When the wildflowers come

The cool season in the Murchison begins quietly. Mornings turn crisp, the flies thin out and the heat of the afternoon softens enough that the verandah becomes the most popular place in the house. If the winter rains have been good, the paddocks beyond town begin to change colour, and within a few weeks they are covered in paper daisies in white, yellow and pink.

Visitors arrive to see them, in cars and caravans and sometimes in hired buses, and they often arrive at the house just after dusk, tired and hungry and slightly sunburnt. Caroline Howard knows the look. She finds them a table, brings tea first and asks whether they have seen the best of the flowers, which they always say they have.

The kitchen adapts without ceremony. Trevor Rossi makes more soup, bakes more damper and keeps a larger stock of puddings on hand, because travellers who have been walking in the sun want something sweet. Tanya Hunter adds an extra pair of hands to the pass on Fridays and Saturdays.