Founded by explorer Thomas Mitchell, who in 1835 built Fort Bourke, a wooden stockade, where a cairn now stands, was laid out 25 years later and became a coach centre. The Carriers Arms was once a Cobb & Co Inn and temporary home to Henry Lawson in 1892. There are some fine examples of 19th century architecture including the old wharf, Manston lodge and St Ignatuis Church.
If you want to have a drink in the “Back O’ Bourke” without pressing too far into the endless, scarcely populated plains all around, try the North Bourke Hotel, a shabby, wooden, green-tin-roofed Outback pub where bush poets congregate once a year during the annual Mateship Festival weekend normally held in late September (details from the information centre). The lively festival began in 1993 to mark the centenary of the poet Henry Lawson’s stay in Bourke during a particularly harsh drought. Discovering mateship in hardship was but a microcosm for the fierce nationalism that arose in 1890s depression and drought-struck Australia. Work was scarce and Lawson often slept out in the town’s Central Park, where a plaque is dedicated to him and to two other bush poets who lived in the area at around the same time – Will Ogilvie and Breaker Morant, the latter executed during the Boer War. Another famous resident was the well-known ophthalmologist Fred Hollows, who began working here in the 1970s with local Aborigines suffering from cataract blindness. As a result of his work the number of cases of incurable blindness among Aboriginal peoples throughout Australia has been halved. Hollows was buried in the town in 1993.
Bourke was a bustling river port from the 1860s to the 1930s, and there are some fine examples of riverboat-era architecture, including the huge reconstructed wharf which can be explored – from here a track winds along the magnificent, tree-lined river. A new port with paddle steamer cruises is under development. Thanks to irrigation with Darling River water, crops as diverse as cotton, lucerne, citrus, grapes and sorghum are successfully grown here despite the 35°C summer heat, while Bourke is also the commercial centre for a vast sheep- and cattle-breeding area: to the north there are rich grazing lands across the Queensland border around Cunnamulla and Charleville.
With a population of three thousand (approximately twenty-five percent Aboriginal), Bourke acts as a base for regional services and welfare. Unfortunately, there is sporadic trouble involving alcoholism and aimless youngsters, and after dark the atmosphere can be a bit disturbing. Visitors are best off drinking in the Port o’ Bourke Hotel, the Oxley Club or Bowling Club, and avoiding the Post Office Hotel.
Practicalities
Countrylink buses arrive here from Dubbo four times weekly, and you can also fly here with Hazelton, four times weekly, from Sydney via Dubbo. Accommodation in town includes the pleasant, renovated Port o’ Bourke Hotel on Mitchell Street, which has air-conditioned rooms, some sharing a bath, some en suite, and the Bourke Riverside Motel, 3 Mitchell St, with a swimming pool.
For camping, try Kidman’s Camp. A better way to see how life is lived out here is to stay on an Outback station; the information centre has details of stations that take visitors, among them Comeroo Camel Farm, a unique experience with artesian hot bores, river waterholes with yabbying and fishing opportunities, and resident buffalo and ostriches.
For food and drink, the Port o’ Bourke Hotel is the best place in town. Its fine dining room (Tues–Sat nights) is reminiscent of grander days, while you can eat counter meals (Mon–Sat) out in the shady beer garden.
South and east of Bourke
Twenty-eight kilometres east of Bourke, en route to Brewarrinna, is a turn-off south to Mount Oxley, climbed by the explorers Sturt and Hume in 1829 to herald the white settlement in the area. It’s on private property, so you must first pick up a key from the information centre in Bourke.
West and north of Bourke
Northwest, the road runs 215km to Hungerford, on the Queensland border, and the Dingo Fence. En route, there’s fuel, food and accommodation at the Warrego Hotel in Ford’s Bridge on the Warrego River.
Heading directly north from Bourke, the sealed Mitchell Highway goes right up to just past Charleville in Queensland. BARRINGUN, on the border 135km from Bourke, is worth a visit just to have a drink at the remarkably genteel Tattersalls Hotel, set amid a flower-scented garden, once frequented by Breaker Morant. The hotel serves only snacks and doesn’t have any accommodation. Across the road and closer to the border is the painted tin shed that comprises the Bush Tucker Inn, which has meals, rooms, fuel and camping space.