Blackall Woolscour is a heritage-listed wool scour at 4 km northeast of Blackall, Blackall, Blackall-Tambo Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1908 to 1920s circa. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.© Wikipedia
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Contact detailsEvora RoadBlackall QLD 4472 E: blackallwoolscour2@hotmail.comP: 07 4657 6042
We took the trip from Barcaldine to Blackall in outback Queensland with the sole intention of joining a tour of the Woolscour. The Blackall Woolscour is about 4 kilometres out of town and we managed to arrive in time for the 10 am tour. It is open 7 days a week (9 am to 5 pm) and tours run on the hour – last one leaves at 4 pm.
It was very interesting to have someone explain how the machines worked and see the steam engines that powered the ingenious machinery created to clean the wool fleece. The is apparently the only fully intact steam-powered wool washing plant in Australia.
I am pleased the locals realised the importance of this operation and worked hard to secure funding to restore this important part of our history. After the tour you can wander around and look at some of the other buildings used while the plant was fully operational - a map is supplied explaining what each building was used for.
Woolscour means wool washing and this site also incorporates a shearing shed and sheep yards. The wool was stockpiled for the woolscour which ran 24 hours a day – a slow process but the high quality wool came out ready for export. The engineering in this machinery dates back to the early 1900's and needs to be seen to be believed.
Highly recommended by RV trips team.
The steam engine was fueled by Gidgee wood from the local area and you can see an example of this on the tour. It is amazingly heavy, resistant to termites and burns for a long time. Quite a lot of the farm fences are constructed from gidgee - note they are tied with wire as this wood is so hard it is almost impossible to nail.