Back in Queensland

We drove through the little town of Elliott on the Stuart Highway. Had to stop and take a photo for grandson Elliot in Canada, then continued on until we got to Three Ways where we refueled, and then headed east on the Barkly Highway.

There is not much in the way of camping options on the Barkly Highway unless you stay at a roadhouse, and they are few and far between. We found a site for the night, where there was a microwave tower and a clearing, set up and enjoyed a great view over the valley towards the horizon and watched the sun setting before coming inside. There are 4 other caravans camped here tonight. Bit of road noise from the trucks on the highway at first, but it did not bother us as they don’t usually travel a lot after dark.

The next morning after packing up, we continued heading east and refueled at Barkly Homestead, which was such a nice clean, green oasis on the rather long and boring straight road.

Crossed into Qld and lost half an hour as we had to adjust our watches, (the phones adjusted automatically) and then we found a camp for the night on the Camooweal Billabong. We were surprised just how popular it was, and campers were spread out over a couple of kms with heaps of caravans set up for the night. There is a limit of 48 hour stay, but not sure if this in monitored. It was a pleasant balmy afternoon and we enjoyed watching the brolga’s dancing on the edge of the water, and the sun set with the beautiful soft pastel colours over the lagoon.

Tomorrow we will head into Mt Isa to restock. Will not be staying at Isa because this weekend is the annual Rodeo, which we did not realize, and I am pretty sure it will be busy in town.

I woke early, just in time for the sunrise over the billabong. The sky was spectacular with reds, oranges and yellows changing to soft blues as the morning awoke. It was the first sunrise I had seen on this trip. Theo slept through it.

As we were driving out of the camping area, I said a thank you out loud to the town of Camooweal for providing a dump point and water filling tap and a lovely camping area with bins for travellers.

We went to the servo in town on the way out to fill up and there was a notice on the door to the travelling public from the Camooweal Business Community. It advised that they do not support the closure of the billabong for free camping and believe that the decision was been made by the traditional owners and the Mt Isa Council without any community consultation and believe that it will be of significant detriment to tourism and the economy of the town. Looks like this area will be closed and if so, a lot of people will probably just drive through the town without stopping. Shame.

We stopped in Mt Isa for a couple of things, including a driving light protector which was lost on the road somewhere. We got the last one on the shelf. Supermarket and bottle-o and we were on our way to Mary Kathleen, about half-way between Mt Isa and Cloncurry, approx 65kms out of town.

Mary Kathleen was a uranium mining settlement that is now abandoned. It was an architect designed town with a post office, cinema, police station, sports oval, school, hospital, swimming pool, banks, churches and a general store. By 1961, 1000 people lived in the town. When it closed, in the early 80’s, all the buildings were removed and now the site only has the remains of roads and concrete pads. Mary Kathleen is now just a ghost town.

There is a signboard in what was the town centre, with great information and photos of the original town. About 6 kms drive on a very rough and potholed road, you can drive to the mine pit and see the most beautiful blue water. Although the water looks impressive, you cannot touch it as it is radioactive. It makes for a great photo though.

The land has been rehabilitated and cattle graze there. Apparently since rehabilitation, it has been found that the tailings repository has seen seepage of radioactive waters at rates much higher than initially predicted.

We have stayed here a couple of times before, for one or two nights. It is a beautiful camping area, down by the dry creek with plenty of shady trees. Not much firewood on the ground though.

On previous stays we have seen camels, cows and the ghost of Mary Kathleen (after one too many drinks around the campfire)!Meer informatie