Mike & Carol's Bushtracker Adventures Around Australia: August 2006

SYDNEY BROOME TRIP 2006
Saturday 19 August to Friday 25 August
Bourke & Wills Roadhouse to Charters Towers
Blog 17

It had rained in the night and it is easy to see how quickly the roads could get boggy.

We headed north to Normanton on a good bitumen road and after a bit of food shopping continued on to the little fishing town of Karumba on the Norman River where it flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria. There were quite a lot of wetlands along the side of the road and we saw lots of Brolgas and other water birds.

The Barramundi Discovery Centre which is mainly run by volunteers breeds barramundi fingerlings and then releases them back into the wild. The barramundi species are specific to an area so they only breed the local fish and release to 4 local areas, back into the Norman River, Albert River near Burketown and 2 freshwater lakes.

It was a great place and we learnt a lot of new things about barramundi. All barramundi are born male and they change into females at2.5 years of age. They have to be in salt water to reproduce even though they can happily live in fresh water. The size limits on fish caught is such that they ensure that the fish will grow enough to change into fertile females.

We watched the sun set over the Gulf of Carpentaria from the Sunset Tavern. Yet another beautiful sunset at another beautiful part of Australia.

The tide was very low and the mud flats and mangroves were exposed. The tide difference here at this time of the month was only 0.2m, nothing like the 8m at Broome.

We got back to the caravan and a couple a few sites down came in to have a look at our Bushtracker. Lovely people and always friendly.

The Ferryman’s bird watching cruise on the Norman River was a lovely way to explore the Norman River and see many of the local birds.

After the cruise we had time to wash the caravan and the car to get the red dust off. There is definitely no water shortage up here!!!

Karumba is a popular tiny fishing town but we were still amazed by the number of boat trailers in the car park.

We based ourselves in Normanton for the next few days. In true Aussie fashion the big crocodile replica, Krys and the Big Barramundi added to the photos of “Big Things”. We looked at the old goal, the Shire Council Chambers and the Westpac Back which of one of the original banks. The old Burns Philp Building is now the tourist information centre and the library. Most of these buildings were here when the town was in it’s hey day in the 1890’s. It is a lovely little town. The old railway station is an original old Victorian building and is well kept with beautiful gardens and 2 resident Brolgas.

We drove from Normanton to Burketown and back without the caravan in tow. The road was unsealed but very good.

Burke and Wills Camp 119, their last camp before reaching the gulf, was along this road. The road crosses many beautiful rivers which allowed us to clearly understand why the road was closed for so long into the dry. We crossed the Bynoe, Flinders Alexandra and Leichhardt Rivers and many large creeks. Leichhardt Falls, situated on the Leichhardt River were beautiful and impressive even this far into the dry. We drove onto the rocky river bed where many campers positioned themselves in the most beautiful spots. A huge amount of silt deposited by the river during the wet had been moved to either side of the road. There were plenty of birds at all the rivers including pelicans, ducks, brolga, cranes, egrets, and of course lots of kites and eagles at the road kills. A monument to Frederick Walker acknowledged his contribution to the area. He was a surveyor of the area and also was part of an expedition trying to find Burke and Wills when they didn’t return. He died of Gulf Fever (typhoid fever) which was brought into the area by a ship that had come through Java and arrived with all of the crew except 2 dead with the disease. As a result of his death and many others in the area the cable link from London/Asia didn’t come through Burketown as people here hoped but rather went through Darwin.

We saw a farmer herding 1000 cattle on his quad bike in front of the herd while directing his cattle dogs. It was a great sight.

Burketown is a small community of about 150 people. The information centre is now in the old Post Office and the Shire Council Chambers both buildings have been in town since its beginning in the 1860s.

Burketown is the Barramundi capital of Australia, is on the Alfred River and is 37km from the Gulf.

After the large flood in 1974 the river actually changed course and they had to build a new wharf and boat ramp. The Albert River is very large even at this time of the year and looks quite similar to the Norman River.

The old bore used to supply the meat works with hot water while they were running and hot water has been flowing continuously since it was drilled in 1897.

We took the Normanton to Croydon 152km Gulflander train trip which was a SLOW but delightful journey with a morning tea stop of scones and cream. It took us 4.5 hours for the journey. The stories of the boom and bust of the gold mining towns along the way were typical of other old gold mining areas. We had a few hours to explore Croydon before taking the bus for a quick trip back to Normanton. At its peak Croydon had a populations of 20,000 and 50 pubs.

We left the caravan at Georgetown and drove to Cobbold Gorge which is unlike any other gorge we have seen. The gorge is on a private cattle station, The Robin Hood Station, and was only discovered in 1992.

It is extremely narrow, only 2m wide in some places and 30m cliffs on either side. The gorge was formed by the sandstone rock splitting due to earth movement rather than erosion. The sandstone is a conglomerate sandstone and as the water from the river and the rain wash over the surface it dissolves some of the minerals in the sandstone and in the process forms a protective layer which is 1cm thick in some parts and this stops further erosion of the sandstone and so the gorge hasn’t really got any wider than when it was originally formed. A bus ride over the Robinson riverbed took us to the aluminium narrow boats which were driven by silent electric motors run by electric batteries which were charged from other batteries that were solar charged. It was a very environmentally friendly and silent set up made the journey particularly memorable.

We stopped at the quartz blow out which is a huge outcrop of quartz produced by heat underground. It is positioned on a bit of a hill and gave a lovely view of the area. The pictures of the day tell it all.

We ended the day at Charters Towers for the night.