27/6/09
Left Hughenden nice and early for our trip to the next stop, Julia Creek. The road was dreadful and more like a one-lane road which we had to get off into the scrub when a road-train came through. It was really bad so it took a while to get to Richmond. Two highlights: First were eagles in their hundreds soaring and diving all the way to Richmond. The second was Richmond itself, which is another dinosaur stop but a really pretty little town. The gardens were beautiful and it looked much more prosperous than Hughenden - I think Richmond gets more tourists. The country is very, very dry and uninteresting other than the eagles swooping all around. Another fossil museum - bought fresh bread from the bakery and had lunch.
Arrived Julia Creek 3pm (250kms), set up then down to the main street (only 2 streets in Julia Creek) had a beer in the 103 yr old pub and met "Bundy" and "Menace". Bundy is a guy who, as a child, moved to Julia Creek with his mum and dad in the mid-50's. His dad was a drover and Bundy is a musterer. He had the bluest eyes I've ever seen and he stood about 5'2" tall with an old akubra hat on top. We shook hands to say goodbye and his hands were like sandpaper. He told me (Frances that is) that "you tickle my fancy". Ha - I can pick them!! Hey, Sue, (my sister), Bundy is Bobby's twin. For everyone else, Bobby is a family friend from Crookwell near Goulburn, and he is a really lovely sheep grazier and is "the spit" of Bundy! "Menace" is a horse breaker and has been all his life. My gosh - you could write a book or, even better, do a movie on the characters out here.
We were going to have dinner in the pub but the lights failed so we went to the other pub (only 2 in town - 1 for each street!) had the best lamb cutlets I've had apart from my own, won $80 on the pokies then home to sleep.
The caravan park was just an open paddock with 2 dogs and a block of porta-loos which had showers as well as toilets. However, only 2 cubicles were open out of about 12. We got up at 6am so that we could be first in - me in one, Ken in the other. It's a case of the quick and the dead!!
Left Julia Creek at 8:30 am for Cloncurry and Mt Isa (280 kms). Again country not interesting but had a good trip. Didn't stop at Cloncurry as we will go back there after our awning is fixed in Isa. Between Cloncurry and Mt Isa is Burke and Wills country where they camped on their way to trek the south to the north. We stopped at the Corella River and found a memorial to a camp of Burke & Wills in 1861 (see photo). This would have been a wonderful place to camp as there is a running river over stones and not too deep with lots of shady gums and a great place for them to rest.
Drove straight through Cloncurry as we will be going back (don't know why from what we could see), on to Mt Isa.
Arrived at the Copper Mine Caravan Park (the lady at the desk should change her job - nasty piece!!) We have an ensuite site here which is good but gosh, the park is a dust bowl. Nothing can be done, of course, about the lack of rain and the caravan park is full of shady trees but the ground is just dirt and dust. There are a lot of permanents in this park - they work in the mine and each night just when it's time for sleep, the motorbikes and cars start up for the guys/girls to take off for their shift at the mines.
Big place! Big mine! Mt Isa is a huge industrial town for the mine. The mine is 80yrs old and doesn't look like closing. It mines copper, zinc, silver and lead. We did a surface tour of the mine for 3 hours which was really interesting but it's 9:30pm at night so I won't go into it here. Ken is keeping the handwritten diary up to speed so I'll leave the technical stuff to him. The tour made us understand what the mine is all about rather than being just a huge conglomeration of structures. The amount of metals like copper, silver, lead and zinc runs into the billions of dollars and there is no end to the mine.
This can't be a healthy place. There are tall stacks which belch out smoke and the guides say that the air is monitored by the EPA, but hey, we just got home at 9pm and there's a lot more coming out than during the day. 4 days in Mt Isa is enough in my book!
The town is a service town for the mine. If the mine didn't exist, there would be no town. There are a lot of indigenous people here and it's good to see a lot of them work in the mines. They make a lot of money.
It has been very hot out here - today it was 32 degrees and in the caravan it was 35 degrees. There is a pool in the caravan park but it is full of dirt, not water!
Last night we had a bbq of lamb chops, eggplant, potato watched tv. Tonight, being our last night in Mt Isa, we went to the Buffs Club (Buffalo Club) for dinner.
We were told when doing the Mine Tour, that there would be explosions at the mine at 8pm tonight. We didn't think anymore of it, until tonight, while at the Buffalo club, we felt the earth move. I looked at Ken, he looked at me, and we slowly walked from the club. We were sure it was a minor earthquake, but nobody else was moving. It turned out that it was the mine. When we got back to the caravan park, the people in a combi-van behind us, said that they didn't feel it, but they heard it. David and Margaret are in their late 70's and are from Young in NSW. They are the salt of the earth type people and are travelling the inner Qld country out to the coast and back to Young.
We leave here tomorrow morning after having our awning fixed. On to Cluncurry for an overnight stay then north to Burke and Wills Roadhouse.
Keep watching!
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