Sunday. Spring Fair. Chocolate Wheel. Old fashioned fairground fun. Crowd pleaser. Fast and furious. Twelve spins an hour. Spruikers on the megaphone. Buy a ticket. Odds? 1 in 64. Spin the Wheel. Win a Prize. Trays of mangoes. Legs of ham. Spring lamb. Wine. Champagne. Splashe Back o’ Bourke Cola.

In the Australian vernacular “Back o-Bourke” refers to any place a long way out. The Sticks. The Back of Beyond. Head 789 km north west of Sydney. Eventually you will hit Bourke. Settled in 1835 as a log stockade on the banks of the Darling River. In 1893 Henry Lawson claimed you don’t know Australia until you know Bourke.

Splashe’s Back of Bourke Cola. Sweet and syrupy. Redolent of sarsaparilla. Old fashioned.  110 years young. Classic outback Australia.  I was introduced to this by my son. He by his country mates. A taste of home. Liquid gold he calls it. Not so easy to come by in the big city. And perhaps that is its appeal.

It took a community and pure outback ingenuity to get 10 cases of Back o’Bourke Cola to Sydney. A 780 km road trip. Sydney via Dubbo via Bourke. This eponymous cola may be distributed to many country towns but sadly not to Sydney. At least not yet. A tyranny of distance and uneconomical freight charges.

Thanks to the milko who delivered 10 cases of cola to Gary at Crutchers IGA in Dubbo, some 380 km or a mere 4 hour drive away. Thanks Gary for organising the delivery for me. Thanks to one of our wonderful country mums Jodie  who lives in Dubbo and transported the bottles from Dubbo to Sydney for the fair. I hope those clinking glass bottles didn’t drive you too mad the entire 400 km drive down here.

There were some very happy teenage boys at the fair. I especially loved the ingenuity of a group of  boys who were so determined to win a case they formed a syndicate. They waited for a $1 spin and bought every single number on the wheel. Insisted they have a turn at spinning  the wheel and even managed to feign surprise when their number came up.

For those of you who are curious to find out more about Back O’Bourke Cola or perhaps even taste it, here are the all important details. I am reliably informed by my son that it even has its own Facebook page.

Splashe Back O’Bourke Cola
15 Tudor Street
Bourke, New South Wales, Australia 2840
Phone (02) 6872 2080
Website: www.splashe.com.au

Crutchers IGA Dubbo
95 Tamworth St Dubbo NSW 2830
(02) 6882 2800