Corella Dam Qld

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We headed for Corella Dam, around sixty kilometres from Cloncurry, for our first Free Camp of our trip. On the way I wanted to stop off at the Burke and Wills Monument, to pay my respects to these heroes from early Australian exploration. To my dismay, the monument had been vandalised and spraypainted with the words, Always Was, Always Will Be, which is clearly a reference to aboriginals dispossessed of their lands. I drove on a little further and stopped to look at a monument to the aboriginal warriors who were massacred for opposing the white settlers who were taking their lands by force. I began to understand that the white colonial history I had learned in Primary School may not have been balanced.

We managed to score a caravan site at Corella Dam right next to the water, which although a bit windy, was a great outlook. Whilst Kim and I were walking along the edge of the dam, who should drive past but our old friends from Kariong, Rhonda and Bob. It was a surreal moment as we haven't seen them for over ten years, and we chatted for a while, and promised to catch up the next day.

After catching up with Rhonda and Bob the next day, we arranged to meet and stay alongside them in the caravan park at Mt Isa, our next town to visit.

That afternoon we walked five kilometres around the edge of the lake, looking for freshwater crocodiles. No luck, however, there were some suspicious looking "logs" across the other side of the dam. I said to Kim if the logs aren't there in the morning, they are definitely crocs. The logs were gone in the morning.

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