Adelaide River to Darwin

June 23 to June 30

Snake Creek Underground Bunker

Thursday was a quiet day for us in Adelaide Creek, we caught up on some chores and had a good walk around the river and town area. As I mentioned last blog post, I got some inside knowledge to find a war ruins area at Snake Creek, which I rode my bike to (not motorhome friendly tracks). It was a bit further than I thought and 32⁰C, but it was worth the effort.

Snake Creek Munitions Store 

Not all relics you find are WW2!

The area was a secluded ammunitions centre, where large (and some underground) storage and manufacturing facilities were constructed, as well as accommodation and administration buildings and rail facilities. The (overgrown) bitumen roads are still there and the concrete floor slabs, as well as some of the thick concrete walls of the above ground storage. Unfortunately by the time the construction was completed in 1945 it was too late to be involved in the war effort.

Friday we drove to Humpty Doo, a township 35km south of Darwin. We stopped at a CMCA Member Stop Over farm here. I think I have mentioned in the past that the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia (CMCA) members who have space can offer their properties for other members to park overnight.

Member Stop Over, Humpty Doo

Mike and Janine were very accommodating and we stayed for two nights, sharing the farm with two other members on Saturday night.

Saturday we drove into Darwin to visit the Visitor Information Centre, and walked the waterfront parkland and Darwin Harbour precinct. There is a lot of war sites, memorials and information points, you often forget the involvement and importance of Darwin as a defence post for northern Australia during the Second World War.

Sunday we were meeting up with Peter (a mate from my “college” days) and Sharon in Darwin, whose driveway will become our home base for the next couple of weeks in Darwin. They live in a very central spot in Darwin, and one street from the beach, so we are very appreciative of the opportunity to spend time with them and do day trips exploring the region.

Well known taxidermy'd croc, 5.1m beast

The weather, although the “dry season” has officially arrived, is still very hot and humid, 70+% humidity and 33⁰C maximums and 22⁰C minimums, with no change expected for the next week. So it was a relief to spend a few hours in the Casuarina Shopping Centre on Monday as we caught up on some shopping (and a haircut for me). Pete and Sharon have a pool and a great breezeway area so it is a haven in the afternoon heat.

We visited the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory. The Cyclone Tracey exhibit was excellent, you forget how devastating the Christmas 1974 cyclone was and the amount of disruption it caused to the community, with more than 80% of the population displaced for up to four years as the city was rebuilt. They also have a terrific taxidermy collection of many local creatures (land, sea and air) that have been preserved and displayed. 

Tennant Creek to Adelaide River

June 16 to June 23

Overland Telegraph Station, Tennant Creek

Tennant Creek was a surprise, a bit bigger than I expected and plenty of services. The Battery Hill Mining Centre is the visitors centre and was very good to get our bearings and suggested points of interest. After spending the morning checking out the lookout and other mining points of interest in town, we headed to the Mary Ann Recreational Dam and the Overland Telegraph Station on the way out of town. The dam was an oasis and ideal for lunch, and the Telegraph Station was a self-guided tour of the old station restored to how it was when operating in the late 1800’s. About 70km north of Tennant Creek we stopped at the Attack Creek Rest Stop for the night. This is also an historic site (there’s plenty of them!) for the explorer John Stuart, where his first attempt to cross Australia from South to North was abandoned after being attacked by the local aborigines in 1860.

Daly Waters Hotel

Friday was more driving with little to see, but with a destination I have been looking forward to. With the one town of Elliott (on the Stuart Highway, classic McGuire’s) in the next 350km, we were headed for the Daly Waters pub, a legendary place for travellers to stop, eat local barramundi and beef, and buy souvenirs (apparently). With no reservations for camp sites, it is first in/first served. The camp was half full when we got there at 12:30pm, pretty much chockers at 3:30pm! The evening entertainment was surprisingly good, and dinner of local steak and fresh barramundi was excellent.

Pink Panther Hotel, Larrimah

Saturday morning we headed north again, first stopping in Larrimah for morning coffee. This town has quite a WW2 history and well collected museum. The Gorrie air strip 10km away at one stage boasted 6,500 military personnel. Also the Pink Panther Hotel is there, not quite the Daly Waters but they are at least trying.

Onward to Mataranka for lunch, and visits to the historic Elsey Cemetery and the replica homestead used in the film “We of the Never Never”. A very well-known Australian book by Jeanie Gunn, recounting life in this area in the late 1800’s, and was made into a film in the 1980’s.

We visited the Territory Manor for the barramundi feeding, I even got to hand feed a one metre barra, blink and you missed it. We also visited the Bitter Springs Thermal Pools, but with the daytime temperature at 33⁰C and the water temp at 34⁰C, I couldn’t see a reason to go in.

Nitmiluk / Katherine Gorge

Saturday night we stopped at King River about 50km north of Katherine. Into Katherine Sunday for fuel and food and to visit the Information Centre, then out to Nitmiluk, or Katherine Gorge as it used to be known. We booked in for two nights at the camp ground, and did the gorge cruise in the afternoon. We had an excellent guide for the cruise up the first two gorges, spotting a fresh water croc sunning on a rock, and seeing an example of the Jawoyn (local indigenous land owners) rock art. Not all indigenous run tourist ventures are successful, but the Jawoyn manage all the Nitmiluk tourist infrastructure extremely well (and have been for 20 years).

Can you spot the lazy croc?

Monday and it was hiking time, we headed off fairly early (8:15am) to beat the midday heat, and completed a three and a half hour hike to Pat’s Lookout the South Waterhole, and along the top of the gorge rim. We enjoyed a pool swim when we returned, fortunately the day wasn’t too hot at 30⁰C.

I had hoped to get the kayak out and paddle the first gorge, but they still hadn’t opened it for swimming or kayaking, as they believe there is still a salt water croc in the first gorge after the wet season.

Katherine Gorge rim hike, some spectacular lookouts

Tuesday we left Nitmiluk and headed north again, only 100km to Pine Creek where we stayed at the campground at the Lazy Lizard Tavern, a very inviting oasis. We had domestic chores and paperwork to do, a very nice place to do it! The temperature dropped to about 12⁰C overnight, but the forecast of warm weather (34max, 20min) for the next 4 days will remind us we are in the tropics.

Wednesday we drove another 100 odd kilometres to Adelaide River, an area rich in World War 2 history. It was also State Of Origin night, so we stayed at the Showground, the show society put on a projector screen for the game and massive steak sandwiches and chips. Needless to say it was a good night with a great outcome. We visited the Adelaide River War Memorial Cemetery, where the hundreds of the Australian armed forced personnel and civilians who were killed in the Japanese attacks on Darwin in 1942 are buried. There are other hidden war relic sites around Adelaide River, a bit like Cape York, where you need to know someone to tell you where to look. We will stay another night in Adelaide River before heading towards Darwin Friday.

Mt. Isa to Tennant Creek

June 8 to June 16

Clem Walton Park at the Corella Dam was very relaxing, and we spent Wednesday and Thursday nights here. 60km from both Mt Isa and Cloncurry and well off the highway. There were plenty of walks around the lake, and supposedly red claw crayfish in the dam. I found this out on the second day (I have yabbie pots in the motorhome), although no one seemed to be catching any. Apparently the turtles are prolific and tear your pots apart. I didn’t sacrifice my pots on that advice.

Friday morning we left for Mt Isa. It was interesting to see the landscape change from the red/black clay plains to rocky hills as we approached Mt Isa. I spent two years living in Mt Isa around the 3-5 year old mark, but don’t have any strong memories. I have also been back since then on Nalco mining business, but that was 20 years ago. We decided to stop for three nights (Fri, Sat, Sun) as we had plenty of domestic chores to do as well as being tourists. The lookout was a good place to start for morning coffee, before deciding on a caravan park about 1.5km from town.

On Saturday we did a guided (bus) surface tour of the mine and greater Mt Isa. This gave us a good look at the scale of the mine site and informative background on the operations and the town itself. We also did a tour of the underground hospital. Built during WW2 but neglected after, the hospital has recently been restored by a dedicated group of volunteers. They have an impressive collection of war era medical equipment and memorabilia, and also a typical “tent house” restored and on display. The Tent House was a popular house design when Mt Isa began growing due to its minimal construction material and cooling features in summer.

Another Picturesque Coffee Stop, Lake Moondarra

Sunday was surprisingly cold, about 22⁰C but much colder with wind chill! We did some walks around Mt Isa and more chores (it’s amazing how much paperwork and computer work still needs to be done) so we would be ready for departing Monday morning.

We packed up fairly early Monday and stocked up on groceries and fuel before heading to Lake Moondarra (about 20km out of Mt Isa). Planning on just having morning coffee there, we ended up staying for lunch as well, as there were interesting walks and things to see. Monday afternoon we stopped at the WW2 Airfield rest area about 130km before Camooweal. There was a lot of infrastructure build in the area (roads, airfields) to support the Second World War effort, and this overnight rest area has a commemorative display detailing some of the work done.

Lake Moondarra

We stopped here overnight then headed to Camooweal Tuesday morning. It’s interesting that Camooweal is still in the Mt Isa City Council region, therefore Camooweal is a suburb of Mt Isa, and the Barkly Highway is deemed the world’s longest Main Street at 188 kilometres long!

We are back to red dirt plains with plenty of termite mounds, and nothing else until Camooweal. I don’t think I have mentioned the road trains yet, these 53 metre long (half a football field long, pulling three or four trailers) road transport behemoths. You hear bad stories of near misses and threatening driving, but I have to say we haven’t come across any misbehaving yet, all have been courteous and travelling at or below the speed limit.

Camooweal Drovers Camp Museum

Camooweal is a small town of 300 people, and it was the drovers’ capital of Queensland in the past. Every year they hold the Drovers Reunion in August. We visited the Drovers Camp Museum, where locals are trying to collect and display memorabilia of a bygone era to keep the legends alive. The guide was a dinky di drover, I’d love any international visitor try to understand his fast and rambling Australiana speech. A truly fascinating insight into the hardships endured and grit displayed by the early drovers.

Another Typical Overnight Stop

We stayed Tuesday night on the Georgina River in a free camp just outside of Camooweal. Wednesday morning it was into the Northern Territory, driving our own Route 66 (no, seriously, that’s what it’s called from Camooweal to the Stuart Highway). We thought it was isolated through outback QLD! 260km and we come to the Barkly Homestead, the only fuel/food/toilet stop for another 200km before you reach the Stuart Highway. We only travelled another 130km and stopped at the 41 Mile Bore (no longer a bore) for the night. It reached 31⁰C and was still mid 20’s overnight.

Thursday morning we drove the last 100km into Tennant Creek.

Longreach to (nearly) Mt. Isa

June 1 to June 8

QANTAS Museum, Longreach

We spent two days and nights in Longreach visiting the “tourist” attractions, some were a bit too orchestrated and structured to relieve you of your coin, from what I can see. We did enjoy the Longreach School of Distance Education “behind the scenes” tour, I had no idea how comprehensive the schooling program is, for teachers, students AND parents. We had planned to spend our second night at the Apex Park camp just outside town, but hearing of 4WD’s and caravans getting bogged and an extended towing program after the previous night’s rain, and more rain predicted, we returned to the caravan park.

Age Of Dinosaurs, Leah and "Banjo"

We left on Friday for Winton, 180km up the road, nothing in between. With no free camps close to town and a couple of tours I was super keen to do, we decided to park at the rear of the North Gregory Hotel, famous for being (allegedly) the first place Waltzing Matilda was performed. It was a great spot right in the centre of town (no power but toilets, hot showers, just $10 per night), we stayed for three nights.

Sauropod Bones at Age Of Dinosaurs Museum

The Winton area is now also famous for dinosaur bones and fossils, and I have been wanting to go here for a long time. Saturday was a trip to the Age of Dinosaurs Museum and laboratory, where you get to tour the working bone and fossil cleaning labs and see the actual bones that are were found and are building the story of Australia’s meat eating dinosaurs and plant eating sauropods.  The major dinosaur find is only very recent, in 1999 when a farmer found a large femur bone. The current laboratory was only completed in 2009, and the museum and reception in 2012. Like most of these important projects, much of the funding is through volunteers and donations, supporting the not-for-profit project driven by the farmer. I could see myself getting involved if it was “a bit” closer!

Lark Quarry, roofing covering footprint fossils

Merton Gorge, near Lark Quarry

Sunday we were off to an actual dinosaur site, Lark Quarry, where some 3300 dinosaur tracks have been preserved in solidified mud from some 95 million years ago. Lark Quarry is the highest concentration of dinosaur footprints in the world, with three different dinosaurs involved in a stampede in a prehistoric lake area. It’s a 110km drive with 65km of dirt road (each way), so we did a day tour with Red Dirt Tours. The actual dinosaur tracks aren’t as “visually impressive” as big fossilized bones, but as a historical find and its importance to the palaeontology community it’s fantastic. The animated interpretation of the scene was also very good. After the visit to Lark Quarry we travelled to Merton Gorge and the Rangeland areas through some of the massive private stations. Our tour guide didn’t stop talking (in a good way) all day, I’m not sure I’ve ever learned so much about local flora, fauna and geology before. This is the ONLY way to visit the Lark Quarry (IMO).

There are numerous other interesting things to see in Winton that the community and council continues to focus on to preserve its history and spirit. We departed Winton on Monday, but I feel I will be back here at some stage, a very hospitable town (a volunteer fossil dig and preparation trip might be in my future).

McKinlay - No, it's not my motorhome I'm leaning on!!

The second town in 240 kilometres was McKinlay, the town where Crocodile Dundee was filmed. The Pub was officially renamed The Walkabout Hotel after the filming and is now home to many of the props and memorabilia. We settled in for the night in a nice bush spot up the road a bit.

Tuesday we were off to Julia Creek, 120km in the wrong direction back towards Mackay, but we wanted to check it out since we were that close. They have a very well managed and maintained free camp about a kilometre from town, so we stopped there and walked into town to see the 3pm feeding of the Fat Tailed Dunnart (an endangered, mouse sized marsupial), then followed a nature trail walk before heading back to camp.

Corella Dam Camp Spot

Wednesday we drove in the right direction, into Cloncurry for supplies. Their visitor centre has an excellent museum, including well maintained machinery exhibits. From there we drove to Corella Dam, halfway between Cloncurry and Mt. Isa, another fantastic free camp on the lake. It was 32⁰C when we got there, the hottest we’ve had so far this trip. We will stay here two nights before heading into Mt. Isa on Friday.

Sunny Coast to Longreach

May 25 to June 1

Back on the road! We were delayed by another week with some final issues being rectified on the motorhome. I thought I was on top of the planning …….! Still, better getting these last things done while at “home” before they could disrupt us on the road. Our first day was a short one up to Kilkivan, north-west of Gympie. First cold night of the year, about 4⁰C. Shared the camp at Fat Hen Creek with one other travelling couple, who have been on the road for 14 years, they had some advice we soaked up.

Springsure, Virgin Rock Camp Spot

 We have travelled this area before so we didn’t need to dawdle, so the next day drove some 500k’s via Gayndah to Monto (where we found a nice looking council run, low cost camp right in the middle of town, will have to go back there) and on to Biloela and Moura. Leah hadn’t been through here, so it was fun to show her some of the spots I frequented in my early Nalco mining days. They now have a great viewing platform to see the open cut mine working. Overnight outside Moura and the morning in Moura, then on to Rolleston and Springsure. The Lions Park at Springsure is in the shadow of the Virgin Rock (apparently one of the formations “looks like” the Virgin Mary) is a handy free camp. 
They have massive solar powered flood lights that light up the rocks at night, pretty cool. The Springsure Show started the day we arrived (I love a local event!), we watched the evening fireworks from our camp before attending the show on Saturday (dagwood dogs and wood chopping …. Awesome!). This show is the second longest running rural show in QLD (beaten only by Toowoomba). A second night in Springsure before heading to Emerald.

Blending in with the murals in Alpha

We visited Lake Maraboon and the Fairbairn Dam outside Emerald for our compulsory daily coffee stop. This dam has allowed massive improvements in mining and agriculture development in the area, and the drive takes you over the dam wall as you continue into Emerald. Spent the rest of Sunday walking the town and botanical gardens and stayed in the “RV Friendly” overnight park in town.

Redbank Camp, Jericho

Did some re-stocking of supplies in Emerald Monday morning before heading west in earnest. From here the thought of “ambling” and enjoying “mo-touring” changes. It is 100km between small towns, and nothing in between. We visited Anakie and Sapphire in the gem region before we headed to Alpha. A wander through Alpha to view the murals (didn’t take too long) and on to Jericho to stop at the highly recommended Redbank camp spot on the river. Incredibly serene and peaceful. Jericho still have an operating Drive-in theatre (mind you, only once a month).

Barcaldine, note the river in the gutter

It started drizzling rain that night, something a bit foreign to Western QLD as they are in a severe drought. As we drove to Barcaldine the next day the rain increased and hardly stopped until the next morning. We visited the sites in “Barcie” before stopping there overnight. I had to get a Next G Telstra sim while in town, as the “Telstra carried” Aldi sim’s don’t work on the outback Telstra network. No one seems to know this, and the shop in Barcaldine does a roaring trade!

Leah and the Tree of Knowledge

In all they got just shy of 50mm in 24 hours between Barcaldine and Longreach, enough to muddy the place up and shut the highway twice in 24 hours (we were wondering why the camp spot got so busy late in the afternoon). It was still under cautionary open in the morning, and we drove through two shallow “water over road” spots as we approached Longreach on Wednesday.

State of Origin night in the Longreach Tourist Park, a chance to do some washing and watch the game. The park put on a big screen and complimentary sausage sizzle, chicken wing and wedges. Very hospitable, given there was some 400 people at the park that night! We will spend the next couple of days in Longreach before heading to Winton.