SYDNEY BROOME TRIP 2006

Saturday 13 May to Friday 19 May
Mount Isa to Katherine
Blog 3

Our last stop at Mount Isa was the man made Lake Moondarra, which is Mount Isa’s water supply, recreation area and Barramundi fishing spot.

We then headed down the Overlander’s Way to Camooweal. The countryside is sprawling grassy tablelands with few cattle grazing but the colours are varied and beautiful with patches of colour of bright yellow, blue, pink and different shades of green.
The late wet this year has meant that we have had to change our original plans as a lot of the roads are still closed.

We decided to make head north to Borroloola along the Tablelands Highways so that we could at least get to the Gulf of Carpentaria. We are seeing a few more Bushtracker Caravans these days and often chat on the UHF or stop to share lunch and stories.

Borroloola is a remote fishing community on the McArthur River. In 1885 it was considered a lawless outpost where illegal activities such as smuggling and illicit grog running proliferated. The Museum at the old Police Station at Borroloola has some great history and one of the tree markers of Leichhardt the explorer. Each of these places has well recorded local histories and local characters.

We drove on dirt road to the Borroloola Fishing Club at King Ash Bay which is a fisherman’s paradise but also has large salt water crocodiles, mangroves, lots of mosquitoes and cane toads. As we had no boat and do not fish no-one could understand what we were doing there. We just wanted to have a look and then drive a little further north to Bing Bong to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Bing Bong is a privately owned mining port from where lead and silver from the McKenzie mine are shipped out. We got a great view from the lookout. The police at Borroloola informed us that the road to Roper Bar was still closed so another change of plans saw us heading towards Daly Waters.

We have seen so much water along the road on our travels that the road closures do not surprise us. We have also seen a few large snakes slithering across the road which is not too pleasing. Daly Water Township is a quaint little place with lots of characters. It is the site of the original Qantas International Airport.

We stopped at the local museum which focused on the aeronautical history as the owner is the grandson, John Ashley, of one of the original pilots. The explorer Stuart had marked his “S” on a tree on one of his expeditions. It was quite difficult to distinguish the “S”.

Larrimah was the next stop and then Mataranka which is famous for the book “We of the Never Never”. The author, Jeannie Gunn lived here at Elsey Station with her husband Aeneas Gunn. The cemetery, the museum and everything about the town has to do with the book and the movie of the book. The town also has a few thermal springs which provided a refreshing way to end a busy day.

Hand feeding of the Barramundi Feeding at Territory Manor was a spectacular sight. The barramundi were in a beautiful pond that was filled with pink water lilies that were all in flower and open. The place also had peacocks, donkeys and water buffalo.

Katherine was our next major stop and of course a boat cruise in Katherine Gorge was a must do. Katherine Gorge was spectacular. The colours were beautiful. We saw a few fresh water crocs and spent some time in one of the pools where some people from the cruise went for a swim. Katherine is still recovering from the recent floods that followed the big wet and everywhere you see evidence of the extent of the flood and it is difficult to imagine the volume of water that was involved.

We went to Springvale Homestead which is the oldest homestead in the Territory built in 1879 and then drove down to the Katherine River to the thermal pools.