We are staying a second night in Charters Towers. Our plans for today didn’t eventuate so we had to make a new plan. We had originally thought we would stop on the way to Townsville and detour to Ravenswood but since we had a day free we thought it might be nice to make a day trip of it.

Ravenswood is an old goldmining Town about 80 km from Charters Towers. It’s hard to believe when you look at the old town today but in the gold mining era it had a population of about 5000 people and about 500 pubs in its main street. Today it just has some beautifully preserved buildings that showcase it’s bygone glory.  There are a couple of pubs still operating, a general store and not much else. It was great to have a wander around though. Lots of information on the buildings and those that are still there are so well preserved.  The mullock heaps, the old shafts, the chimneys, the rusting machinery and the historic old buildings give a great insight into a once thriving gold mining town. It was lovely to see.

Gold is still being mined at Ravenswood. You can’t see the current operation but from Sarsfield Pit Lookout you get a great view of an old open cut gold mine now filled with aqua green water, toxic I understand, so although it looks very inviting I guess there’s no swimming there!

Another town, another sunset,  Still haven’t cracked that big western sky yet and tomorrow we head for the coast so I don’t think it’s going to happen. Tonight’s sunset showed the promise of being spectacular for a while but dwindled to back to average. We did come prepared with bubbles and nibbles so the pain of yet another disappointment was lessened.