TREKKING TOWARDS DARWIN.

4^th September to 12^th September

Free Camping at Clem Walton Park.

Cloncurry was an interesting town, and although it catered for the needs of local station owners it was largely a miner’s town. The caravan park we stayed at had over 200 dongas for miners from the local copper mine. 

We were intending to move onto Mount Isa, the largest copper, lead zinc and silver mine in the Southern Hemisphere, however we had heard a great deal about a free campsite out at Corella Dam.

CORELLA DAM

Corella Dam had been built as the main water supply for Mary Kathleen and was now a water recreational park, especially for keen fisherman. We decided to check it out while still staying in Cloncurry, thus giving us the opportunity to by pass it if we didn’t approve, as Mount Isa was only 100 KMs from Cloncurry.

The campsites around the dam itself were not really aesthetically pleasing. Stunted trees, open spaces where the wind blew frequently and fiercely. We had one more option. Clem Walton Park.

WATERHOLE AT CLEM WALTON PARK

This was originally a beautiful waterhole and BBQ area below the dam wall, designed as a recreational reserve for the residents of Mary Kathleen. (Did I tell you that Mary Kathleen was named after the mine owner’s wife? Don’t know if it would be much of a compliment to be associated with an uranium mine, particularly in the years of the cold war and the controversy of atomic weapons, but perhaps they knew something about her that was not for public knowledge!!!)

 

WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE HERE !

As soon as we saw this beautiful area, a long waterhole rimmed with big old gums, grassy banks and an abundance of birdlife, we knew we would stay. And stay we did! Not the intended 2 or 3 days, but over a week. We soon formed friendships with fellow campers and during the day we would go off along 4WD tracks looking for old mines, semi precious stones and several other surprising finds. 

WE WERE LOOKING FOR FOUNTAIN SPRINGS! OUT HERE? IN THIS DRY DUSTY TERRAIN/

CHECK OUT THE CORGE BETWEEN THESE MOUNTAINS

THE VEGETATION HERE IS DECIDEDLY GREENER!! JUST MAYBE?

THIS COUNTRY IS ALWAYS FULL OF SURPRISES! OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS RUGGED  COUNTRY RIDDLED WITH ABANDONED MINES WE FOUND FOUNTAIN SPRINGS.

Of course the usual practice of “fiveses” would start with Paul and Russell lighting a small campfire around which we would draw our seats and over a cool beverage swap the days stories.

SUNSET FROM OUR FRONT DOOR!

It has been commonly said that a picture paints a thousand words, far be it for me to try to explain this beautiful country when I can add several photos that would at least give you some idea why we stayed here so long. 

WE WERE FOLLOWING AN OLD DISUSED RAILWAY LINE WHICH HAS BEEN MADE INTO A 4WD TRACK TO AN ABANDONED MINE AND WE FOUND THIS. A CEMETERY IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. EACH PERSON LYING HERE WAS A STATISTIC OF THE OLD MINING DAYS AND THE DESCRIPTION OF THEIR DEMISE MAKES FOR INTERESTING READING.

4WD TRACK USING THE BASE OF AN OLD RAIL LINE TO A MINE.

WE DECIDED TO TAKE THIS 4WD TRACK TO FIND THE VERY UNIQUE MALTESE CROSS CRYSTALS PICTURED HERE. NOTE THE SECTION THAT IS 0.3KS AND IS LABELLED EXTREME CLIMB! THEY WERE NOT KIDDING.

THIS WAS THE LAST 100M OF THE CLIMB. IT DOES NOT REALLY SHOW THE TRUE EXTENT OF JUST HOW STEEP IT WAS.

We did have to make a trip into Cloncurry mid week to stock up the beverage supplies which enabled us to stay longer in this free camp.

GEORDIE AFTER FIVESES. DAD NOT IMPRESSED. NO WESTEND.

13^th September to 16^th September.  Mount Isa.

It was extremely hard to leave this place but while we were here I was informed that my father was going to need some support with his accommodation plans, so Paul and I revised our plans.

We did want to spend some time in Mount Isa as the mining history fascinated both of us, so on the ninth day we departed for a four day stay in Mount Isa.

During this time we experienced an underground mining tour that left me in awe of the old time miners who's working conditions were appalling (no OH&S in those early days)!

We visited an original tent house constructed hastily for the miners and their families. The two volunteers who described life in this tiny three-roomed hut had raised a family in one similar so we were enthralled by their anecdotes of the day-to-day life of miners and bringing up a family in Mount Isa.

Our other adventure was to have a connection with WWII. After the Japanese attacked Darwin The community of Mount Isa became worried that they may also be a prime target because of the large mines. They built an underground hospital to evacuate patients to, in case of a bomb raid.

MALE WARD

A BIT DAUNTING! WHAT ABOUT THE PATIENTS, HOW DO THEY GET OUT?

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY!!!

This has been excavated and they found the original wards, medicine cabinets, operating tables and other hospital furniture pretty much as it was when they sealed the entrances. It was not only educational but also a bit of a jolt to see how much the Northern half of Australia suffered during WWII.

17^th, 18^th and 19^th September Tracking to Darwin.

Having enjoyed our time spent in outback Queensland it was time to make our way to Darwin to enable me to fly South to be with my parents. We crossed the Northern Territory Border on the 17^th of September and travelled 1600 kms to  Darwin with just two stops , one at Three Ways and the second at Katherine. Darwin welcomed us with a beautiful Spring day of 37degrees Celsius.

OUR BEAUTIFUL CAMP SITE IN DARWIN FOR AT LEAST 6 WEEKS.

TRACKING THROUGH COPPER COUNTRY ALONG THE MATILDA HIGHWAY.

1^st September to 4^th September Winton to Cloncurry

We left Winton on the First day of Spring, although it felt like the first day of summer as the temperature rose to 34 degrees, no complaints though as we broke out the shorts and thongs. This was what we had come for.

The landscape from Winton was rather non descript, flat, desolate and very dusty, but that’s to be expected in a desert region that is also suffering from a drought. Mile after mile of nothing…… until we drove into the “town” of McKinlay.

This town has a star in its tiny centre…….. the pub where the movie, “Crocodile Dundee” was filmed, so we did what every patriotic Aussie would do. We stopped to have drink with Mick Dundee.

 Only problem was he had just left town and we only had the barman to talk to. It didn’t stop us from buying a drink of course. Paul reckons its always beer o’clock some where.

Once refreshed by the amber fluid we continued on towards Cloncurry which is the first major town in the very rich mining area of Outback Queensland. The scenery began to change as the flat horizon developed bumps, mesas and finally quite steep rugged ranges, which are obviously loaded with huge deposits of copper, lead, zinc, gold and uranium. Why do I say loaded? Probably because of the high number of ore bearing monster road trains we passed.

I remember when at primary school during social studies we had to pinpoint towns on a map of Australia and label them with the ore that was mined there.

One of those towns was Mary Kathleen. The ore…. Uranium.  I remember a lot of controversy about Australia mining the fuel for “Atomic” bombs and it was this controversy that led to the closure of the mine in 1984.

The town of Mary Kathleen had been purpose built in 1958, so it was planned around a civic centre, shopping and services centre, modern school and sporting facilities. When the town was closed, every thing was sold.

 It is now a famous ghost town where the footings of every building are still set out in the streets, bitumen roads edged in concrete gutters still drain the water to the creek, in fact it as a one dimension plan of Mary Kathleen.

The original entrance to the town of Mary Kathleen

Centre of town and the original fountain, the only 3D structure left in the town

Paul standing on the original tiled floor of the Health Centre.

We drove out to the old mine site where again the remnants of the infrastructure needed to run a huge mine can be seen and their purpose identified.

And so onwards to the very mine, and despite the warnings we followed the well-worn track taken by many tourists to the still large open cut mine area.

Self explanatory but obviously not always heeded

The mine itself is still overwhelming in its size and one can only imagine the amount of uranium that was removed from this site.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Cloncurry and I have one last gem of information about this town.

PIES, MEAT PIES, GOOD OLD AUSTRALIAN MEAT PIES. The best meat pies we have ever had came from the local Cloncurry bakery.