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Travel

A family’s 1400 kilometre roadtrip during the height of the pandemic

What did photographer Clancy Paine do when COVID-19 struck? Packed the kids into the car for a 1400 kilometre trip north to Longreach, Queensland.

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PHOTOGRAPHY CLANCY PAINE

Inside the Cassimatis General Store and family home, recently restored by locals.

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PHOTOGRAPHY CLANCY PAINE

Hardy and Trader with Kezz the cocky.

Kezz the Red-Tailed black cockatoo doesn’t get much of a bird’s-eye view.

The nine-year-old rescue cocky can’t fly and instead hitches a ride on the shoulders of the nearest human. She finds many a willing chariot within the merry ranks of the Paine children: eight-year-old Dolly, Daisy, six, Trader, five, and two-year-old Hardy. As they march around the confines of the 27 foot caravan they’ve been calling home for three weeks, Kezz’s black-plumed head bobs with every step.

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The Paine family has travelled 1400 kilometres to Longreach from their small mixed farm just outside Narromine, New South Wales; spinning through the dust of outback Queensland as they took advantage of COVID-19’s 2020 homeschooling. The family worked along the way, with dad Mat’s liquid waste business and a little mustering. It was a school term their mum Clancy, a photographer, is unlikely to forget. “Going away in the caravan is incredibly grounding for me. I’m normally like a bull at a gate. Stepping away from the pursuit of excellence reminds me, ‘How much do we need to be happy?’ ” Clancy says. “We have minimal stuff — a few outfits, a pair of boots and thongs in case we stumble across a public toilet or shower block.”

The Paines bought the off-road van from a bloke who fitted it out himself. With plenty of storage, a pull-out barbecue, two fridges and 440 litres of water, the family can go five days camping in the wild — provided everyone sticks to bird baths. Away from routine and the creature comforts of home, it’s all about family time.

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PHOTOGRAPHY CLANCY PAINE

Taking a break.

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PHOTOGRAPHY CLANCY PAINE

Rest stops along the way provided time to explore local attractions, including Cassimatis General Store in Muttaburra, now a museum.

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PHOTOGRAPHY CLANCY PAINE

The kids peek into the window at Cassimatis General Store.

The snap of the campfire, peeling the goo of blackened marshmallows from sticks, watched over by the emblazoned current of the Milky Way. Baths in washing tubs, hunting for interesting stones and trading pieces of petrified wood. Surrendering to feet going into beds dusted in red dirt thick as icing sugar.

“It’s so good to step away from the luxury of long, hot showers. In the van the kids turn on the tap, wet themselves, turn the tap off, do their soap, turn the tap on and rinse,” Clancy says. “They’re really diligent about where the water comes from and how to make it last. My grandmother’s generation had to understand how to be frugal and eat fruit and veggies in season and preserve them when they weren’t, and how to cart water. I want my kids to have the same appreciation.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY CLANCY PAINE

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PHOTOGRAPHY CLANCY PAINE

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PHOTOGRAPHY CLANCY PAINE

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