Mount Walker

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FJ Holden’s Café was an interesting stop. Owned by Francis & Jan Holden, they have cleverly used their initials and surname to create a quaint little café filled with car memorabilia, naturally with the Holden car featuring. There were cabinets of model cars, signed flags and posters from well known Holden racing drivers, as well as a couple of antique juke boxes. It was very interesting to look around as we enjoyed our morning tea.



Afterwards we quickly stopped at the local SPAR supermarket and butchers to replenish our provisions. Talk about country service at the supermarket – we were in there briefly yesterday and I was looking for some English Muffins. There were none available but they were expecting their weekly delivery from Townsville on Wednesday morning. We casually mentioned that we would call back in then. When we walked in this morning we were quite taken aback when the manager recognised us and said “I’ve got your muffins out the back – there was only one packet delivered so I hid it until you came in”. You certainly wouldn’t get that service in bigger towns or cities!



Mount Walker is a quick 10kms from the Hughenden township. Rising from the black soil plain Mount Walker is a sandstone tabletop formation with a gradient of 16% and is privately owned by two families – the Wearing family on Mt Etna Station and the Paul family from Mt Devlin Station. In a joint effort with the local council in 2007 they opened up a small section to tourists and have put in 6 viewing areas that look out over the countryside and they were stunning to say the least. It was a bit hazy but we could still marvel at the views. They have cleverly marked the viewing areas with steel structures that are something akin to photo frames, with each one having its own story board with a brief history of the area.



I think the land is best described, however, by Ernest Henry who in 1860 was the first person to hold a pastoral selection in this region:



“Rich pasture of rolling plains covered with Flinders and Mitchell grasses, trackless and undisturbed by a single hoof, lay before us. Descending from the tableland we saw before us a lovely valley of undulating downs, studded here and there with groups and belts of graceful Myall trees whose shadows were thrown over the green herbage by the rising sun.”



Because of the heat we chose not to walk 2.7km around Hughenden Lake, but rather drove around …..if it is cooler tomorrow we may well do!



Thursday, 29^th July was another warm one, so we had a quieter day with a few domestic duties and preparing for the next stop on our journey – Longreach.

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