Russ Travelling Australia

It has rained and rained, but it’s not all bad.  The weather is warm, but after 3 days, we are a bit sick of it.  With this level of rain and warmth, you can almost see the grass grow!

It hasn’t stopped us taking in this beautiful part of the world.  We have visited 4 waterfalls, the first Millaa Millaa Waterfall, approximately 23 kms from our park.  Russ walked into the falls, down many steps.  Fortunately, there was another road which we took later, where I could see the complete falls, which were beautiful.

A few kilometres on and we arrived at Zillie Falls.  These were very strong falls, but we were unable to see the whole fall, because of an undergrowth of weeds.

The next falls were Ellinjaa Falls, with at least 100 steps.  Russ said they were absolutely beautiful, with the water forming a lacy veil over the rocks on its descent.  On the way to these falls a cassowary crossed the road just in front of us, we were very lucky to see one.

Afterwards, we found a cafe, near Millaa Millaa and had a delicious meal.  I had cajun chicken salad, with avocado and sour cream and Russ had quiche, chips and salad.  Probably the best meal we have had so far.

Later we walked to Malanda Falls, which are right next to the caravan park and you can walk right up to the falls.

Saturday was a housekeeping day with shopping in Atherton, sooo busy, and tidying up the van.  On Sunday we drove to Yungaburra looking for platypus, but we had no luck, and it was too wet for an enjoyable walk so we went home and prepared a pizza for tea. Tomorrow we move to Cowley Beach near Innisfail where we will stay for a week, before we meet up with Trish and Dave at Carnarvon Gorge on 7/8.

What an incredible change in the country from where we have been previously.  We are now on the Atherton Tableland, surrounded by green hills, mountains in the distance and lush, dense rainforests.  There are people everywhere and Malanda has quite a few shops.

On the way to Malanda Falls, we called in to Millstream Waterfall and had a picnic lunch.  Russ walked into the falls, which are the widest falls in Queensland.

We are staying at the Malanda Falls Caravan Park and have booked in the a week.  The park is located next to Malanda Falls Environment Park and has rain forest on two sides of the park.  As you drive around the area there are signs to watch out for tree kangaroos, hopefully we may get to see one.  Except that they are nocturnal, so the chances are dim.

The second day, we went to Mount Hypipamee Crater, a place we visited in 1981, when we were here with the kids, on Long Service Leave.  The Crater is a massive hole in the rock, caused by a built up of gas exploding through cracks in the rock, from a nearby volcano.  It is 70 metres to the water and the water is 78 metres deep.  Underneath one side of the crater, there is another expanse of water, a

further 70 metres deep.  They have built an extensive viewing platform now.  In 1981, there was just a railing around it.

On the way back Russ walked a second track to Dinner Falls, which are on the Barron River that reaches the sea near Cairns.

Yesterday we went to Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham, which are crater lakes, which we also visited in 1981, and they are still peaceful places.  Super heated steam was created by a volcano and exploded, creating the craters, which later filled with water.

At Lake Barrine we walked through the rainforest to see two giant Kauri trees.  The largest was 6 metres around and 45 metres high. The trunk didn’t seem much smaller at the top of the tree, than at the bottom.

We then drove to Lake Eacham and had lunch, overlooking this lovely expanse of water, watching people swim, feed the turtles and wander around.  It was very relaxing and we spent a couple of hours there.

On our way home, we called in to see the Curtain Fig Tree, near Yungaburra.  This amazing tree has taken over another tree, years ago, and has sent down aerial roots all the way around, causing a ‘curtain’ effect.  The aerial roots drop down 15 metres.  A walkway has been built around the entire tree.  It was so large, Russ wasn’t able to get the whole tree in, but thispicture will hopefully give you some idea.

All these places are not far away from the caravan park. There are loads of things to do here, so it looks like being a very interesting week.

We arrived in Georgetown on Friday, a stayed at a budget caravan park, which was very squeezy, but lots of large, shady trees and a very
friendly host.  Just up the road there was a lovely park, next to the swimming pool, so in the afternoon, we walked to it and enjoyed a glass of wine at a table in the shade. Most tables were occupied, some people making use of the power and 3G, others finishing off their lunch. The park shows what can be done, if you want to create a lush, green environment, in this harsh climate.

The next day was just a short trip of under 100 kms, to Mt. Surprise, where I’m darned if I can see the mountain! The countryside from
Georgetown was very interesting, with some hills, prolific bush, with a lot of eucalypts, a winding, interesting drive.

There are a couple of cafes here, a service station with a store, a pub and three caravan parks! We are staying at Bedrock Village. The owners bought 9 acres of land, 16 years ago and they have turned a flat, treeless area into a park where each site has a tall screen of native and tropical plants, giving everyone complete privacy.  There are also lots of birds in the park, with a pair of Red Wing Parrots using a tree on our site to roost during the day, a pair of Red Tail black Cockatoos feeding in a nearby tree, and a couple of Galahs feeding babies on the road to our site.  The park prepares meals that are served every night.  There is a large communal fireplace, but that is only lit when there is a singer.  The park’s theme is of the Flintstone’s, and the toilets are labelled “Fred” and “Wilma”!  We would definitely come back here again.

Undara Volcanic is the National Parks in the area which has extensive volcanic lava tubes, but you can only go and see them if you do a tour, run by this park or Undara Resort.  Russ refused to pay for a tour in a National Park on principle, so today we went to a picnic area in the park, where there is a 2.5 km circuit walk to and around the Kalkami Volcanic Crater.  Russ walked 600 metres up the side to the top of the crater, which is approximately 600 metres across.  The crater is covered in trees and vegetation.  The photo below shows the crater from the air, the picnic area is on the right side of the crater toward the back

In the meantime, I sat at a table in the picnic area and typed up this blog.

The picture on the left shows the crater dropping away from the path and the one on the right shows the tips of two volcanoes in the far distance, about 1-2 kms away.  The eruption that created the lava tubes scorched an area of 5,500 square kilometres and the lava flow ran for 160 km, the longest flow in recent geological history.  This happened about 190,000 years ago.  The lava tubes occurred when the lava flowed along rivers.

Now that we have travelled east, the nights are very cold again, so the heater’s on at night.  The days are absolutely perfect – 25 degrees or so and we are very comfortable.

An early morning start – at the station by 7:40am, for an 8:30am start, then bagged a seat, got a coffee and waited for departure to Croydon, 155 kms away.  There was the rail motor and two carriages.  The front rail-motor was full, so we chose the next one.  In retrospect, it was just as well we did.  We found out that we were in The Commissioner’s Car, fully restored, with large leather seats, tinted windows and plenty of leg room, and a much smoother ride than the rail-motor.

As we travelled along these specially designed tracks, we noticed how much the rail-motor (and its passengers), were thrown around. We felt a very bumpy trip, but it must have been worse in the first rail motor.  They had a better view however, as there were windows showing the track ahead.  The track sleepers are hollow steel, filled with a mud slurry, without ballast (hence the bumpy ride).  It was built this way to withstand the termites and the floods.  Because the rails are all that stands above the ground, the floodwaters just flow over the rails, rather damming up and then eroding the ballast.  The train can still travel with 150 mm of water over the rails.  Some of the waterholes had water lilies in flower floating on the surface.

Ken, the driver, gave a very interesting commentary and we learned about the history of the railway, the discovery of gold in Croydon, the names of the many different varieties of the ever present trees, the waterholes, the abandoned towns, the characters, and much more interesting information.  We crossed the Norman River, where Ken said that campers ignorantly set up, not being aware of the crocodiles.  We stopped at Black Bull Siding for morning tea, this was a cup of tea or coffee using hot water from the trains radiator, and a lovely moist muffin.

Ken slowed to show us the flood levels on a marker post, 1974 being the highest and well over the height of the train!  Things come to a standstill in ‘the wet’.  This is the time they go on holidays, or do restoration and maintenance to the rolling stock and the track that is not flooded.

The railway is maintained by the Normanton team, as is the restoration of carriages, and the development of their museum.  The Normanton Station is an absolute picture of greenery, with a lovely garden, hanging baskets, a green lawn and a feeling of welcomeness the minute you enter.

After morning tea (tea, coffee and a muffin) at 11:15am, we bumped our way along, arriving at Croydon at 1:30pm.  We headed off to a BBQ area, 3+ blocks away (uphill) from the station, and found a shaded gazebo, empty table and a spotlessly clean BBQ.  We cooked our sausages, had them in a fresh piece of white bread!!! and relaxed until it was time to go down to the bus stop.  Unfortunately, depite booking 2 weeks early, we got the un-airconditioned bus, while the first lot got a Greyhound couch!!  No justice in this world.  We arrived home at 5:20pm, feeling very happy, with money well spent.

Part of the enjoyment was the knowledge that this train had been operating continuously for 123 years and that most of the track was unchanged from the day it opened.  The train was different, but the speed it travelled was the same as it was in 1891, complete with all the bumps, we felt a real part of history.

Today, we roasted a large piece of rump in our Cobb charcoal oven, afterwards using the remaining coals to cook a carrot cake.  Russ iced the cake, so it was mostly icing!  The cold rump with salad was delicious.  I made potato salad and a coleslaw – it’s too hot for a roast dinner and gravy.

We are leaving tomorrow – not taking advantage of our ‘free night’ (if you book a week, you get a free night).  We are sick of the dirt and the Gulfland Motel and Caravan Park leaves a lot to be desired.  Although it has just been sold, so things might be looking up for this place.

Well, we wanted hot weather and we’ve got it!  The caravan park (if you could call it that), is just dirt roads, no grass, everyone lined up, with trees at each site, thankfully – much needed for shade in the afternoons.  The temperature was 31 degrees when we arrived, the next day slightly hotter and yesterday was a very pleasant 26 degrees and cloudy.

There’s not a lot to do here, but the first day we had a lovely lunch at the Albion Pub, where Captain Percy Tresize drew a series of humorous painting on the bar room walls.  After that, we had a look at the very realistic, accurately reproduced replica of the largest crocodile (28 feet 4 inches/8.8 metres) ever shot in the Norman River, in fact the largest anywhere.  The Norman River is very wide at Normanton, and the old wharf is handy for taking photos being well above the height a crocodile can jump!

There are three pubs in town, 4 service stations, three of which are selling diesel for 187 cents per litre and the other 177 cents per litre. There are a couple of small supermarkets and a cafe.  We have confirmed our seats on the train and bus for tomorrow’s trip to Croydon.  The Normanton Station is a delightful old building, full of character.

Today we went to Karumba, which is the most northern point of NW Queensland.  It was a lovely town, and that’s where everyone heads for a long time.  There were hundreds of cars and boat trailers at the boat launching ramp.  There is an on-the-spot fine of $250 if you are found swimming (because of the crocs.), but they don’t fine the fishermen, even though they walk out in the water to retrieve their catch.

We were recommended to go to Ash’s for fish and chips and we had the most delicious Barramundi, chips and potato cake, eaten in a gazebo, overlooking the mangroves, Alligator Point and the Gulf of Carpentaria.  It was absolutely beautiful, and the sea breeze reduced the temperature slightly.  It was perfect.

The Gulf and Karumba have only one tide each day because the narrowness of the gap between Cape York and PNG slows the tide wave allowing only one tide per day, except for a Neap tide once a fortnight.  The photos below explain this in more detail:

It is Thursday the 10th July and we have just arrived in Cloncurry, booking in for two days.

Our first night after Quilpie was Jundah – a very tidy, tiny town, where there is a caravan park with six powered sites and a brand new
toilet block in the adjoining park.  You can tell the people have pride in their town, which is very green and immaculately clean.  There is a ‘classic’ General Store there.  Once you enter, you are immediately taken back to your childhood – walking into the little grocer’s shop, with every imaginable product on the shelves.  We went looking for Wraps, and what did we find?  Helga’s wraps, on special!

On the way to Jundah, we had lunch on Cooper Creek – it can’t get much better than that.

Next day we set off for Winton, where we booked into a very average caravan park for two nights, the other caravan park was even more average.  On our second day, we had a wonderful day out, visiting the nearby Bladensburg National Park.  We were going to stay at the park, but the nights have been freezing.  (The days are now 25 – 27 degrees, the nights are about 1 degree).  We had previously gone to the Information Centre and picked up a guide brochure, giving points of interests along 50 kms (approx) trip and we saw the homestead, which was beautiful.  It had verandahs on all sides and the walls and the ceiling had lining boards on the inside and exposed studs on the outside.  There were many outbuildings and a very substantial shearing shed.

On the drive we visited several waterholes, one of these was Skull Hole where there had been a massacre of aborigines.

We also visited Engine Hole where there were lots of Budgerigars, we looked for their nests but  we only saw flocks of them on the wing, both on the drive and at the water hole.

We drove on to the Camping area, on Surprise Creek.  This is where we would have camped – a lovely spot, well set up, giving people plenty of room, with a couple of pit toilets.  We met up with a couple of campers there, in a Kimberley Caravan, so we spent a couple of hours chatting and enjoying their company.

We will be here for two nights.  It’s good to stop – the travelling is very boring for hundreds of kilometres and the condition of the roads vary enormously.  We have been on bitumen since Bourke, but it goes from being a two-lane width to one-lane width, and on the main highways, there are grooves in the bitumen, from the road trains.  When you have to move off the bitumen, the edges have been very rough, with a 3″ drop from the bitumen to the dirt.  The road trains are 53.5 metres long, fortunately we haven’t had to pass one yet!

We are going to Normanton on Saturday, where, on Wednesday, we will take the Gulflander Train to Croydon and a bus ride back from Croydon to Normanton.

It’s Sunday now, but last night, with the park is full to the brim (although it doesn’t feel crowded), we had our tea in the camp kitchen again and watched all the diners enjoying their beef camp oven, vegies, Johnny cakes, followed by custard and fruit.  We took our chairs around the fire just before their dessert and continued our conversation with a couple going to Birdsville for the John Williamson/Casey Chambers concert.  There are twenty four caravans leaving here tomorrow for Birdsvile.  It sounded very good, but will be very crowded.

For the entertainment, they mentioned the ‘Quilbillies’ – we thought that could be good, so we stayed around to listen, little knowing that WE, and the rest of the audience, were the Quilbillies!  We all took turns to play two lager phone, the spoons, two bush basses and two heavy pieces of wood to clang together – I don’t know what they were called. We all had a ball.  Eleanor is a real character playing the bass, with her foot up on the bass box – Russ adopted the pose later in the night.  you can tell Russ is a Victorian, he was the only one in shorts!

People out here certainly know how to put on a good night.  The park is filling up again, so it looks like another fun night tonight.  We’ll be sad to leave in the morning.  As we said in yesterdays post, the entertainment and cooking is managed by Ian, a very capable cook and host, who, with his wife Eleanor, provide great meals and a comfortable and enjoyable environment

I love Quilpie.  We have always had a good time here.  We are staying at the Channel Country Tourist Park, where everyone is friendly, the facilities are very clean and there is a good Camp Kitchen, which we have used every day.  There is a large communal campfire, where Ian and Eleanor put on meals every night, for a moderate charge.  Our pork spit roast and camp oven beef where delicious, accompanied by Ian’s ‘secret’ potatoes and pumpkin, peas, carrot and gravy, followed by bread and butter pudding.  Ian said that if he told me his secret, he’d have to kill me!  Every night they have put on a very good meal, but we prefer to have our main course at lunch time.

After dinner, entertainment is provided.  When we had the roast, we saw the film on Tom Cruse, the first mailman to deliver mail along the Birdsville Track and on another night, we saw The Filling of Lake Eyre.  There was a Seekers Concert another night, but we gave in to the warmth of the van!

We went for a walk along the Bulloo River, a pretty area, but could be improved by disallowing vehicles into the area and provision of a walking path.  We considered having a picnic lunch there, but decided on our site at the caravan park instead.  The Bulloo system covers 600 kms and ends up draining into an ephemeral wetland, near the Queensland/NSW border.

Last night, Peter, the manager of the park, arranged a barefoot bowls night at the local bowling club.  We put our names down, hoping that the night wouldn’t be too cold, and we were lucky that we had the warmest night so far.  We had a great night.  Russ and I were split up, but we both really enjoyed the company of our teammates.  We didn’t actually have to go barefoot, as long as we didn’t have chunky soles on our shoes.  I want to get back to bowls again now.

On Monday, we are travelling on the road from Quilpie to Longreach, but we will probably stop at Bladensburg National Park, probably without 3G reception.

We have enjoyed our stay in Bourke.  On the second day, we called in to the butcher’s, bought some garlic and herb sausages, their famous rissoles and headed to Mt. Oxley for a BBQ.  Firstly, we had to call into The Men’s Shed to pay $10 per person and receive a code for the lock on the gate into the station.  Mt. Oxley is 150 metres high and is the remains of sedimentary rock, after erosion.  The owners of the station have put in a large cover, with a sink, BBQs and tables and chairs.  There are also lovely toilets and basins.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a school teacher and some children.  The children had to achieve good results at school to give them the privilege of the day off.  The view from the top was worth taking the narrow, eroded road to the summit.  A cliff to one side and a deep eroded gutter on the other side, just over the width of a 4WD.  You wouldn’t be able to take a van up there.

Time to move on, so headed North to Aldville Station.  It was bitumen to Cunnamulla where we had an excellent pub meal of fish and chips plus vegies – the fish was flathead.  Cunnamulla looks like a really pleasant town that people take pride in.  After Cunnamulla we travelled on dirt, but the road was long and wide and recently graded, travelling at about 80 kph, until crossing the dozens of grids.  No mud, thankfully.  We crossed the Paroo River on the way in.

We met the owners Louise and Alan on arrival and booked in for 3 days, choosing a place to camp beside the Beechal Creek.  Fortunately we were able to power which Alan had wired to the creek to run a pump.  Just as well because the nights were freezing.  In floods this creek carries more water than the Paroo River, Allan thinks it should have been Beechal River and Paroo Creek, both are about the same length.  Allan gathered firewood and delivered it on a front-end loader.   Adam, you’d be in your element – plenty of firewood and you can light a fire where you like.

The next day, Alan offered to drive us around his property.  He wanted to see the condition of the country after having rain two weeks ago.  His knowledge of the trees is amazing – we learned so much.  There was Mulga – cows eat Mulga, which is much needed food with hardly any grass on the ground, in droughts they push over Mulga trees for cattle feed.  It grows with its branches pointing up to direct the water to surface roots.  It does not have a tap root. There’s Dogwood – smells like dog wee; Ironwood, Bloodwood, Beefwood, Box, Leopard wood, Sandlewood, False Sandlewood, Gidgee – in clay soils it the best timber for fencing as it lasts 90 years as fence posts, Brigalow; Coolabah; Hakea, several perennial burrs (forgotten the names), prickly but cattle eat it, Redgum along the creeks. We have forgotten many other trees that Allan showed us on the tour,

We were shown a Native Well, which still has drinkable water.  The aborigines dug their well in ground called top-rock.  The rock is at the surface, which generates more run-off.  They lit fires to crack the rock so they could dig it out.  This well is 7 feet deep and they were lucky to hit a spring, so it is full all the time.  Alan has fenced off the well to stop stock falling in to it.

We were then driven to The Bluff.  This incredible rocky outcrop that gives views over the property and is about 100 feet high.  The goats prefer the Bluff because it is warmer by 5 degrees.  There is one species of Hakea on the property and we saw a tree at the Bluff.

There are Feral goats, sheep and cattle on the property.  The Feral goats are mustered and return $2.60 per kg live weight compared to $0.90 for beef.  Aldville Station use a gyro copter to muster, backed up on the ground by men on bikes and dogs (the men are on the bikes, not on the dogs!).  On the way back we passed the ruins of a 4 stand shearing shed built in the 1920s. The shed and the nearby yards had been cut from gidgee and assembled together with minimum use of nails, where necessary, heavy timbers were wired in place.  Gidgee is an incredibly hard and dense timber, like most timber in the Outback, so you can only marvel at the effort and perseverance of our early settlers.

Louise and Allan invited us in for a drink after our tour and we spent a delightful couple of hours with them.  We were offered whatever we would like to drink, so a Chardonnay was enjoyed in a massive crystal glass, followed by another!  We invited them to join us the next night around the fire.

I asked Louise if she had any parsley for scrambled eggs, and I followed her around to a pot plant in her beautiful garden, were she cut the whole lot off, then she insisted that we have her chicken’s eggs, all eight of them.  She said that you need at least eight eggs for good scrambled eggs!!   Louise has made the garden around the homestead an oasis in the outback, although recent floods have destroyed many of her roses.

The next morning we enjoyed the scrambled eggs, but could only manage to use 4 eggs.  Later we did some washing and I made a Pizza for lunch, trying it out on our new outside oven/BBQ.  It was extremely successful, except I put baking paper underneath it and it caught fire!  A little smokey flavour added without trying!

Louise and Alan came down at 5pm and we enjoyed good conversation, wine and nibbles around our fire.

On Monday morning, we packed up, called in to thank our great hosts and sign the Visitor’s Book.  We were a bit sad to leave Aldville because our hosts were so hospitable and had made us feel so welcome.  We arrived at Quilpie about lunchtime and decided to stay for a week.  It will be good not to be travelling for a while.  We went and bought a pie for lunch and tonight (Tuesday) we are booked in for a pork spit roast, or beef camp oven, with vegetables, plus bread and butter pudding for dessert.  The wind is freezing, but the days are sunny.  They have advised us to ‘rug up’ tonight.  The dinner will be followed by a film of the mail man, Tom Kruse and his travels in his Leyland truck, as the first postman on the Birdsville Track.

We have 3G here, so we will catch up with all our computer chores, including end-of-year tax work.

We have had a very eventful time of it!  After a very relaxing time in Wilcannia, we headed to Tilpa along the Darling, on the eastside Road.  We found the first 20 kms or so easy going, then we hit a stretch of black mud.  Ahead of us we could just see something stationary, which turned out to be a caravan and car, stuck, meaning we had to stop.  The car ahead was a small, all-wheel drive – definitely not a car for towing a van through mud.

We thought we’d get out of the centre wheel ruts that we were in, get down onto the side of the road, then travel carefully passed him.  That didn’t happen.  As soon as Russ turned towards the left, the car slipped further to the left.  Turning the steering wheel did nothing.  Then, the caravan started sliding towards the car, hit the bumper and the reversing light, then slid back a bit to the right!!

Russ put the car in reverse and unbelievably, it backed up, back into the ruts in the middle of the road.  We couldn’t believe it.

When Russ first walked up to the driver (who was having a cup of tea and not doing anything about his situation).  Russ then walked back up to van and car with a spade, dug them out and they were able to get going, except they were travelling too slow and got stuck again.

In the meantime, we were getting mud off our boots, putting a bag down at our feet, so that we didn’t get mud everywhere and started off.  We were both very nervous and by the time we reached the other guy, he had got going again, still travelling too slow.

The road had improved and we were able to pass him on the right, pleased to be rid of him.

We travelled about another 20 kms until we reached the Paroo-Darling National Park.  This was a site for sore eyes.  A beautiful little spot, on the Darling, with Gas BBQs, toilets, tables, camping spots, etc.  There was a 73 year old lady there, waiting for the road to dry out, so she could drive her motor home to Wilcannia.  I hope she made it through OK.

Feeling refreshed after lunch, we headed off with no more incidents.  The road wasn’t too bad.  We arrived at Gundabooka National, found a great spot.

The temperature during the day was probably 16 degrees, with a freezing wind, so we gathered some wood, lit a fire and watched the park fill up.  We enjoyed the park very much, but it was 0-2 degrees overnight, no power and too cold.  Yes, we are getting soft.

Before leaving the next day, we drove to see the rock art, which was good.  The walk was through some wonderful, rocky country.

Returned, hitched up and drove through the park to the Darling at Yanda Campground.  Only a couple of good campsites, most have no trees, but we found a table under a shelter for lunch, with surrounding trees, an enjoyed a relaxed lunch.  After lunch we set off for Bourke and arrived at 2pm.  We have stayed at the Kidman Camp before – it is at North Bourke, on the road to Cunnamulla.  There is a paddle steamer here, doing two 1 hour trips a day, a bush poet.  The shopping centre in Bourke is quite extensive, compared to other towns we’ve been through and there are less bars on the windows.  People are working very hard to improve the reputations of their towns.  Everyone is very friendly.

We are here for three days, before we go to Aldville Station, 100 kms north of Cunnamulla.  We are booked in for three days and we don’t know if we will have 3G or not.