Winton and surrounding areas

Tuesday 19 June – Thursday 21 June

The drive from Cloncurry to Winton was fairly unremarkable  - about 350 kilometres with only two small villages in between. They consisted of pubs and little else. The first was Mackinlay which is home to Walkabout Creek Hotel which featured in the Crocodile Dundee movies. The second, Kynuna, is home to the Blue Heeler pub, which may mean something to Queenslanders, but was lost on me. It has a neon blue heeler sign on top. Interestingly, out the back near the toilets is a surfboat from Coolum Beach, with the Blue Heeler logo, which was a fundraiser for the Flying Doctor Service.

Walkabout Creek Hotel, Mackinlay

Blue Heeler Hotel, Kynuna

Surfboat at Kynuna

Our third stop was to visit Combo Waterhole which was the inspiration for the song Waltzing Matilda. It was a 2.6 kilometre round trip to walk the waterhole, which is now in a conservation area. To reach the waterhole you have to cross several creeks which have had “overshoots” built across them. They are essentially stone weirs with sloping faces which enable water to shoot over the top in times of heavy flow. When the flow decreases or stops a waterhole remains upstream  which supplies water for stock. These overshoots were built in the 1890s and still function as originally intended .

An overshoot on the Combo Waterhole walk

Combo Waterhole, the inspiration for Waltzing Matilda

Near Winton, arising out of a semi-arid landscape are a series of mesas, flat topped eroded plateaux, which was quite a surprising sight.

Above and below, mesas near Winton

In Winton we had heard that there is free camping behind the North Gregory Hotel. Everyone else had heard too. So the next port of call was a free camp 4 kilometres outside Winton. All those who missed out on the North Gregory set off there with a vengeance. There must have been at least 50 caravans cheek by jowl along the waterhole. Fortunately very few had thought to cross the levee bank to the other side where there was abundant space, right on the water with bird life for company.  We could still hear the bagpiper practising Amazing Grace for a couple of nights though.

Our billabong at dusk

Blogging by the billabong

Spoonbills feeding in the billabong before dawn

Winton is Waltzing Matilda country, as well as staking a claim to Qantas and is also part of the Dinosaur triangle of towns. The Waltzing Matilda Centre claims to be the only museum in the world devoted to a song. It has excellent displays relating to the song, created by AB Paterson, with the music arranged by Christina MacPherson. You can hear multiple performances of it recorded in many circumstances over the last 100 years. The Centre also has a variety of other displays including an Art Exhibition, Legends Gallery, a Qantas display and a local history section. For those who are more into machinery and artifacts there is plenty to keep them happy for ages. There is a steam engine, old rail carriages, tools, farm machinery, old vehicles and much else besides. We left with a severe dose of information overload.

The Waltzing Matilda Centre, Winton

Old spirit duplicator, smelly purple stencils

A lamp for Tilly?

As well as the Waltzing Matilda Centre there are other places of interest in the town, such as the old Corfield and Fitzmaurice emporium, with its antiquated ordering system on a system of pulleys. Winton also has an operating outdoor picture theatre, complete with deckchairs and a roller skating rink. It is home to the Largest Deckchair in the World.

As a centre for dinosaurs Winton has become renowned. There is a display in the old emporium, but the major destinations are Lark Quarry and the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Centre. Lark Quarry is 110 kilometres south of Winton, and is the site of the world’s only recorded dinosaur stampede. There are thousands of fossilised footprints on a large slab of rock, protected by a climate controlled building. There are three types of dinosaurs represented in the slab, but one is of a giant predatory dinosaur. It’s large footprints show purpose, while the smaller dinosaurs’ prints  indicate chaotic disarray.

A stampede in stone

The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Centre is located about 10 kilometres east of Winton and it is a purpose built laboratory and display centre. Its prize exhibits are a carnivorous dinosaur nicknamed Banjo with wicked teeth and claws, and a large plant eating dinosaur nicknamed Matilda, equal in weight to about five elephants. On a world scale these are significant finds. Before visiting Winton I was under the impression that most Australian dinosaurs were small, but these have dispelled that misconception.  

A re-creation of Banjo outside the cntre building. Check out the wicked claws

Cloncurry

Sunday 17 –Monday 18 June

Mount Isa to Cloncurry is only about 120 kilometres, which didn’t take us very long, even with a detour to the site of the old uranium mining township of Mary Kathleen. Uranium was mined there from the 1950s but the mine had a chequered history as it was totally dependent on contracts being renewed or new ones negotiated. It was a company town, and when the mine was wound up all the buildings were auctioned off and removed. Today the mine site is on private property, and while access is freely available there is no obligation for the owners to maintain any aspect of the site. However you can still see the kerbing around each house site, and quite a few trees that aren’t native -  the oleander is one.  There are mine mullock heaps in abundance, but we didn’t find the quarry which now holds a curious mixture of non-drinkable water.

Non-native tree and remnants of street kerbing at Mary Kathleen

Mullock heaps, Mary Kathleen

This wattle, although beautiful, is everywhere, almost in weed proportions

Arriving in Cloncurry we stopped at the Mary Kathleen Memorial Park, which has an interesting collection of memorabilia. From Mary Kathleen itself, the old Police Station building is now the information kiosk, while the caretaker’s cottage is from the old town as well. Apparently all the houses were identical. The adjacent park has a collection of old machinery donated by local people and businesses.

Caretaker's cottage was originally a miner's house at Mary Kathleen

David on a large piece of Maclaren-built machinery

This old cart was certainly built to carry a load

These are only a small part of the springs - puts the 7 leaf springs on our trailer to shame

We visited a couple of cemeteries with historic interest. The Chinese cemetery near the river is a reminder of the large number of Chinese here during the goldrushes. The old town cemetery has several graves of Afghan cameleers, only one with a headstone though, with the grave facing north-south and the body interred facing Mecca. The famous Australian writer and poet who appears on the $10 note, Mary Gilmore is also buried in Cloncurry with her husband. She died in 1962 at 97 years of age. In our quest to find this grave I stepped into a hole (no, I do not have one foot in the grave) and almost twisted my ankle, but it’s recovering okay.

Cloncurry is renowned for its role in the early days of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and also QANTAS. The first ever QANTAS passenger flight landed in Cloncurry and the original aircraft hangar is still in use today. There is an excellent museum devoted to Reverend John Flynn and his vision for a “mantle of safety” over outback Australia. It includes Alf Traeger’s first pedal radio, details of many pioneers of the RFDS and also the School of the Air.

Model of the original Qantas aircraft

The museum also has an art gallery which currently houses a travelling display of quilts, all red and white.

A rare and unlikely to be repeated photo - David viewing a quilt exhibition

We ended our stay in Cloncurry with another wood gathering expedition as we met a couple who indicated that further south we would find very little wood, so we are now loaded up, ready to find a place to stay where we can actually have a fire.

The Cloncurry River

A nice load of firewood gathered from the banks of the river above.

Mount Isa

Wednesday 13 - Saturday 16 June

We have spent the last three days in Mount Isa, giving ourselves a break from constant travel, and taking in the sights. Mount Isa is a city of over 23 000 people and has a lot to offer. The town is dominated by the mine, which is confined to one side of the Barkly Highway, while the residential and business sector is located on the other side.  The first mine began in 1924 and after World War II it boomed, with post-war immigration making it a very multicultural society. Today, its Irish Club is the largest outside Ireland.

Mount Isa and its mine

Our first surprise was the actual positioning of the town – it is situated in the centre of a substantial hilly region. After travelling for some time through essentially flat country it was a shock to see well wooded hills. They are the first substantial hills we have encountered since we left the Flinders Ranges more than two weeks ago. Our second surprise has been the temperature. It has been over 30 degrees each day – quite a shock to our winter acclimatised bodies. It’s cool at night though.

There are quite a few touristy things to do and see here, so we tried to fit in as many as possible. They offer underground mine tours, but they are quite pricey, so we opted not to do one. The Information Centre offers a number of displays including an outback garden, which was a bit neglected, a display of fossils from Riversleigh, a major outback Queensland fossil source, and an exhibition of local history and events. All of the exhibits are well produced and interesting.

Lagoon in the Outback Park

Carnivorous fauna re-creation at Riversleigh. Ancestor of either kangaroos or wombats

Crocodile skull

Compare a modern platypus skull with the fossilised ancestor

The biggest problem came with one of the displays of communication technology from the past. In it there was a radio the same as David’s family had, a phone the same as our family had when I was a child, a box Brownie camera the same as Mum had and a couple of other items. We aren’t ready for our childhood items to be museum pieces yet.

Technology of the fifties and sixties now in a museum!

Two destinations are unique to Mount Isa. An underground hospital was built(??) during World War II after the Japanese bombed Darwin. It was funded by the mine and fitted out with all the paraphernalia a hospital of the day might require in case Mount Isa was bombed. After the war its entrances were sealed and filled in, complete with equipment, and the hospital was forgotten and unknown until an excavation in the 1970s. Since then it has been restored by mine volunteers, and looks today as it would have in wartime.  It was quite a fascinating place to visit, and of course it was cool underground.

The operating table, embedded in the floor

Bedpans...

Bassinets...

and a birthing table with stirrups

The second unusual building is the Tent House. Although closed and in need of restoration it is quite unusual. Because of a housing shortage tents were supplied for accommodation. They were upgraded to have a solid roof built above the tent, and the bottom half of the wall is corrugated iron lined. They eventually had electricity supplied. The tent house is the only one remaining, but they used to be quite common.

View of the interior of the tent house. The canvas blinds on the exterior are in poor condition

We also took a drive to Lake Moondarra, which supplies Mount Isa’s water. It was completed in 1957 by Mount Isa Mines who provided much of the initial infrastructure for the town. It is very large, and is a popular spot for recreation, especially in the summer. A park nearby also had a flock of peacocks, about 20 of them, which kept us amused for a while.

A small section of Lake Moondarra

A pelican patrolling the lake 

Another view of the lake

Immature male peacocks strutting about

An "Up Yours" moment

By the time we leave we will have had four nights at Argylla Caravan Park, but now we are definitely ready for some more bush exposure again.   

So farewell from Kenneth, the Mount Isa mascot.

The irreverent Kenneth