Julia Creek to Townsville........

Washing done, check.  A long hot shower, check.  Hair washed, check.  It's time to be free again and so we left Cloncurry and this time headed east toward Townsville where we need to be in two weeks for this years 25 Frogs reunion.

Our first stop along the way was at Julia Creek where we had heard about their great free camp and Monday night dinners.  Wow, what a great job the locals are doing here encouraging the grey nomads and travellers to stay awhile and enjoy the little town.

This RV camp is set up on the edge of town on the banks of Julia Creek.  You register with the camp hosts for a period up to a 96 hour maximum stay but if you still want to hang around after that you can book into the caravan park for $15 per night.  There were lots of people here but plenty of room for all and once again we found a quiet spot to call home.  We stayed for the four days.

On Monday night the caravan park puts on a $10 dinner.  A bus, driven by the mayor, (a lovely young lady) picks us up from the camp and drives us the five minutes up the road.  Last night there were over 100 people there!  Dinner is provided by a different group each week and last night it was the kindergarten and pre school who cooked and reaped the benefits of our $$.  Two casseroles with rice for dinner and a desert was pretty tasty and all the better for not having to cook it ourselves.  What a great way to raise funds for the many local groups and lovely for us to meet fellowtravellers around their fabulous camp fire. 

During our few days here we walked into town each day to pick up groceries and to check out the highlights of Julia Creek.  I loved the Mosaic Chair in the park which was created by many locals ranging in age from 4 to 90's.  A true community effort.

The Duncan McIntyre Heritage Centre was good to have a wander through with lots of stories and memorbelia from The McKinlay Shire and Julia Creek.  

Julia Creek is home to the Julia Creek Dunnart, a little mouse size marsupial which was thought to be extinct until a small colony were found here some years ago.  The visitor information centre has lots of information about these little creatures and you can see these little guys be fed twice a day.  We went along one day and enjoyed learning all about this cute little Australian marsupial.

Julia Creek sits in the centre of The Great Artesian Basin and you can also learn all about this incredible body of water at the visitor centre too.  The fountain is engraved with Banjo Paterson's verse 'Song of the Artesian Water'.   Most houses here do not have hot water systems as the water is hot when it comes to the surface.  Many have water tanks not to catch the rain but to let the water cool down in.  

Soon our four days were up and it was time to continue our journey towards Townsville.  We hit the road and about an hour later decided to stop for coffee at a little place wiki camps had listed as 'gravel pit billabong'.  We found the spot and drove in to find we were the only people here so after our coffee we decided we would stay for the day and night.  Another beautiful waterfront address!

We enjoyed the afternoon in the sunshine, yes it's getting a little warmer, and Bill was kept busy with the many birds that were around.  These Black Breasted Buzzards were beautiful flying overhead as they looked for dinner.  

The next morning we left and drove another hour into Richmond where we found another RV camp site.  Not so good as Julia Creek but all we needed and so we set up quickly and then had a walk around town.

Richmond is a smaller town than Julia Creek but seems to be just as friendly.  Together with Winton and Hughenden, Richmond is part of the Australian Dinosaur Trail and just out of town are the fossil pits where you can have a dig around to see what you can find.  We will leave that for another time but today enjoyed seeing 'the Kronosaurus' marine reptile outside the visitor centre.  Apparently the full skeleton of this creature was found at Amy Downs by Ralph Thomas in 1926.  Said to be around 112 millions years old the skeleton is now on display in an American museum.  I don't think I'd like to meet one of these while swimming!

We had a wander through the Heritage Centre, still a work in progress, looked at the beautiful Anzac Memorial in the Lions Park and walked to Lake Fred Triton.  

This stack of rocks caught my eye as we returned and we discovered that the rocks are a unique feature of Richmond.  These spherical rocks are called moonrocks and come in a variety of sizes, some of which have fossilized remains in their cores.  They also feature in many gardens as well as the Lions Park here.  This stack of moonrocks is a monument to commemorate the completion of the bitumen sealing of the highway in 1976.

The next day we made our way to Hughenden another little town with a great affiliation with dinosaurs after the first fossil was found in 1865.  'Mutt' the Muttaburrasaurus stands proudly as you enter town just waiting for budding photographers to show up and snap him.  We did of course!

In the main street we found the Federation Rotunda made from two 20' windmills brought from a local property.  These are dated 1912 and 1916 and is certainly a novel use for them now.  

We followed the sculpture trail along the street seeing, Darby the dinosaur, Leanneosaur the Queensland Pterosaur and the large Ammonite sculpture and finally stopped at the Ernest Henry Bridge crossing The Flinders River.  This river is Queenslands longest extending 1004 km and flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria.  There was not a drop of water to be seen in it today.

Other attractions around Hughenden are further afield and the four National Parks are somewhere we want to come back to and explore another time.  Porcupine Gorge in particular sounds wonderful.

Still too early to stop for the night we jumped back in the car and made a way 50 or so km along the highway to the tiny town of Prairie where we camped in the back of The Prairie Hotel.

With a population of just 50, Prairie was once a main horse change centre for Cobb and Co coaches.  The pub is another outback gem and we enjoyed another evening with fellow travellers over a fabulous meal and a drink or two.  

Not too far down the road the next morning we stopped for morning tea at another 'gravel pit' and decided once more to set up for the day and night.  Lots of Grevilleas and birds here and wide open spaces away from the road made for a lovely spot to while away the day and play with the many honeyeaters who spent the day with us.

The next morning we made our way into Charters Towers and found a home in one of the caravan parks there.  Once the washing was done we shopped in town as supplies were getting low and back at home we chilled out under the awning with Allan and Bron who we met at Prairie.  

The next day we drove up to the lookout and enjoyed learning more about this former gold mining town.  Just 13 km out of town we had a look at Burdekin Weir, the source of the towns water supply.  The water was running over the spillway and was great to see a river flowing our first for a number of days.

We also found a memorial tree stump to the explorer Leichhardt.  This replica replaces the original which now sits under water since the weir was built.

We left the next day and made our way in Townsville arriving at our kerbside location just after lunch.  Pat and Sandy welcomed us once more and we enjoyed the afternoon on the veranda catching up.  That evening we had dinner at the hotel over the road with them, Alan, Shane and Cheryl who had flown in that day for the reunion.  You could say this was the pre reunion party and a good time was had by all.  And so for now we'll hit the sack and be ready to enjoy the next few days in reunion mode.

Until then .......