Heading to Queensland

After leaving Mataranka, on our journey southbound, we camped at the WW11 Gorrie Airfield, which was about 60kms from Mataranka (free camp).

When you turn off the highway, there is a closed cattle gate and grid. Drive over the grid on the dirt track for about 1km, and turn at the track where there is a hubcap nailed to the tree. The runway is about 2kms long, so there is plenty of space for everyone and lots of firewood. There are lots of tracks in the area, and possibly some remnants of the base, but we did not unhitch to explore. Apparently, you do have to be careful as you can get lost with all the tracks.
When the Gorrie Airfield was completed in 1943, it was known as one of the largest and busiest military bases in the pacific during WW11. In 1943 at its peak there were some 6,500 personnel stationed at this location. It was a highly secretive RAAF base visited by General McArthur. Hard to imagine this being a hive of activity. There was about a dozen caravans spread out along the runway settled in for the night.

For the first time in ages, we had a campfire as there was plenty of wood around and hardly any insects. Beautiful Northern Territory sunset, clear starry night, camp oven stew cooking on the fire, a perfect end to a perfect day.

The little town of Larrimah is about 10kms further south on the highway and we spent a little while exploring the museum and reading all the history boards. The Larrimah Pub was originally the WW11 Officers Mess servicing the nearby Gorrie Airfield, and extensions were added from the dismantled Birdum Hotel. Larrimah later became a busy rail and road terminus until the railway closed in 1976.
You cannot miss the large Pink Panther and the 15’ stubby, and there is all sorts of memorabilia and pink panthers in the pub. We brought a hot pie for lunch and then continued on the road.

We passed the turnoff to Daly Waters, but did not go in, as we have been there before. We did enjoy our stay in 2012, and enjoyed our meal and listening to the bush poetry and music, but have heard from other travellers that it is extremely busy now, and there is an overflow caravan park, easily housing about 200 caravans a night. Far too busy for us.

Bit of history about Daly Waters. It was a refuelling stop for the London to Melbourne air race of 1919, a refuelling stop for the early Qantas flights to Singapore, and a World War 11 Airforce base. The main attraction for tourists is the famous pub which is decorated throughout with banknotes and other memorabilia left by visitors from every corner of the globe. Outside and across the road are all sorts of unique things including a museum and an old helicopter on the roof of a shed. Worth a stop if you have not been there before.

An update on the tinny we sold in Katherine. Theo asked Andrew to send him a photo of any fish he caught in the tinny. So far, no fish photos, but Andrew did send Theo a couple of photos of the bike/trailer he made to tow the boat until he gets his license back, and also the tinny in the river. He sent a really nice message thanking me for taking concern in him. I think he just made a couple of bad decisions in life, but seems to be heading in the right direction now, and he was over the moon and extremely grateful that we sold the tinny to him. We are so happy that it has gone to a good home.

We have decided that we will travel east from Three Ways on the Barkly Highway towards Mt Isa, then making our way south possibly via the Birdsville Track. We have 3 weeks left.Meer informatie