Don't know about the Coolabah Tree but stayed at Camooweal billabong, far west Qld, a few nights ago - just magic.
Bevandy2 said
10:07 PM Apr 29, 2015
Go through Longreach, heading towards Winton. Cross the Thomson River, and turn right. Along the river, there are camping spots right on the bank, and more coolabah's than you can dream of.
Here's the "real one" Dorian. We visited there a couple of times during the 70s..It has a spiritual feel while you sit by the bank and recall Banjo's most famous prose!
Recently I was listening to ABC Classic FM radio and there was a version of Waltzing Matilda sung by an Australian who was a music icon in decades past (I can't remember his name). He kept referring to "billybong", so this led me to wonder how many Australians have actually seen a billabong or know what one is. Then I wondered whether any Australian had actually camped by a billabong under the shade of a coolabah tree, or whether such a combination was just a part of Australian mythology. ISTM that such a place ought to be on every grey nomad's bucket list. Anyway, Kynuna's on mine now. Thanks.
Kooroorinya Kelpie said
06:17 AM Apr 30, 2015
Sorry all you Westralians but Bevandy2 is right on the money. The genuine billabong with the coolibah trees is in Longreach, Australia not in the west.
brickies said
06:41 AM Apr 30, 2015
I have visit the Waltzing Matilda centre which is where the story originated from , So that is where you would find one Longreach and Winton area may have to wait for the rains to come first .
NeilandRaine said
06:57 AM Apr 30, 2015
I can't understand why most people think a song about a sheep stealing homeless vagrant who would rather commit suicide rather than face the consequences of his actions is so important.
Ducking for cover now but in parting here is the best version I have heard www.youtube.com/watch
frangipani said
07:48 AM Apr 30, 2015
Kooroorinya Kelpie wrote:
Sorry all you Westralians but Bevandy2 is right on the money. The genuine billabong with the coolibah trees is in Longreach, Australia not in the west.
Ok, Ok, if the West is not in Australia where is it LOL ?????
sandsmere said
08:03 AM Apr 30, 2015
Plenty of billabongs and plenty of coolabahs along the Barwon River near Mungindi.
rockylizard said
09:23 AM Apr 30, 2015
Gday NeilandRaine ...
Cheers - John
Cupie said
11:21 AM Apr 30, 2015
Fried Rice wrote:
Here's the "real one" Dorian. We visited there a couple of times during the 70s..It has a spiritual feel while you sit by the bank and recall Banjo's most famous prose!
Fried Rice
Another vote for Kynuna.
We camped at the billabong with its Coolibahs down in the gully at the back of the servo.
Lovely, quiet spot with friendly brolgas in the morning.
Mind you, it doesn't have the magic of the Combo and adjacent waterholes described by Fried Rice.
Richard Magoffin who had a Waltzing Matilda show there in his latter years, directed us to the spot.
Fried Rice said
11:37 AM Apr 30, 2015
NeilandRaine wrote:
I can't understand why most people think a song about a sheep stealing homeless vagrant who would rather commit suicide rather than face the consequences of his actions is so important. Ducking for cover now but in parting here is the best version I have heard www.youtube.com/watch
That's marvellous N & R .. I'll take that along to my Probus Club meeting and cheer them all up!
One highlight of the Waltzing Matilda Centre is the opportunity to listen to 18!! versions of the Anthem (Who's heard the Luton Girls Choir version??)
FR
PeterD said
11:56 AM Apr 30, 2015
Kooroorinya Kelpie wrote:
Sorry all you Westralians but Bevandy2 is right on the money. The genuine billabong with the coolibah trees is in Longreach, Australia not in the west.
The actual waterhole is reputed to be Combo Waterhole near Kynuna. This is on the other side of Winton from Longreach.
PeterD said
12:50 PM Apr 30, 2015
dorian wrote:
1. He kept referring to "billybong", so this led me to wonder how many Australians have actually seen a billabong or know what one is.
2. Then I wondered whether any Australian had actually camped by a billabong under the shade of a coolabah tree, or whether such a combination was just a part of Australian mythology.
!. Way back that was an alternate spelling. It's dropped right away in the last 40 - 60 years and generally only heard now in old recordings.
2. If you want to get to exact terminology you probably find that the majority of coolibahs are along rivers and not billabongs. This all depends upon how far you stretch the terms. Macquarie defines billabong it as 1, waterhole in an anabranch, replenished only in flood time 2. waterhole in a river or creek that dries up outside the rainy season. Wiktionary defines it as
So here you have plenty of scope to find a billabong. Then you need to find your coolibahs from amongst the many similar eucalypts. Dictionary.com defines it as Eucalyptusmicrotheca but there is a distinct species Eucalyptus coolabah. Further to that some of the pages suggest the trees around Combo Waterhole are microtheca and not coolibah.
So where do you find them. I have found a couple of distribution maps for both.
Now all you have to do is to go and find your appropriate tree beside the right type of waterhole.
Fried Rice said
03:40 PM Apr 30, 2015
Good research and report Peter...
We really just love the myth (or truth?) and the song!
Fried Rice
dorian said
07:16 PM Apr 30, 2015
Thanks for the research. It seems that the definition of a billabong is a lot broader than I thought.
In fact in high school geography I was taught that a billabong is a crescent shaped lagoon. It is created when a bend in a meandering watercourse is cut off and bypassed. It exactly matches the description of an oxbow lake as defined in Wikipedia, so I am surprised that this definition is described as "rare".
As for coolabah/coolibah, I always thought it was spelt with an "i" until I saw its botanical name, but it appears that both spellings are OK. However, Banjo Paterson's hand written manuscript spells the words as "billabong" and "Coolibah".
BTW, when I was looking for the original manuscripts, I was overwhelmed by the amount of material at the National Library of Australia web site. The Trove resource is amazing.
In fact in high school geography I was taught that a billabong is a crescent shaped lagoon. It is created when a bend in a meandering watercourse is cut off and bypassed. It exactly matches the description of an oxbow lake as defined in Wikipedia, so I am surprised that this definition is described as "rare".
This is the school definition that I recall too..... G
PeterD said
11:13 PM Apr 30, 2015
The term billabong is used very loosely. Way back the Edward River was known as the Kylite Billabong.
Bevandy2 said
10:02 PM May 2, 2015
Jimmy Rodgers had a hit version of the song in the sixties, and he called it a "billy bog" which generated some flack from Aussies, but still a big hit at the time.
That song by Ali Mills is great, and so is she, she has a few good songs, if you're into iTunes, she has a good one about Darwin, her home town, called "The Arafura Pearl" with terrific musical accompaniment.
"The beauty of a country song" is another one, check her out.
Is there a place in Australia where there is a coolabah tree by a billabong? I'd like to camp there one day ... with my swag.
Gday...
...
and I betcha there'll be a lamb stew in the camp oven as well 
OH Yeah ... ya gonna take ya speedos or jest go swimming in ya camping clobber ?
Cheers - John
-- Edited by rockylizard on Wednesday 29th of April 2015 06:59:33 PM
I camped at Billabong WA, its about 50ks out from the Billabong Roadhouse., you could pretend they were coolabah trees
-- Edited by frangipani on Wednesday 29th of April 2015 07:55:52 PM
This is the best I can do Dorian- Old Onslow, WA, will that do?
Go through Longreach, heading towards Winton.
Cross the Thomson River, and turn right. Along the river, there are camping spots right on the bank, and more coolabah's than you can dream of.
Here's the "real one" Dorian. We visited there a couple of times during the 70s..It has a spiritual feel while you sit by the bank and recall Banjo's most famous prose!
Fried Rice
Ducking for cover now but in parting here is the best version I have heard
www.youtube.com/watch
Ok, Ok, if the West is not in Australia where is it LOL ?????
Plenty of billabongs and plenty of coolabahs along the Barwon River near Mungindi.
Gday NeilandRaine ...
Cheers - John
Another vote for Kynuna.
We camped at the billabong with its Coolibahs down in the gully at the back of the servo.
Lovely, quiet spot with friendly brolgas in the morning.
Mind you, it doesn't have the magic of the Combo and adjacent waterholes described by Fried Rice.
Richard Magoffin who had a Waltzing Matilda show there in his latter years, directed us to the spot.
That's marvellous N & R .. I'll take that along to my Probus Club meeting and cheer them all up!
One highlight of the Waltzing Matilda Centre is the opportunity to listen to 18!! versions of the Anthem
(Who's heard the Luton Girls Choir version??)
FR
The actual waterhole is reputed to be Combo Waterhole near Kynuna. This is on the other side of Winton from Longreach.
!. Way back that was an alternate spelling. It's dropped right away in the last 40 - 60 years and generally only heard now in old recordings.
2. If you want to get to exact terminology you probably find that the majority of coolibahs are along rivers and not billabongs. This all depends upon how far you stretch the terms. Macquarie defines billabong it as 1, waterhole in an anabranch, replenished only in flood time 2. waterhole in a river or creek that dries up outside the rainy season. Wiktionary defines it as
So here you have plenty of scope to find a billabong. Then you need to find your coolibahs from amongst the many similar eucalypts. Dictionary.com defines it as Eucalyptus microtheca but there is a distinct species Eucalyptus coolabah. Further to that some of the pages suggest the trees around Combo Waterhole are microtheca and not coolibah.
So where do you find them. I have found a couple of distribution maps for both.
Eucalyptus coolibah 1 Eucalyptus coolibah 2
Eucalyptus microtheca 1 Eucalyptus microtheca 2.
Now all you have to do is to go and find your appropriate tree beside the right type of waterhole.
Good research and report Peter...
We really just love the myth (or truth?) and the song!
Fried Rice
Thanks for the research. It seems that the definition of a billabong is a lot broader than I thought.
In fact in high school geography I was taught that a billabong is a crescent shaped lagoon. It is created when a bend in a meandering watercourse is cut off and bypassed. It exactly matches the description of an oxbow lake as defined in Wikipedia, so I am surprised that this definition is described as "rare".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billabong
Here's an article that discusses the origins of the words billabong, Billibang, and billy-bong:
http://andc.anu.edu.au/pubs/ozwords/October_2004/Billy.html
As for coolabah/coolibah, I always thought it was spelt with an "i" until I saw its botanical name, but it appears that both spellings are OK. However, Banjo Paterson's hand written manuscript spells the words as "billabong" and "Coolibah".
Banjo Paterson's hand written manuscript of Waltzing Matilda and Christina Macpherson's hand written manuscript:
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/nph-wb/19990106130000/http://waltzingmatilda.com/wmwords.html
Banjo Paterson / Christina Macpherson, Harry Nathan, Marie Cowan versions of Waltzing Matilda:
http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-34755-20110606-1326-www.nla.gov.au/epubs/waltzingmatilda/3_versions_of_waltzing_matilda.pdf
BTW, when I was looking for the original manuscripts, I was overwhelmed by the amount of material at the National Library of Australia web site. The Trove resource is amazing.
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/34755/20110606-1326/www.nla.gov.au/epubs/waltzingmatilda/bibliography.html
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/external.html?link=http://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=waltzing+matilda
That song by Ali Mills is great, and so is she, she has a few good songs, if you're into iTunes, she has a good one about Darwin, her home town, called "The Arafura Pearl" with terrific musical accompaniment.
"The beauty of a country song" is another one, check her out.
Bevan