NORMANTON

Hello from us!

Petrol 145.9 - 30 degrees - $50 for a case of beer - $26 for a bottle of white wine.

This is a pretty town with a big river, the Norman, which is full of crocodiles and barramundi. Even though the river is full, the town is dry and dusty. The town was cut off during the January floods for 10 weeks and as the water didn't subside for such a long time, it killed all the savanah grasses and most of the trees in the lower flat plains surrounding the town. Even the mangroves in the river are dead. The most northerly camp of Burke & Wills is indicated by a monument outside the town on the Savannah Way heading toward Burketown. I am told that Burke and Wills carved their mark (a shield and the letter B) into 16 trees at this camp during their expedition north to the Gulf. We haven't been there yet but will visit tomorrow (Friday).


In the 50's and, until only recently, there were crocodile hunters in the Gulf and one of the croc hunters, a lady (well - female anyway), shot a crocodile here that was 28 feet long! Here is a photo of the replica. We went on a croc cruise the night before last but we only saw one ... you will have to double click on this to be able to see it through the mangroves. The tour guide saw a big one but it fled to the water before we could reach it. The marks in the mud were proof enough though - it is huge - 22 feet.









Just over the bridge here are wetlands full of birds and waterlilies. There are brolgas, sea eagles (we're only 70 kms from the Gulf of Carpentaria), cranes, jabirus and other birdlife there. I wanted to get closer to it but the crocodiles are there as well! They feed on the birds and wallabies that come there.

Normanton was a service town for the goldfields at Croydon, about 150kms east of here. The train, the Gulflander, was used to take passengers and goods to and from Croydon in those days. Now the Gulflander is a tourist train which travels the same tracks used in the 1880's. We did the trip yesterday and we rocked and rolled for 5 hours to get there. Once there, we looked at the old Court House, the gaol and police station, then went to the pub. We had to wait until 3:45pm to get the coach back to Normanton. There is a lot of history in Croydon but unfortunately no-one told us that we needed a car. The train trip was really good though and the commentary by the train driver was excellent. There were lots of kangaroos along the line and waterholes with amazing birdlife. The train was also used to transfer mail to outlying properties and yesterday we did just that to a cattle-station which is 40 kms from the train line; they have a post box beside the line. Alongside the tracks were timber cutters' camps and you can see evidence of their camps all along the way. Gee - they would have lived rough.


The old Burns Philp & Co building was built to trade stores and sell goods to the people who flocked to the area searching for gold ... it ceased trading in 1914 when the gold ran out.


There are 3 pubs in town - the Central, the Albion, and the Purple Pub. The Albion was moved from Croydon to Normanton after the gold ran out. It is an interesting little place and full of history. During the floods this year in January, they were fishing off the back verhandah for barramundi, and the crocodiles were fishing out there as well! All of the outback pubs we have visited since leaving home have backpackers working behind the bars. Each have told us that they work in the pubs out here because there's nothing to spend their money on, so they save heaps before doing the Great Barrier Reef or other such places.

Back in it's hey-day during the gold rush, Normanton was a big town. The Normanton Railway Station was constructed in 1889 and is still in fabulous condition. It is a living and working museum and well worth our visit.


"Free camping" seems the go for all the older caravanners - we haven't tried that yet. I might be roughing it but this is about as rough as I'm going - not to have television and electricity and my microwave is not on!

These spiders nests are everywhere out here. Some are huge but I'm not going anywhere near the big ones.

We were meant to leave here tomorrow (Friday) but the Karumba Caravan Park is full and we can't get in until Monday, so it'll be more of Normanton for the next 3 days. We should be classed as locals by then!

Yeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaa!
xx