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Published: September 13th 2012
Savannah Way 4. > Normanton > Karumba
1
st Sept.2012
Leaving Burketown the first river we cross is the Albert River, very little water to be seen, but, the span of the bridge is close to 200 mtrs and the river bed is beds of sand with paperbarks and other shrubs on higher areas. Again, this river during the wet must be awesome to see. The road, we were told, is bitumen for the first 30 odd Klm, so we sit back and enjoy the savannah country rolling by in comfort for a change.
Our first destination point today is the Leichardt Falls on the Leichardt River, around 40klm from Burketown. Approaching the Leichardt we turn off on a track to our left, (north side of road) before crossing the river, which leads you to an area that is a popular overnight camping spot and also a good place to park and explore the river and falls. Now this is, or would be in the wet, an imposing Gulf country river. Standing downstream looking towards the falls and the width of the rock bed of the river it is impossible to believe how wide, deep and powerful this river
Leichardt River
Edith Falls is where the river when in flow, falls over the rock wall in background of photo. When in flood the falls don't exist, it is water as wide as you can see in this pic.would be in full flood during the wet, one thing is for sure you would never want to be caught in it!. The falls themselves at this time of the year is just a trickle as the river is at its lowest and only flowing gently. It is the sheer magnitude of what it must be like in full flood that stimulates your imagination and makes this river and place so amazing. The deeper pools both side of the crossing and further downstream that we can see still make this a fabulous and impressive river, even in the dry season.
From The Leichardt River nearly through to Normanton, the bad news is that we are back on the dirt again, albeit a well formed dirt road, it still has stretches of corrugations. Quite a few more creek crossings later and a few River crossings, including the Flinders and Bynoe Rivers, we roll into Normanton.
Normanton was established on the Norman River by William Landsborough and was the Port for the Croydon gold rush. This town was a ‘nice surprise’ as we were really just expecting another gulf/outback town, but this town has old buildings, history, and a caravan
Leichardt River
Upstream of the crossing. park with a full 25 metre swimming pool, brilliant!
Beginning as a small port town during the gold rush, it attracted people from all walks of life to settle in the region, from gold miners to merchants and farmers and of all nationalities. One of the first buildings we visited was the Burns Philp building which dates back to the late 1800’s and is now the visitor information centre and library. Burns Philp became a registered company in 1883 and traded from these premises until mid-1980’s, monopolising trade in the Gulf and between the mainland and many of the Gulf islands, including Thursday Island. Not only is the visitor information centre very good, but the ‘museum’ of history, photos and artefacts from the region is amazing and well worth a stop. Even the coffee for a gold coin donation was pretty good!
Other great buildings we visited included the Carpentaria Shire Building, built in 1890 from locally made bricks at a cost of 1000 pounds, although it looks like an old pub I was reassured it never was. The Old Gaol and Trackers Quarters was the main penal establishment for the entire Gulf during the heyday of Croydon
(gold rush). To show you how quickly this place exploded during the gold rush, in 1881 the station was manned by a sergeant and one constable, in 1888 there was an Inspector, sub-inspector, 16 other ranks and one Aboriginal tracker. Up until 1911 the force was maintained at 12, from there it was a steady decline until the police district of Normanton was disbanded in 1921 and handed over to Mt Isa. The old gaol with its 18 inch thick walls was used as a watch house until the 1990’s; the living quarters were home to the Aboriginal Trackers.
In 1886 Normanton had 5 banks, today Westpac is the sole survivor housed in a building originally built for the Bank of New South Wales in 1884. It is worth going in to see the display of old gold scales once used to weigh the Croydon gold, besides that, the building is magnificent. Trish did some banking here & the service & friendliness of the staff was exceptional – well done Westpac! Another building that caught our attention, and we looked at lots, was the Railway Station. What a beautiful old building housing an amazing museum and some original old
rolling stock. The amazing thing about this railway system was that it was never connected to any other part of the Australian railway system; it was built solely to service Croydon and the gold rush. Today you can still do trips on the Gulflander, which is purely run as a tourist operation.
There was lots of other ‘stuff’ to see here and the information centre provides a town walk map that will take you to all of these places plus a lot more. We also saw the National Café and theatre, The Queensland national Bank building built in 1871, O’Neils Shed (storage for fuel for the Catalina flying boats during the war), Mrs Loy’s Store, etc etc, there is lots to see! We also saw ‘Krys the Croc’. This is a replica of the largest one ever shot (and recorded) modelled on the crocs measurements which were 8.63mtrs long, a girth of 4 mtrs and an estimated weight of 2 tonne !!!! It is named Krys after the person who shot it, a famous female crocodile shooter, Krystina Pawlowski, who shot it in 1957. There is plenty of talk around the Gulf today that crocs are getting back up
around 6 to 7 mtrs again since it was made illegal to hunt them in the late 70’s. No matter what way you look at this ‘replica’ it was a massive animal.
And then there are the Pubs! I am sure I have read how many hotels there were in Normanton during it’s heyday, but now I cannot for the life of me find that figure (Jimmy, my Scottish statistician will find it!) but now there are only three and we tried them all starting with the Albion Hotel. This was built in Croydon in the late 1880’s and was relocated to Normanton in the early 1900’s. They have mounted the original bar top on the inside wall above the entrance as it has been turned into a satirical mural by the famous Australian artist Percy Tresize. A really great pub frequented by the locals with atmosphere and good food. The Central Hotel built in the early 1900’s is probably the pub I visually prefer, it looks the part, it looks like it is an old Gulf/outback, verandahed, (don’t think that is a word, but I like it!) pub, but when we entered, it has been changed, not modernised
Little Bynoe River
You can see that the standard of the road and the river crossings has improved as we leave the remoteness of the western Gulf behind us. but it has lost all its character. This was a ‘one beer’ and move on, done that, type pub! The last one is the famous purple pub (yep, it is painted purple, very authentic of the 1800’s gold rush era they tell me!!!). Formerly the National Hotel, but the west wing was previously the Exchange Hotel in Croydon and was relocated here. Confused yet? Anyway, they served a damn fine beer, the place was frequented by ‘locals’ so it had local approval and ours. Just by chance I asked if a Ben “Cookie’ Roberts was on the banned drinkers list and got thrown out for even knowing him!
So, did we like Normanton, you betcha, lots to see, learn about (I haven’t even mentioned the old Wharf area!) and do, worth three days for sure. The town had a good feel, as did Burketown, but Normanton offered more overall and don’t forget the 25 metre pool and thermal spa, (oops did I forget to mention that too, well it is also in the caravan park), and you have one very interesting destination, but we had to keep moving to go next to our next destination, Karumba.
Karumba is
Normanton
The Main Street. at the mouth of the Norman River and the centre of the Gulf’ prawning and barramundi industries, so guess what we promised ourselves, to eat only prawns and barramundi! Well, you have to don’t you! But on the way to Karumba we passed the Muttonhole Wetlands, where we did a side trip to see if we could find some birdlife, Brolgas in particular. And we did, hundreds of them! After taking 100’s of photos of Brolgas we were Brolga’d out. What an amazing bird they are and it was so good to see so many and know that they are ‘doing ok’.
Karumba is the only ‘beach’ in the Gulf serviced by a sealed road so we enjoyed the trip up to another slice of history. Karumba was originally a refuelling and repair stop for the Empire Flying Boats and during the war a base for the WWII Catalina Flying Boat Squadron. The Empire Flying Boats were passenger carrying flights between such places as Sydney and London, you had your own cabins, with beds! The flights must have taken days, but hey, there was a dining room and bar on board also, so who cares. That would have been
Normanton
Burns Philp Building, now a magnificent Information Centre. the way to travel. Today Karumba not only hosts a fishing fleet, but is the loading facility for the Century Mine. Karumba has basic facilities and is mostly a town for the local workers, and then there is Karumba Point, about 5 Klm away.
Karumba Point is where we stayed and where most of the Caravan Parks are, it is a fisho’s idea of ‘heaven on a stick’ (or rod perhaps!). There is still not a lot here, but more than you need to stay as long as it is necessary to catch that elusive barramundi or any other species of tropical water fish such as Blue Nose Salmon, Mangrove Jacks, Trevally, Spanish Mackerel etc, but again, you do need a boat. There is a magnificent pub overlooking the Gulf (popular at sunset), Ash’s café (best Barra and chips), and the Point Seabreeze Store (sells everything, brilliant). We stayed at Sunset Caravan Park which was right opposite the water and a great place to stay. We met people who come up from the south and make it their home for the winter months, fishing and just relaxing. Yes, we did stay true to our promise, prawns were $18/kg and
Normanton
The Old Gaol and Watch House. a kilo did us for lunch and dinner. Barra was $35/kg and that made the rotation for dinners and lunches whilst here. However, we did have a hiccup to this system when I was given a Salmon by a guy who said “here have one, we have got too many anyway”, so a Blue nosed salmon made a perfect break between the prawns and Barra. Sorry about that guys, but it was not all bad and someone had to do it, so that you can all read about it!
Karumba is all about fishing and as much we could easily stay here a week and relax and enjoy the sun, prawns, fish and good company, you need to be a fisho with a boat to stay here longer and then I could imagine that 3 months would not be long enough, what a magic place.
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Brian
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Useless Information
The Red Hot Chili Peppers song Animal Bar from their 2006 album Stadium Arcadium is about Karumba. It is named after a bar called the Animal Bar. Brian