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outback queensland
outback queensland
The Barkly Highway goes from Townsville to Tennant Creek. In the olden days Townsville to Camooweal was a Cobb and Co major route. Each town is spread roughly a day apart in terms of a coach's drive.
charters towers (charlie's trousers)
Charters Towers is an ex-gold town, with many of its buildings classified by the National Trust.
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Neil isn't interested in the National Trust - he's interested in icecream.
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Beetles in Charlie's Trousers.
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Page 2 of the local rag. You get your photo in the paper if it's your birthday. Next to the Chick'n'Moo meat ads (this one was for you Racy!).
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hughenden
Hughenden calls itself the dinosaur capital of Australia. There is a giant dinosaur skeleton replica in the middle of town (inventively called 'Hughie'). All of the bins have paper mache dinosaur feet replicas built around them. Which is quite a big effort for a town who has only ever found the fossils of one dinosaur - Hughie. Hughie, incidentally, is a Muttaburrasaurus, which is named after Muttaburra - where the fossils were found. Hughenden is a one-dinosaur town.
The Grand Hotel. This Hotel won a "Best Looking Hotel in Queensland" award by a bunch of Victorian architects.
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The award winning views from the balcony. When we asked for a room, the guy said we were lucky - he only had one left. We didn't see a soul in that hotel until about 8pm that night, when a backpackers bus dropped in.
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Neil asleep in the busy, busy family room.
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$35 a night.
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The mysterious Hughenden Dinosaur found in Muttaburra.
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A street tribute to Hughie.
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That night in the Hughenden pub we saw the camp ground surveyor we had met earlier. Turns out he used to work for Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, relocating crocs out of the river system in Far North Queensland (and thinks Steven Irwin's a wanker). One person is killed by a croc every ten years. 7.3 people are killed every year driving to see a croc.
Porcupine Gorge is 60kms north of Hughenden on a 4WD track.
Basalt lavas flowed from active volcanoes in the region during the past 5 1/2 million years.
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Porcupine Creek has cut down through the basalts in the bedrock.
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We interrupted a cattle muster.
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I wanna be a cowgirl, baby...
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cloncurry and rosegreen station
Cloncurry has the proud honour of having the hottest recorded day on record at 53 degrees (in the 1800s mind you). Yes, it is hot but we didn't stay there long. We stayed at a cattle station 100kms north of Cloncurry. Between Cloncurry and Rosegreen Station there is one town - Quamby. Quamby has a population of five. Even when you drive into Quamby the sign doesn't say 'Welcome to Quamby'. It says 'Where the hell is Quamby?'. Our instructions were to turn right at the second Telstra tower and continue 14kms to the station on the 4WD track. Rosegreen had had a bushfire a couple of years ago, and some of the bush was starting to revegetate.
Our hosts were Larner and Judith and two very well behaved girls, Whitney (5) and Madison (3). It was Whitney's 5th birthday the day after we got there, so we were lucky enough to join in on her birthday party - bush style. Larner's nephew, Brendan, and sister, Sharon, were also visiting the station at the time.
Cloncurry (only 188ks to Mt Isa!).
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Neil filling up the jerry can with spare petrol. Even though Quamby has a petrol station, they ran out of petrol six years ago and never bothered to refill.
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Breakfast somewhere, can't quite remember where.
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Rosegreen Station. Judith's grandfather bought Rosegreen in the early 1900s, and originally built the home on black soil. They ordered a kit home (this one) in the 1930s, which is still intact now. Larner and Judith are slowly renovating the station.
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The kitchen. Mum - you would love this. It is full of old fifties pots and pans - check out the cooker in the corner.
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Madison, Whitney and Judith at Whitney's birthday party.
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Everyone walking down to Dismal Creek for cheese and wine. The calf (Sleepy) thinks he's a dog and invited himself along, floppy ears and all.
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Nibbles at Dismal Creek, while the girls take a swim.
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Rocks the Aboriginal women used to crush seeds to make flour, found on the station.
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Fossils found down by the creek.
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Larner taking off in his chopper to check the station.
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Neil fossicking for Nutragrain.
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The girls' cubby house. Whitney got a hammer for her birthday from Larner, because she likes to smash things. She also likes to climb - she has a big dent in her knee where she went climbing to the top of the helicopter hangar looking for a bird's nest.
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The Sugden-Smith family, plus Helena on the left.
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Larner's firetruck. If there's a bushfire, the neighbours radio each other and go out to fight it together.
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Big pantry.
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One of the seven frogs that live on the back verandah.
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Whitney playing with a very patient cow.
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Party time at Rosegreen. The kids are wearing helmets because they've been bareback horseriding on their own.
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Neil helping Larner fix a pump in the dam.
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Neil and Larner checking that one of the windmills is working.
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Me early one morning still waking up. Looking for some non-existent birds.
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Me taking a photo of the amazing calf that thinks he's a dog.
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The schoolroom Larner and Judith are building for Whitney and Madison to go to School of the Air in.
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One of at least four windmills on Rosegreen. This one (believe it or not) is called Rusty.
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Helena riding Blue Duck.
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mt isa
In Mt Isa Andrew from the Kalkadoon Tribal Council took us on a bush tucker/medicine tour of some of the gorges around Mt Isa. The Kalkadoons were some of the fiercest Aboriginals in Australia - they used to be headhunters. When white man came to the area they segregated the Kalkadoons and had their way with the women and children. The final battle between the Kalkadoons was on Battle Mountain, where a Gallipoli style war ensued - about 2000 Kalkadoons thundered down the mountain straight into the rifles of the white man.
2000 men was a great percentage (20%) of the Kalkadoon population, and too many of their youthful men died. They subsided and the tribal groups had to reform.
Lately, as elsewhere in Australia, the government has been building settlements for Aboriginals in remote locations. They build standard 3 bedroom houses, which any sociologist could tell you doesn't work with their family structure. In all Aboriginal tribes, your cousin is your brother, and the family spends most of their time gathered together. How can they do this split up into three bedrooms per house? And they wonder why all the windows and doors get ripped off and burnt in a fire outside - the only place they can gather.
Up near Laura in the Cape they once asked the elders how they would like their houses built. The result was a large tin shed with a cooking area, an eating area and a bathroom area - no rooms. This actually worked. Then someone came up from the government and argued that it didn't fit with the proper regulations and the whole settlement was ripped down and up went the three bedroom houses again. Brilliant minds at work.
Neil eating a bush banana. If you eat the middle you'll have no problems with the runs for a few days.
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The inside of a bush coconut. After eating the pink stuff Andrew told us it was flying insect larvae and if you look closely you can see it wriggling. He thought it was pretty funny.
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Andrew showing us a plant that has very good clotting ability - for wounds and ulcers.
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A desert rose - Australia's own bush hibiscus.
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Digging for witchetty grubs.
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A witchetty grub trying to escape certain death.
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A fertility pool. Andrew reckoned that the men used to tell the girls it was a fertility pool if they wanted some peace and quiet.
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A view of Mt Isa at night. You can see the smelter in the background.
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Three Steps (which is really five steps) - a traditional meeting place.
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A willy willy (if you look closely),
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Cricket in Mt Isa on Australia Day, listening to JJJ's hottest 100.
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Neil batting, Sandy fielding to the left.
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Mt Isa is a long way from anywhere.
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Sandy and mates off to Lake Julius.
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Last updated: 28th January, 2002
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Queensland
