With the rodeo still in full swing we did a free camp along the Stuart Highway just outside of Mt Isa and then drove in early the next day. We met some lovely European and one South American travelers, the latter we ran into again down the road. We are loving the people we meet on this trip, their different backgrounds, different travel stories and the excellent travel advice we are receiving.
Riversleigh Exhibit
Having spent our time in central Queensland with dinosaurs
from 100 million years ago, it seemed only appropriate to learn about more
recent fossils. North of Mt Isa is the
world heritage listed Riversleigh Fossil Fields. As we weren’t going to either the national
park or the Riversleigh site we did the next best thing and went to the
Riversleigh exhibit at the Isa Experience a very extensive and interactive
information centre – but you do have to pay to visit their Isa gallery and the
Riversleigh exhibit so we only opted for the latter.
Whilst informative, we found the exhibits dark and somewhat
old and tired. Having seen how well
dinosaurs can be displayed in Winton, this exhibit was disappointing especially
considering how important Riversleigh is to understanding the evolution of
mammals in Australia. A single site from
the Riversleigh fossil beds has contributed half of what we know about the
evolution of Australian mammals in the last 30 million years. Actually the best thing about the exhibit was
running into lovely family with kids our boys could play with. Still it was good to learn about some of the
amazing mega fauna found across Australia as recently as 20,000 years ago.
Mount Isa School of the Air
We took the opportunity the next morning to visit the school
of the air. We thought this would be a
great thing for the boys to see – how different a classroom can be. The school runs a tour starting at 10. You begin with an introductory DVD and then
you get to sit in on a real class. After
this you are taken on a tour of the school.
The boys were fascinated with this tour – the boys were impressed with
how the kids had to use their imagination and how little time they actually had
with the teacher. We were all impressed
with the work being done here and with the range and types of learning spaces
each of the kids have. This school of
the air covers 80,000 square kilometres – and almost incomprehensible area.
Another cool water park
After a day of shopping to restock our depleted supplies we
headed for some park fun. Just because
we were inland, the tradition of cool northern water parks is maintained in Mt
Isa. However, unfortunately the water
part of the park was being repaired. The
rest of the park was still fantastic and there were of course other kids so our
boys had a ball. It was a bit surreal
watching them play under almost the shadow of Mt Isa mines – over the laughing
and shouting of kids you could hear the machinery noises of the mines in
operation.
We finished the day at the Mt Isa city lookout eating pizza
watching the sunset and then the lights of Mt Isa and its large mines glow in
the twilight. It was a lovely place for dinner.
Underground Hospital
We had targeted two activities we wanted to do in Mt Isa,
the Hard Times Mine Tour and the Underground Hospital. Unfortunately there must have been a few
rodeo fans remaining in the town and the tour was fully booked for the duration
of our stay. But we could still go to
the underground hospital – a unique opportunity for the boys to see some recent
history and us to see something totally unique.
The underground hospital was built in 1942 following the
bombing of Darwin in case the Japanese pushed for more inland raids, in which
case Mt Isa was considered a potential target.
The hospital was built by volunteers into the side of a hill near the
current Mt Isa hospital. Over the ground there is a museum based on the old
hospital and it is filled with an extensive and somewhat eclectic collection of
antique medical equipment and stories and artifacts from the surrounding area.
While you can take yourself around the old hospital building
above ground – volunteers guide you through the underground tunnels. The hospital languished for a long time and
was more recently revived as a tourist attraction. We found it a fascinating experience, even
the fact that people were worried about attacks from the Japanese this far
inland. As we discovered in Townsville
the continent of Australia was more involved in WWII than we had realised.
Cammooweal – best of all free camps.
After our visit to the underground hospital we had a quick
lunch and set off to leave Queensland.
We spent the night free camping just outside of the tiny border town of
Cammooweal. We have done a few free
camps but this one was extra cool. There
are two billabongs (called Lake Francis and Lake Canellan but due to the
drought we really couldn’t see them attaining lake status) – we camped
alongside the first and smaller billabong.
As we arrived a pair of brolgas was cavorting on the dried mud banks in
front of our campsite. Unfortunately as
soon as I had the camera out a dog chased them away. However, there were ducks, egrets and
pelicans. And while there were a
considerable number of campers we had an unimpeded view. Most amazingly (remembering this is an
unsupported free camp area) we were visited late in the afternoon by an
icecream van. Being a very warm day they
were doing a roaring trade and we added two more sales to their takings.
Then we sat back for a lovely sunset, made a small fire and woke to a spectacular sunrise. Some locals did swing by in the wee hours of the morning for a bit of noisy mayhem, but it didn’t last long and still wasn’t enough for us not to declare this the best of all free camps so far.
Banka Banka – a true outback experience.
The best thing about free camping is you are still hitched
so tend to get away nice and early. We
knew the border was coming up but its proximity to the free camp surprised us –
we had to do a U turn to get a photo.
Yep we were finally leaving Queensland having spent over 3 months here
and goodness know how many kilometres exploring this amazing state, and we
still missed so much. Although we are only about half way through this trip, we are already starting to talk about our
next time (although it won’t be anything like this big journey).
We made our way along the Barkly highway across well nothing
really. This was our longest day of
driving yet and this is what it looked like (yes all of it!).
We made it through to the Stuart Highway – which traverses Australia
almost like a spine up the middle.
We stayed overnight at Banka Banka Cattle Station. NO power, but only $20 and buckets of
character – this was a fun place to stay.
Here they don’t walk their dog in the afternoon they take their donkey
for a stroll. We were also treated to a
performance from a travelling country music singer as the sunset and the large
campfire took hold. In the morning we
walked up the hill at the back of campground before heading up the Stuart
Highway towards the top end. We were
finally in the Northern Territory and as our boys will tell you You will never, never know if you never,
never go. Well we were here now and
ready to find out!
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| You can't tell from this picture but when we got to this sign NO CANBERRA. But we discovered it hadn't been omitted it was just falling down on the job. The boys soon rectified that situation. |
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