Winton to Camooweal Billabong - 10 June to 19 June

Last night at Goodberry Hills

Our last night at Goodberry was Jayne's birthday dinner.

We had lots of Red Claw to enjoy as our total haul over the 2 days was 32 eatable sized ones.

So with a small amount of assistance from Jayne, we had a great River and Turf meal. The Red Claw was prepared with garlic and butter and cooked on the Weber. The taste was great, and really as good as lobster.

We enjoyed a fire as well as a Prosecco for Jayne and Aperol Spritz for Alan.

I filled the generator up with the last bit of unleaded we had on board. I wiped up the small petrol spills with a paper towel. Jayne was sitting around the fire and I dropped that paper towel into the fire. The flare up was quite amazing. We'd both been suffering with colds, and Jayne said "Wow - you really must have filled that tissue up when you blew your nose!" My goodness, what does she think comes out of my nose? Certainly not petrol :)

Jayne hung her fancy USB light in the tree near our fire, so we had light to dine under.

Just after dinner the light fell out of the tree without reason. It had been secure hanging off a branch, but she hung it off the car instead.

With another thump a Tawny Frogmouth landed just under the light, right next to us. They're a magnificent bird, and so well camouflaged in the trees.

Isn't he a beauty?

We suspect he was actually the cause of the light falling out of the tree. He would have been eating the insects around the light and knocked it off it's perch, so to speak. When it was moved to the car, he followed the insects. Didn't want to cut his dinner short!

It was a very enjoyable Birthday dinner in an absolutely beautiful and peaceful location.

Winton

We of course had to have a fancy dinner out for Jayne's birthday. So we headed to the Tattersalls Hotel. Winton's fanciest diner. Alan enjoyed a pint of Guinness or two, that's his limit!

Winton is in the centre of dinosaur country in Queensland.

We've been to Lark Quarry (dinosaur stampede) previously, but we had not been to the new Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum. So we ventured up the jump-up to this 'new for us 'exhibition. What a great location at the top of the jump-up. You can see for miles.

Then of course there's the dinosaurs! 

All the dinosaur are real sizes - this guy is a whopper

It all started when they discovered these tracks in a river bed that was uncovered during a flood in 2006. They painstakingly moved the whole river bed, about 50m long. This was to stop further corrosion occurring. They couldn't preserve it where it was found. Whereas at Lark Quarry, they built the air-conditioned building around the actual site and continue to work on uncovering it in situ under this protected area.

Wouldn't want to be here with the "Fly Level" at "Free Protein"

Arno's wall in Winton. A collection of things Arno collected from the town dump.

Julia Creek

Jayne had read good things about Julia Creek and we haven't ever stopped there before, so we decided to stay in their 96 hour RV Rest Area. This was an excellent choice and we managed to score a waterfront site. All for a $5 donation per night.

A really nice campsite setting

We rode 1.2 kms into town,for coffee and some shopping. Later that night we also walked to the pub for dinner, which was a nice break for Jayne from cooking.  

The water tower was lit up in green the night we were there. We think it could be a different colour each night.

The town offers free push bike hire from the free RV Camp as well as the Caravan Park. This is to promote campers to ride into town to see the sights, and no doubt spend some dollars there as well. What a great initiative. Some towns do it really well, and they get good returns from it. Generally these towns are nicer and more vibrant than the ones who don't promote good camping.

Pretty new bikes as well. Excellent service.

Mary Kathleen Town - Ghost town 

Mary Kathleen was a Uranium mine and the town operated here from 1954 to 1982, when the uranium ran out. They then dismantled the town and just left lots of concrete slabs, where houses, shops, and all necessary buildings for a small town were located.  Ideal for camping and we got to stay nice and clean, out of the dirt for a change.  

So many concrete slabs to pick from! We drove around and around as only we can, trying to pick the ideal one. Not too close to anyone, but with a nice outlook over the former town square.

Of course after we picked the ideal one and set ourselves up, we realised we were in total shade the whole afternoon. No good for the solar panels on the roof.

The next morning it was obvious we were also going to be in full shade until well after 11am.

So we had to move! Talk about pick the wrong slab! So after we'd driven around for nearly an hour the day before, we still picked a dud place to stop. Will we ever get it right the first time within 30 minutes?

You'd think there was enough space and choices!

Too many in fact

The drive to the site of the open cut uranium mine is about 6kms.  The tarred roads had deteriorated badly and the dirt portion wasn't maintained at all. But it wasn't too bad in our Cruiser.

The pit was amazing. No swimming as there's to much radiation in there. They say its leaching out of the earth at rates higher than what was expected when they closed the mine and spend $19million on rejuvenating the area. So we didn't hang around for too long.

How incredible is the colour of this water! 

We don't think it's supposed to be blue, more a dirt brown colour. Where's the blue coming from? That's why you can't swim here!

Reminded Alan of the days when Omo laundry powder was advertised to make your whites whiter and colours more colourful! That's because it had radiation in it

This is a shot of just the blue water.  It looks like a paint sample from Bunnings!

We drove up a dead-end road, but at least it had a nice view over the valley

 The local cows come along each night to check on the campers 

Mt Isa 

This visit to Mount Isa was all about shopping and picking up a few deliveries at the Post Office. Nothing there to entice us to stay as we've previously done all the touristy things. Surprisingly Mt Isa caravan parks are all ho-hum and we wouldn't stay in any of them. 

I remember back to my former working life when I visited Mt Isa to investigate the mine winder bearings. I went 13kms underground! There was a whole different life and city going on down there. Vehicles and machinery which were assembled underground and that have never seen the light of day. I thought at the time that some of the miners I met down there also had that status.

So we stayed at the free camp at the WWII Historical Site Rest Area, some 54kms west of Mt Isa.

Not too bad, but very dusty

Camooweal Billabong 

Mount Isa Council, in their wisdom, has announced they're about to close the free camping at the Camooweal Billabong due to Indigenous cultural reasons. The more we research, the more we realise that there has been very little thought gone into this decision.  How will the town survive? The only reason to stop in Camooweal is to camp along the beautiful billabong, and then spend some money at the shops and buy a meal at the pub. 

In past visits here we've walked or ridden our bikes to the pub for lunch. As the camping isn't that crowded here this year, we're a bit closer to the pub so we decided to walk there for Sunday lunch. It was a 3km stroll each way. Well, the pub was open but not doing any food. Are they already downsizing due to the lower tourist numbers? So we had a burger at the Roadhouse and that was very enjoyable.

Travellers are nervous about camping along the Billabong now, but we decided if there was no sign saying it was closed, we'd camp anyway.  It was still open, so we found ourselves a beautiful spot along the waterfront with about 20 other vans for the night. Normally there would have been 50 to 100 in the whole area, which is very large and well spaced out.

A lot of tourists are saying they will bypass Camooweal now which will destroy the businesses there. You can see from the sign on the service station door that the local businesses aren't in favour of it. 

The sign at the entrance says its open for camping. That's good enough for us!

It's just a shame that such a great resource for the tourists, as well as the local businesses, is being put in jeopardy. A perfect example of how to do it well is Julia Creek and how they promote their town to attract tourists.  

The camping here is certainly top notch 

There is an abundance of bird-life here to watch while looking over the billabong - Whistling Kites, Brolgas, Black Swans, Herons etc.  Very peaceful indeed.

Photos of the old road into town with the new bridge above.

The floods in March this year peeled off the surface of the road.

You can just make out a couple of sticks that have been stuck in the bridge when the flood came through. These sticks were about 6m from the lower level where we were walking

A Note on the Gidgee Tree:

Once you venture north past Bourke NSW then into Outback Queensland, there's a distinctive disgusting smell as you drive along some areas.  This is the Gidgee Tree, or Stinking Wattle. It smells like boiled cabbage or sewage.  2 years ago, Alan and I drove from Bourke through the rain and crossed the border into Queensland, pulling into the Cunnamulla Caravan Park for the night.  Something really reeked, and we hunted everywhere in, around and under the caravan and car, certain we'd picked up a dead kangaroo and dragged it all the way to Cunnamulla with us.  But the owner of the park told us it was just the Gidgee Trees along our drive, and we could stop looking for any road kill. The trees are everywhere around here, and when the wind blows in your general direction it's a really disgusting smell.  It does have one redeeming feature though - it's the 3rd hardest wood in the world, and known to blunt the blade of a chainsaw.  It was, and still is today, used for fencing because it's so tough.

Looks harmless enough doesn't it?