MT ISA TO NORTHERN TERRITORY AND DALY WATERS

FULLARTON REST AREA TO MT. ISA, CAMOOWEAL, TENNANT CREEK AND DALY WATERS

 

MONDAY 2ND JUNE   -   We left our overnight stop and headed towards Mt. Isa, 184 kilometres further north.  We stopped at Cloncurry to visit a memorial cairn for Burke and Wills, commemorating the place where the explorers passed through.

We continued along the road and the landscape changed from very flat, dry and dusty to colourful hills and trees and made a pleasant change from the barren lands we had been driving through.  We reached Mt. Isa after lunch and pulled into Sunset Tourist Park where we stayed for 2 nights.  They were fully booked when we rang that morning, but said we could go on the overflow area if that suited us.  We didn’t have much choice.  We learned that the Annual Rodeo, lasting 3 days, would be taking place in August and everywhere was fully booked. There were also a lot of mine workers living in the park.  

We weren’t too happy being in the overflow area at first as it was right behind the entrance gate, but we were parked beside a nice grassed area with a big tree.  Everyone kept asking us how we’d managed to get the best spot in the park.  After walking around the rest of the park, we had to agree that we did indeed have the best spot, as the rest of the park was very dry and dusty with very little shade available.   

 

Mt. Isa is one of the World’s top ten producers of copper, silver, lead and zinc.

Mt. Isa is the “Rodeo Capital of Australia”. It is in the North West Region of Queensland and located 1,829kilometres from Brisbane and 883 kilometres from Townsville.  It covers 43,310 square kilometres, with a population of 24,000.

On 19^th January 1924 Mt. Isa Mines Ltd. Was established, so a town and all the amenities were needed to attract workers for the mine.  At one time, the town held the record for the most consumption of beer than any other similar town in the commonwealth.  By 1955 Mt. Isa Mines became the largest mining company in Australia.  In 1968, the town was declared a city. 

Some famous people born in Mt. Isa are:

Simon Black – Australian Rules player

Deborah Mailman – Actress

William Barton – World famous didgeridoo player

Pat Rafter – Tennis Champ

Greg Norman – Golf Champ

Scott Prince – Rugby player

Altiyan Childs - Singer

We went to the City Lookout and got panoramic views of the city and the mine area.  There was an amusing signpost showing distances to many national and international cities. 

TUESDAY 3RD JUNE   -   We went for a drive to Lake Moondarra, 16 kilometres out of town.  It was the city’s main water supply and was also a popular spot for boating, fishing, water-skiing and canoeing, with picnic areas.  It hosts the Annual Fishing Classic, one of outback Queensland’s most iconic events which has been happening for the past 16 years.  The lake is stocked each year with barramundi fingerlings, sooty grunter and long tom.  Sleepy cod are also in the lake.

The dam was constructed in 1957 and was called Leichardt River Dam.  It holds 107,000 ML of water with a maximum depth of 11 metres when full.

It was really beautiful and quite an unexpected lush oasis on the other side of a big industrial mining town that’s very dry and dusty.  There were lots of birds flying around and peacocks roaming freely around the picnic areas. We took the scenic drive around the lake and went for a walk across the dam wall. 

Mt. Isa operates the School of the Air and helps around 220 students covering an area from Northern Territory to Burketown, and Birdsville. 

WEDNESDAY 4TH JUNE   -   We were happy to leave Mt. Isa.  We found it to be a big, dry and dusty industrial mining town.  To be fair the town is in a chronic drought situation and I suppose they’re doing the best they can.  We drove further north for almost 2 hours towards Camooweal and got stuck in a pretty nasty accident.  The police had blocked the road off and were trying to free a man that was trapped inside his 4WD and trailer that had rolled over into the side of the road.   He had pretty bad head injuries but was conscious. We were behind a huge cattle truck in the front of the queue.  The animals were getting upset and pooping everywhere.  Richard went to see if there was anything he could do to help, but the police had it under control and were waiting for the Royal Flying Doctors to arrive.  It was a long, flat, straight stretch of road, so we don’t know what made the car roll over.  We just hope he was ok and felt quite upset afterwards, so glad that it wasn’t us involved in such a horrid accident.  We had to wait almost an hour for the road to reopen again.  We continued driving north and the landscape was quite beautiful with big undulating hills and different shades of browns, greens and yellows along the way.  There were trees around and it was more interesting looking at the colour variations.  By 1pm we had crossed the border into The Northern Territory. 

The first thing we noticed was a speed sign for 130 KP!!!  - we were staggered.  The landscape continued to be very flat, dry and yellow with very few trees.   At 4 o’clock and after a long day travelling 410 kilometres, we pulled into our overnight stopover Wonarah Bore Rest Area. 

OUR FIRST FREE CAMP IN NORTHERN TERRITORY

 

It was a very big area, set well back from the road.  It was already quite full and we found a good flat spot to park.  There were no toilets there which was quite unusual.  We had a wine and chat to our neighbours, glad that we’d finished driving for the day. Vans pulled in until quite late in the evening.  We certainly wouldn’t be on the roads that late.  We try not to drive past 4pm as there are too many kangaroos around by then.

THURSDAY 5TH JUNE  -   We left the rest area at 9am and continued our journey.  We stopped at Tennant Creek to have a look around the town and get petrol.  It was a pretty small town, full of aborigines hanging around and didn’t have a very nice feel to the place.  There was a caravan park, but we certainly wouldn’t stay there.  We were a  bit disappointed as we’d expected it to be a bit nicer and a bigger place.   We had a quick lunch in a roadside pull off and carried on with our trip until we came to Newcastle Waters Rest Area, 700 kilometres later at 4pm.  It was a small rest area and luckily, we got the last spot available.  At the back of the rest area we could see over a big green valley stretching for miles.

FRIDAY 6TH JUNE   -   We left our overnight stop and headed for our next destination, 132 kilometres north, to the historic spot of Daly Waters, 600 kilometres from Darwin and 1 ½ hours from where we’d stopped over the previous night.  We were glad to only have a short drive today.  Daly Waters had an old historic pub, established in 1930, and licensed in 1938, with a caravan park next to it.  Some of our friends had been there before and told us not to miss out on the experience.  We got to Daly Waters Caravan Park at 11.30 and it was quite full already.  It’s a very popular spot and had powered sites for $28 per night, or unpowered, with an overflow area across the road.  We opted for a powered site for a change.  We quickly set up and wandered down to the pub to have a look around and to order our dinner for the evening.  They had a daily special “Beef n Barra” for $29 with a help-yourself salad bar included.

INSIDE THE PUB - NOTE THE LEGS COMING OUT OF THE CEILLING!!

 

THERE ARE CAPS, BRAS, -SHIRTS AND FOREIGN CURRENCY HANGING EVERYWHERE INSIDE  

 

 

A coach of lunch time visitors turned up and the place was rocking with a musician there also for a couple of hours.  There was a steady flow of caravans coming in all day and the powered sites filled up pretty quickly.  We had a site with a tree at the back of the van which gave us some shade.   It was a really old quirky sort of place with some real characters living there.  Most of the bar staff were backpackers.   We were directed to our site by the darkest skinned Scot’s man on his famous bicycle called Lightening that we’d ever seen.

SIGN OUTSIDE THE PUB - AS IF YOU NEED A REASON TO DRINK11

 

THE SIGN OUTSIDE THE LOCAL 'HOLESALE' SHOP

 

THE LOCAL 'HOLESALER' SHOP

 

Daly Waters is famous for having Northern Territory’s oldest pub and Australia’s first international airport, which was a major Air Force Base during WWII for both American and Australian Air Force personnel.  It was used for flying mail into the Northern Territory from Queensland and then became a refuelling point for Qantas international flights through to Darwin and onto Singapore.  The original hangar is still there. 

In 1862, John McDouall Stuart crossed the continent from South to North Australia.  He discovered fresh water and named the area Daly Waters to honour the governor of SA, Sir Dominic Daly.  Fresh water was vital for droving cattle and Daly Waters was the last watering hole before the perilous Murranji Stock Route.

We wandered down to the pub at 5 o’clock for the hour long happy hour and were entertained by Steve Kerley an old bush poet/singer/comedian. 

 

He had us in stiches with his jokes and yarns.  The pub was very full and everyone was enjoying the entertainment.  Our meal was beautiful, huge servings of wild barramundi and perfectly cooked steak, along with all the salad you could eat. Terrific fun, and good value.  We’ll definitely be stopping here on our way down from Darwin. 
 
It's been another action-packed week with lots of travelling - 1,250 kilometres.  We finally crossed the border in Northern Territory and are steadily making our way up towards Darwin-   
 

NEXT WEEK:  We’ll be heading to Katherine, our last destination before finally reaching Darwin – another 310 kilometres north