Tennant Creek to Townsville

---

22/10/11
Tennant Creek to Townsville.

Hello Everyone!
The last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind as we have passed from the hot, dry, arid lands of the NT and central inland QLD to humid rain-forests in Far North QLD to mild Maryborough a few hours north of Brisbane where we are now! I donned a jumper and long trousers the other day for the first time since leaving Perth's winter. I must say that as much as I complain (frequently and loudly!) about the cold of Melbourne winters, it was a little bit of a relief to be able to enjoy slightly cooler weather at last. It rained non-stop during our first three months and has not rained not at all in the past three months…until this week! But I like rain! And despite the cold winters, at least in Melbourne, if stuck for conversation, we can always talk about the weather! And though I have lived there most of my life, I find it amazing that I am still amazed by the amazing weather!!
Anyway, we left Tennant Creek and hot-footed it east 1566km's to Townsville. We were reluctant to leave the West Coast and the Centre as we truly loved the isolation, the red soil, the natural beauty of the outback, the sparsity of population and the down-to-earth mind-set. As expected, when we reached the east coast we felt a little overwhelmed by tourism, trendiness, commercialism and crowds. After it's long and liberating absence, the insidious and toxic presence of rampant consumerism was sorely felt.
After a free camp, our first stop after Tennant Creek was in a small town called Julia Creek. The name alone left me feeling it was probably a nice place though it would have been quick and easy to have driven straight through it. Fortunately, Information-Brochure-Queen Sue informed me of an interesting museum which was sadly absent of anyone but us, but which we thoroughly enjoyed. There was a lovely video showing locals talking about why they had come and why they had stayed! We learnt that Julia Creek has no crime and is very friendly! It left me smiling at all the locals I later passed on the street and thinking about heading to the estate agent to add to the friendly, crime-free population! We learnt that right beneath our feet was the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) which, covering an area of 1.7 million square km's, is one of the largest artesian groundwater basins in the world estimated to store enough water to fill Sydney Harbour 130,000 times! In the wet north,the GAB is constantly being replenished by rain but in the south-west the water was, at one time, isotopically dated at almost 2 million years old! So, as one of the videos informed us, the bore water we drank that day may have literally dripped off the back of a dinosaur!! Imagine that!! I thought it tasted a bit stale!!
Apparently the bore water temperature ranges from 30 degrees Celsius in shallow areas to 100 degrees in deeper regions. After cooling it is good for watering livestock but because of high levels of certain ions is unfortunately not suitable for irrigation. Some of the natural springs of the GAB have been used for centuries by Aborigines and were a reliable source of water in times of drought. In recent years artesian bore pressures and flow rates have declined as the number of bores have increased so sustainable management of this resource is high on the agenda of the Dept of Environment. Who would have thought artesian water could be such an interesting topic! I was captivated, though no-where near as much as at our next stop, Richmond! … WOW!!
Voted by both of us as one of the most exciting and fascinating adventures of this grand adventure, the aforementioned dinosaurs were there in Richmond in all their skeletal glory!! You see, while the landscape around Richmond is now hot and dry, around 100 million years ago much of that part of Australia was covered by 40-60 metres of water known as the Inland Eromanga Sea. Then, one day, 100 million years later, in 1932, a scientific team from Harvard, discovered, north of Richmond, a complete skeleton of a giant marine reptile, the Kronosaurus. At an enormous 12.5 metres long, the jaw alone is 3.2 metres in length! In 1979 yet another complete Kronosaurus Queenslandicus was found near Richmond and then in 1989 a local farmer kicked what he thought was a rock. At closer inspection he realised it wasn't! And after excavation it was found to be a complete and intact fossilised skeleton of a marine reptile several metres in length known as the pliosaur! Since then, many amazing finds have been made, and now with a museum which houses a research lab and a palaeontologist in residence, Richmond is a world renowned centre for the display and research of marine and land fossils. It is AMAZING!! And new fossils are being discovered all the time! In 2000, a visiting British palaeontologist discovered an Ichthyosaur skeleton - a marine reptile which grew to 7 metres and gave birth to live young, tail first! Ichthyosaurs died out about 80 million years ago, about 15 million years before dinosaurs! Amazingly, fossilised tiny vertebrae and rib bones were found next to this specimen which turned out to be a mother and her baby!! On a white board in the museum are photos of visitors proudly displaying their finds! And there in the corner is a photo of a boy of about 8 who, last year, found the skull of an Ichthyosaur!! Only a few months ago, a Canadian couple who have visited as volunteers annually for many years, discovered a 3 metre virtually intact skeleton of a fish, now called Wandah. We were invited into the lab (such was our excitement!) as they were painstakingly working on removing layers of limestone to reveal, a fish called Wandah! They explained to us that while fossicking they lifted a piece of rock and discovered the fossilised remains of a large tail fin. After much effort the fossil was excavated and was there before us on a table! Over the years, the same couple have also found Myrtle the Turtle and Doree and Moree the Pachyrhizoduses! Impressive!
So next morning, with map in hand, we headed off 12 km's to one of the official fossicking sites. Quite quickly we found pieces of limestone containing small fish scales, bone and teeth! How exciting! Sue even found a lovely sharp fish tooth poking out of a rock! We found various fossilised nodules which were coprolites. Sounds exotic? Not really… coprolite is a fancy word for fossilised pooh!! I then found a large stone weighing about 15kg's with what I thought was a large fish tooth. I took a photo and left it there! We headed back to the museum with our heavy bucket of rocks for the palaeontologist to have a look at! He took one look at my photo and gasped! "Did, you really leave that out there? You girls are hopeless! That was the find of the day"!… WOW… it was a 100 million year old shark tooth!!… So we hopped back into the car hoping I would remember where I had left that stone! We retrieved it and after much huffing and puffing presented again, this time with a 15kg rock with a 1cm shark's tooth embedded in it! The palaeontologist kindly cut the rock with a diamond saw to a piece about 6cm square and off we went heading east with my fossilised shark's tooth in hand as well as a bucket of other limestone rocks containing various fish fossils! And we were happy as Larry… well almost… imagine if we'd found an Ichthyosaur!!
Passing through Charters Towers with its lovely old well kept pubs we finally reached Townsville.
Hello east coast… Long time, no see!
And this is where I shall leave you…
Next time, Cairns, Daintree and snorkelling the Whitsundays.
Hope you are all well.
Love Ros (and Sue)
PS Don't forget to keep scrolling to see more photos!

---

Photos

Hello QLD!
Beautiful one day, perfect the next!!

Wandah
The 3 metre fossilised fish skeleton found earlier this year!

fossilised fish
Smile!

Coprolite drop zone!
At the fossicking site