Mt Isa and Lawn Hill

The landscape changed dramatically as we neared Mt Isa and moved from the arid grassy plains to a landscape of ancient weathered hills with those beautiful white gum trees that look so good against the red rock faces.  Mt Isa is the only real town of any size up in NW Queensland and it's not huge. It's a mining town and is right next to the mines.  The town is dominated by mine smokestacks.

Mary Kathleen was one of the original Uranium mines in Australia.  The town had a population of about 1000, which would have made it one of the largest communities in the area.  The mine operated intermittently between 1956 and the 1970's.  In the 80's the town was auctioned off.  We visited the site which is about 50km east of Mt Isa.  All the roads are still paved and the kerbing is largely intact. Slabs and foundations of the buildings are all still there and its easy to identify the town centre, parks etc.  It will be a good archaeological site in another 100 years.

We stocked up on provisions in Mt Isa as it is probably our last chance to get anything except basics until we get to Cairns.  Our next destination was Camooweal, a town of about 300, just east of the WA border.  We camped just out of town on the Camooweal billabong.  The water level was low, but there was still plenty of bird life.  I chucked a yabbie trap in and caught a few "red claw".  I do mean a few, not enough for a good feed.

200km of unsealed road north of Camooweal is Lawn Hill national Park (Boojamulla is the new name).  When we were over in the west last year all the Queenslander's told us that Lawn hill was the best park in Australia.  I don't know if it is the best but it is quite good.  There are some great scenic walks around the gorge that are not particularly challenging.  There are canoes for hire and we went 3km up the gorge to where the springs feed into lawn hill creek.  There were a couple of croc's (freshwater) basking in the sun and the water is full of fish .  The vegetation around the gorge is lush with pandanus, huge paperbarks and stands of palms.  The temperature here has been 30-32 degrees each day, so it has been great to have a swim in the cool spring waters of the gorge.  There are signs suggesting that you do annoy the croc's.

50km from our campsite is the Riversleigh fossil site. A lot of money had been spent building paths and facilities but there were only a couple of small fossils on display.   I felt that it was a bit disappointing, but I can understand that anything valuable left on display would probably be stolen if it was at all possible.

Next stop somewhere north.  I think our swimming days are over for a while, we are heading into Salt water Crocodile country.


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