Day 26 Normanton to Kurumba

 So now to the furthest point of our journey- Kurumba the fishing capital of tropical north Queensland. A interesting little town with an interesting history from cattle and fishing to tourism and mining. 

There are 2 parts to the town - Kurumba township itself and then Kurumba Point which is really where the mouth of the Norman River reaches the sea. Both caravan parks at the point are filled with keen fisherman who spend several weeks up there every year . we quickly worked out that you really need a boat to have  a good go at getting a decent catch. Russ got up a couple of mornings to fish . He did get some bites  and landed a catfish and a small salmon. sadly no barramundi were to be found and most of the regulars said the water was a bit cold for them to come on the bite. 

View from our site - the beach is just behind those trees 

It has a great information centre of where the Les Wilson Barramundi Centre is located. It a rather impressive building where they breed barra and then release the fingerlings into various river systems and dams around the place. You pay to do tours and feed them and this keeps the place going. 

Going to the Sunset Tavern at the point and watching the sun go down is almost an institution so we complied and had dinner and a drink and watched the sun slowly dip below the horizon . 

Sunset at the Tavern

Our last night we booked in for a Sunset Cruise with Croc and Crab Tours. You leave the boat ramp and they take you for a tour up the river and tell you the history of the town which is great so here goes.

There are WW2 fuel tanks still standing, there is the Kurumba pub in town which has a bar in it called the Animal Bar which was known for its violence and fights over the years. At one stage it got so bad that another that could be used as a weapon was bolted to the floor - even the ashtrays!!!

I think it has calmed down a little bit these days. Les Wilson of Barra fame has a flash house above his business on the river and it seems to have to be connected to get an invite to the place - sounds a bit like a mafia boss . 

All the prawn fleets work out of Kurumba - no one home at the moment as they are all out chasing tiger prawns for the 10 weeks . 

The supply barges are also based here and service a lot of the Torres Strait Islands so really for a small place, its pretty busy. 

The last thing that is here is a zinc processing plant run by Century Mines. The zinc is mined out near Lawn Hill and then tuned into a slurry and piped to the port in Kurumba. Its then processed and taken out by ship. 

After that information fest, we headed out into the gulf about 7km to a sandbar that emerges at low tide. They land there with food and drinks and you get to wander round this little island , sit down and enjoy prawns and nibbles with a lovely glass of whatever you like and watch that sun set over the ocean. Absolutely magical to thin you are sitting in the Gulf of Carpentaria watching the sun sink slowly into the water.

Les Wilson's Place

Loading zinc for export

Another great sunset