We left Malanda on a overcast morning and made our way to our first over night stop at Innot Hot Springs. We have come up here many times from Malanda for a weekend away to soak in the hot pools which is very relaxing. We set up under some shade then John put the inverter on so our new fridge freezer we put in the back of our ute had power . You guessed it the inverter decided to blow a hissy and not work instead it blew smoke out . No more inverter. We think the dampness must have seeped into it over the past year . Nothing we could do until Tuesday's as it is Australia Day long weekend.
After moving to van to a powered site and complete setting up for the night, it was time for a soak in the pools very refreshing and relaxing.
26th Janurary,
We made our way from Mt. Garnet to Charters Towers along the Gregory development road . The road conditions were very good considering the rain they have had recently. Not a lot of traffic either except for 5 road trains that passed us going in the opossite direction .
We found a very friendly and wonderful laid out caravan park in Charters Tower called Dalrymple Tourist Van Park. Brad & Tanya recently brought it and made us most welcome and were very helpful in finding us someone that we hope can repair our fridge for us . We found that we could not get the gas to ignite so the fridge would work.
I like their saying. There are no strangers here , only friends you haven't met.
A repair person arrived to check out our fridge and found that it still ignited but it was not showing that it was on, on the controls. Once we get to Alice springs we will source a replacement flame indicator gauge.
We moved from the caravan park to a rest area just out of Charters Towers at the Bp Roadhouse, where road trains park up. We are now travelling on the Overlanders Way from Townsville to Tennent Creek 2000 kms away. It was a little noisy at night here with the road trains coming and going all night, but that's what you have to put up with when its free. There was a bonus , there were free Showers available to travellers and the use of washing machines and dryers for $4.00 a load.
Time for a look around . Charters Towers is gold mining City that's big on history and character. From a chance of gold in 1871 by a young Aboriginal horse boy called Jupiter Mosman and the proclamation of a goldfield in 1872, Charters Towers soon turned into a bustling metropolis, which in its heyday boasted being the second largest city in Queensland. At the height of the gold rush the town included 11 crushing mills, 65 hotels and one of the first regional Stock Exchanges in Australia.
We went for a drive up to Tower Hill which was a military base in World War 11 and saw some 30 concrete bunkers dotted throughout the surrounding hills. A wonderful view of the Charters Tower township we had.
There is a tour you can go on called Texas Longhorns wagon tours. It has the largest herd of purebred
Texas Longhorns in Australia. The Guniness World Record for horns on a steer is over 9'5" or 2.87m long . I sure would not like to argue with that animal .
Charters Towers also hold on a regular basis a Country Music Festival which is held over 10 days in April . A very popular event. On Australia Day weekend each year the goldfields ashes are held. Over 280 teams from all over come together to play cricket and contest for the goldfields ashes. Both John and I have found the local people very friendly and helpful.
Many thanks Charters Towers .
28th Janurary
We stopped at a lookout in the White Mountain National Park. Looking around you could see there had been a fire go through not long ago and the regrowth is starting again. Once again the traffic is very little on this road except for the odd road train and caravans.
Stop here at Parire for lunch . Horse has a coat on so it won't get sun burnt.
Hughenden
We parked up for the night at Julia Creek rest area, after traveling 525 ks. A long day.
A very peaceful nights sleep we had away from the main roads. The local council guy was around in the morning just checking up to see how many people were parked up , and asking how we found it etc. We were talking about the size of farms etc around the area interesting he said they graze 1 head of cattle to 25 acres as its so dry .
We visited the information centre and had a look at a little of the history of Julia Creek.
Julia creek obtains all of its water from the great artesian basin. this underground system extends from the gulf of carpenteria to Dubbo in the south and covers an area of 1.7 million sq kilometres.
Julia Creek is home to a rare and endangered Sminthopsis Douglasi ( Julia Creek Dunnart ). This tiny bright eyed creature is an insect-eating marsupial, only found in the Mitchell grass downs of North West Queensland.me body length is 100-120mm and its tail length is 90-100mm. Unlike rodents, Dunnarts have pointy noses, large rounded ears and dog-like teeth. R first documented Dunnart was in 1931 , but it was not recognised as a species until 1979. A live animal had not been seen until 1992.
It is now currently listed as endangered species.
Dunnarts have a pouch and give birth to young at a very early stage of pregnancy at which time the young are permanently attached to the nipple. The pouch contains eight nipples in a circular arrangement allowing each female to carry 8 young at a time. Females are able to breed from between 17 and 27 weeks of age and males between 28 and 31 weeks.
Julia creek Dunnart.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
We arrived in Mt Isa at 3.30 pm . It was a hot day for traveling in the late 30s. We booked into the Mt Isa Holiday Park for $30.00 a night , it seemed a nice spot so we decided 2 nights would do. Once we were set up we noticed that the fridge in the caravan had not kept cool even with it on charge from driving. John had a good look at the fridge found that there was no connection from the fridge to the car . This we did not know about, as we had not done so much travelling in this heat . After talking to a couple of people in the camp who know about this sort of stuff, we all decided we needed to connect it to the Anderson plug at the back of the car so it kept the fridge cold whilst driving. Time to go shopping for connections for the fridge and some food.
We had lunch here at Lake Moondarra. The man made lake used for the local town water supply.
Time for happy hour , what a way to end a wonderful day. We ended up having tea at 9.30pm
First thing this morning we went up to the look out over Mt Isa . What a lovely view of the township and the BHP-Billiton Mt Isa Mines. The mine sure does cover a large area.
Time to fuel up the ute with diesel costing $137.50 a litre, before we leave for Camooweal which is 188 kms from here.
Camooweal is a small town with a population of 310. It is a old droving settlement. We parked up along the Georgina river rest area. The area had just had a good drop of rain and this put water back into the river so it could flow. Our friends Ann & Keith spent a few days here last year and recommended it.
River in flood at Camooweal
After setting the caravan up it was time to visit the local hotel and have a chat with the locals.
In 1862 a explorer William Landsborough was the first European to pass through this area. His reports led to the area being settled by pastoralists but it wasn't until 1884 that the town of Camooweal was gazetted. Camooweal district is honeycombed with rare sink holes and caves dating back to the Cambrian Period, about 500 million years ago.
The 13,800 hectares of semi-arid Barkly Tableland that makes up Camooweal Caves National Park are characterised by open eucalypt woodlands, spinifex, turpentine wattle shrub land and extensive area of Mitchell grass plains. The caves are sinkholes in the ground. Here water has percolated through 500 million years old layers of soluble dolomite creating caverns linked by vertical shafts up to 75 meters deep. These are not accessible to visitor as they are extremely dangerous.
2nd February 2015,
We were fortunate to get a private tour of the Old Drovers Camp Shed. This shed is usually closed until April. After speaking to the Hotel owner , he gave us Paul Finlay contact who owns and runs the Old drovers shed. He was only to happy to open it up for us. What a insite into droving and how it was in the era of the 1890's Paul's family have lived in the area for a long time . We visited the old Cemetry also and saw Paul's family buried here. Photos below.
Dismountable drovers cooking camp using 3 different size cooking pots
Blacksmiths Bellows
Wide load had to pull over so they could pass safely
We then drove 530 kms to Tennants Creek were we parked up at Tennants Creek Caravan Park and introduced ourselves to the owner Dave Thurgood . We are going to be working for him in Alice Springs at G'Day Mate caravan park. The temperature was 39 degs warm enough. It was a long day for John driving in that heat. Time for a nice cold beer.
3rd Februrary,
After talking to Dave he recommend that we go and see the Tennant Creek Telegraph Station.
This was built in1870 when the Overland Telegraph Lines was first built. The supplies would arrive 6 monthly via camel train from Port Augusta. It was maned 24 hours a day. They were also responsible for maintaining a garden and a small allocation of sheep and cattle to provide fresh food.
The buildings were used as a telegraph station from 1872 to 1935. The discovery of gold and the development of mines and a town 7 miles south of here led to the closing of the telegraph office.
Photos below:
The worker entainment in the evening at the Telegraph settlement
From here we went to Lake Mary Ann, a man made dam for recreation for the locals . With fishing and sailing boats and swimming allowed.
We spent 7 days at Tennants Creek caravan park in total. We did some weeding and some repairs on a couple of water hoses. We must admit the swimming pool was very refreshing every day around 4.00pm. Then a very cold beer was enjoyed. Dave the owner had to do a quick trip to Alice Springs 530k away. John and I both said to Dave stay the night there it was silly to turn around and drive back within a couple of hours of getting there. So we looked after the park etc .All good
It was 40 degrees when we left Tennants creek for Alice Springs . Our first stop was to have a look at Devils Marbles . This area is quite amazing with many of the borders being round and balancing. Around this area there is just flat land and a few small trees. Photos below and information.
Interesting reading
Then onto Wauchope Hotel nothing to see just another pub.
After stopping at a rest area for a sandwich and another bottle of cold water. We are both drinking on a average of 6 to 8 600 mils bottles of water a day plus a cuppa in the morning and night. You sure do need it with these tempatures .
From here we went through to Wycliffe Well. Photo below say it all.
Then onto Barrow Creek Pub . This is a very interesting pub. Around the walls are decorated with many different dollar notes , pound notes from many country's. The owner Micheal ( more commonly knows as Cueball, because of his shaved head). Has been here for 10 years and in that time has done a lot of the sovernier collecting from visitors that have passed by the Barrow Creek pub. We parked out van out the back of the pub for the night. The costing is usually 7.50 per person and that is including power. But he said as its quiet don't worry about it. We went into the pub and had 2 ciders each instead . $14.00 for two ciders. Well worth a stop to check out this pub if you are in the area. Photos below.
Micheal ( Cueball ) pub owner with some of his collection behind him
9th Februrary,
The temperature got down to a comfortable 25 deg from 40 plus last night. A great sleep was had. When we opened our van door this morning there were hundreds of locusts jumping around . John said it is now the season for them and the birds with be having a wonderful banquet. As we left Barrow Creek 2 locusts attached themselves to the bonnet of the car even after 18 k one was still sitting on the bonnet . It's going to be another hot day. We have plenty of water in our Giant Fridge-Freezer in the back seat of our ute.
We have noticed while driving along every time we pass a rest area for road trains and cars etc apron pulling out you will see a sign saying Belt Up . What a great reminder to people to be safe .
Ti Tree it was time to fuel up . It cost $1.90 a litre. We only put in $ 50.20 so we could get to Alice Springs . The towns in between the larger city's charge a lot for fuel due to the distance the fuel tankers have to drive.
After a coffee stop it was on to Aileron to see the large statue of a giant Anmatjere (indigenous male ) watching over his land and his Wife and child. The craftmansh of these statues are amazing.
This was a rest area where we stopped for coffee very interesting reading about the history in the area
Mother and daughter with a Goanna
We have arrived in Alice Springs at G'Day Mate Caravan Park. Here we will be working until the end of the tourist season. The travelling distance from Malanda to Alice Springs was 2715 kms.
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