Day 214 / 2014 - Mt Isa to Longreach

 Leaving Mt Isa we headed east towards Cloncurry only to not get very far. Anne had read on the camps book there was a ghost town not far up the road and wanted to have a look perhaps we could even camp there the night!!!

Mary Kathleen is an old mining town that supported the Mary Kathleen uranium open cut mine. There is now nothing of the town except the roads, concrete house pads and driveways. The road we travelled down was quite eroded so we had to take it especially slow. We crossed a concrete bridge which as we passed over I could see the footings erroded and some of the bridge's concrete roadway had crumbled away I was quietly hoping it would support our weight. As we continued on past the bridge further down the road who should we meet but Mick and Carley they had the same idea. It proved a little difficuilt to go any further and as there was nothing to see we decided to turn around and head out again. 

Anne had also noted from the camps book there was another area to camp about 12km up the road called Corella Dam. The access road in was much better and although not sealed was a reasonable gravel track not to corrigated and only about 2 km long. Coming over the hill we spied the dam with quite a number of vans parked next to it. Went around the left hand side and found a flat area which still had nice views of the water but a little more protected from the wind and a few less vans. We found a nice spot to park between a stand of trees and far enough away from other vans. The dam was a good spot to camp but there were no facilities so you needed to take everthing you need in and your waste back out again. We met another couple Leanne and Nev who came in after us they were from Mt Beauty in Victoria and were also tavelling around Australia.

Next day we decided after breakfast to move on and head towards Cloncurry. No sooner had we pulled out onto the main road a truck driver travelling in the opposite direction called up and suggested we find a place to pull off as there was a very overwidth vehicle about 5 km's befind him. We thanked him and found the nearest bay and waited for the truck hauling the excavator to pass before continuing on.

Mick has suggested we try the Bakery when we get to Cloncurry since are not one to argue when it comes to food we parked and made a beeline for the Bakery. It was a modern shop but had all the delicious treats of an old fashion country bakery and cheap too. Only $3.00 for these huge sausage rolls and $1.50 for the old fashion cream buns there goes the budget and diet.

From Cloncurry we headed towards Winton. About 12 Kms east you turn right off the Barkley Hwy and head down the Landsborough Highway which is also known as the Matilda Way. If we had continued along the Barkley we would have ended up in Townsville. McKinlay is about a third of the way to Winton and is famous for being the place where the scenes in the Walkabout Creek Hotel bar for the Paul Hogan film Crocodile Dundee were filmed. We stopped for a photo and a drink at the bar. The outside is different but the inside still looks exactly as it was in the film. After a few kilometres further down the road we pulled over for the night at a rest area.

Next morning we drove the last 100 km into Winton our main goal was to visit the Waltzing Matilda Centre before moving on. The Watzing Matilda Centre is located in the main street. There are a number of static and interactive displays as well as a wealth of local historical information. There is a section dedicated to Banjo Pattersons Waltzing Matilda song and how it come about but the rest of the centre has a lot on the history of the local area including information about Winton as the Birthplace of QANTAS. Once finishing we visited the Truck museum and the Musical Wall before fuelling up then heading off travelling about 50km then pulling over for the night in another rest area.

Next morning we headed off for Longreach another 150Km further east. Arriving in Longreach we booked into the Top Tourist Park on the east side of town. After unhitching and setting up we headed for the QANTAS Founders Museum. On walking up Anne spied Mick and Carleys caravan we were suprised as we thought they were further ahead of us. After a quick catch up they said they had finished looking in the museum and headed off while we headed into the Museum.

The are a number of priced packages which give you a range of different options. $25.00 gives you access to the Museum while $60.00 adds the tour of the 707 and 747 Jumbo jet planes while $130.00 adds the option of a wing walk and access to the planes interior not covered in the general tours. The Museum itself has a information about the start of QANTAS and the struggle to keep it going during the early years. The are a number of interactive displays including a wartime flight simulator. At 2:30 we met our guide in the reception area to take us on out tour through the 747 and 707. Most of the time was spent looking at the jumbo, we were able to look under through and even get to climb into the front of one of the engines for a photo opportunity. I think this is as close to a Jumbo jet (other than the passenger cabin) we would ever get. We ran out of time on the firstday to complete the museum but were able to get a free pass to return the next day.

Second day we headed back to the Founders Museum to continue from where we left off finishing about 2 hours later before heading back to the van for lunch. After lunch we headed for the Stockmans Hall of Fame which was also on our list of things we wanted see in Longreach. This has a number of exhibition halls each having a theme such as life in the pioneer days, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Unsung Heros, communications in the bush, droving in the past, current day droving, cattle mustering and station life. There is an 8 minute film at the beginning giving you a rundown on the life of a stockman and women and their environment. After 3 hours we finally covered most of what to see but you could easly spend more time there.

Day three we caught up on house keeping such as washing and restocking of the larder. While in town we also visited the Powerhouse Museum which was where electricity for the town was originally generated. They used a process of extracting gas from wood originally but when supplies started to run short they changed the process to extract gas from coal. The reason why they used a gas extraction process was because water which was normally converted to steam to dive the turbines was in to short a supply. The powerstation still has a display of the gas extractors, control systems and turbines but was no longer operational.