Blogs from Mt Isa, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Too much driving today. Nearly 700kms. Road surfaces varied from smooth gravel, very dusty surfaces, rough stone, narrow one lane bitumen, bitumen wide enough for two vehicles to pass but with no shoulder. This was surprising for us as Mt Isa is a major town in north-western Qld. There were more Floodways, creeks (mainly dry) and river crossings (also mainly dry or with pooled water), than on any other road travelled so far. First stop was Bedourie, 191km from Birdsville. It is the headquarters of the vast Diamantina Shire which is bigger than the country of Denmark. Beef production, tourism and mining exploration are the major industries. From here it was onto Boulia, also a distance of 191km. Approximately 120km north of Bedourie we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn where obligatory photo was taken. We stopped ... read more

Another big driving day today! headed off at sparrow f@rt to make sure we had plenty of time to get to Mt Isa. We needed to be somewhere that was sure to have a dawn service for Anzac Day tomorrow. Not a lot of towns between here and there up this way! Unfortunately we had to get diesel so had to wait in Normanton until the shop opened at 7am. So we made a cuppa and toast in our camp toaster and waited it out. On the way here though, we saw dozens, and I really mean dozens, of dead little kangaroos or wallabies on the road. It was very weird and very sad. They looked more like kangas but were very small. Rob drove pretty quietly to give the heaps of little guys on the ... read more

We were up at 7am and set off by 9.15am for Mt Isa. Barry had been periodically seeing small fast birds since yesterday, which he swore were budgies, but I only ever had a glimpse, backlit, as they moved so fast. When we stopped at Terry’s Lookout for a break and snack, though, I found a small group of them sitting in a tree and feeding under it. He felt very vindicated! Continuing on, we passed a dead black cow next to the road. I bet that did some damage to a vehicle. We stopped at Cloncurry and went to the Museum attached to the Visitor Information Centre. It had an interesting area about the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine that was closed down in the mid-1980s. It showed photos of the township looking like any small ... read more

Out of contact for a couple of days , left Karumba and headed for Burke and Wills road house which is quite unique and famous, every one stops there to fill up and have a snack,we had intended to stay overnight but it was still only just after midday so we decided to push on to Gregory Downs, a small hamlet on the banks of the Gregory river, which is the gateway to adels grove.One pub which also serves fuel and also has a camp site behind, no power but water connected and hot and cold showers and toilets, there is a free camp site about a 1000 mts away on vacant ground but was fairly ridden with broken bottles and lots of rubbish, it turned out to be the place the locals partied at night.We ... read more

18th August 2012 We left our interesting BP campsite at about 7:45am and headed inland along the Overlander's Way (the way between Townsville and Tennant Creek). The landscape changed as we drove, becoming less tropical and more temperate woodland. We saw a bustard and an emu, and drove through sections of golden wattle and fern leafed grevillea. We had morning tea at a rest point on the outskirts of Charters Towers, and lunch at White Mountain lookout. We stopped at Hughenden to see the Flinders Discovery Centre, which has a very good replica of a Muttaburrasaurus skeleton. The Muttaburrasaurus is a herbivore that got up to 10m long, and was found near Hughenden, at Muttaburra. Around Hughenden the scenery was open grassland with few trees and the occasional cattle or sheep. We camped at the Lakeview ... read more