Entry 9 – 27th Sept. to 10th Oct. Mount Isa to Cloncurry, Richmond & Hughenden, Queensland.
We left Camooweal late afternoon and stopped overnight at a road side stop about 60 kilometres from Mount Isa. We were up early, planning an unannounced arrival around opening time at an auto electrician work shop in Mount Isa. The electrician groaned once Steve explained our problem. He did some work on the faulty plug. He inspected the caravan and tow tug and shrugged his shoulders saying everything was ok and it might have just been coincidental with the other issues we were experiencing the previous day. Whilst he spent just over an hour looking / fixing our issues he took a few customer phone enquiries and told most of them he was booked out for the next four days. We had initially thought a phone call might have been the appropriate action but decided to arrive unannounced at opening time and it seems he was still in a cheery mood, first thing on the Monday morning after a weekend off.
It was a great feeling starting our day with our electrical issues fixed. We restocked our fridge and pantry, topped up our water supply, attended the visitor information centre and nothing promoted for viewing at Mt Isa excited us. We had previously spent a few days at Mt Isa and on this occasion, we decided to head east along a road not travelled by us previously, stopping at about the 60-kilometre mark. Camp was set in the ghost town of Mary Kathleen, an old mining township, now minus any buildings other than the presence of about 100 plus house and shop cement slabs and still with its existing bituminised suburban streets.
It was a beautiful quiet bush setting, much appreciated by our good vibe senses. About 6 kilometres up the road was the remains of the uranium oxide mining site. It was another enjoyable drive out to the mine viewing the locale that provided income to support a township of 1,100 people with around 200 dwellings. Also attached is a picture of Mary talking to another traveller near the mine hole showing the size of the diggings.
The road around the mining area was a bit on the rough side at times. It was rugged looking country with its own scenic atmosphere.
The old mining area was now part of a cattle station and we did have cattle walking through camp. There were a few birds about and in the distance, we saw some wild camels.
We were thinking of staying a fourth night at Mary Kathleen ghost township when we were presented with another curve ball. This the year of the covid-19 pandemic and its’ created havoc around the world was providing us with some different aspects. Normally we travel utilizing the one phone provider with the best Australia wide coverage but this year we were utilizing two different network providers with short term contracts as we had planned to be overseas for 2020 and had cancelled our rather expensive phone plan.
Phone reception was marginal at Mary Kathleen when we received an email notification via the phone provider with reception at this location. Ironically the email was from the other phone company without reception at this location. We were advised they were increasing our data allocation from one gig to two gig per month and as it was to be Steve’s birthday in a couple of days, they were providing a gift of 10 gig of data, expiring in 5 days’ time.
If we were to exceed our data allocation it would come at a cost of $10 per gig. Thus technically 10 gig of data = $100. Could we utilize this extra data? Well yes, we could upload our latest blogs and conduct some other research if we had phone reception! We were planning to be about 60 kilometres further down the road in several days’ time to explore the township of Cloncurry which just happened to be the next location with phone reception for this phone provider. Hmmm, more thoughts.
We moved on from Mary Kathleen one day earlier than thought, travelling about 10 kilometres down the road, resetting camp at Corella Dam. Corella Dam was established to support the township of Mary Kathleen and its mining operations. Corella Dam had a magnificent setting and it was well patronized by campers spread out around a couple of inlets.
Even the appearance of the moon made for a great setting. When the sun rose in the morning it provided a different effect with the reflections on the water.
We woke on our first morning to an inspiring setting providing us with much incentive to go for a walk around some of the water’s perimeter, opposite our camp. There were many smallish inlets and some nice views of our camp. We even had a close encounter with a fresh water crocodile.
It was most pleasurable to be sitting outside with shade provided by our awning from the heat of the sun and a bit of a cool breeze blowing across the lake on a very warm day. The back drop with its rugged looking hill face, its slopes scattered with a variety of different shades of greenery connecting with the blue lake water edge felt like a truly luxurious setting. Adding to our already good feelings was the variety of bird life also seeming to be enjoying a grand setting.
When near a water location there is usually an accompanying background noise of different bird calls, frog noises or noise from the local animals. Some noises you can identify with a picture from your memory of the creature responsible, often without even sighting them. One of those many noises over the years we hadn’t been able to identify its origin was a clicking ratchet type noise. We were finally delighted to be able to identify its source, an Australian Darter. The below first picture showing a Darter when we spot one, with a lot of their time spent fishing in fresh waters. The second picture of a Darter calling out, communicating with it clicking, ratchet type noise. It also showed how relaxed the normally shy Australian Darter was with the setting of Corella Dam enabling us to obtain a beautiful photograph of them calling.
Sunsets over water at times can be impressive and Corella Dam with its colourful surrounds provided some stunning sunsets.
Also, near sunset those special reptiles that have been given the Aussie slang nick name, ‘Big Lizards,’ could also be seen in the distance enjoying the sunset.
Day three at Corella Dam and the atmosphere changed with an influx of weekend people. Unbeknown to us a long weekend had arrived with an increase of water activities and competition between the new arrivals of who could have the loudest music.
Even with an influx of people not as focused on the serenity provided by the setting of Corella Dam, for us the charm still had its presence.
2020 was certainly providing us with some different scenarios. Once again, we decided to move camp sooner than initially planned, heading up the road about 50 kilometres, to the town of Cloncurry, where we were able to access good phone and internet. Our first phone call was with Mary’s brother whom had suffered a medical condition and thankfully he did sound up beat but was in hospital for observation.
We were also utilizing our bonus data due to expire the following day.
MORE TO COME - for this blog entry.
ADDITIONAL ENTRY ADDED 16-10-20
We were pleased to catch up on all our communication needs, even though it took four hours to complete, leaving us feeling a bit fatigued. Possibly all those electronic requirements over the last couple of weeks, must have been a busy period. It was getting late into the day and we decided to book into a caravan park at Cloncurry (about 100 metres back down the road from our parked location,) where we had a nice shower and chill out in our nice cool airconditioned caravan for the rest of the day.
We ended up staying two nights at Cloncurry. Day two we obtained some fresh food from a good supermarket and spent time having a look around Cloncurry.
Day three we got away a bit later than we thought we would. About 8.30 am we started a video chat with our daughters’ in-laws and we were still merrily chatting at 10.10 am, past our caravan park required departure time and we were still needing to finish packing. It was delightfully reassuring to know our daughter was living with a wonderful family around her.
Our next destination about 148 kilometres down the road was the town of Julia Creek. In this area of outback Australia there is little to see between townships. The landscape is of a dry dusty environment utilized for cattle grazing and the occasional mine. The townships provide support services for their local area, doing their best to attract passing trade to supplement their income. Most small townships welcome the passing tourist, like us. They provide information on the local area and an atmosphere enticing people to stay a little while, hoping to generate some additional income. Julia Creek provided a free camping area with a nice setting just out of town and promoted various nearby points of interest for visiting with the bonus of a well thought out information centre.
We stayed two nights at Julia Creek with an incentive to move on provided by the stifling heat. The effect of this ongoing heatwave was to leave us feeling lethargic and sticky. We were missing our cooling dips provided by Wangi Falls waters in Litchfield National Park.
Our thought process over the last month had been to travel east towards the middle of Queensland then head south along another ‘outback’ route not previously travelled by us. We had chosen this route due to its (at the time) lower temperatures than what we had been experiencing at the higher longitude when in the Northern Territory. Unfortunately, the high energy sapping temperatures seemed to have stayed with us with the current 7-day weather predictions of 36, 37, 38, 38-degree days, with no end in sight. We travel with a caravan in tow, with a bit of a plan, subject to change.
We do enjoy those picturesque out of the way locations with an added spice of experiencing some of the solitude. Country people encounters living in the outback of Australia is very unique. After reassessing our options, we decided to skip our planned inland, south bound route, instead to continue east until we arrived at the eastern coastal shores of Australia. Yes, there would be a lot more people about, but the thought of some cooling effect from the nearby ocean waters became very appealing and would be most welcomed by our bodies. We would then, travel south, with the nearby ocean preventing any deviations to the east and with restrictions that accompany the more populated regions.
We continued east with our next destination at around 140 kilometres the town of Richmond. We initially walked the main street and assessed our camp options. The seemingly constant heat was restricting our movement. During comfortable temperature conditions we would normally walk about along many of these small country towns side streets. We even visited the caravan park and were offered a powered site at $22 for the night, a very low price, one we hadn’t seen or paid for many years. We accepted on the spot and enjoyed a nice long cooling shower and an afternoon siesta in the cool air-conditioned environment of our caravan. Hmm, we may have been more exhausted than we realised, due to the oppressive heat as we both slept soundly for a couple of hours in the afternoon.
Richmond was an enjoyable location with a town environment welcoming the passing traveller. There was the town lake with a water park catering especially for the younger generation and it could all be viewed from the caravan park.
During the dinosaur age around 100 million years previously, this area of Queensland was covered by the sea.
With the receding ocean waters this area of Queensland was ideal for fossil preservation due to warm shallow, lime rich sediment. Richmond has a fascinating museum featuring more than 1000 locally found fossils. We thoroughly enjoyed viewing all the displays in Richmond’s Kronosaurus Korner museum.
We also enjoyed viewing the Cambridge Homestead, circa 1865 reconstruction.
Normally we would have easily spent about four days at Richmond with so many things on offer to occupy us. Unfortunately, the exhausting heat was causing us to prioritise a wish list to view and then to move on asap, continuing east towards that dangling carrot with the promise of cooler conditions of the Coral Sea on the east coastal region. Thus, we allocated one night for this time in Richmond and would enjoy the opportunity of a return visit with more comfortable weather conditions.
About 114 kilometres down the road we spent time at the town of Hughenden. We had previously spent around a week at Hughenden and its nearby attractions. This visit the thought of one night was an acceptable timeline to view the changes since our last visit four years previously. This included a drive to Mt Walker scenic lookout about 10 kilometres out of town where we watched the sun set. The first picture showing the view of Hughenden about 10 kilometres in the distance and what it looked like after the sun had set.
Nearby Hughenden was where we had initially planned to travel south from the small town of Prairie, to Kooroorinya Nature Reserve and onto the town of Muttaburra.
It was tempting to turn right to travel south, maybe only for about one second but we continued travelling east, tempted by the cooler conditions closer to the ocean.
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