Mozzies Around Australia: August 2022

Day 25 Gregory to Normanton

Today was a travel day as we make our way to our north most point Kurumba. Yes we are heading for the gulf.

We are retracing our our steps back to the Burke and Wills Roadhouse and tuned north . The roads continue to get more interesting and its apparent that when something is called a development road it is often another word for lots of single lane which is not always very good.

The good thing is that as it becomes more isolated you tend to see more wildlife - ;little kangaroos, bustards , brolgas and Jabirus are on the increase. We have also seen more wild pigs and of course we are back into croc country both fresh and salties. We did see a bit of misfortune on the road where a caravan had rolled and the wreck was strewn along the edge . Lots of people have been helping themselves to spare parts including us as it will just sit and slowly deteriorate . Russ picked up quite a bit of cable and a couple of lights. It seemed to me to be a fairly new caravan so you can only hope that no one was hurt.

Stopped in a free camp in Normanton for the night - great spot where you could sit under the trees in the shade and enjoy the breeze off the river . Russ threw in line but no action unfortunately.

Tomorrow we head up to Kurumba,

Day 23 Terry Smith Lookout to Gregory ( Lawn Hill National Park)

We left quite early and continued north till we hit the 4 ways. The Burke and Wills Roadhouse is here and big hint - buy your fuel and anything else for that matter somewhere else. I use Fuel Spy a lot to check out the price of fuel and its amazing the variations you find.

The roadhouse was $2.77per litre for diesel and Gregory which is even further west was $2.40. Once you travel up to Normanton , it dropped to $2.12 so you have to plan carefully and make good use of the jerrys.

We arrived in Gregory ( also called Gregory Downs) and it is on the Gregory River. There is a beautiful camping area down on the river but it was absolutely packed so hard to get a spot. We ended up back on the town common free camp area - no where near as nice but you can walk down to the river quite easily.

Gregory River

It was around another 100km of gravel out to lawn Hill so we elected to leave the van there and drive out early the next morning for the day. Had packed lunch and swimming gear but the weather changed drastically overnight with a 10 degree drop in temperature and a cold wind to go with it .

You can stay either at Adele's Grove or in the national park itself . Adele's was pretty quiet when we dropped in and the national park has limited camping that books out months in advance, Like all roads , you could take the van in there - just take your time.

A 6.30am start with the upper Gorge Walk to complete . This is the longest walk in the park and covers both them middle and upper gorge areas. A couple of good steep climbs to the lookouts but beautiful water and fabulous scenery. On the way , you go past Indarri Falls - can't swim there at the moment as a fresh water crocodile has become very territorial, Would ahve been great to swim in other places but again too cold .

As you can see there were plenty of cattle on the road but lots of other wildlife as well -heaps of wallabies, emus and yes even wild pigs.

That night we went over to the pub for tea and to say that we had a drink at this iconic pub. Lots of character like so many of these old buildings.

Day 22 Mount Isa to Terry Smith Lookout Free camp ( via Cloncurry)

We are heading east again taking in Cloncurry and then north towards Normanton. First Stop of the day was the decommissioned Mary Kathleen Uranium mine. Its about 55 k from Mount Isa and the old township is a very popular free camp. We had been told the road from the camp to the mine itself was pretty rough so we unhitched the van at the camp and headed the rest of the way on pour own,

Its about 6km and then we walked the rest of the way in. This fellow told us it was really rough and you need high clearance and all terrain tyres . What a load of rubbish - it was just a plain old gravel track with a few rocks but it was a good walk.

The open cut mine is very impressive with beautiful blue water in it - pity the whole thing is still radioactive. Definitely worth the walk.

Looks very inviting

Continued onto Cloncurry for fuel and drooped into the Visitor Info centre which is made up of all the buildings that were moved from Mary Kathleen when it was closed down. There is always reference to Burke and Wills as well as John Flynn wherever you go . Cloncurry also likes to claim links to Qantas and the RFDS as the first flights came from here.

Our stop for the night was rest area called Terry Smith Lookout . It turns out that Terry was the postman who did the northern run from Cloncurry for 41 years . 1950-1991 and it was named after him for his dedicated service. Quite a popular stopping spot as there was 6 others stopped in the same area.

Lots of quails around

Day 20 Dajarra to Mount Isa

Originally we weren't going to stay in Mount Isa but plans change so now we are booked in to the Moondarra Caravan park which is just outside of town. We often choose the parks out of town due to the reviews you read about people getting broking into in some of the towns. The park is an interesting place as it is a base for a lot of FIFO workers . I think the caravans are just a sideline during the prime times. It was also a good place to restock and clean up before we move on again.

The town is dominated by the mine skyline and with a 100 years of history behind, there seems to be no end in sight to the production from the mine, Copper is the big thing at the moment but there so many minerals sitting there waiting for the right time to come on line. Extracting the minerals from the ore is always the issue so is a waiting game. Of course they still have the lead and silver but they play a much smaller role these days.

We spent our first day just having a look around town , visiting the obligatory lookout where you can see the rodeo grounds ( Mt Isa has a huge rodeo every year - looked at attending but very expensive to stay and tickets very pricey if you are not a dedicated fan).

Last visit for the day was out to lake Moondarra - nice place with lots of facilities including a ski club.

The major tourist attraction is a place called Outback Isa Centre which is where all the various tours start from .

Russ did the Hard Times Mine Tour . I elected not to good as I'm not to real good underground . He assured me I would have been fine but I did the heritage tour instead so we covered all the bases between us.

Russ tour started off in the same place and his tour guide Brad was the local paramedic who had been an underground miner so great insights. I was able to listen in before they went underground and he was a mountain of information about it all.

I had a look around the heritage centre which gives all the history of Campbell John Miles who first discovered the ore in the area in the 1800' s and the evolution of the company into what it is today. There is a fantastic collection of precious and semi precious stones on display together with the Rodeo Hall of Fame. Kept us both busy for quite a few hours.

Sample from the very first ore taken from Mt Isa area

Silver lead rock weighs 3 tonnes -

WHS was not around when this picture was taken

a huge slab of pure copper - priceless and very heavy

Our final night in town was interesting as we had tea at the park. They call it a restaurant but it is really the mess hall for all the FIFO workers.

$30 gets you as much food as you could possibly ever want to eat but you can't take any away with you.

Pity!!

Tomorrow we start heading towards Lawn Hill National Park.

Day 19 Winton to Dajarra ( Free Camp)

We decided to do a loop through Boulia on our way to Mount Isa rather than the usual way for most travelers up through Cloncurry. The country still looks amazing with lots of grass and very fat cattle.

Stopped in at Boulia Information Centre to ahve a look at the Min Min Centre but as we entered the lady told us she was goin on lunch and would be back in an hour. Come back then . Suffice to say we didn't hang around very long and continued on our way north towards Mount Isa.

There is a little sport called Dajarra about half way and we ended up in this great free camp . It' s actually private property but the farmer had opened up a dam just off the road for people to camp around. Great spot with lots of birdlife and even a few cattle rolling in for a drink.