
Sixty-five kilometres north along the Leichhardt Highway from Miles, the small town of Wandoan lies deep in fertile brigalow country that has long been cleared to produce huge tonnages of wheat and sorghum which explains the towering silos that pinpoint the township. The area, however, was pioneered by pastoralists and the Juandah cattle run was opened up in 1853, just nine years after explorer Ludwig Leichhardt and his party camped on the shores of the Juandah Lagoon in the upper reaches of the Dawson River Valley. A hotel built in 1890 anchored the Juandah community which welcomed the railway in 1914 and changed its name to Wandoan in 1927. A wave of soldier settler farmers in the wake of World War II gave the region a fillip in the late 1940s. Volunteers have begun restoring some of the old, historic buildings and the locals promise there are yellow-belly to be caught in the local creeks.