No, not about the wheel. He did check the tyres and wheels and decided the tyre had rubbed unevenly (similarly to one that was replaced on the other side in Victoria earlier in the year). Since we had quite a bit of dirt road in front of us over the coming weeks we decided a new tyre would be a good call.
No, not the springs. They are cracked, but they're not ours! A cousin has a livestock trucking business in Muttaburra, and he'd cracked a few leaves on one of the trailers.
Yes, something as innocent as these kittens caused the trouble. We'd been standing outside our vans chatting with the family when the kittens from across the road started poking about. The door to mum & dad's van was open and they were about to hop up for a look when they were chased away. When we went to bed it was suggested that the kittens might get up in the car (since the back door was open to ventilate the fridge while the man of the house worked on his computer). A short discussion ensued where I was assured that there was not enough room. Of course, I thought, there was plenty of room, but there was no point pursuing the matter further...
Next morning as we were getting ready to sight-see around the district I was asked to come and smell the back of the car. The cats had been in there. Turns out that when he went to open the car in the morning he was being stared down by two kittens who had spent the night keeping warm next to the fridge compressor. They had been locked in when the back door was closed after the computer work was finished!It was rather reminiscent of the mouse episode as we sniffed here and there, discovered a message, could still smell something and found the second message. A good clean and a spray with disinfectant and it was back to normal. Maybe now he's learnt...
Outback Queensland is dinosaur fossil territory and Muttaburra is the home of the Muttaburrasaurus. The bloke who found the fossil in 1963 was actually the guy who gave us a tour of the local hospital museum, which has been set up as it would have been back in its day.
Corellas were almost in plage proportions in the town, covering trees and power lines and creating a general nuisance of themselves.
Just before we left town we had a run in the road train out to a property to pick up a load of cattle destined to market. It was amazing how quiet they were and how quickly they were loaded. 
