CAIRNS TO EMERALD (via McKay)
What an interesting few days we’ve had since we left Cairns. The rain was bucketing down as we drove out of Cairns. It rained most of the time we were in Cairns. Flying up to Cape York allowed us to escape the rain. Despite the rain it’s still hot – hot and humid.

From Cairns we headed south towards Townsville driving through mile after mile of cane fields. Lunch was at Mission Beach, yet another beautiful Queensland beach. The only problem with these beaches in Far North Queensland is if the stingers don’t get you the crocodiles probably will. It’s much safer to swim in a pool. We had hoped to spend the night in Townsville, but with a big RSL conference in town there was no accommodation. We drove a bit further south to Ayres in the middle of cane field country. Just about everywhere else harvests the cane but around Ayres they still burn the cane before harvesting. It is probably the last part of Australia where the cane is still burnt before harvesting. During the day the sky is grey with smoke. It isn’t until night falls that the full impact of cane burning can be seen. The sky is red. It evoked images of ‘Summer of the 17th Doll’. However they no longer cut the cane by hand, it is all done with mechanical harvester; even so it is quite a sight to see the cane fields burning at night.

We also stopped at Tully in cane country. As it is harvesting time the sugar mills are in full swing. As soon as we stepped out of the car in Tully there was a sickly sweet smell pervading everything. Tully is an interesting town. It was built in the 1920’s to accommodate the sugar mills. Loved this town. Many of the buildings were built in the art deco style and very little has been changed. It was like taking a step back in time. The art deco architectural style is everywhere. It is also the town with the highest rainfall in Australia. The giant gumboot shows you how much rain they get.

After Tully we stopped at Bowen for lunch. Most of you probably know by now that Bowen was used as the location for Hugh and Nicole’s new movie “Australia’. Bowen was chosen as it hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years and in the movie it is made over to represent Darwin both before and during World War 2. About the only changes made were to cover the streets in red dirt and put new signs up on the buildings. The harbour and mangroves are very reminiscent of Darwin back in the 30’s and 40’s. Nicole isn’t our favourite actress but we will probably see the movie just to see what we can pick out.

From Bowen we travelled south to Mackay for a couple of days to catch up with our old friends, the Bensons. Mackay was a real surprise. We were expecting something a bit bigger than Bowen, but not the large, bustling city of 85,000 people. Mackay is flourishing because to the mining boom, mainly coal... It has sprawling suburbs and the feel of a real boom town. After spending so much time in remote places it came as quite a shock. Cairns is large, but everything in Cairns depends on the tourism industry. In MacKay it seems as if everyone drives big 4-wheel drives’ and they own big boats. Fishing and drinking are the main occupations of the miners when they are in town.

The remnants of the February floods are still really obvious. Some people still haven’t been able to move back into their homes. Many homes have containers on the front lawn storing whatever furniture that didn’t get destroyed. Because of the coal mining industry it has been hard to get tradies to come up here to do the rebuilding. They can earn much more money out in the coalfields. Many of the builders have been brought up from down south. The insurance companies fly them up for 3 weeks and then send them home for a week on a continuous rotation. It is much the same out in the coalfields. As a result accommodation is very expensive in Mackay.

Despite all of this Mackay is a lovely town. Money is being spent to beautify the river and harbour and it starting to take on the look of a very cosmopolitan city.
We have now left Mackay and are driving to Emerald through coal mining country. There are mines dotted everywhere but they are all off the main road. The township of Coppabella is a railway siding run by the Queensland Railways. All the big coal trains come through here on their way to the port in Mackay. We have seen a couple of trains. They can be up to 1.8 kilometres long. The main hazard on the road has been the oversized loads being escorted by the police out to the coal fields. They are huge semis loaded with huge equipment for the mines. The loads are so wide that the police make oncoming traffic pull over to the side of the road to let them through.
One interesting sight was all these signs on the side of the road indicating where all the car crashes have been. Each sign even has a little illustration to indicate the type of accident – mostly rollovers and running into trucks. There have been a lot of accidents. Those miners work hard and party hard and it looks like it takes its’ toll on them. They drive like there’s no tomorrow.From Emerald we will head south to Roma and plan to visit Lightening Ridge on our way south.

WE MADE IT!

We have reached the halfway point of the trip on the day we walked on the tip of Cape York. What a day. We flew from Cairns to the aboriginal community of Barmaga up on the Cape. The flight was amazing. The rain forest covers the land like a lush green carpet. It is as if the carpet was laid and they forgot to take out all the lumps and bumps. These majestic mountains of rain forest fall right down to the coast. All you can see along the coast are hundreds of miles of pristine beaches. It would have taken us three days to drive up to the tip of the Cape but we would never have been able to appreciate the majesty of the land. Huge rivers such as the Wenlock and the Jardine wend their way through the thick rainforest. It is also possible to see the dry river beds just waiting for the wet season to come. Just when you think you have seen enough rainforest the plane flies over these amazing craters of silica sand in the middle of the rain forest. I hope it is clear enough in the photo.

Once we arrived at Barmaga we were driven for about 45 minutes in a 4-wheel drive to a beautiful beach looking out onto some of the smaller islands in the Torres Strait. From there we hiked through bushland until we reached the tip of the Cape. It was almost impossible to believe that we had finally made it to the very top end of Australia and during the journey had experienced so much of the country. On the way back to Cairns we flew out over the Outer Barrier Reef. The photos show how incredibly beautiful it is from the air. You can clearly see from the air why it is called the Barrier Reef as it really does act as a barrier for the coast. Photo of the barrier reef is not as clear as the rainforesr as we were up much higher because of the storms on the way back to Cairns, but I'm sure you get the idea.

We when arrived at Barmaga an extra person joined out group, He is flying around Australia in his own home-built plane.

It rained very heavily in Cairns yesterday but the weather on the Cape was beautiful. Because of the heavy rain in Cairns the plane had to land at Cooktown to refuel to ensure it had enough fuel in case it was put into a holding pattern over Cairns because of the weather.

When we were travelling in the Outback just as we began to get a little bit bored with all the scrub, rocks and termite mounds we got closer to Cairns and the rainforests opened up.
It has been an amazing trip and on the journey south we plan to explore more fascinating places,
But this has also been a journey of discovery in other ways. Recently I was contacted by an old neighbour through Friends Reunited. Robert Sutherland used to live down the street from us in Webb Street and moved up here in 1984. What I didn’t know was that he had married a girl I went to High School with, Anne McKellar. We had a wonderful time catching up.

Today we are just lazing around and tonight we will take a dinner cruise out onto the harbour at Cairns. Tomorrow we head south and will be in Mackay where we will catch up with old air force friends, the Bensons

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Hope you enjoy the photos of us up north.

This posting is coming from the Cooktown Library. We have spent the last few days travelling through some amazing country, especially at Undara where we walked around the rim on an extinct volcano and climbed through some lava tubes.

Cooktown is a lovely little tropical paradise where the rainforest truly does meet the sea. We are going on a cruise up the Cook River later today.

I was gong to upload some photos but the connection is very, very slow. May have more luck in Cairns.

We have finally arrived at the Gulf of Carpentaria after visiting Mount Isa. You;d only visit Mount Isa to say you've been there. The mine is literally in the main street.

The big highlight was taking a cruise out into the Gulf from Karumba to watch the sunset. I have attached a picture. We have now seen sunsets over the Gulf, the Great Australian Bight, Mindle Beach at Darwin and Broome while sipping on wine and nibbling cheese and biscuits.

This blog entry is from the Georgetown Library in Queensland. See if you can find Georgetown. The library doubles as the Visitor Information Centre and mineral display, TerrEsstrial. It is open 7 days a week, 9 hours per day with one staff member. And we think we have it hard.

I've also included a picture to give you an idea of how far Mt Isa is from everywhere and how the mine is in the cntre of town. That picture is taken from the main shopping centre. The mine entrance is about 200 metres from the shops.

We're off to the Undarra lava flows today for a couple of days then eventually heading towards Cooktown.

so fary we've met lots of interesting peole. I'm surprised that there is anyone over 55 left in the cities. We're all having a great time spending the kids inheritance. I'll need to get back on the libary roster after 6 October just to start saving for the next one.

Will send another message in a couple of days.

Just a quick posting. We are at Kurumba, right on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Spent a night at Mount Isa. It really is just a big mining town, then up the road for a night at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse. We really were in wild west country out there. It's amazing how much the country side changes. Around Mount Isa and Cloncurry it is very rocky with lots of red soil. As we drove up to Burke and Wills the country became very flat and shrubby. The closer we got to Normanton and Karumba it turned into flat, sandy savannah country. There is no beach at Kurumba, just flat mud. No chance of swimming, the place is full of crocs.

No photos today as this is being sent from an internet kiosk. Later in the week we should be able to add photos, especially when we get to Undarra.

On the way across to Normanton we saw a huge flock of brolgas drinking at a waterhole on the stockman's route at the side of the road.

tonight we go out on a sunset cruise on the gulf. It is supposed to be quite spectacular. Hope it matches the sunsets at Broom and Mindle Beach in Darwin. Then dinner at the open air tavern here at Karumba. It's still really hot. We have meet some fascinating people, including a bloke from Altona whose brother Paddy still works for council, in the depot. His name was Joe McGarry. Some of you may remember the McGarry'a. LIke us they are travelling around.

Just about out of time. Will write soon. How about some emails.

This posting comes to you from the Julia Creek Library which also doubles as the Tourist Information Centre. We have just spent the night here after coming across from Hughenden. The country is very flat and dry but then you come across the unexpected such as Porcupine Gorge outside Hughenden. It is called Australia's little grand canyon. It reminded me of coming across the Grand Canyon in America. Everything is very flat, then all of a sudden is this amazing, deep gorge gouged out over millions of years. The country must look amazing up here in the wet when all the rivers and creeks are flowing through these gorges and the land turns green

We have just travelled through Dinosaur country. Get the kids to google Lark Quarry near Winton to get information on the dinosaur stampede. We saw the fossilized footsprints. It's amazing. Apparently this site inspired the stampede scene in Jurassic Park. If you have seen that with all the little dinosaurs being chased by the big one, well that's what the footprints look like. There are thousands of footprints embedded in the sandstone where the small ones tried to escape thae large one.

The weather has started to get much warmer since we left Longreach. We are now in shorts and t-shirts.

I've attached some more photos. In Winton a man called Arno has created a wall out of junk. See if you can find the typewriter amongst all the other stuff. There are another 14 photos of this wall. It is quite long. Michele might like the school rules for parents. Maybe they could introduce them at Deer Park West. We found these in Barcaldine. Found another country fire escape at Barcaldine at the Shakespeare hotel.

This is a dial-up connection. Will add more photos at the next stop as it is taking about 5 minutes to add each photo.

Send us some messages. We want to know what;s happening back in Melbourne and Wahgunyah. I've figured out the perfect Father's Day present for your father. The boys can put together the barbie and we can have a big barbie when we get back.

Will send another posting in a couple of days. We are off to Mount Isa today and hope to be in Normanton on the weekend.

We've just spent two nights in Longreach. Visited the Stockmans Hall of Fame and the Qantas museum. There was a lot to take in, but it was fascinating. It's not until you are out here that you realise what a big, inhospitable place this can be, so I can only imagine what it was like for the pioneers, especially the women that came out with them.

Barcaldine was fascinating. Went to the Australian Workers Heritage Centre. There is a sapling growing from the original Tree of Knowledge. What's left of the tree after the poisoning has been sent to Brisbane to try and regrow something from it. It's so sad to think that there is someone out there with so little regard for the history of the country that they could do something like that. I wouldn't have even thought that John Howard would have been able to do it (but maybe Wilson Tuckey). It was disappointing as I have waited years to have the opportunity to come up to this country and I had always planned to sit beneath the great Tree of Knowledge.

We are now in Winton and tomorrow go out to visit the site of the dinosaur stampede. Then off to Hughenden and Richmond for more dinosaur exploration. I'll post dinosaur pictures later in the week. On the way to Cloncurry we will stop at the Walkabout Hotel, made famous for the Crocodile Dundee movie.

We've heard that Cloncurry only has 40 days of water left and what is there isn't much good. It will be interesting to see how a largish outback town is coping with so little water.

This posting is being sent from the Winton Library. Almost every little town has a library of some sort. I have been collecting their brochures. It has been surprising how sophisticated these little outback libraries are when they have so few resources.

Will post another message in a couple of days.

Charleville to Barcaldine

Our 2 days in Charleville were spent discovering the wonders of the Outback. On our first night we went out to the Charleville Observatory. Out here the skys are clear of pollution and the observatory has 3 12" telescopes. I can't remember the last time the Milky Way was so clear. It was breathtaking. The nights are really cold out here, but we were well rugged up. Jupiter showed up clearly through the telescope and it was amazing to see, and realise, that Alpha Centura, our nearest star, is actually 2 stars.

At the historical house museum we were entertained by an old local playing the autoharp. Hopefully the video I have attached works.

Take note of the fire escape at the Hotel Charleville. I wonder if it meets OHS standards. The hotel has burnt down twice in the last 100 years.

Tonight we are in Barcaldine where the Great Shearer's Strike of 1891 led to the creation of the Labour movement that has given us the working conditions we have today.

We're well and truly into road train territory. The picture gives you an idea of how big they are.

We have just been entertained by a bush poet/storyteller while enjoying billy tea and damper with all the other grey nomads in the caravan park.

After Barcaldine we are off to Longreach for a few days and then to Winton to visitor the dinosaur sites.

Hi everybody,

We are now in Charleville. We have had an eventful trip and can tell you that Charleville is the safest town in Australia. Ron lost his wallet this morning. As you can imagine we freaked out, reported it to the police and the bank. As we came out of the bank a man walked past and looked at Ron strangely. He had found the wallet and was just about to take it to the police. Needless to say we were over the moon and everything is now sorted. Lesson to all men - don't carry your wallet in your back pocket.

Charleville has been lovely, we are having 2 nighjts here and staying in the historic Hotel Corones. It's a bit run down now, but during the hey day of the pastoralists it was the place to be seen. Underneath it's shabby looks you can see the grandness that once existed.

Last night we went to the Skywatch Observatory and spent time out under the stars looking through the telescopes. The night sky is so clear out here. It's been a long time since we've seen the Milky Way so clearly.

We're off to Barcaldine tomorrow and then to Longreach for a few days.

We are having a wonderful time, especially now that we have the wallet back.

Melbourne to Bourke

Spent sunday night at Hillston and then headed up to Bourke. Couldn't believe how hard it was to get accomodation. We were only able to get one night. Had a lovely little trip on a paddle boat along the Darling River. This message is coming from the Bourke Library. It is small but very good.

Off to have a cuppa on the banks of the Darling River.