1st – 7th June 2017
Gold Coast to Barkly Station. 2399 Kms.
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| No more toll roads for us this trip !! |
We had packed the Troopie up over the last
few days, had a final oil change and service plus an electrical check for a
wiring fault, so we able to have a relaxed morning and after saying farewell to
Trooper and his babysitters, Col & Al, set off about 10 am on the 1st
June. Pinch and a punch. Start odometer reading 431,790 kms. After a quick stop at the supermarket for
some fresh bread, we headed out towards Toowoomba, passing through the last
freeway tolls we would see for a while !!
No toll roads in the north !!
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| Sunset near Chinchilla |
We drove up to Toowoomba, climbing up the
Great Dividing Range, finding some cheaper fuel at $1.19 per litre, so we
filled up. We then continued west
(navigating is pretty easy out here – pick a direction, find a road heading
that way, then just follow it !), out through
Dalby to Chinchilla, 800 kms from home.
Just outside, at Chinchilla Weir, was a nice free roadside campsite, where we set up for our first night
on the road, had some supper, played some cribbage (Janet won, a usual), and
turned in. Pretty cool out here at
night, so we were glad to have our warm sleeping bags and bag liners. And as usual when I am in the car, I slept
like a log.
Friday the 2nd June was clear
but cold in the morning, and we headed on the long road west through Roma. Our friends from Victoria who are joining us
on this trip, Jos & Tony, were supposed to meet us in Charleville on Sat,
but had travelled faster than expected and called us to say they would arrive
tonight !! After checking out distances
and the time, we realized that if we pushed on, we could make it too, so kept
going and got to Charleville about 5 pm.
Tony had a cold beer ready, and also had some lamb on the BBQ for
supper, so we had a good evening
catching up.
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| Bilby !! |
Charleville has a Bilby breeding programme
which we headed off to see. Bilby’s are
a small marsupial slightly larger than a large squirrel, and used to cover most
of Australia. However due to the release
of predators like foxes by early settlers, and rabbits which compete for the
same food as the bilby, and now in modern times the existence of millions of
feral cats which are pets which have been allowed to wander unchecked, the
bilby is now only found in the northern part of Western Australia and is
heading for extinction. So this breeding
programme is an effort to re-introduce the bilby into parts of Queensland by
constructing large wire enclosures to keep predators out, then stocking the
areas. The bilbies are certainly cute
little animals, although as we saw, they have sharp little teeth if they want
to take a bite out of you ! A very
instructive and interesting couple of hours.
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| Around the camp fire |
We then hit the road west, and after lunch
just N of Augathella, we carried on out through Blackall to a roadside
campground at Douglas Ponds. It was a perfect spot, with only one other person
camping out there, and we built a big fire to keep us warm while we ate our
supper and drank red wine !! A top
evening.
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| Stockman's Hall of Fame, Longreach |
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| Emu !! |
Sunday 4th June was up through
Barcaldine where we turned onto the Landsborough Highway and continued up to
Longreach. Biggest impression was from
the hundreds of dead ‘roos not only beside the road, but on the road itself, so
at times you are weaving between the carcasses ! Jos & Tony wanted to go and see the
Stockman’s Hall of Fame, so while they visited there, we went to check out the
camp sites. We had not booked in
Longreach, hoping to stay at a few camp site by a river just outside of
town. However when we got there, it was
not only very full, but was terrible – just a big square gravel area with
nothing to recommend it at all, apart from it being free. So we headed back into town to see if any of
the normal camp sites had space, and eventually found one where had actually
stayed on our trip in 2013, so booked a spot before returning to the Hall of
Fame to tell Jos & Tony. We found
them, and ended up having lunch in their van in the car park before they went
back in and continued exploring. However
they finished quicker than expected, and so we set of back to the camp site for
the evening. All good, but a LOT of very
small prickles on the ground which made everything slightly uncomfortable !!
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| Crocodile Dundee's Walkabout Pub, McKinlay |
We had originally scheduled a second day in
Longreach, but Jos & Tony decided to save the QANTAS museum for another
visit, so after a quick shop at the local supermarket, we headed out up the
very long and boring road to Winton. We stoped for a quick lunch beside the
road before heading to Kynuna for Tony to get some fuel. Continuing up the road there were lots of
live emus beside the road (as well as a few dead ones) and the usual dead ‘roos
all over the place, In the small town of
McKinlay is the Walkabout Pub made famous in the Crocodile Dundee movies, so we
pulled in there for a beer and to have a look around. There is
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| Campsite at Clem Walton Reserve |
a campsite out the back and the pub
was full of all the campers, so after a quick beer and a few photos, we
left. We managed to get through
Cloncurry to the Clem Walton roadside reserve , about 60 kms short of Mt Isa.
This site was a couple of kms off the road, and down by a big lake where a lot of
vans we set up for a week or two, fishing or just relaxing by the lake. A very pleasant spot, and with no town for
miles, the stars in the sky were just beautiful. A great camping spot.
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| Mt Isa Mine & Visitor's Centre |
Into Mt Isa the next morning, we were there
by 11 am, and after filling up with fresh water at the Information Centre, we
found there was a Mine Tour at 1 pm, and decided to do it. So to fill in time, we had some coffee and a
bite to eat, went off and refueled, and then joined our tour. Since about 1928 Mt Isa has been all about
mining – copper, lead, zinc, silver and some gold – so a tour down into a mine
is obviously the thing to do ! This is a
re-created mine, as going down 1.8 kms underground wouldn’t be too good for
tourists, but we still had to get kitted up in overalls and hardhats and
steel-toed wellie boots, plus of course a miners lamp, before we could head
down into the mine !
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| We go underground ! |
Dave our guide was an ex miner, and was
full of tales about life underground, as well as all the fascinating facts and
figures of the local mines. We descended
in a mine shaft and then spent the next couple of hours wandering around the
tunnels learning about the different facets of mining – the drilling, the
explosions, the clearing – along with all the different machines that were
used, most of which were still working as Dave used to show us how it was
done. We finished off with tea and
sandwiches in an underground crib room, before heading back to the surface. A great tour enjoyed by everyone.
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| Campsite W of Mt Isa |
By the time we left it was 5 pm, so we only
made it 50 kms up the road to a great big free camping area where there were
quite a few people, but lots of space.
It was very windy so couldn’t really light a fire, and after our supper
retreated to the caravan and played cards.
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| Painting the petrol pumps |
In the morning we continued west on the
Barkly Highway towards Camooweal and the Northern Territory border, where we
stopped for fuel and a coffee at the local hotel. The boys were busy painting the fuel bowsers
when we got there, with a full 5 gallon pail of paint, so I reckon he will have
plenty of paint for 2 bowsers ! In
addition, there was interesting signage,
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| Men AND Women !! |
notifying us that both men AND women
must have a short on when buying fuel !
Janet found a hungry horse and fed it an apple which it really enjoyed –
Horses out here obviously don’t get too many treats ! And with the NT border a few miles down the
road, we were concerned they might take our fruit off us, so the horse was just
helping us eat it up !
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| Hot rods at Barkly Station |
There was also supposed to be an
interesting historical grocery store in Camooweal, but unfortunately it seemed
to be permanently closed, so we moved on.
The countryside was really wide open and desolate, and our lunch spot
was not much better, with the addition of millions of bush flies to keep us
company and share our sandwich !! From
there it was on to Barkly Homestead camp ground where once again Janet & I
had stayed before and knew it was good, so we were set up by about 3.30 pm, and
chatting to the group of hot rod boys who are heading up to Darwin and who we
had seen a couple of times already.
Talking to one of them, I think I have even found some excellent tyres
for our Austin Healey, as well as some ideas on a jack for the car, so it was a
productive chat. We then moved into the
bar area and had a few beers before deciding that the hamburgers looked pretty
good , so we stayed there to eat !
Afterwards, retreated back to the van to play cards, before turning
in.
Here we are, in the Northern Territory at
last, allowed to do 130 kph on the roads, and with 3 and 4 trailer road trains
everywhere. And kits and hawks and wedge tailed eagles all over the place. Yup, life is certainly
different in the Territory !!
In the morning we continued west on the
Barkly Highway towards Camooweal and the Northern Territory border, where we
stopped for fuel and a coffee at the local hotel. The boys were busy painting the fuel bowsers
when we got there, with a full 5 gallon pail of paint, so I reckon he will have
plenty of paint for 2 bowsers ! In
addition, there was interesting signage, 
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