Townsville to Winton

Townsville to Winton

Townsville on Queensland’s north coast is a vibrant city and the town is dominated by Castle Rock. The most attractive areas are around the foreshore, along the recently developed Strand and the harbour. Many people use the foreshore areas to picnic and for boating activities, including the outrigger canoes. The view from the Strand is out to the Coral Sea and over to Magnetic Island. After mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral which was renovated a couple of years ago using some wonderful wooden carvings we headed down to the Strand for lunch.

Another great attraction at Townsville was the Aquarium at the Aquatic Centre, and we spent a couple of hours there. The large tanks were a blaze of colour with many varieties of tropical fish. We also watched feeding time where there were species of sharks and sword fish. It was also interesting to see some tropical fish guarding their young babies only about a centrimetre long, the male and female looking after their young for about two weeks. Only a few species do this and the babies have a much better chance of survival, which is upsetting the balance of the fish in the aquarium as not so many of the young of other species survive. We also saw examples of the Crown of Thorns which are a threat to the Great Barrier Reef.

After lunch we drove up to the lookout at Castle Hill and found it was very popular for the energetic who walked (or jogged) up the steep and winding road. From the lookout there were several loop walks for more views.

A trip over to Magnetic Island was on the agenda and we went down to catch the vehicular ferry over on the Monday. The trip over was fairly rough but we finally landed in Nellie Bay at the terminal after a 50 minute trip. We had hoped to catch the island bus over to several bays, but owing to some delays with one of the ferries breaking down we only had time to catch the bus over to Horseshoe Bay, via Arcadia and Geoffrey Bays. Some of the road was quite steep and winding but very picturesque. Many of the passengers are locals and on the way over the driver took a diversion to deliver one elderly lady right to her door. Now that’s service! Horseshoe Bay was quite sheltered and aptly named. A leisurely lunch with our friends Chris and Wendy and then it was time to go back to the ferry terminal. Again more delays and another rough crossing so we were quite late back, but in time to have a farewell drink with John and Faye who were leaving to travel south next day.

Next day saw us leave Townsville and followed Chris and Wendy in their “Roadstar” caravan along the Overlander’s Way, planning to stop at Charters Towers, Hughenden and Winton. Each of these towns are very significant for Queensland, and governments have put a lot of effort into promoting the heritage of the towns. The people of the towns are very proud of their heritage and happy to promote the historic sites.

Charters Towers was established during the gold boom between 1872 and 1899, following a large find of alluvial gold by a 10 year old aboriginal boy named Jupiter. At that stage was Queensland’s largest city outside of Brisbane, operating one of the few Stock Exchanges outside of a capital city. The Stock Exchange arcade has reenactments of the “calling of the card”. Many of the original buildings have been restored with great photographic displays, and bronze plaques on the footpath tell stories of individuals from the past. These are known as the “ghosts of gold”. We had a very interesting visit to the Venus Gold Battery, which provided ore crushing facilities for small miners long after other mills had closed. Robyn our tour guide was very informative and we had an insight into the gold rush of the late 19th century. It was a very dangerous occupation and many people lost their lives. Also there were no Occupational Health and Safety procedures back in those days and many people succumbed to respiratory diseases and problems from working with mercury and cyanide. Children played in very dangerous areas and many were lucky to survive. The water supply was also polluted. With great influxes of people, there was also a dark side to the town, and people took the law into their own hands. On the other hand the wealthy businessmen formed the Londoner’s Club (for gentlemen). It is now known as the Civic Club and still exists, with 100 year old tables in the Billiard Room (still in use). Other rooms are museums set up with gaming tables, costumes and photographs.

Towers Hill Lookout offers story boards and in the evening screens a film “Ghosts After Dark” in the amphitheatre. It happened to be Chris & Wendy’s wedding anniversary so we celebrated at the Lookout at sunset with a glass of champagne and some very tame rock wallabies hopping around. Dinner followed at one of the historic hotels which had had a colourful past – firstly a pub, house of “ill repute”, shelter for WWII soldiers and among other things, a school for country kids. A poem to this effect was printed on the menus. Charters Towers is also proud of its parks, particularly Centenary Park which has been planted with rows of trees to provide cool and shady picnic spots.

Following a quick lunch at the historic Prairie hotel (on the old Cobb & Co. route), our next stop was Hughenden, billed as Dinosaur Country (and Wendy’s birthplace). The town supports a rural area of over 40,000 sq kilometers and is the hub of the Mid West. Long ago the area was part of a great prehistoric inland sea. Dinosaurs roamed the land and the inland sea was filled with marine reptiles. Now 100 million years later the sea bed is dry, but remains of shells and creatures are still prominent in rock formations that are being unearthed today. The Flinders Discovery Centre houses “Hughie” a life sized skeletal replica of a Muttaburrasaurus and some wonderful fossil displays.

We also visited the Porcupine Gorge National Park, some 65 km north of Hughenden with some wonderful examples of sculptured sandstone, clear water creeks and deep gorge systems. It was a very steep track down and up but well worth the effort. One evening we were entertained at the park by a guitarist with a popular repertoire of country and western and other music and had a meal of damper and stew. We had fun joining in the popular songs. Half the proceeds went to a school reforestations project.

After two nights in Hughenden we headed south east to Winton, stopping on the way to visit a large coolibah tree which had been blazed on several occasions by explorers and particularly one of the search party for Burke & Wills. This road was quite narrow and the shoulders were very rough until we reached the Winton Shire, when the road suddenly improved dramatically. This time we passed lots of emus and we saw many sheep and lambs on or near the roads. Also on that road we saw the most roos that had been killed, probably by the big road trains. It would be quite a dangerous road to travel at night. However, assisted by a tail wind, we had the best fuel consumption to date. It got down to 9.5 l/100 km.