Blogs from Borroloola, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania

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There's nothing like a day of killing marine life to get you excited for the day ahead. Obviously the Tigers are playing the Warriors today so Adam and I decided that we needed to head somewhere which had mobile coverage. I remembered that my good mate Bazz had spoken fondly of his days at Borroloola when he was drilling for BHP. It sounded like a lovely place other than the high unemployment and desultory aboriginal youth in the area, and the high crime rate. Adam was initially concerned until I googled the latest crime stats which clearly showed the success of the new policing policy. We decided to get an early start so we were up at 6am packing up the tent. The two blokes sleeping in swags beside us seemed a bit restless but they ... read more
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This is the good section

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Borroloola June 26th 2016

Lorella Springs to King Ash Bay. Day commenced 0950hrs, odometer 93026kms, temperature 16 degrees celsius. Nothing remarkable on the 120 kilometres rough, stony corrugated, windy, dippy road to the Cape Crawford Borroloola intersection. The last 24km of seal into Borroloola like driving on silk compared to the rough gravel road travelled. On reaching Borroloola at 13.30hrs, we filled up with fuel at 1.47 cents per litre, odometer 93191 and bought some food supplies and a visit to the tourist information. Borroloola was founded by Ludwig Leichhardt as he crossed the McArthur River. The town is affiliated with the McArthur River Mine, tapping one of the largest zinc bodies in the world. The police station /museum was establish in 1866. Lunch in the park uncovered a mess of broken food boxes and tomato paste all over the ... read more
Information at King Ash Bay

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Borroloola June 26th 2016

King Ash Bay Fishing Club is on the McArthur River a the tip of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Peter and the boys up early, around 0500hrs taking a very expensive fishing tour. The day started out foggy and turned to a hot afternoon. The host of the tour not the most hospitable, but his knowledge and boat extremely good, tackle very average. The boys trolled the river for Barramundi and bait before going out to sea and around the Sir Edward Pellew Islands. Situated in the South West corner of the Gulf of Carpenraria and named by Matthew Flinders in honor of his naval officer Sir Edward Pellew. The Group of Islands includes the Vanerlin Island and the north, south, east west and centre islands. The total area is 2100 square kilometres. Here they caught 10 ... read more
The Biggest Catch of the Day, Billy
Nice Fish Peter
Tom's Catch

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Borroloola November 8th 2012

8th November 2012, We were awoken by the sound of thunder, lightening and gale force winds at 4am at the Wunara campsite. Decided that we would get an early start and packed up straight away. Headed to the Barkly Homestead Roadhouse where we stopped for fuel and breakfast. The storm appeared to have passed without a single drop of rain (all talk and no action!!!). On the road again, we headed North towards Cape Crawford via the Tablelands Highway. This road was a single lane Highway full of cows and roadtrains. We stopped just before Crape Crawford for lunch and since it was still early and stinking hot, we decided to continue onto Borroloola and King Ash Bay. We arrived at Borrooloola without anything exciting to see. Unfortunately for us, King Ash bay was not that ... read more
Alyssa
The Nicoll Rig
The girls

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Borroloola September 15th 2012

We had heard that the fishing is good at King Ash Bay near Borroloola in Northern Territory so with two other groups of friends we decided to all meet up in Mt Isa & travel up together.It's about 1800 klms from Bundaberg to Mt Isa & a bit further from Warwick where our other friends were coming from. We'd all lived in Mt Isa at various times in the past, its a mining town about 200 klms from the border with Northern territory & roughly halfway between Townsville & Darwin, we used to go fishing at the Limmen Bight in N.T when we lived in Isa.It's about 1000kls from isa to these fishing spots on the western Gulf of Carpentaria. We came from Cairns where we'd been to see our new grandson so we were a ... read more
Barkly Homestead
Barkly Homestead
Tony with barra.

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Borroloola August 2nd 2012

29th July 2012 We left Lorella Springs at about 8am and got to Borraloola at about lunchtime. We bought fuel and a little food and filled the water tanks, and had lunch in town. A local aboriginal man came and had a chat with us, told us where he was from and where the water is bad. We called to see if we could book a campsite in Lawn Hill national park, however they were booked out. We camped near the Robinson River, just off a side road. Mike and the boys laid nets for cherubin. 30th July 2012 Mike retrieved one cherubin from the nets and placed in the freezer for use as bait. Two baby barramundi were in there too and were released. We stopped briefly at the Calvert River crossing, where Mum and ... read more
Robinson River
Welcome to Queensland
Campsite east of Hell's Gate

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Borroloola July 25th 2012

25th July 2012 Richard and Marion left early, at about 7:30am, to head home via Bitter Springs. We left our campsite at around 9am and had a swim in the lovely Bitter Springs. These are warm springs with natural vegetation (tall palms and pandanus) surrounding them, and you can drift downstream to stairs further down. Very worthwhile having a dip there; Kyle especially enjoyed his swim and is getting more confident in his swimming. I had a quick look at the art gallery in Mataranka, then we set off towards Roper Bar. We stopped in briefly at the Roper Bar store (selling everything from groceries to clothes). The road (Savannah Way – Roper Highway-Nathan Rd) is gravel here but not in bad condition. We camped at Lomarieum Lagoon, near St Vidgeon’s ruins. The ... read more
Near St Vidgeon's Ruins
Butterfly Springs
Southern Lost City

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Borroloola July 4th 2012

Leaving King Fisher Camp we travelled through Bowthorn Station towards Hell's Gates Roadhouse, so named because in the old days services and police patrols went no further than here and once South or East of Hell's Gates you were on your own! Today it's just a lonely roadhouse with an airstrip over the road and fuel that cost $2 per litre. We needed their toilet so bought some obligatory fuel! The roads are dusty, rocky and corrugated and this day we did close on 370km of them, it's taxing on the driver and the vehicles and the dust finds it's way into every nook and cranny regardless of how hard you have worked to seal and protect it. The dust, probably more than any other single thing, is getting us down, every thing you touch in ... read more
Southern Lost City
Southern Lost City
Butterfly Springs Camp

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Borroloola April 29th 2012

Hi All We come to you today from the lovely Mt Isa, an interesting place to say the least. We are here for a couple of nights to do some domestics,shopping etc. before heading to Karumba on the gulf for 10 days fishing with my brother. From the Banyan Farm ( Daly River ) we headed south east to King Ash Bay on the NT side of the gulf where we were joined by Richie Robin for a week of fishing fine wining and dining. We fished 5 of the 7 days in stinking hot conditions ( one morning 27 deg's at 6.00 am ) taking some lovely barra and thread fin salmon and had a memorable morning when we took 10 barra from the front of a small creek that soon became our favorite spot. ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Borroloola August 2nd 2011

As I publish this blog, we are just leaving Katherine and heading west towards Western Australia, to visit some ex-Keri teachers in a small aboriginal settlement then do a desert track. You can check out Murray and Chris's blog at http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/KIWOZ-TOURS/ But here is an update from Borroloola to Darwin with 20 photos..... Crossing into the Northern Territory was celebrated with photos under the sign. To the unobservant the landscape seems repetitive and may be boring. But there are subtle changes all the time, and there is plenty of beauty in the bush. Our first stop to buy groceries and beer was Borroloola, an aboriginal town 1000km south east of Darwin, The groceries were no problem, although pretty short on fresh fruit. Enquiring about beer, the beer is sold from 2.30pm onwards. Consequently, quite a few ... read more
Better top up
Typical Savanah highway
Freshly shot buffallo




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