Chapter 6 - Central Queensland

Day 45 – Sunday 10 July – Camooweal & Mt Isa

Shirley emerged when the caravan was warm and the HWS had hot water. We used the last of our water for showers.

It did not take us long to get to Camooweal, after crossing into Queensland at 9am – which immediately became 9:30. We had a quick look around and moved on. A magnificent bird cut across us and I got a quick snap of what could have been a Magpie Goose or a Cape Barren Goose.

We had a coffee stop between Camooweal and Mt Isa and arrived in “the Isa” around noon.

We topped up on water (free) and diesel (expensive, again) and hit the road, driving through the ‘Isa’ hills. The supermarkets are closed on Sundays so that was a dead loss.

It was a repeat of Day 42 in Chapter 5 where a suggestion from good friends from bowls (as per Gorrie Airfield) came to the fore – in our resting place for the evening and night. And that was “Mary Kathleen”, the place that was a town to support the uranium mine. All buildings and infrastructure are gone. However, there was a commemorative plaque laid by then Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

We actually camped on one of the basketball courts. The white circle centre was just beside the caravan. [I doctored the white circle so that it stands out better.] 

Other nomads camped on concrete slabs that presumably supported homes.

We drove 7 km inland and took a photo of the mine ‘pit’.

 Click here if you want more details on Mary Kathleen.

Day 46 – Monday 11 July – Richmond

My phone indicated 6 degrees as we awakened, the car suggested 4 degrees. The lights went out in the caravan, suggesting a flat 12 volt battery. Not good.

We hit the road and had a quick look around and a coffee at Cloncurry.

Then Julia Creek was in our sights, for another quick look around town, on foot.

The caravan battery was still flat so we pressed on to Richmond to get a powered site (first in a week) so that we could address battery concerns.

Richmond is dinosaur and fossil country. We smiled at the sign as we entered the town.

"U THINKTHEYSAURUS"

Camp was established at the showgrounds, beside the Richmond race-track. The amenities were excellent.

We went for a walk around town and took a few photos of a some lake residents. All were happy for us to get very close.

Shirley cooked a stir fry which we ate by torch light as the 12 volt battery was not well enough to power the lights. I then updated the blog by torch light until the torch battery went flat. Why did I not buy a laptop with an illuminated keyboard?

I found Shirley a miners-light and she went to bed with torch and book.

 

Day 47 – Tuesday 12 July – Richmond

My phone indicated that it was 6 degrees, but the heater was whirring away and the 12 volt lighting had returned.

Some caravan jobs beckoned - like sleep in, casual breakfast, extra coffee, some washing, some car organising, blog - so it was after 11am by the time we drove in to town for a look around.

Reminders of the 'fossil' nature of the district are everywhere.

A 'Bush Tucker Garden' beckoned and we got some tips for the kitchen.

The historical society has restored a 'Cobb & Co' coach, something that many Aussie towns relied on many years ago.

I was fascinated to notice that the springs are made of leather straps.

The Richmond race-track has many many 'Little Corellas' in residence, so Shirley and I sat in the members stand for a while and watched their antics. It was tiring and noisy.

I think the two Corellas below had backed the favourite.

Probably my last photo in Richmond was taken around 20 minutes after sunset, with our 'rig' in the foreground.

Day 48 – Wednesday 13 July – Hughenden

Although we had a strong head wind it was only a short stint on the road today of 118 km - to Hughenden. We found our spot in the free RV camp site - over the creek from the main street in the town.

It had been a slow start to the day, so we had lunch before we went exploring.

Hughenden got on the map, thanks to explorers William Landsborough and Frederick Walker who had been searching for the ill fated Burke & Wills. Both explorers 'blazed' their 'mark' on the following magnificent Coolabah tree - on 17 March 1862.

The town has followed the trend and has its share of art work, the following being a quality painting on the water tower.

We lacked motivation and lazed around for most of the afternoon.

The sun set out the back of the caravan, roughly down the main street of Hughenden, so I grabbed the following memory. Note that the street lights are already on.

Day 49 – Thursday 14 July – Hughenden

It was another chilly start to the day, but not as bad as our friends and family down south.

We decided to go for a drive to the Mt Walker lookout, named after the explorer who engraved a local tree with his initials (see the report from yesterday).

The views were impressive, but hard to capture on a Box Brownie camera. I tried. All of the 5 or 6 lookouts provided a metal frame through which to take your photo. I took 5 or 6 photos, but I just present one here.

We headed back into town and took a photo of some local art, on public amenities and another water tower.

Hughenden is one of the many rural Aussie towns who cherish their windmill heritage and they have displayed it in a few places around town. Windmills in this region were used mainly to extract water from bores.

We did a bit of shopping and then I got flustered with an issue with the solar panel regulator. After two hours of concern and many attempts at rectification, it became obvious that the issue was with the operator - not the product.

The strong easterly winds continued as we relaxed and caught up with reading and sudoku. After a while I got restless and cooked a big pot of bolognaise sauce. Some of it became dinner. 

Day 50 – Friday 15 July – Hughenden & Porcupine Gorge

It looked like being a quiet day until Shirley found a jar of 'Motivation' beside the Vegemite. We put it on our toast, loaded the car, and drove out to Porcupine Gorge. We were last here in July 2015 with two good friends. The view was just as good as last time - maybe better as there was more water.

The walk down was as easy as last time but the walk back up seemed to be a lot harder. It was 1100 metres from top to bottom and I counted around 550 steps - all made from local rock. Maybe we were just seven years older.

We had lunch and reversed our travels. We soon stopped at a 'roadside tourist interest stop' that involved a whistling bore. Need I say more?

Our next stop was another lookout view of Porcupine Gorge - maybe in the top 5 of all gorge views that we have ever seen. It was very impressive. Last time we were here it did not have water.

On our way back to camp I took a couple of photos of the many flowers that were on view. The white gems on the left are probably flowering gums. I have no idea what the red flowers are.

As we arrived at the caravan we were treated to a flock of very friendly Apostlebirds.

It was time to do a few jobs like getting a 'swap' gas bottle, topping up the water, emptying the waste tank, and generally getting ready for a departure tomorrow.

Shirley supervised from her chair with her current book in hand. She even let me cook dinner.

Day 51 – Saturday 16 July – Kooroorinya Nature Reserve

There was no need to rush, so we didn’t. We wandered out of Hughenden around 9:15 and headed east into a gale force easterly – again. We turned left at Prairie, as Shirley had spotted Kooroorinya Nature Reserve as a good place to visit.

Immediately we stopped at a ‘honey for sale’ stand and bought (you guessed it) some River Gum honey. I can feel some sweet damper and/or crumpets in my immediate future.

56 km later we were at Kooroorinya Nature Reserve. Two km of gravel road later and we checked in and paid our $20. It had to be cash as “no internet reception out here son”.

I would not be unkind if I suggested that (in another era) the lovely family could be cast as members of the “Beverly Hillbillies” (a TV series of many years ago). In an even earlier era they may have been Ma & Pa Kettle.

“Jed” showed us to our site (“anywhere in those two acres”) and explained the workings of the toilet and showers. “The red taps are the hot taps” were red because someone had, at some stage, had a tin of red paint. The lights in the men's toilets have to be on for the HWS to work, etc….

The ladies showers had a bath in one cubicle – complete with all the ‘sweet smelling’ things that a country lady could want – even Radox.

The ladies amenities block even included some local art work. The facilities are better than the photos indicate.

Camp was established, coffee was had, hats were donned, and off we set to check out the Kooroorinya Gorge. The views were just as spectacular as Porcupine Gorge yesterday – but on a much smaller scale.

Recent rains ensured that there was plenty of water, although not enough to have water falling over the two falls.

Above: Above the ‘top’ falls

Below: Looking over the ‘lower’ falls

Bird noises and butterflies were plentiful. 

We returned to camp – 200 metres – and had lunch, then reading books appeared.

Kooroorinya (pronounced Cor-in-ya) includes a race track which is used once each year, at an amateur event on Mother’s Day long weekend. Only local horses and local (amateur/overweight) jockeys are allowed. The usual attendance is 500 to 800 people. Free camping is offered.

After lunch had settled we went for a walk and checked out the race-track facilities. For the second time in a week we have sat in the members stand at a race-course.

Later I ventured back to the water and was able to catch a couple of small birds. Perhaps a Zebra Finch and a Sparrow (or maybe a female Mistletoebird).

Around 4 pm we decided to try out the corrugated iron showers. We hit the right switches in the right order and both had great showers.

Soon after we arrived back at the caravan Di and Kev, the caretakers (aka Ma & Pa Kettle), were on site (beer & red wine in hand) asking if everything was Ok. It seemed an invitation for a ‘chin wag’ – so we did. The only other couple in the park were invited to join us - so they did.

The six of us had a pleasant two hours or so. Kev had to keep going back to base to get another beer. Di & Kev advised us that the park has kangaroos, echidnas, koalas, red-claw crabs and lots of birds. Kev is a former Mt Isa miner, maybe in his late 60’s, and definitely not the sort of guy to ‘cross’ – as in trying to sneak in to get a free shower. Di also has eyes in the back of her head.

 

Day 52 – Sunday 17 July – Grass Hut Station

Shirley was up soon after sunrise as we had a big day. The first task was to drive 260 km to Charters Towers. However, we had to navigate 60 km of road before we hit the main highway. We had constant stops for bird photos and cattle trespassing before we got there. Around 20 kangaroos were here and there along the track.

Australian Bustards

Trespassing Cattle (note the road deposits)

The drive was interrupted by an excellent coffee & muffin at a place called “Wookatook@Pentland”.

Then it was on to Charters Towers for food shopping, grog shopping, diesel, hardware, rodeo tickets and a couple of other items. Then the rude awakening – it was Sunday – no shops of note are open in rural Queensland. Rodeo tickets and diesel was the main achievement. We could not even buy a pie for lunch.

We drove another 60 km to our resting place for two nights – Grass Hut Station – a working cattle station. We had our second grassy site of the trip.

Our hosts, Liz and Barry, do not play sport (not much out here in the middle of nowhere anyway) so their ‘extra-curricular’ activity is to compete at ‘camp draft’ events – horse v cow/bull/calf etc. We watched them practice, from the adjudicators box. They have bison and buffalo on the station that they use for camp-draft practice – rather than use their own valuable cattle. We walked within three metres of the buffalo - no fences involved.

The horse that Liz is riding cost them $70,000 last year.

Left: Barry v Bison               Right: Liz v Bison

Hungry Buffalo

Liz and Barry have five cats – one took a liking to us.

Day 53 – Monday 18 July – Grass Hut Station

It was a leisurely start to the day, with a hot shower and a cooked breakfast. A trip to Burdekin Falls was on the agenda, but it was deemed too far away, so we settled for a look at Ravenswood.

Ravenswood is a gold mining town, with the first mine being established in 1869. Over the years profits have ebbed and flowed, but recent gold mining advances and investments mean that Ravenswood will have the biggest gold mine in Queensland sometime in 2022.

The town is quite small but it is obvious that significant effort is being expended to turn Ravenswood into a historical town.

The two pubs are magnificent old buildings, presumably with a great history. The ‘Railway’ has been bought by a young couple with grand plans. It has a magnificent collection of old motor-bikes and old cars (including a Falcon GT in excellent condition, a Model T Ford in great condition, and a left hand drive ute). They must be worth a small fortune. It has working accommodation of maybe 12 ‘old world’ bedrooms - complete with 4-poster beds. There are heirlooms and relics to fill a few antique shops.

St Patrick’s Catholic church has been beautifully restored.

The town hall and the miner’s cottage add to the charm. The miner who lived in this cottage allegedly had 9 daughters and 10 sons. He clearly did not have a TV or a mobile phone or internet access. The cottage is dated at 1868.

On the way there we saw two dingoes and one Australian Bustard, none of whom wanted to sit for a photoshoot. However, I did get the Bustard in flight - fleeing.

It was an afternoon of leisure, during which the little guy below visited a tree near us. I reckon it is a ‘Pale Headed Rosella’.

After enough leisure we went for a walk up the dry adjacent creek, and came across thousands of butterflies. It was an impressive sight.

Above: A tree with lots of butterflies

Below: A couple of the residents

Curried sausages and rice for dinner.

Day 54 – Tuesday 19 July – Townsville

We started the day with a long chat to Barry, who explained that they run a cattle station that allows caravan travellers to stay there. They are not a caravan park and do not pretend to be one. If they have to choose between station tasks and caravan customer service - then the station must come first.

That was OK with us.

Barry and Liz were about to load 11 horses onto a cattle truck, complete with lots of hay, and head 650 km north to Eureka Creek (near Mareeba) to compete in a cattle draft. This is the leisure side of their life.

We said goodbye around 8:40 and headed to Townsville, arriving there just before 10 am. We had a coffee, then shopped, then found a car wash and washed the car and caravan. They are now close to their intended colours.

We checked into the Discovery park around noon and soon caught up with great friends Kay and Darryl. After a long chat Darryl helped me drop our car off for a service, and it was a quiet evening.

So far we have travelled just over 10,000 km and now is the time to slow down and enjoy what the east coast has to offer.

This chapter is now complete.
Last updated at 7:40 am on Wednesday 20 July.

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