Cue was a town filled with characters. You were allowed to be different then without being locked away or forced to toe the line. It really was in the heart of the desert. 47C was not uncommon in the middle of summer with a cool and breezy night temp of maybe 36C or so. Of course the reverse was true in winter. Many nights leaving the hotel at midnight the temp would be minus 2 or 3C. Very harsh climate to live in. Not like Jurien which apart from on that one boxing day - Ive already told that one - when there were the bushfires and it was as hot as hell. I think the most exciting times were when we had the floods. Henry and Walker were a road crew doing the widening of the Great Northern highway north of Cue and the rains set them back by months – poor souls. But having the main street literally turn into a river while you watched was thrilling. I don’t have any photos of it unfortunately – if anyone does have please email them to me and I’ll post them ([email protected]). I remember Geoff Lane’s old ute was parked outside the hotel on Great Northern and it was swept right down the street to past Bells Emporium. Amazing stuff. I don’t remember how many times we’d get the brooms out and spend the next couple of hours just sweeping out the long hallway trying to keep the water under control. I remember the first time it happened I said to Pete and Gordie that we’d better make up some sandbags to block the doors – they just laughed at me – assuming it was a one-off. Next time it rained I went looking for them to come and help with the sweeping – found them outside with piles of pillowcases filling them with dirt!!. God it’s nice to be proved right – not that I’m like that of course!!. To give those who haven’t seen it an idea – on the other side of the road was the old Guest House. They had a cellar that opened out onto the footpath. It was completely filled with water – probably twelve feet or so deep. I got to Cue in late October 1991 and the rains started just after that – there had been seven or so years of drought before. The first night it rained the entire floor of the hotel and footpath surrounding it was covered in little brown frogs – they must have been hibernating for all those years. There were thousands and thousands of them. Incredible. You could go from a dust storm in the afternoon – Lin used to keep sheets in the restaurant to cover the tables with because otherwise everything would be completely covered in dust and have to come off be washed and dusted and put back on again, huge job – to an incredible thunder storm at night. We had three inches of rain in less than an hour one night. One of the most spectacular sights was the lightening particularly if there was a lot of dust in the atmosphere – the dust would refract (is that the right word) and cause the lightening and the moon to look red – spectacular. One particular stormy night we were completely full when two geologists from one of the big mining companies arrived desperate for a room. Told them I didn’t have anything. They couldn’t go on because all the roads had been closed. In the end I told them if they wanted they could sleep in the guest lounge upstairs – they had swags with them I think. They said no problem and ultimately we had a dozen or so guys who were all camping out in the lounge. Next morning they came down to breakfast then to pay the bill. Of course we only charged them for their food but they absolutely insisted on paying for a room. They reckoned they’d had the best night ever in a country hotel. Apparently the whole of the upstairs – all 17 rooms worth and the campers partied on most of the night. I was so very lucky I’ve had some great times in my little hotels and have many happy memories. I
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 07:35:48 +0000
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