Longreach to Mount Isa

Day 19—Saturday, 13th July (Longreach to Hughenden via Winton 399kms)

On the road again by 9.30am, heading east for Winton, where we stopped for a town walk followed by lunch. There was some kind of Opal Expo going on and the town was packed, with rigs parked everywhere in the streets. We did the Matilda Museum last trip and decided to press on north along the so called Dinosaur Way, also known as the Kennedy Developmental Road, to Hughenden. We arrived just in time to snatch the last powered site which we’ll hang on to for two nights, while we go check out this Dinosaur stuff. We covered 400kms today, a change after the short hauls through the Channel Country. After getting setup, we enjoyed a quiet afternoon and after dinner, tried out the new telly, watching some footy and later the cricket. The new telly worked well, the software easy to understand and operate. Just to even things up though, during the preparation of dinner, our microwave oven blew up, Bugger! Where's Lionel? Tell him to come fetch Murphy!

Day 20—Sunday,14^th July (Hughenden 152kms bobtail)

Helen got some washing started and after breakfast, the washing got hung out. We then walked into town, about two kilometers. The streets, like most of the towns in the region, are very wide. They too would have had to U-turn teams of horse and wagon in the old days.

Not a very impressive town centre but the Information Centre, known as The Flinders Discovery Centre, stands out. Once again, information and museum combined. A large fossil collection and history section on the days when sheep stations were the main source of income in the area. Pride of place though, must go to the full skeletal replica of Muttaburrasaurus. 

The story here is that the original skeleton found near Muttaburra, was not complete.Incomplete and missing bones were "re-constructed from related dinosaurs, such as Iguanadon from Europe.

We strolled around the museum for a good couple of hours, then headed back to the CP for lunch. Washing all dried, folded and stored.

Muttaburrasaurus

After lunch, we decided on a drive out to Porcupine Gorge for a look see. This took us out of town and across the Flinders River, supposedly the longest river in Queensland. Today though all that can be seen is just a bed of sand. As we neared the gorge, we climbed to a high of 568M, as high as a any time, this trip.

The gorge is 27kms in length and the cliff drop at the lookout, 120M. We've recently been suffering from grid fever so it was good that there were only ten grids in this drive and the homesteads much closer to the road which has been built up quite high in places over the flood channels.

Porcupine Gorge

On return to town, we filled the tanks on the Patrol, ready for the off, in the morning. At dinner time, we took our snags to the camp kitchen for BBQing and had a lovely chat to a couple of German lads, doing an outback tenting tour whilst waiying to hear if they'd been accepted at their university of choice, for medicine.

Day 21—Monday,15^th July (Hughenden to Julia Creek 268kms)

Very sunny morning and after a good breakfast, we headed off westwards for Julia Creek. The highway quite uneven but getting used to it. Never again will I wonder why a caravan needs independent suspension! A raised roadway again, above the floodplain. The railline here, seems to be privately operated by Aurizon, as we’d noticed back in Hughenden and we saw regular trains with fully covered wagons!?

We  stopped at Richmond and did the Info Centre/Museum thing again. This centre taking pride of place in an otherwise unremarkable town. It’s an amazing area though and the archaeological finds are world famous. Many of the exhibits have been found by local farmers and loaned to the museum.

Helen found the local butcher and stocked up on silverside, mince, sausages and loin chops. The sausages were 2012 Sausage Champions. We will see!

After the spending spree, we moved out to the town’s other attraction, Lake Fred Tritton. A man made lake, recently completed and which now hosts water skiing and fishing competitions. It also supports plenty of birdlife, including a pair of Pelicans. We were happy just to use one of the many shelters for our sandwich and cuppa. The hospital is adjacent to the lake and we noticed the mobile Dental Service in attendance. It didn’t look very busy.

Pushing on to Julia Creek, we found the budget camping area around the creek, almost full to capacity but managed to find a level site some distance away and of course nearer to the highway.

Julia Creek (Be Early Though)

We got the Baby Q out and cooked the chops mentioned earlier and they were as good as they looked. Another good day, with the sun setting over Julia Creek and the proximity of the highway bothered me not.

Day 22—Tuesday,16^th July (Julia Creek to Mount Isa via Cloncurry 268kms)

After breakfast and some entertainment, watching a Rainbow Bee Eater catching his breakfast, we headed off into town. Julia Creek is famous for it’s Dunnart, a small marsupial, about the size of a large mouse. The Dunnart had been thought extinct until recently and has now been reared successfully at a sanctuary outside town and at a zoo in NSW. Unfortunately, feral cats have been a great pest in the area and hindering successful release of the animal.

The Julia Creek Dunnart

Stopped in Cloncurry, at the Mary Kathleen Mine Museum for lunch. The museum car park was littered with rigs, mostly hugging the edges where there was some shade, so we moved out towards the highway and parked under a gum tree. While we lunched, we were well entertained by a Magpie singing for his mate.

When we arrived in Mount Isa, we found the Top Tourist CP full, or no powered sites anyway. We had been here in 2009 and it was full then but they found us a site in the “overflow area” which was easy to drive into but very difficult to reverse out of. So not to unhappily turned around and headed back down the highway and pinched the last powered site at the Mount Isa Caravan Park (Oz Parks). Next to the highway, very noisy back also next to the laundry which was convenient as Helen wanted to change and wash the bed linen.

After all that and unhooking the Patrol, we set off to renew our acquaintanceship with the Mount Isa Irish Club where we celebrated Helen’s birthday. We both had grilled barramundi along with a complementary bottle of Yellow Tail Cab Sav. Nice and they knew nothing about somebody’s birthday! I think we did the same, last trip in 2009 but no vino! On the way back to the CP we filled up at Coles Express with the help of a shopper docket from an earlier visit to Coles. At a 161.9c per litre, a 4c discount doesn’t make much difference.