Day 71 (20 July) – Mt. Isa (Another nice morning, a little colder – up to 21o during the day)
Our site is at the end of a row of sites, at the very back of the campground where it abuts the river reserve. The “security” fence stops alongside our site and we can drive out through a dirt track on to the road beside our caravan park. With all our security concerns, I spoke with the guy next door who didn’t know the fence didn’t fully surround the property and who didn’t seem as concerned as we were about potential problems. Every time we left, I locked everything up except for our chairs, tables and mats and the ladder I use to get the bikes on and off the Jimny.
We were told nothing was open for Bank Sunday.
Lyn wanted to find out the opening hours of the Mt Isa pool, check out the Information Centre and perhaps a trip to Lake Moondarra. Off to the pool, where we found that they had closed it until further notice in order to undertake renovations – very disappointing as this was one of the better pools we have found on our travels.
Next, to the Information Centre which we found open. We had coffee and breakfast and bought a couple of postcards. Then out to Lake Moondarra, a fairly large lake North of Mt Isa. An interesting lake that looked fairly full as we drove around the Eastern side and almost at water level at times, but we found it was actually quite low when we saw the dam wall. A number of cows, lots of bird life and some of Lyn’s favourite bird, pelicans as we drove around the lake. After we went through the campground under the dam wall, we hit a gravel track with a car coming the other way. We stopped them and asked what the road was like where they’d come from. They looked at the Jimny and said “I don’t think you should go that way, there are washouts, it’s rough and not an easy drive”. Clearly, they hadn’t seen Lucie in action. Nevertheless, we turned around and went back.
I’d seen a sign to Lawn Hill and I thought it was around 30 km back along the highway so we headed that way for around 50 km. No sign of the road so we turned around and drove back to the campground where I found it was the other side of Camooweal – about 300 km away. I guess you lose track of time and distance when you cover over 1300 km in a couple of days.
We took a walk into the area behind our campground which has the Leichardt River in it. Not much to see, but it did allay some of the concerns I had about indigenous camps in the area. We could see how the river could expand over the rocky bed and into the adjacent bushland.
Off to my new club – Buffs – for another great dinner before returning home and watching videos. Our internet is really fast here.
Day 72 (21 July) – Mt. Isa (Another fairly nice morning, much colder though – up to 24o during the day)
A few things to do or arrange today – shopping, bike repairs and maybe windscreen repairs for the motorhome.
I called into Mt Isa Auto Glass and booked in for the windscreen repair (a minor chip) on Wednesday – the morning we leave Mt. Isa. No luck with the bike shop – as they were down on staff, no repairs could be finished within a couple of days.
It is interesting to see the smoke from the ever-present and continually running chimney at the mine. The smoke this morning didn’t rise into the atmosphere, but just drifted across the nearby hills.
Then, back to pick up Lyn from the caravan park, where we visited Amcal, K-Mart, Coles, SportsPower again, this time to get a new inner tube for my flat tyre with still no luck – they were out of that size and it wouldn’t be in stock until mid-August. At least the other shops proved fruitful.
I spent most of the day updating our Xero accounts and submitting the BAS statements. Lyn cleaned up her bad leg and spent some time reading.
I sent some notes to Mike, who is looking after our home, and received an SMS from Steven who is potentially making a movie about an alien encounter on the Nullarbor in 1988 – fingers crossed this goes ahead. Mike responded with a photo of some help they were having with the house cleaning.
Dinner at Buffs again – saving another 600% of the membership fees ($12.00 saved).
Day 73 (22 July) – Mt. Isa (Another fairly nice morning – up to 26o during the day)
Perhaps golf today? Yes, golf! I thought Mt Isa Golf Club had sand scrapes but when we got there, they had good greens. I was a little erratic on the first few holes but a nice course where it is obvious where the fairway sprinklers are due to the circular green patches. What Lyn liked was that you could tell which way the hole went by following the line of the sprinkler heads!
We went to the Irish Club for dinner – a really nice place with big brownies for Lyn’s dessert. We refuelled the Jimny on the way home then started packing up for our departure tomorrow.
Day 74 (23 July) – Mt. Isa to Winton (Winton Roadhouse Cabins & Caravan Park) (Another fairly nice morning, a bit windy as we were driving, more clouds as we headed South – up to 24o during the day – 460 km)
Finish packing up, off to Caltex to refuel Elsie, then over to Mt Isa Auto Glass and Upholstery to repair a chip in Elsie’s windscreen. We’d had the Jimny windscreen replaced by them last year. They are very good and very helpful. We arrived early to find a couple of vehicles already lined up. I went in and they confirmed that they couldn’t start our job until 09:00. I got a call at 08:50 to come in, though. It was a very interesting process getting the chip and crack fixed. Lyn took some photos.
Then, we drove to Cloncurry where we topped up the diesel and AdBlue at the Puma Modular Service Station behind the town. We tried to get a coffee in town but the roads were full of caravans and we couldn’t get a decent parking spot. So, we continued on to MacKinley where the ‘world famous’ Crocodile Dundee Walkabout Creek Pub was located. We stopped, had lunch, had a look around the pub then continued on.
As we left, we found we were in the middle of some caravans in a convoy. We stayed with them until Kynuna where they stopped for fuel and we continued on to Winton.
We checked in at the caravan park, arriving at 16:00 and finishing all of our setting up by 16:30.
Then off to the Information Centre to get some ideas on what to do – we are keen to see the dinosaur displays.
Over to the North Gregory Hotel where we listened to the resident poet, Gregory North, and, as we were listening, I booked in to the dinosaur attractions we wanted to see over the next 2 days (although I couldn’t book the VIP tour as the site wouldn’t allow me to reverse the order of the attractions). We stayed for dinner then back to the motorhome where we rearranged items inside the motorhome, in particular items I’d been storing on our internal table.
I had to fix the table as it was making strange noises as we drove along. I found the nut under the leg and extension pivot point was very loose. All tightened now – not too tight that we couldn’t open the extension though.
I also took the bikes off the Jimny roof as we had to drive to the Dinosaur Stampede site along a gravel road (110 km) in the morning.
Day 75 (24 July) – Winton (Another fairly nice morning, a bit colder – up to 25o during the day)
I updated the blog and prepared for the trip to the Dinosaur Stampede site.
An interesting drive out to the Stampede – 110 km of sometimes bitumen and sometimes gravel/dirt. We left around 08:50 for the 1 hour 20-minute drive that took us nearly 1 hour and 40 minutes as we like to travel more slowly on these sorts of roads. An uneventful drive out to the dinosaur stampede site.
We checked in and managed to get our tickets changed to the VIP option that I wanted the night before (but wouldn’t accept our preferred tour start times). We were given our VIP passes then, at 11:00, we had an introduction from Jorjia followed by a full presentation by Nathan. The first part of the display was a film about the discovery of the area with Nathan providing additional commentary. After the film, we were taken into the climate-controlled large enclosed space that housed the dinosaurs’ footprints. Nathan then provided a long description of the animals and events that they had deduced from analysing the footprints. It was amazing to hear how they were able to deduce what had happened and the different types of animals that left their footprints behind.
An uneventful trip back, although we stopped at an azure-coloured lake for some photos.
A trip into Winton to try to find the plane replica (first Qantas plane) we’d been told about. No luck until we came to the musical fence and found a silhouette of that first Qantas plane.
We decided to have a look at the Waltzing Matilda Museum that was part of the Information Centre followed by a better look around town.
Some trivia: Marie Cowan wrote the music to Banjo Patterson’s words for Waltzing Matilda.
Another piece of trivia: The term ‘A furphy’ (a tall story) came from the Furphy water tanks used in war where soldiers used to gather around and share stories.
We then headed back to the caravan park, had an interesting talk with Jim and Ash, our next-door neighbours, who had been there for 3 weeks because one of the axle hubs broke on their ute. Jim actually built their tray top camper himself, based on his own design – quite an achievement.
We also saw a great sign on the back of a caravan – one that we certainly agreed with.
We went back into town to book tickets for the evening show at the open-air theatre to find the box office opened at 19:00. We’d had a brief look through the foyer and display earlier in the afternoon.
So, to kill some time, we went to the North Gregory hotel, listened to the resident musician and then went to The Tattersall for dinner. After dinner we went across the street to the open-air Royal cinema where we watched The Great White Whale – a documentary on the lead up, voyage and climb of Big Ben (aka The Great White Whale) on Heard Island. Big Ben was given to Australia in 1947 and so Big Ben became the highest mountain in Australia – 500 m higher than Mt Kosciusko.
Back home, where we prepared for an early start in the morning.
Day 76 (25 July) – Winton to Longreach (Another fairly nice morning, a bit windy on the way to Longreach and windy there – up to 31o during the day – 207 km)
We finished packing up and headed off around 07:45 to the IOR site we’d checked out the previous day. I’d noticed a guy drive off in an IOR truck as we were packing up at the caravan park and, when we arrived at the IOR site, we found Daryl working on the site fixing the AdBlue pump. I had a great chat with him where he suggested I sign up for IOR – I checked for the app on my phone as I was sure it was the company providing Avgas at Leongatha. I searched for ‘IOR’ – no luck. It was later that I found the App on my iPhone called FuelCharge – I was sure I had it on my phone but couldn’t find it. Daryl suggested I call head office to let them know about our plane and other fuel purchases – probably an item on the To Do list for when I get home.
We refuelled with the help of Daryl, who also noticed the hose on our pump was leaking and said he’d fix it after we left. He provided a rag for me to clean up and then off we went. Thanks Daryl – the IOR app is ‘FuelCharge’ in case you need to tell anyone else.
Off we headed to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs (AAOD) History Museum around 25 km South East of Winton. An uneventful drive with a very steep road section over the last 2 km.
As we arrived, Lyn mentioned that we’d had a call from Charlotte so we called back and had a 10-minute conversation with her, Luna and Wren. Always great to have these chats.
In to the reception for the AAOD where we were briefed on our mornings activities and given directions to get to the Laboratory with the couple that checked in with us – Wendy and Steve from Bairnsdale. I mentioned that I spend a bit of time down at Leongatha, which is also in Gippsland in Victoria and on the way (via a dogleg) to Bairnsdale. Wendy is a teacher in Bairnsdale and Steve drives a school bus after a number of years with VicRoads there. We had a number of great chats during the morning as we went from activity to activity.
The Australian Age of Dinosaurs is a fascinating place. Our first stop was the Fossil Preparation Laboratory where Tennyson, our guide, described the process of excavating the fossils. At the back of the display area were racks of plaster encased specimens that were ready up to be processed – some up to 17 years old. All the skeletons and artifacts on display had names – taken from the owner of the property, the person who found the item or the palaeontologist who processed it. At the end of the tour, we were taken into the processing area where there were around a dozen people all meticulously working on items. One of the women told us she’d been working on her item for 11 days already.
The second attraction was in the Reception Area and Collection Room. We were shown some videos and graphical constructions of some of the animals by Charlotte, another guide who had just returned from holidays. It’s amazing to see all the exhibits and different dinosaurs that have been found in this region.
We were then taken to the Gondwana Stars Observatory by Jan, our Belgian driver, which was located at the start of the March of the Dinosaurs exhibition. The Observatory is one of the few Dark Space observatories in the world due it’s distance from major light sources. It took 2 years of thorough monitoring of the heavens and light to get approval for the accreditation of the observatory.
The final main March of the Dinosaurs display was an area 54 m long that was painstakingly excavated, relocated and reconstructed inside an exhibition hall next to the observatory. The display was moved piece by piece over a three-year period and was discovered after a creek in the area was flooded and washed away the top layer that was previously protecting the footprints. Our guide, Luke from Vicotria, told us about the passage of a dinosaur and a baby dinosaur across the area with the baby moving in a way to cause the mother to change direction through an incredible reconstruction of the events of the time. There were also prints of various sizes and types of dinosaurs as well as evidence of animals that still exist today – crocodiles, turtles and lung fish.
At the end of our guided tour, we were allowed to experience the Dinosaur Canyon, really well constructed in the ridge of the hills we and the exhibits were on with views over the flat plains to the North. After walking through and seeing the statues of dinosaurs along the path, it became clear why this site was chosen for the exhibits.
The Dinosaur Museum and exhibits is a testament to the foresight and passion of David Elliott who is the owner of one of the properties where the artifacts, bones, fossils and footprints have been found. Exploration and research continue with new items found at least weekly in the area of Winton, Richmond and Hughenden.
We left the AAOD around 13:00 and headed to Longreach.
I was a bit tired after getting up at 05:00 to watch the Roosters Storm game that I missed the previous night, so stopped at a roadside stop around 40 km down the road from the AAOD turnoff. Lyn took over and, as we were pulling out, I checked the road and saw a road train and car some distance away and told Lyn that it was clear to go straight away because the road train was coming. Lyn drove out and got to travelling speed a few hundred meters after leaving the roadside stop.
The car I ‘d seen behind the road train passed us about a minute later. Lyn then told me the road train was catching up – she was doing just under 100 kph at this stage. She then told me he’d pulled out to pass a couple of minutes later but had to go back due to a car coming the other way. A short time later, we passed a car coming in the opposite direction and then Lyn told me that the road train was overtaking us. It seemed an eternity for the prime mover, then the first trailer, then more pull alongside. As the second trailer pulled alongside, we could see a car approaching from the opposite direction. Finally, as his third trailer pulled alongside, he had to pull back into our lane causing Lyn to drive off the road and onto the verge, fortunately missing the white poles along the roadside. Just as the final trailer passed, we saw the car that had been coming the other way almost stopped and also off the road on the verge on the other side of the road to avoid being hit by the road train. Lyn continued driving to the next roadside stop, pulled in and burst into tears. Completely understandable given that we could have been killed if the roadside was more difficult or if Lyn had panicked. We stopped for a few moments then I said that I’m calling the police in Longreach as the road train driver was dangerous. I called, provided some brief information on the road train and it’s expected time into Longreach. I also confirmed the road we were travelling on and told them we had dash cam footage that I’d get to them when we got to Longreach.
I took over the driving and continued to Longreach where we checked into the Longreach Tourist Park, set up our site, I downloaded the dashcam footage to take to the police station, then headed into town to see the police and go to the Information Centre.
We stopped at the Information Centre, said we were in town for a full day and was advised the things to do were to go to the Qantas Founders Museum and the Stockman’s Hall of Fame (in that order as the Qantas exhibit closed at 15:00 on Saturdays whereas the Stockman’s Hall of Fame closed at 16:00. We asked where the police station was and were told it was a block down on the left but to hurry because it closed at 16:00 (it was 15:55 at the time). We got there at 15:58 and went to a side door – later we saw reception a bit further down – where we met a person coming out who said she’d get someone to see us. Out came Stu, who introduced himself, took our details, had a look at the videos on my computer and said that he’d send a link for me to upload the videos which would be forwarded to the highway division for review.
Back to the caravan park where we booked in for dinner at the Woolshed Restaurant – part of the caravan park and recommended by Stu. A nice meal at the Woolshed with a resident musician playing, then back to the motorhome for a quiet evening. Also, an early night as the internet reception was really bad due to our site being under a tree.
Day 77 (26 July) – Longreach (Rain overnight with more expected during the day, a bit windy in Longreach and only up to 22o)
During the night I’d woken up and realised I could probably book into the Qantas Founders Museum. I checked and found some options including Economy, Premium Economy, Business and First Class and the Captains Club. The only one I could book for the morning was the Premium Economy which included the museum entry, a guided tour of the museum and the undercover plane display as well as a lightshow that night. So, I booked 2 tickets and went back to sleep.
Up early to continue documenting the previous day’s activities and to get ready for a relatively early start as our Qantas tour was due to start at 08:30. Fortunately, it was only a few hundred metres away and we got there around 08:05, checked in and waited until 08:25 to be greeted by our guide for the day, Ryan, who introduced himself as “Ryan or wing nuts, I’ve got big ears”. Ryan took us through the museum and inaugural Qantas hangar and told us we could return at a later time and at our leisure though the museum, and then took us to see the static aircraft display. The display consisted of a DC3, Catalina, Constellation, a 707 and a 747. He gave us a briefing on each one and then, for the final three aircraft, allowed us to walk through the planes, each of which had a fascinating history. The whole tour took 90 minutes. Ryan talked fairly quickly with a practiced patter that was clear (and understandable that he talked quickly as we finished exactly 90 minutes after the start) with copious amounts of information provided. I met an interesting Kiwi, Mike from the South Island who put me on to Jimmy’s World and Jimmy’s Savethe310.com website.
We then had coffee and muffins for brunch and stayed in the museum for a couple of hours after that, going through the displays and watching an introductory video about Qantas in the cinema.
We then decided to go the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and arrived just before lunchtime.
As we entered, we were given a set of interactive headsets each, which provided commentary based on our location in building. The exhibits were fascinating; the Hall of Fame was really well done with lots of information and high-quality displays. I was particularly intrigued with a demonstration of stock whip making by Anthony Rennick – a skilled artisan and winner of multiple awards for his whip making. We watched as he prepared some kangaroo hide for a whip to be made later and then he made a stockwhip, taking over around an hour, with materials he’d prepared over the previous days. We were so impressed that we purchased the whip he made in front of us. As part of the deal, he provided 2 more crackers (the end of the whip that makes the noise by reaching over 1200 kph and breaking the sound barrier), showed us how to make more crackers and how to attach them, and then gave us a lesson in how to crack whips. Not as easy as I thought as I’d been able to do some whip cracking when we bought a couple of stock whips for the boys around 20 years ago. I think a fair bit more practice is required.
Back to the motorhome where I booked in for a 17:00 seating at the Woolshed restaurant so we could go and see the Qantas lightshow at 18:30 that evening.
Dinner at the Woolshed where we had the same meals and drinks as the previous night – a testament to the quality of the meals.
To finish the week, we headed off to the light show at the Qantas Founders Outback Museum.
Another brilliant example of technology in the outback where the Qantas story was displayed primarily over the fuselage of the 747 that we’d seen on the undercover aircraft display earlier. Most of the other aircraft were included in the display during the 30-minute light and sound show. Certainly worthwhile, although a little cold that evening whilst we were watching.
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