Australia and are great if you are set up to be self contained. We met a lovely couple who set up camp next to us, lit a fire and cooked their dinner, while we shared in the ambience of a remote setting under the stars chatting away. These are some of our favourite stops and memories.

Whenever we have had a big day driving we try to let Esther roam free to stretch her legs, she loves it, we have now invested in some leggings to protect her legs from all the scratches that come from outback crawling.

Ha ha.. rocks she can’t put in her mouth!

The next morning we crossed the border into Queensland!

We are now in QLD and have a few weeks to update. We were fortunate enough to secure a last minute house-sit about 25 km out of Darwin CBD, the idea of a house sit is that we look after someone’s home (and/or pets) in return for a place to park our caravan.

We looked after and became fond of the following pets:

2 x miniature donkeys,

1 x pony

5 x geese,

10 x birds

2 x dogs,

1 x cat

Esther loved her morning walk with Dad waving to all the pets.

For memories sake here are photos of the pets:

We’re no longer friends

Nana

This goose gave Dan a love bite!

They were the cutest!

Nacho & Tabasco

Princess – The pony

Cocky

Mitchy

Goosey Goosey

Esther is now sleeping through the night again!

You may remember I mentioned Esther not sleeping well in the caravan… she started waking up anywhere between 2-6 times per night. As you can imagine it started wearing thin, at one point Dan offered me a “girls night out at a hotel” just Esther and I… So he could have one night’s decent sleep ha ha! We tried everything we could think of, including all the ideas in Jo Ryan’s Book “Baby Bliss”, which I’ve found really helpful since the beginning. So we ended up paying Jo to give us a consultation over the phone. Best $100 we have spent…  And the phone consultation was cheaper than a night at a hotel and had longer lasting results! After one night of tailored advice she was sleeping through and has been (mostly) ever since.

We think we know where her disrupted sleep pattern stemmed from. When we first started traveling we experienced still quiet nights that were so peaceful! However it was the change in temperature from 34 degree days to 16 degree nights, in a poorly insulated caravan in un-powered campsites that made it a challenge to work out how to dress Esther for bed. We were at the mercy of the outside weather predicting the inside temp of the van. This meant she would wake up cold and we would jump up and try to soothe her, with such stillness outside I was worried she would wake up the whole of the park with her crying. This then became a pattern that we would intervene with anything to ensure that she would be quiet (yep.. I did it, Dan was not impressed, one night I brought her into bed with me… After 3 months I was worn down and I just wanted her to sleep).

After one blissful week of us all getting to sleep through the night and 5 nights into our house sit… the German Shepherd barked constantly from 0200-0630 (with other dogs in the street). After Daniel checked on the dog mutliple times, we lay there defeated… while Esther slept! The irony was profound.

Then the next day we found this note on the fence:

Hahahahaha…. we know!

Darwin City:

We really enjoyed our time in Darwin and found it hard to leave, there were still a few things we could’ve done, we have just finished reading a book called ‘An Awkward Truth: The bombing of Darwin February 1942’ by Peter Grose. It’s a well researched, easily read book! I’ve been reading aloud while Dan drives and Esther sleeps, so even though we have physically left Darwin we can now picture many of the places he describes and it makes the account all the more meaningful. It is an ironic read given the news about current overseas conflicts.

I also recommend this book and “All quiet on the western front” a book about WWI we read when we travelled through Europe on our honeymoon. I find I absorb best through this style of reading. Either that or these writers are better than textbook history writers!

On our honeymoon we visited a WWI museum on the western front in Belgium, at the back of the museum there is a huge banner, with the inscription “WWI: The war to end all wars:” followed by a list of all the wars since! It’s astounding that we are slow to learn or quick to forget.

Dan LOVES museums, we visited the War Museum, the RFDS museum, the Museum of NT and Art Gallery, the WWII oil storage tunnels and Daniel also visited the Aviation Museum (home of the B52 Bomber).

This quote really affected me; written by John Flynn, who founded what became the Royal Flying Doctor Service:

We are where we are today because we stand on the shoulders of those who’ve gone before us, in one way or another!

Here are some photos of our visits to the Museums… and where Esther got to crawl all over the floor.

The first time we visited the RFDS Museum (which also includes “The Bombing of Darwin Harbour”) was a very well planned day, we went to Rhyme Time at the city library after her morning nap, then had lunch before heading to the museum where we naively thought Esther would nap beautifully in her pram, while we perused the displays… The museum is really interactive involving Air Raid sirens and holographic displays. She didn’t sleep. She cried. We left. We were given a voucher to come back. So we did, when she was not due for a nap!

The Waterfront

Darwin was warm and humid, which made for seeking out places to swim. We were fortunate to have friends of friends in Darwin, which we have now claimed as our own (Thanks Michelle & Emily) and caught up with them down at the Darwin waterfront, a really nice place for swimming as crocs, stingers and sharks infest the ‘Top End’. Emily & James also have a little Esther!

There is also a wave pool for those with older kids, although didn’t suit us with Esther. Lots of cafes and restaurants, along with an ice cream shop 🙂

Berry Springs

Have you ever left something somewhere you never planned on going back to? We accidentally left Esther’s bathers and pool floatie at Berry Springs a 25 min drive from where we were staying.. They were still there when Dan drove back almost 2 hours later! phew!

All in all Darwin was a place I knew nothing about and thanks to Dan’s passion for visiting museum’s have now left understanding a small part of it’s rich history!

Next: Kakadu National Park