1^st -27 August

Julia Creek to Porcupine Gorge and on
to Cape Hillsborough and diving with platypus in Eungella NP.



Julia Creek is a RV friendly town which
helps boost business takings in the area because it is also a very
nice little town with some attractions. Last time we stayed here we
stayed in the free camp beside the creek but we thought this time we
would stay the 3 nights in the little caravan park. $24 per night or
3 days for $60 with power and water , not bad compared to some . The
weather is still not helping with our solar collection and it is
windy. When the sun is out it gets to 29deg but the nights are
dropping to about 8, cold for us. We are in long pants early morning
until about 10-11 am, then put them back after dinner.

We start our stay on Monday 1 August
which means we are in town for the dinner special held at the caravan
park. Dinner is $10 a head and open to all in town, a bus brings
people in from just outside town at the free camp. Even though it is
walking distance but easier on the bus especially if people bring
their drinks with them . Different groups from here and the area
take turns in cooking the dinners every Monday night during tourist
season to help make money for their clubs.This night is corned beef
or roast beef with steamed veg and an apple strudel like desert. We
were going to go thinking it would be roast vegetables but I do
steamed veggies all the time and we do not eat desert. Anyhow they
supplied over 100 dinners so the club/ group should have made some
money. The meat and desert is cooked at someones home with the
vegetables cooked in the caravan park camp kitchen.
Julia Creek is home to its own
Dunnart., a nocturnal insect eating marsupial with sharp dog like
teeth and a pointy snout. It was first documented in 1931 but not
recognised as a species until 1979 . A live animal was not seen until
1992 when 7 animals where trapped and one animal bought in after
being rescued from a cat. Currently listed as endangered with some
breeding in captivity. One animal is here in the information centre
and is on display and fed for the public twice a day. The lighting in
the display simulates day as night . The display still has the floor
display and lots of information, its good. They live in surrounding
grassland and hide during the day in cracks in the black soil between
the flinders grass and mitchell grass tussocks. They eat crickets,
cockroaches, spiders, grasshoppers,other insects and small lizards.
The Dunnart stores fat in the base of their tails when food is
plentiful making it look carrot like in shape. This fat is converted
into energy when food is scarce in the colder months. Body length
90-100 cm, females weigh 40-50g and males 50-70g. Produce 2 litters a
year and have 8 nipples in their pouches for 8 young. See photo I
found of older young hanging on. They are weaned while there is still
food around so they can build up their fat tail reserves.

 
 
We walk around the creek walk and ride
around on the free bikes from the van park.

There are 2 very small supermarkets in
town and a butcher, a pub , newsagent that is also tattslotto. A
shop that can sell over the counter medicine and cosmetics but it
does not have a pharmacist so I walk out to the small bush hospital
to get a blood pressure check ready for the phone appointment with my
doctor . We buy a tatts ticket for Tuesday night because I did this
last time here and won $34, ticket only cost $4. so this time we win
nothing of course.

We are still on the Artesian Basin
which extends 2400km from Cape York in the north to Dubbo in the
south, from Darling Downs in the east , west to Coober Pedy, covering
1.7 million square km . Which is about a fifth of the Australian
continent. All this area million years ago was an inland sea and the
water soaked through the porous rock to be stored deep down under
pressure and heating up.

Some of this water comes up naturally
through cracks because of the pressure but most comes to the surface
through drilled bores. Its a good job some of this water is replaced
by rainfall collected over a large area. This may take years for it
to soak down to the storage areas underground. We are getting less
rain and the ground is slowly drying up. Some of the bores are
already drying up or slowing down so what will it be like by the end
of the century, no artesian water and empty spaces underground where
stores where. Some states have decommissioned some bores , plugging
them .
I know I do carry on some times don't
I, no more said.



Its time to move on to Richmond a sign
on the way in with a shape of a dinosaur says.

Uthinktheysaurus pretty neat sign.
 
This is part of the dinosaur fossil
area.and has its own Richmond Plesosaur. A good display is found at
the information centre called Kronassarus Korner. There are free
fossil hunting areas just outside town . Richmond started as a gold
mining town then cattle country as gold ran out. The Dinosaur fossils
have been found on some of the surrounding cattle stations , most by
accident. Richmond is beside the southern bank of the Flinders river,
the longest river in Queensland. Which runs very strong in wet
season- summer and now in winter is nearly dry with a few permanent
water holes.
Richmond is another RV friendly town
you can stay 72 hours at a set parking area with no amenities, just
get a permit from information area and sign to say you are self
contained with toilet, and water.


We went out fossicking , well I did
while Larry looked for birds I found a few shells in the sandstone
but did not have any great different finds. In the afternoon Larry
went out bird looking while I walked around the town and looked at an
old heritage display. This is of Cambridge downs homestead built in
1880's of local flagstone, well the display is a replica. I looked
around an old type shop selling everything, clothes,
jewellery,shoes,hardware ,you name it they probably have it. The old
building has wooden creaky floor boards the same as the little
supermarket across the road. Here the lady managing the shop sleeps
in the office the days the shop is open as she lives out of town.
The next day we walk around the man
made lake in town and out along a creek track. There is a seniors
small village overlooking the lake. They have their own access down
to the lake walk with grassed areas with seats,. Not a bad place to
be in retirement for the locals.
As always its time to move and see
more. 

 Next is Hughenden pop 1200. another dinosaur place. Here we
stay at the caravan park one night to boost our batteries before
heading into Porcupine Gorge national park , we will be back for a
day afterward too. 


We walk the trail beside the know dry
Flinders river , this town also has a few sculptures on walking
trials. This one is of fish made of washers and scrap metal.
Next is the lookout at mount Walker
which has 360deg views of Hughenden and area.. 478m above sea level,
152 m above the township.



We decided to see this in the daytime
as we saw the sunset from up here last time. I am so glad it was
another lookout we could drive up and did not have to walk up.



We are up and gone early to Porcupine
gorge this time with the caravan in tow and this time the road is all
bitumen. We left the van before and if I remember it was the first or
second time trying out the roof top tent. This gorge is named either
because of the prickly spear grass -like a porcupine or because of
the echidnas that make it their home.
Porcupine gorge is 74 km north of
Hughenden , 449km west of Townsville. The cliffs are of different
layers of coloured sandstone deposited 5 million to 280 million
years ago . You drive in and if you did not know you do not see the
gorge until you are right there. The camp ground is at the top called
Pyramid camp. So named because over many years the fast flowing
seasonal creeks have washed away the Gorge and in the widest part
have left a Pyramid shape named of course the Pyramid.

The day we arrive we decide it is too
late in the day to walk down into the gorge so we walk the gorge rim
trail. Its a 2.6km walk starting in the bushland and winds its way
back to the gorge wall further on . At the lookout over this part of
the gorge we meet another couple sitting taking in the scenery,
taking photos and looking for birds. We get talking and find out
Geoff thinks he has spotted an eagle chick on a nest but it will take
a rim walk through scrub to find out. Not my type of walking getting
scratched legs nor as it turns out is it Debbie's . Larry on the
other hand is always doing this sort of walk looking for birds so the
two Geoff and Larry set off and Debbie and I walk back on the track.
We are pleased the two men are together it is not as much of a worry
as when they take off on their own without a radio or phone. Geoff
has had a book of his photos of White bellied sea eagles published.
The eagles are being sturdied in Homebush in Sydney where Geoff and
Debbie live. Geoff is carrying very good photo equipment and gets
some good shots but so does Larry with our not so expensive and heavy
camera. The nest has one un-hatched egg and a young wedge tail eagle
in it. Over the next few days a lot of photos are taken of it and its
parents. Larry sitting at one stage as bait for the swooping parents
so Geoff could try and get photos.
 



 
We ended up sitting together in the
late afternoon for a beer and talking.

Debbie and Geoff are just starting
their travels and have been on the road for only 8 weeks and are
heading to Cape York so all our experiences of birds,wildlife and
places good to see were discussed. It was decided we would descend
to the Gorge floor together in the morning. It makes a change to have
like mined people to talk to and not spend all your time with but
come together for part of the day to see and do things.
 
The walk down to the gorge floor is
1.2km and we all stop to look at all different rock colours and
formations. We finally make it to the bottom and after walking for a
while along to the Pyramid I decide after coming down here I was
going to swim in the water hole close by. I was the only one and I
did not stay in long , just enough to say I did it .
 

  It was bloody
cold water which was not so bad until I got to deep centre bit. We
swam in a different pool last time here , this one was still holding
more water which was good in a way, it was cleaner then before. The
other thing is it got me refreshed for the walk back up the gorge
wall. This was a slow trek up for me with lots of quick few second
breathers but I made it . Yeah I had to ,there is no other way back
up. I had found yellow butterflies and a weird looking moth, and a
frog, all of which will have to be identified latter.
I even had a small glass of beer with
everybody in the evening.

Geoff and Larry went out to the eagle's
nest in the morning before Geoff and Debbie left for their trip to
Cape York, we will meet again one day but will keep in contact.
After they left Larry and I walked the
road into the camping area just looking at things. The morning after
before we leave we go and check on the eagle baby. We sit and watch
as mum or dad was flying above talking and baby was talking back. The
adult left so they were not worried about us sitting there , they had
probably realised by now we were not there to harm the young one.
It was time to leave Porcupine gorge
and we had not seen any rock wallabies even though we had seen some
common wallabies. We also did not have the night time visitors from
before , the Rufus Bettong. The se are the largest of the rat
kangaroos an adult about 40cm . They spend their days in woven nests
in the tussock grass and come out to feed when it is a bit safer at
night to eat.

Here is a couple of photos from last
time we camped here, having a drink from our water bucket we used for
the dishes as last time we did not have the van just the car and
tent.


On our way back to Hughenden we see
some camels in some paddocks, we had not seen camels for a long
time.We latter find out they are wild ones left to eat the prickly
bushes and keep them under control and to keep away any wild dogs .
Not a bad way of controlling pests. 
 
 Nothing much is done in Hughenden
this time, but I did find the fresh local fruit and vegetable shop I
found 3 years ago, I had forgotten all about him until I saw the
shop.
Our next stop is Prairie with a
population of 50 and a ghost wandering the hotel called the wandering
ringer from 1930's. We did not stop the night we went to Kooroorinya
falls nature reserve 60km south . The local cattle stations and small
towns have a race track there and hold races twice a year . They
keep a caretaker there and have a camping area with hot showers and
toilets. We walk around the creek and across the not flowing falls .
There has been echidna in the lady's showers but we do not see any
just their tracks. We find wallabies, bowerbirds kites and a few
others. It would be nice here when the water was flowing a bit, you
can swim but the remaining water did not look too inviting.
We head to Charters Towers for a couple
of days to shop and stuff. We get there on a Sunday so have to wait a
day for woolworths to be open to do the shop to go into Cape
Hullsborough national park. In Queensland I think I have already said
, the big supermarkets do not open on Sundays as this is for the
small shops to get some more business. We also have to collect mail
so thats another job for Monday. So Sunday we go to the Towerhill
lookout, this you can walk all the way or drive most of the way, we
opt to drive as its quiet steep. Then we drive out to the Burdekin
weir as we had been already to the dam and falls. The area has a day
use area with picnic tables, as its sunday there are lots of people
out there some most fishing.

At the Top Tourist caravan park the
local Lions club where cooking a 3 course meal and it was a roast so
we decided to eat with them. Ok $20 each got a cup of pumpkin soup
with buttered bread,which was not bad , roast beef and roast potatoes
,pumpkin with steamed vegetables and gravy, I gave my meat to Larry
who said it was tough, then sticky date pudding with syrup and
custard which was nice. We have not had sweet pudding for months. You
take your own plates, dish cutlery so you still have to do the
dishes. If we had noticed before we said we would go we could have
had a meal at the local pub for the same money and able to make food
choices . This would have supported the pub but not the Lions club
though.
It rains Monday night and I had washed
the little floor rugs and left them outside so they had to be stored
in the shower for the 75km trip towards Townsville to Reid river. It
was still raining and traffic was heavy so not worth being on the
road so we pull over. We will bypass Townsville and head down the
coast a few kilometres before Mackay to get to Cape Hillsborough.

Going along the highway a car pulls
around us with the lady waving and pointing to our caravan so we
pull up as soon as we can. Checking the van thinking maybe something
is open we find the back water tank is falling down hitting the road.
One of the straps holding it has broken and because it is full it has
slipped and is hanging down on one side. Larry pulls us onto the
grass verge of the road as it is very busy. He has to get under with
a jack and ropes and slowly get that side up a bit . Even if we
wanted to let the water go to make it easier we could not as the taps
were on the high side, he did not want to lay in a pool of water
anyway. I stood at the end of the van trying to make sure no one ran
into us our ran Larry's legs over as they jutted out from underneath.
When he had it up we let the water go so he could get it up nice and
secure. We headed into the next town , Ayr and found a engineer who
could make us up two new brackets. He did them in a couple of hours
from steel and painted them while we waited in the van parked
across the road. We paid $100 cash . So we new about Home Hill free
park next to Ayr so we headed there so the new straps could be put
on.

Well Home Hill comfort stop has a new
shower block and camp kitchen opposite the information centre but you
line up on the side of the road beside the railway in a road parallel
to the main road.
 
Well you can stay for two days and it
was full we had to pull up right down the other end to the shower
block . What people see in staying here ,sitting in a street with
cars passing and business back doors opposite to you and railway line
beside you , I do not know. Here is a photo down the street full of
caravans & motor homes . At least we got to sort our water tank
straps out.

It rained and was cloudy so we had to
find a caravan park to boost power and get some more drinking water
before going into national park. We found a place just south of
Proserpine that would do.

Of course it was raining as we drove
into Cape Hillsborough and Smalley's beach. We had to go to the end
of the track to our camp 11 the last site and it was a very tight fit
to get turned and back in. No more track to use as it ends at our
site and has the usual little wooden posts in the ground around the
outside with a gap to drive in, which we could not do because of
trees and low branches.Number 10 moved his car so we could drive into
his site and back slowly around into ours. It took nearly an hour to
get into place going back and forth turning a little at a time with
the other man at the front watching and me watching the back. Fun .
Not. It took all Larry's driving skills to get us in .
So 19 to 23 August is spent here with
our own track through the trees to the beach. We walk the beach many
times as the tide here is massive with high tide right to the edge of
trees to at least 500metres out exposing mostly mud flats and rocks.
We walked out one late afternoon and took this picture back to the
beach.
 
 

On one of my trips to the toilet I saw
something move under the ramp and as we have learnt to take the
camera everywhere with us I took this photo at what was looking back
at me. I did not now for sure what it was until a few hours latter
when out walking I found this I spotted this out trying to get some
sun not far from the first sighting. Its a major skink about 35cm long 
l  


 
There are bush stone curlews here too
we hear them at night and catch quick glimpses in the torch light but
can not find their day area. They are not out in the open like they
were at Lake Tinnaroo.

There are plenty of brush turkeys ,
laughing Kookaburra, red tail black cockatoo and some rose crowned
fruit dove .
 
 
We drove into the next cove which is
the main area of the national park with all the walks and sites, it
also has a commercial resort there.
The first walk we did was on the drive
there , there is a mangrove walk with a boardwalk above the water
when for when the tide is in. This took about an hour slowly walking
and reading all about life here.
Then came the hard walks the first up
to the top on one side to a lookout 1km up. When the tide is out you
go down to the beach and back along beach to the car park 2.2km . The
tide was in coming in so if you go down to beach you had to come back
up to lookout and back down the way you came up. Well I decided, as
we still had more climbs and lookouts in the afternoon , I would
stay at the lookout and Larry went to the beach and back, then we
both walked the track down. 
 
 It was lunch time so we had this in the
picnic area on the beach front.

 

Then came the big climb to 4 lookouts
starting on the beach beside the resort. This was a very hard track
up and at the last lookout you can go down to the beach and over to
an island and walk around then back to carpark on the beach. We had
to return after the last lookout as the tide was still in too far to
get to the island. There is only a small window in time to get across
walk around and get back without having to swim the crossing. It was
a hard day but the views were good and we sort of enjoyed it.

 
 
We had planned to go out from our camp
here to Eungella national park to go scuba diving with the platypus
then return here for another day, the weather was not that good so we
decided we would leave a day early and take the caravan with us , the
day of the dive.

So up early and on our way to Finch
Hatton which is beside and between Eungella NP.We put the van in at
the showgrounds and rang the dive place to tell them we were there .
Luana the owner of Rainforest scuba said to come to the office and
she would show us more things to see and do. Well we thought we would
do this come back have lunch then be ready to go back to get ready
for our dive at 2pm. This is not what happened we got there around
11pm and after talking , getting gear together for the dive Luanna
took us into the park and up to the top of the mountain range of the
park to the platypus viewing walk and lookout. Here we stat and
watched platypus , turtles and birds. The platypus here in Queensland
are smaller and right here it is breeding season so they are active
during the day as well, good for us as the male is here looking.
 
 

 
Anyhow by the time we get back to Finch
Hatton office and our car its time to suit up for the dive, we had
missed lunch and were already late getting ready. By the time we got
in our wet suits loaded her ute with tanks etc and drove to dive spot
it was nearly 3pm, and after 3.30pm when we got in the water. It was
a hard slog to walk from car to the water with my oxygen tank and all
gear on for the first time after my surgery. We finally get under
water which has a lot of sediment on the bottom so we had to go very
slowly and carefully trying not to disturb or visibility would be
down to zero. It was not great anyway but heading to a fallen tree in
the water we find a eel tailed catfish hiding she has been out
cleaning a patch for here eggs to go. She is a permanent resident
here along with some small fish and some eels. We find small young
turtles but no sign of the resident platypus. We had to get out as we
were getting very cold and it was now about 5.30pm .
 

  A bit disappointing not to see a platypus from in the water but a good
experience anyway.It was 6.30 when we got back to the caravan tired
and hungry so we had a quick prepared meal and hot shower and just
sat for a while. The next day we go back up to the walking trails in
the park and slowly look at things. We only see platypus and only
briefly but see heaps snake turtles and some birds on the walks were
most people are but on the longer narrow track further along we find
a big Yellow Spot monitor -varanus panoptes that walks along the
track a few more steps before disappearing into the scrub beside the
river. On our way back we find a Lace monitor or tree goanna –varanus
varius like the ones in Benalla , walking along a fallen tree over
the water to get across to the otherside.
 

After lunch we head out to Finch
Hatten gorge to see the Araluen Cascades and what is called the wheel
of fire at the end of the walk . So called for the light reflection
in the rock pool.. Just another hard climb up in a gorge but at least
we find heaps of skinks and some of the Finch Hatten gorge Lemon
-Barred forest skink eremiascinus richardsonii and 2 frogs one we
could hear but could not find and one I found under a big boulder
just sitting there. At this stage I do not know if it is the Eungella
gastric brooding frog or not.
 

We had had intensions of swimming in
the rock pools that swimming is allowed but after looking at them and
reading some of the signs we decide safety first and its cold water.
Read the sign people have died up here.

Thats all for now.