Speewah to Lakeland, Far North Queensland

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30^th July 2017

We let Speewah early today as we wanted to get to the free camp at Babinda on the Bruce Highway. There was no way we were taking our big van down the Kuranda Range Road as far too many tight bends and very steep. We elected to go the long way around to Cairns via Innisfail and the Palmerston Highway off the Ranges, much gentler descent and stay in Babinda for the night.

At the 2011 census the town recorded a population of 1,068. The town is noted for its proximity to Queensland's two highest mountains Mount Bartle Frere and Mount Bellenden Ker.

Babinda and Tully annually compete for the Golden Gumboot, an award for Australia's wettest town. Babinda is usually the winner, recording an annual average rainfall of over 4279.4 millimetres each year.

Good thing we got there early as only a couple of places left, apparently people use it as a base to visit Cairns. It is a huge site on gravel and a nice overnight stop.

31^st July 2017

Today we left very early as we had to have the van in Cairns by 8am for a repair to one of the awning plates that had come away after a wind storm in Longreach – insurance job. Whilst we were waiting we met up with friends we met at Swan Reach in South Australia and spent Xmas with. They were visiting family in Mossman and had come into Cairns to get the laptop fixed. It was lovely to see them again and hopefully we might meet up if they are still in the area after we have been to Cape York.

We returned to Babinda for another night and managed to find a space luckily as didn’t get back until mid-afternoon.

1^st August 2017

After breakfast we packed up and headed back up the Range to Rocky Creek War Memorial free camp, located next to the Park.

Located a few kilometres along the Kennedy Highway north of Tolga, the Rocky Creek Memorial Park is situated on the 2/2 Australian General Hospital laundry and medical stores site.

During World War II, the Tablelands area became the largest military base in Australia with camps at Tinaroo, Kairi, Atherton, Wongabel, Herberton, Wondecla, Ravenshoe and Mt.Garnet.

Rocky Creek was the site of the largest military hospital in the Southern Hemisphere – a 3000 bed hospital which treated over 60,000 patients from 1943 to 1945.

The first plaques dedicated in the park occurred on VP Day (Victory in the Pacific) in 1995. A special wall of remembrance was erected in 2009.

Every year, on the Sunday closest to VP Day, returned soldiers, their families and descendants gather to remember Victory in the Pacific and to take part in a dedication and unveiling ceremony.

The free camp is huge and very busy. We managed to get a good spot as got there before lunch.

2^nd August 2017

We left after breakfast for a huge day, 63kms to our next free camp just outside Mount Molloy. Not many sites here either. These campsites are very busy as many travellers are going to or returning from Cooktown and Cape York. We are in no rush so are taking our time now.

Had Happy Hour with three other couples and then had a BBQ for dinner before watching the News on TV.

3^rd August 2017

Decided to stay here another day as it so nice. Took a walk to the village in the glorious sunshine (around 26C at the moment). We had, probably the worst home baked pies in Australia, and bought a loaf of bread to freeze.

Later we lit a fire outside as I was getting chilly then went inside to make dinner and watch a bit of TV. The park was not so busy today although there were a lot of people, there were plenty of spaces. Several people walked by and stopped to chat, but not as friendly as last night.

4^th August 2017

Left Mount Molloy and headed north110kms to Palmer River Roadhouse. Not many here - $30 a night but we had the biggest steaks for dinner, which will feed us tomorrow night plus I did three loads of washing in the van

Several tow trucks at the road house. We saw a caravan being towed and the car was on the trailer, they were from Tasmania, poor souls. Apparently cars with computers find it tough up here and are always breaking down. Lucky we don’t have.

Bustard just crossed the road as we passed Bustard Downs Station where there is camping and there are cabins).

Mount Carbine Mt Carbine was discovered at the end of the 19th Century, and was a major tungsten producer in the past.Mt Carbine was founded after the discovery of extensive wolfram deposits in 1890. The mines were worked intermittently, subject to demand and world prices, until the 1980’s. The Mt Carbine Caravan Park, in its peaceful bush land setting and surrounded by Brooklyn Station, is noted for its prolific birdlife. The deposit is still relatively unexplored and there is considerable exploration potential for new tungsten mineralisation in the Mining Leases and Icon's surrounding exploration tenements. When it last operated between 1973 and 1987, the Mt Carbine mine produced exceptionally high grade concentrate, and was in the lowest quartile of cost of production for global tungsten producers.

There are two Lookouts on the way to Cooktown on the Great Dividing Range, Bob's Lookout at the top of the Desailly Range, and later on the Byerstone Range

Open savannah woodland through the Great Dividing Range, which was very pretty but very dry due to the rain shadow from the Great Dividing Range.

We had dinner in the roadhouse and their steaks were beyond huge so we got a doggy bag and I created a rather nice dinner for us the next night. None to talk to as the park was not busy so early night.

The Palmer River Goldfield, once Australia’s richest alluvial field, is now a resource reserve managed by QPWS. The discovery of alluvial gold in the Palmer River in 1872 led to Queensland’s largest gold rush. It became legendary for its hardships and the large numbers of Chinese miners, which peaked at 17,000 in 1877. A place of significant national heritage, the Palmer is rich in the artefacts of early Chinese mining and lifestyle, and the relics of pioneer technology and settlement. The former gold field capital of Maytown can still be explored, but it is a 4WD trek of extreme difficulty and for experienced drivers only

Saturday 5th to Friday 11^th August 2017

We made an early start and headed north east to Cooktown passing through Lakeland where we will turn off on the road to the Tip later in the adventure.

Lakeland lies in a natural basin formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago. The fertile earth found in this part of the Laura River Valley provides a wealth of agriculture, including bananas, sandalwood and the production of Laura Valley Coffee.

We crossed the Annan River which forms a boundary of the Annan National Park, which has no access or facilities and stopped at the second lookout at the Black Mountain National Park.

Some 260 million yeears ago molten rock (magma) slowly solidified deep below the earth’s surface forming a body of hard granite rock. An unusual jonting pattern occurred in the granite, which led to fracturing. The top of the fractured granite was gradually exposed as softer land surfaces above were eroded away. Water penetrated through the network of fracturing extending through the soli granite rock, and the chemical reactions reduced the hard minerals to soft clay. These clays were easily removed by erosion, leaving isolated rectangular blocks – the solid rock between the fractures. The edges and corners of these rectangular blocks were progressively weathered to form round boulders. The solid granite core of the mountain now lies beneath a layer of jumbled boulders.

Grey patches and boulder fractures indicate ongoing rock disintegration – a process that can be accelerated when cold rain hits the sun-heated rock, sometimes with explosive results.

The granite rock is actually a light grey colour. Black Mountain’s distinctive dark appearance is due to a film of lichens and other small encrusting plants growing on the exposed surfaces.

We thought the Black Mountain Range looked like a giant had used his dump truck to tip loads of boulders in a pile.

We reached our destination, Cooktown, mid-morning and found the camp site at the racecourse. At the time of the 2011 census, Cooktown had a population of 2,339.

Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs in 1770. Both the town and Mount Cook (431 metres or 1,415 feet) which rises up behind the town were named after James Cook.

Cooktown is one of the few large towns in the Cape York Peninsula and was founded on 25 October 1873 as a supply port for the goldfields along the Palmer River. It was once called "Cook's Town" .

The site of modern Cooktown was the meeting place of two vastly different cultures when, in June 1770, the local Aboriginal Guugu Yimithirr tribe cautiously watched the crippled sailing ship – His Majesty's Bark Endeavour – limp up the coast seeking a safe harbour after sustaining serious damage to its wooden hull on the Endeavour Reef, south of Cooktown. The Guugu Yimithirr people saw the Endeavour beach in the calm waters near the mouth of their river, which they called "Wahalumbaal".

The captain of the Endeavour, Lieutenant James Cook, wrote: ". . . it was happy for us that a place of refuge was at hand; for we soon found that the ship would not work, and it is remarkable that in the whole course of our voyage we had seen no place that our present circumstances could have afforded us the same relief".

The British crew spent seven weeks on the site of present-day Cooktown, repairing their ship, replenishing food and water supplies, and caring for their sick. The extraordinary scientist, Joseph Banks, and Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander, who accompanied Cook on the expedition, collected, preserved and documented over 200 new species of plants. The young artist Sydney Parkinson illustrated the specimens and he was the first British artist to portray Aboriginal people from direct observation.

The first recorded sighting of kangaroos by Europeans was on Grassy Hill, which rises above the place where the ship was beached. Cook climbed this hill to work out a safe passage for the Endeavour to sail through the surrounding reefs, after it was repaired. There is now a cairn next to the road with a kangaroo sculpture on top.

"The visit on the 19th of July 1770 ended in a skirmish after Cook refused to share the turtles he kept on the Endeavour with the local inhabitants. They set fire to the grass around Cook’s camp twice, burning the area and killing a suckling pig. After Cook wounded one of the men with a musket, they ran away. Cook, Banks and some others followed them and caught up with them on a rocky bar near Furneaux Street, which is now known as Reconciliation Rocks. A “little old man” appeared from the group of Indigenous Australians and they were reconciled. This was an important historic event as it is believed that this is the first recorded reconciliation between Europeans and Indigenous Australians ever."

Cook named the river the "Endeavour" after his ship, and, as they sailed north, he hoisted the flag known as the "Queen Anne Jack" and claimed possession of the whole eastern coast of Australia for Britain. He named Cape York Peninsula after the then-Duke of York and Albany ("The Grand Old Duke of York").

"In 1886 the people of Cooktown were anxious to recover the brass guns of the Endeavour which were thrown overboard, in order to place them as a memento in their town; but they could not be found, which is not altogether surprising."

In 1872, William Hann discovered gold in the Palmer River, southwest of Cooktown. His findings were reported to James Venture Mulligan who led an expedition to the Palmer River in 1873. Mulligan's expedition found quantities of alluvial gold and thus began the gold rush that was to bring prospectors to the Endeavour River from all over the world.

The Queensland government responded quickly to Mulligan's reports, and soon a party was dispatched to advise whether the Endeavour River would be a suitable site for a port. Shortly after, a new township was established at the site of the present town, on the southern bank of the river.

The Palmer goldfields and its centre, Maytown, were growing quickly. The recorded output of gold from 1873 to 1890 was over half a million ounces. Cooktown was the port through which this gold was exported and supplies for the goldfields brought in. Word of the gold quickly spread, and Cooktown was soon thriving, as prospectors arrived from around the world.

Population estimates vary widely, but there were probably around 7,000 people in the area and about 4,000 permanent residents in the town by 1880. At that time, Cooktown boasted a large number of hotels and guest houses. There were 47 licensed pubs within the town boundaries in 1874 although this number had dropped to 27 by the beginning of 1880. There were also a number of illegal grog shops and several brothels. There were bakeries, a brewery and a soft drinks factory, dressmakers and milliners, a brickworks, a cabinetmaker, and two newspapers.

The port of Cooktown served the nearby goldfields and, during the goldrush of the 1870s, a Chinese community many thousands strong grew up in the goldfields and in the town itself. The Chinese played an important role in the early days of Cooktown. They came originally as prospectors, but many established market gardens, supplying the town and the goldfields with fruit, vegetables and rice, while others opened shops.

However, largely through cultural misunderstandings, conflict broke out between the Aboriginal people and the new settlers, and the diggers. The Cooktown Herald, 8 December 1875, reported: "The natives wholly ignorant of the terrible firepower of fire-arms, and confiding in their numbers, showed a ferocity and daring wholly unexpected and unsurpassed. Grasping the very muzzles of the rifles they attempted to wrest them from the hands of the whites, standing to be shot down, rather than yield an inch...." It was an unequal struggle. Whole tribes were wiped out as European settlement spread over Cape York Peninsula.

Transport was an on going problem for the new settlers. Getting supplies and people to the goldfields often took three weeks. After every wet season the tracks and bridges had to be remade. A railway line from Cooktown to Maytown, was planned, but it took five years to get the 67 miles (108 km) to Laura – and that is where it stopped. By that time the gold was petering out, so the Queensland Government refused further funding for the venture.

In spite of this, the train proved to be a lifeline for the Peninsula people connecting the hinterland to Cooktown, from where one could catch a boat to Cairns and other southern ports. The line was closed in 1961 after the Peninsula Development Road was built connecting Cooktown and other Peninsula communities with Cairns and the Atherton Tableland to the south.

In 1881, a bridge over the Endeavour River was completed, which opened up the richer pastoral lands of the Endeavour and McIvor River valleys. Tin was found in the Annan River area, south of Cooktown, in 1884.

With the gold rush over, the number of people living in the area started dwindling. Two major fires struck Cooktown – in 1875 and, again, in 1919 when whole blocks of buildings in the main street were burned to the ground. A major cyclone in 1907 added to the destruction.

By 1940, little evidence of Cooktown or Maytown's interesting past remained. During the Second World War, Cooktown became an important base for the war effort. The civilian population of Cooktown was encouraged to evacuate in face of the Japanese advances and by 1942 the vast majority had left. The Aboriginal people of the Lutheran missions at Hope Vale and Bloomfield were forcibly removed - most being taken south to Woorabinda in May, 1942, while some of the elderly people were sent to Palm Island. The senior missionary, Pastor Schwartz (known as Muni to the local people), was arrested and placed in internment as he were suspected as being an enemy sympathiser. The Aboriginal people were not allowed to return to their homelands until 1949, well after the end of the war. Many Aboriginal people died when moved from their traditional lands, and many Aboriginal and white families never returned from their exile.

Some 20,000 Australian and American troops were stationed in and around the town. The busy airfield played a key role in the crucial Battle of the Coral Sea when Japanese expansion towards the Australian mainland was finally halted. The last military unit, the 27th Operational Base Squadron of the RAAF, ceased operations in Cooktown in April 1946.

In 1949, another cyclone devastated the town, and Cooktown's population declined further. With the closure of the rail link to Laura in 1961 and the "Peninsula Development Road" opened up to the south, the population declined to just a few hundred people before it gradually began to climb again.

Cooktown has recently grown in importance again and become a popular tourist destination. The paving of the Mulligan Highway now provides all-weather access by road for the first time.

Cooktown is the northern terminus of the Bicentennial National Trail, which, at 5,330 km (3,310 mi.) is one of the longest multi-use, non-motorised, self-reliant trails in the world, ...The southern end of the trail is at Healesville, Victoria, a town 52 kilometres north-east of Melbourne. We saw a girl on a horse walking along the Bloomfield Track and later saw her at the Lion’s Den Hotel where she must have spent the night as the next day we saw her walking towards Cooktown. She made it to the end of the trail and it took her 18months.

The trail is divided into 12 sections of 400- 500 kms

1.Cooktown to Gunnawarra; the Trail passes through rain forest, gold fields and historical tin mining towns.

2.Gunnawarra to Collinsville, through the grazing country of far north Queensland.

3.Collinsville to Kabra

4.Kabra to Biggenden

5.Biggenden to Blackbutt

6.Blackbutt, Queensland to the New South Wales border at Cullendore; this section of the Trail follows the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.

7.Killarney to Ebor; this is a rugged remote section that follows the Guy Fawkes River through Guy Fawkes River National Park and across Waterfall Way.

8.Ebor to Barrington Tops; another rugged remote section that passes through Oxley Wild Rivers National Park. After passing Ebor the trail crosses the Point Lookout Road before it passes briefly through Cunnawarra National Park. It then runs on the east of Georges River until it crosses the Armidale to Kempsey Road. The Trail is mostly unmarked as it follows the Macleay River past the historic East Kunderang homestead in Oxley Wild Rivers National Park. Following Kunderang Brook it winds its way to mustering huts at Left Hand Hut, the remote Middle Yards Hut, Youdale’s Hut and to Cedar Creek on the edge of Werrikimbe National Park. After crossing the Oxley Highway the Trail passes through the Mummel Gulf National Park. This section takes at least five days to travel and all food and equipment has to be carried. There are numerous creek and river crossings, with some steep ascents and descents.

9.Barrington Tops to Jenolan Caves

10.Jenolan Caves to Kosciuszko

11.Mt Kosciuszko to Omeo, including the Tom Groggin Track

12.Omeo to Healesville, near Melbourne

We stayed at the racecourse for four nights, supposedly for $10 per night but nobody came to collect any money???? The board at the entrance gave dire warnings that you must be fully self contained with fixed grey water tank, toilet (indoor), shower (indoor) or severe fines would be imposed. We saw nobody there who fully complied, most had a bucket for grey water or 20litre container and a small length of sullage hose from the van, we do this)No mention of no fires so we lit one in our fire pot to have a BBQ. We did day trips each day around the area.

One trip took us south onto the Bloomfield Track which heads down to Cape Tribulation but we only went as far as Ayton and the beautiful Weary Bay a 9km bay with only a lone fisherman and a few homes scattered through the bush.

Ayton was originally established as a service centre for a burgeoning sugar plantation in 1882.

Northern Queensland's first sugar mill was built and a narrow gauged rail line linked old Ayton wharf. Provisions were transported by far north Queensland's first locomotive for export by sea.

At one time hundreds of workers were employed English, Chinese, Italian and Japanese and local Kuku Yalanji people. Ayton thrived; selections were taken up by entrepreneurial families and Torres Strait trepan and trochus hunters settled here. But by 1897 it came crashing down because of high costs. Operations were sold and moved to Bundaberg.

Determined to squeeze money from the land, 'red gold' or Red Cedar was the next industry. Cutting began in 1890 with horse teams dragging logs to a riverbank chute. Rafts were floated downstream and taken by vessel to Townsville. The wood ended up at the gold rich city of Charters Towers, lining the floors of wealthy miner mansions.

Another day we did the Battle Camp Road, a round trip to Laura and Lakeland National Park to Cooktown. Laura is on the only road north towards the tip of the peninsula, and is the centre for the largest collection of prehistoric rock art in the world. It also forms the northern apex of the "Scenic Triangle" between Cooktown, Lakeland, and Laura. In the 2011 census, Laura had a population of 80 people.

Some of the world's most extensive and ancient rock painting galleries surround the tiny town of Laura, some of which are available for public viewing.

Lakefield National Park, at 5,370 km2 (2,073 sq. miles) makes it bigger than Trinidad and Tobago and almost as big as Brunei, it is the second largest park in Queensland and a popular place for fishing and camping.

The park stretches from Princess Charlotte Bay in the north to the town of Laura. and includes sections of the Normanby River, Morehead River and North Kennedy Rivers. as well as lakes, billabongs and wetlands. There are more than 100 permanent riverine lagoons in the park.

There is one main, unsealed road (Lakefield Road) through the park but it is impassable through much of the wet season, when the park closes.

We did two river crossings as we went through a section of the park which was fun.

Another day we went to Hope Vale and Elim Beach. Hope Vale is an aboriginal community and a 30 minute drive from there brought us to Elim Beach, the coloured sands and Cape Bedford. .After dirt road we drove through white silica sand dunes to the camp ground at Elim. Even though we only wanted to see the beach and surrounds we had to pay $10 to the Aboriginal community for a permit. There are also alcohol restrictions in this area.

The beach and views were really pretty. We could have driven along the beach to the Coloured Sands as the tide was out but there were signs warning of quicksand and the $2000 towing fee if we got stuck!!!!! We didn’t risk it as we could see the colours from where we were and have seen the same – for free – at other places. From here we made our way back to Cooktown and our last night at the Racecourse.

Wednesday 9^th August 2017 & Thursday 10^th August 2017

We left Cooktown and returned to Mount Molloy free camp for two nights. Danie left me there on Thursday as he had a parcel waiting at Kuranda Post Office (more on the wind turbine when he gets it up and running), he also did some last minute shopping in Mareeba.

The camp was full both days and we met a lovely couple from Ballarat and spent Happy Hour with them both nights – one night we had a fire, which was lovely. Max and Val have invited us to stay on their 20 acre property when we are next down that way and we are hoping to take them up on that as we want to go to Melbourne early next year to look at buying a new caravan.

Friday 11^th August 2017

Today we left for Lakeland Caravan Park where we will leave the van in storage at $6 a day. We spent two nights here packing the car and getting sorted for our next Big Adventure…………………..

Going to the Tip of Cape York and Thursday Island

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Photos

Bloomfield Track
Someone's letterbox

Babinda Free Camp
Before the hoards arrived

Black Mountain
The rig patiently waiting for us

Cooktown
The Racecourse "$10" campsite

Cooktown
The Esplanade

Cooktown
The Endeavour River

Cooktown
From Grassy Hill

Elim Beach
Looking to Cape Bedford

Elim Beach
The mangrove trees on the beach

Elim Beach
Danie walking off into the unknown

Elim beach
The Coloured Sands

Bloomfield Track
Weary Bay

Lakefield National Park
Linda gets to drive, yeeaaaa

Lakefield National Park
The road to Cooktown