Cos there’s been relatively little to see or hold our attention in many of the little outback places we’ve been so far we seem to be a bit ahead of the supposed timetable. I had always anticipated that we would be in Cairns by about the middle of July to start the trek to the top and then on return from the Cape we would explore the coastal towns all the way back to Brisbane and perhaps further south. Well we decided, being ahead of schedule, that we would take a detour up to the Gulf so Normanton and Karumba became the targets from Mt Isa via Cloncurry. Cloncurry passed without incident – I know people live there and we sat around their lake for lunch but it is a town with no apparent character and none of the stories of the type attaching to other outback towns we’ve been through.
Ooh ooh ooh – we could experience the ‘Gulflander’. Now this is one of those once in a lifetime experiences we were told (although Robyn has experienced three lifetimes when it comes to the Gulflander). So, intent on saving dollars to pay for the experience we free-camped for the first night out of Mt Isa and despite the fact that the free-camp was nearly full we spent a comfortable night parked up with about 10 others.
On to Normanton to book for the train- it is now Tuesday morning and the train runs to Croydon on Wednesday, overnights and comes back Thursday, a round trip of about 250km. Our plan was also to overnight in Croydon in some kind of cheap humpy. But to our never ending surprise the train was booked out. Well, the best laid plans….
So we booked for a short trip with morning tea on Saturday. With Normanton now a future experience we moved on to Karumba where we found a caravan park to prop for the next few days. As it turned out we were in fact lucky to find a place in Karumba – normally at this time of year it is full, all four caravan parks in a 60’s fishing village of just 600 people. This is the place that Victorians (and some others) come to to fish for Barramundi. And not just for a few days but for months on end. As luck would have it the fish are scarce this year apparently due to the drought causing streams to dry up where barra spawn. I don’t know whether that’s true or not but we were repeatedly reminded that the numbers were way down.
Karumba has little other attraction although the seafood is good and the weather was beautiful. But, it does have good sunsets when we’re not there. There’s even a tavern named the ‘Sunset’ at which we tried the seafood and the sunset and attempted to spy the crocodiles in the Normanton River. The seafood was good and reasonably priced the sunset happened but wasn’t spectacular and they must have lied about the crocs…
Still looking for that magical sunset. A few leisurely days in the sun didn’t hurt though.
Friday we headed back to Normanton. Another caravan park for the night, a bit of a walk around town…..
where pubs are pre-eminent, fuel is served up from shop fronts (but not at weekends) and crocs are revered. This is also the sentimental home of the shipping/ merchandising conglomerate Burns Philp Ltd. The original tin shed is still embalmed and has become the home of the Visitor Information Centre and local library. Its 120 years old which isn’t bad for a tin shed, but I didn’t get a photo.
This one nearly qualified as a croc though.
On to the ‘Gulflander’ …….
Now the surprise of this is the fact that it is still part of Queensland Rail. It is the only line in the network that goes from nowhere to nowhere but still runs a weekly mail service between Normanton and Croydon. This on Wednesday and Thursday. Every other day it runs a short trip to ‘Critters Creek’ with a morning tea run on Saturdays.
The tracks are 120 years old and the only real maintenance over that period has been repairs occasioned by floods. The tracks are not only not level but they wave all over the place. The journey is taken at just 25km per hour these days, somewhat slower than it used to run. The ride is hilarious – you are pitched all over the seats, up, down, sideways. In hindsight I am so pleased we didn’t get on for the full journey but it has been a highlight of the journey so far…
and yes there’s even a dunny on this train. For the technically minded the engine is a Gardner diesel, 65 years old pushing out 100 hp behind which is a 4 speed crashbox requiring a double de-clutch shift up and down. The engine was overhauled about 4 years ago for the first time. The motor coach is the same vintage but the passenger car is newer, only about 50 tears old and taken from another Qld rail system.
Morning tea was scones & jam & cream, cake and damper with golden syrup for the forty or so on board. The driver maintained commentary for all of the journey as we passed through deserted town sites, deserted market gardens and stopped at a flood marker showing the depth of various big floods over the rails history…
um! that’s deep – 14 metres at the worst. The train has run every day of its 120 years apart from when the tracks were flooded. Past motors were of course steam and the last such steam engine is enshrined at the front of the station..
There are still a lot of historical pieces around the station, not least of which is the museum….
Back on the road to Julia Creek but first via…
Burke & Wills, for fuel at only $1.75 a litre and then on to……
to share with about 14 others..
most of whom are not in the picture.
I’ve only taken about 1300 photos so far but I’ve never got the right ones to fit the story. Maybe I should write up the tale first then set about taking photos to the match the commentary. I’ll keep trying!
Did see these odd vehicles parked up at Burke & Wills ……
any clues?
5 Responses
Google tells me they are 3D seismic survey machines used to map the structure of the earth. The must be looking for oil and or gas underground. The plate in the middel lowers down to the ground and virbrates or something, and the waves travel down through the earth, reflect of things and the waves bounce back to the surface to be detected by other equipment. I guess from the waves they get back they can tell what’s down there.
Regards,
Gaz.
A wonderful tale! I have always wanted to do that Nomanton Rail trip on the Gulflander, and you have further whetted my appetite – despite the rough ride!
Karumba doesn’t sound too bad either with all their seafood options, and that would have been a very pleasant break compared to the trip to Mt Isa!
Your pics and stories provide a terrific account of your trip, and I think you have done a great job of matching pics to your stories.
Cheers
John
Great tales guys! Barry, what is the road surface like between Mt Isa and Karumba? I understand it is sealed, but is that just some tar over the corrugations or is it a smooth (Sprite friendly?) surface?
Must get up that way before we get too much older!
Keep on Truckin’!
Bob ‘n’ Glen
Mt Isa to Cloncurry is highway, Cloncurry to Burke & Wills is reasonable highway. From Burke & Wills it is a 50/50 mixture of single lane blacktop and highway with a reasonable surface. The single lane blacktop is OK but off the edges can be extremely rough and in a lot of places there is a big drop off the blacktop. The best way is to anticipate oncoming traffic (you can see over a good distance whats coming) and just pull off the blacktop to let the others pass.
The roads up through Charleville onto Longreach and Winton are fine but Winton out to Boulia and then on to Mt Isa is mostly single lane blacktop but it is OK but I would guess you would go Winton to Cloncurry on a dual lane highway.
All of the roads outback are still fairly patchy, wavy navy, even the highways but at Sprite speed I would say they’re not really a problem.
B
Thanks for that info Barry, noted in the Little Black Book for future reference…..Sprite Odyssey circa 20…..
Cheers, Bob ‘n’ Glen