The famous Cooper Creek

For the first time in 12 years, we had been relieved of grandparent duty, so we decided to spend the winter in the north; or part of the winter anyway.

We were ready; it was cloudy and cold as we headed off at about 9:30am. We called at the mall and picked up the mail, paper and some bread and then drove out over Bourke Hill on the western edge of our home city of Dubbo. We hadn’t been out this way for quite a while, particularly the area around Nyngan where we turned right and headed for Bourke.

Twenty two kilometres before Bourke there was a roadside camp on the left. We parked in behind a big tree and spent a peaceful night. Morning saw us at Bourke getting fuel and by mid-morning it was off to the Back O’ Bourke Exhibition Centre, a rural museum depicting the early settlement of the area. I was under the impression that it was an Aboriginal centre, run and controlled by the Aboriginals of the Bourke area. However, despite having some Aboriginal artifacts displayed, there appeared to be nothing of the culture or history of the early Aboriginals of the region.

After getting fuel at Cunnamulla, we headed west towards Eulo. We were going to camp at Eulo but the camp seemed unsuitable so we went on. Because of previous wet weather, a rough but pleasant camp was found along the side of the bridge on the Paroo River. After leaving this camp and heading a bit further west, we turned north on the Quilpie road. We turned off slightly further on and went to the Yowah opal fields and booked into the only caravan park there. This turned out to be a very interesting camp and we stayed for two nights. The woman that owns the park also owns an opal mine called the Kaleidoscope Mine.

To our delight we were invited to a private tour of the Mine, and her house at the Mine site. They are planning to open the Mine for tours when they get flood repairs carried out; it was recently filled with water after heavy rains.

The roads in this part of Queensland are bitumen for the most part, but only very narrow. We were required to get our offside wheels off the bitumen when passing a car, or if a road train was coming towards us we completely stopped as far off the road as possible. Luckily this didn’t happen all that often. Once we left Yowah we travelled the Thargomindah road to Quilpie where we again got fuel. Then we went west to Windorah for more fuel, overnighting halfway between Quilpie and Windorah. We passed over the infamous Cooper Creek Bridge and took some photos. Windorah is one of only a few places trialling solar reflectors to generate power. There are five of these situated alongside the massive diesel generators that generate power for the area.

On the way to Longreach, we camped at a very interesting camp called Swanvale. At this spot they have created a pleasant camp with a lookout, shelter, table and BBQs, but no toilet. After decamping at Swanvale the next place was Stonehenge; no, not that Stonehenge! This Stonehenge is in the middle of nowhere and the only stones there are a lot of small stones that people have collected in passing and placed in a large flat area  to form the names of the towns (and sometimes the post codes) where they come from. Then it was on to Longreach. 

Solar reflectors at Windora

Sylvia’s going to play us a tune

Monnie can swim, I hope

The first thing we noticed at Longreach was the amount of white corellas in the trees at the civic centre. It was the same when we were here many years ago. The visitor information centre is at the same intersection as the corellas but it was hard to find a parking spot, so we parked at the old railway station. We were looking for a caravan park this time so we asked at the VIC. They pointed us to the one out opposite the Qantas Museum. It was $33 per night, a bit over our budget, but we booked for two nights as we needed to do some washing, have a shower and fill ‘Monnie’ with water. The park roads were gravel (dirt) and there was no provision for the disposal of grey or black water, though the part of the park we were in was reasonably new.

Anyway, we enjoyed Longreach, doing the shops, the club and the Qantas Museum. We had a good drive around in Terios and also went out and had a look at the Lions freedom camp, the Long Waterhole. When we left the caravan park we came out to the Waterhole and stayed another two nights.

Yowah, QLD

Next, it was further north to Winton. On the way to Winton, about 30 kilometres out, there’s a left turn to the new dinosaur centre where they discovered dinosaur tracks in the rock. We were intending to go there and have a look; but about one kilometre in, the road was that rough that I turned around and went back to the highway. We fueled up at Winton, had a bit of a look around the small town and then moved on. Next on our list was Hughenden. The road to Hughenden is only a minor road and as such is just a single bitumen strip for most of the way. A few passing lanes here and there made things a little easier. About halfway we found a nice little freedom camp at Corfield. The camp was only small, but overnight appeared about 10 other units. But we had good hot showers next door, behind the pub, for $2 each. The next morning we continued to Hughenden.

Lilly Lagoon, Longreach

We went straight to the VIC to get our bearings. We asked about Porcupine Gorge and if we could camp there. They gave us some maps and some good advice so off we went. It was about 85 kilometres out to the turnoff, but there was quite a lot of roadwork. After an unusually long drive, we turn off onto a bitumen road to the entrance of the Gorge. We found a suitable camp spot at the top of the Gorge and agreed that we would walk down into the Gorge in the morning.

On the Sunday morning during breakfast it started to rain. I said we had better get out of there pretty fast; if that detour on the main road got too wet we were going to be stuck. So we skipped the walk down to the Gorge, packed up our belongings and hot-footed it back to the main road.

Back in Hughenden the rain had eased off so we had a bit of a tourist look around. We saw a very, very large windmill. These windmills were made years ago by Comet and were individually numbered. This particular one was number 11; with a 32 foot wheel, it is believed this windmill is the only one still standing and operating in Australia. On the advice of the women from the VIC we found a good freedom camp just across the creek near the showground entrance. During the night it rained, and it rained, and in the morning there was water everywhere. I think we were lucky to get back onto the road.

Travelling from Hughenden towards Charters Towers we saw quite a lot of local creeks running full with brown foaming waters and vast amounts of water just lying in paddocks along the road. This area must have had a decent amount of rain recently as the region looked really good with green grass and new growth on the trees.

Nearing the small settlement of Homestead, we came up on the back of a great string of stationary traffic. We could not see what the problem was so I asked on the two-way.

“Road’s closed at the creek,” was the reply.

“How long?” I asked.

“Long time, according to the police.”

“Is there room to turn around up there?”

“Yeah, in front of the school.”

We crept up along the line of trucks and caravans and turned around at the school. We made our way to the camp at Campaspe River about 15 kilometres back, and we were lucky enough to get in; it was filling up fast. We walked to the River and the water was about 2.5 metres under the bridge. Even though the camp was full, there were still others coming in and finding somewhere to park for the night. The road was re-opened at about 5:30am on Wednesday morning. I checked the River under the bridge and it was about half a metre under the beams! There was a mass exodus from the camp area, us included, with most heading for Charters Towers.

Our earlier plan was to try for a camp at Fletcher Creek, but because of all the rain we decided to head straight to the Dalrymple Caravan Park in Charters Towers. We ended up staying for ten days. It was a very good and pleasant park, though a little above our budget for over a week’s booking. We used this as a base and travelled around in Terios. We did all those touristy things one does when camped for a few days. I was speaking to an elderly local fellow and he said, “This is the coldest and wettest winter I can remember.” We had falls of 50 millimetres  on two or three occasions while we were there. We also heard on the grapevine that Hughenden had over 200 millimetres of rain the day after we had left.

Brolgas in Longreach Caravan Park

On leaving Charters Towers, we went out to the old mining town of Ravenswood. I wanted to have a look around the old gold mines and have a look at the big open cut mine just on the edge of town. We paid for a camp at the sports ground with all the vans etc. camped in a circle around the outer edge of the oval; it was a good camp. We had water, power and showers and we spent two nights here. In coming to Ravenswood we needed to turn off the main highway at a small village called Mingela. At this village there appeared to be a large area next to the public toilets that could be used as a camp. We asked at the one and only pub, the only business left in town, if we could camp there overnight. He said it was ok and quite a few people camp there instead of taking their vans to Ravenswood. So we left Monnie there and we took Terios for a day’s outing to Townsville. We spent two nights there right alongside the railway line and you should have seen the trains that go through there at night; they are massive and seem to take forever to pass.

This was our turning point and it was  time to head for home. We travelled back to Charters Towers, did some shopping and got fuel. It’s a long way down to Clermont for the next fuel and shop. We overnighted at Cape River camp, had lunch at Belyando Crossing and made it into the truck stop at Clermont. We fuelled up at the truck stop and asked if we could camp behind the service station. The answer was yes, and they showed us where we could park and told us we could shower next to the shop in the service station if we wished. Although there were massive trucks coming and going all night, they didn’t bother us a bit and we had a good night.

It was only a short hop to Emerald, and just as well we got there early as the camp under the bridge certainly filled up quickly. We were there before lunch and by dark you couldn’t fit any more in. It was amazing the amount of traffic that went over that bridge while we were there; I don’t know what they do if the bridge is closed for any reason. We went to the VIC and had a wander around town and saw a gigantic new supermarket complex on the edge of town. They must be expecting a lot of local growth; there are new buildings going up all over the immediate area.

28 units left while we had breakfast

After an overnight stop at the turnoff to Carnarvon Gorge and passing through Roma, we made camp at Surat. We’ve been through this area a few times so it was a good opportunity for a brief rest as opposed to sightseeing. After all, we were heading home and Sylvia was as keen as mustard to get there to see what her many orchid plants were doing. Leaving Surat, we arrived at St George reasonably  early and booked into the caravan park. We needed to do some washing and needed water and groceries. It was starting to get colder as we went further south. There was a frost at St George that morning and the diesel heater was fired up again.

Shortly before the Nindigully Pub we turned left as I wanted to try and go down across the border to Boomi. All the maps we had seen showed that the road was partly dirt and I wasn’t too keen on that idea. We called into a lovely little old shop at Talwood to ask. Well, we spent over half an hour talking to the proprietor. He was a gunsmith by trade and was selling everything from guns to bolts for the biggest of machinery around the area. It was definitely surprising what he had to sell. Anyway he told us the road was bitumen all the way through to Boomi. 

Boomi is an interesting little community; once nearly deserted, the local community took over almost everything and they now run it as a community. The pub and the school, I think, are the only establishments not run by the community there. A small caravan area has been established, complete with a new amenities building and power outlets. We were too big to fit in the caravan parking area so we parked alongside the tennis courts for $10 for the night. The toilets and showers were at the pool complex but it cost $4 per person to go swimming in the hot or cold pools. We had our little swim in the hot pool, spent the night near the tennis courts and then we up and moved on.

By gee, it was an interesting drive down towards Moree and then to Narrabri. The amount of cotton grown in this area is amazing. There are a couple of gigantic cotton gins in this area and there was an enormous amount of cotton being moved around on big road trains. We lunched at Narrabri, got fuel and then decided to head to Binnaway for the night.

The Pumphouse Camping Ground would be our last night before home. This is a terrific little camp the locals have created at Binnaway. It is not very old and is still being added to, the showers are coin in the slot operated as are the power outlets. This is a very good system and I wish that others would follow their lead. We stayed only one night so we didn’t need power or a shower; we would be home tomorrow. As night fell it got colder and colder and the thought crossed my mind, ‘I should have stayed in sunny Queensland’.

Been at the Cooper

After breakfast we visited Sylvia’s parent’s grave at the local cemetery and then hot footed it home. All’s good at home. (Luckily, no orchids died as a result of this trip.)

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Written: Fri 01 Feb 2013
Printed: February, 2013
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