It’s tiny. It’s isolated. It’s located in the channel country in the far southwestern corner of Queensland with a population of just 270 people ( excluding pets ). If you were driving pass Thargomindah and you happened to blink, you’d probably miss it.

It was getting late in the day when I arrived and after setting up the van, I decided to walk to the outskirts of the town looking for an image. I saw this windmill structure in the distance and I was intrigued enough to walk up to it. There was very little that was visible beyond it apart from lots and lots of low lying saltbush scrub and a space of nothingness which was blanketed by a grey, overcast sky. There was very little to no wind and it felt truly barren. I wasn’t thinking of an image at that stage but rather, I found myself asking so many questions that I struggled to answer. I tried to imagine what kind of life the early European settlers in this part of the outback may have had back in 1860 when “Thargo” was first settled. Life for them would have been so harsh – it had to be !

I was in my own little world hypnotised by the slowly rotating blades of the windmill when I realised that the sky was quickly changing its colour. From what was a grey and threatening overcast sky, it suddenly became a palette of brilliant reds, oranges, yellows, magentas…… the whole colour spectrum. I grabbed my camera and took the shot just in time. I just had to come back in the morning and have a closer look at what this was all about.

I did just that. One of the things I love most about travelling around Australia is coming across little hidden gems like “Thargo” and learning about its very proud history. It turns out that it is located over the Great Artesian Basin and it didn’t take long (1891) to commence drilling a bore to tap into the potential water source. So far no big deal you might be thinking, but what amazed me is that this tiny, isolated outback town of Thargomindah became the first in Australia and only the third town / city in the world to use hydro power to light up its streets. Water that came from the tapped bore.

To finish, (I loved this part of the story) the hydroelectric plant ran nonstop for 54 years without a breakdown. However, in true Aussie style, the only time there was any kind of failure was when the local operator got a little drunk on the Saturday night and failed to turn on the generators.

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