2001 Jamboree – North West Corner

 Day 1

 The three starting vehicles met at Goodna Macca’s at 6 am. There was Ron, Glenys and Wade in the Challenger, Big John in his Pie Van, and Chester and I in the LandCruiser. We left at 6:30 and headed west. Morning tea at Chinchilla had most of us feeling like geriatrics (complaints about stiff joints) and by now the weather had thankfully become sunny as it was wet and dismal when we left Brisbane.

 Lunch was at the Big Rig at Roma, where Ron was tempted to get his toy boat out. Our next stop was at Mitchell for a warm artesian spa for an hour (very relaxing for the weary ones). Our first overnight camp was at Morven Caravan Park, which was no more. It was only a patch of grass with truck loads of dirt squeezed in between houses. We were glad that they didn’t charge us. After spotting a few satellites, a game of Uno was played and then it was early to bed by 10 pm.

 Day 2

 After waking p, everybody complained about the train shunting in the middle of the night and the roosters crowing. I said that I didn’t hear a thing (must be the swag). Morning tea was at Tambo, then on to Blackall for lunch along with another spa and a visit to the Black Stump. Next stop was Barcaldine with its Tree Of Knowledge. I still don’t feel smarter for sitting on the seat of knowledge. Next stop was Ilfracombe where one side of the road was lined with old farm machinery. Then on to Longreach for the night.

 Day 3

 Everyone complained about the night noises again, except for me (must be the swag). Our first place of call was the Longreach Stockman’s Hall Of Fame where we did the usual tourist thing, then on to the Qantas Museum. By now we were museumed out. There was a very interesting poetry reading by two local ladies that evening at the caravan park.

 Day 4

 More complaints about night noises, except for me (must be the swag). We visited Bladensburg National Park and the Long Waterhole (which was almost dry), and set up camp at Winton. Mulga Bill told us of his penny farthing racing tales, and then in the early evening a video about Waltzing Matilda was shown. That night, we went to the movies in one of the few open air theatres still running and saw a lot of old advertisements (Paul Hogan’s Winfields 76c), the Three Stooges, Popeye and Abbott & Costello.

 Day 5

 Left Winton after more complaints about noise (must be the swag). Our first stop was at the Combo Waterhole, where “Waltzing Matilda” was written. We had a beer at the Blue Heeler Hotel at Kynuna and lunch at the Walkabout Creek Hotel at McKinlay (made famous in the Crocodile Dundee films). We made a stop at Cloncurry as Wade was feeling sick, and then on to Mount Isa for the night.

 Leo Boonstoppel SC503

Ron Penfold takes up the story:-

Day 6, Friday 28^th September          Mt Isa Mines underground tour was first up today. Leo, Chester, Big John and I were at the Riverleigh Fossil Centre at 7 a.m. to get dressed up in our overalls and safety gear. A mini bus drove us across to the mine site where we watched a safety video and were given our headlights. Our tour guide escorted us up to the shaft head where we were to catch the lift to the 14^th level, 1400 metres underground. After another talk we, us 4 and 4 others, boarded a modified Toyota LandCruiser which has a new body built to suit the hard underground conditions. We were driven around to see a variety of mining operations on various levels of the mine. We all hoped that our guide knew where he was going, he did get disoriented a couple of times, as we always seemed to be driving around in circles. Glenys and Wade, who did not go underground, went shopping for a new hat for Wade. After lunch we all did our own thing. We visited the Riverleigh Fossil centre and learned all about fossils, the town lookout and Lake Moondarra to take my model boat for a spin. We all went to the Bowls club for tea that night.

 Day 7, Saturday 29^th September     Left Mt Isa, heading for Adels Grove. I got a flat tyre about 50 km off the bitumen, the only flat tyre any of us had all trip. Usually road trains are king of the road and you get out of their way, but today we found a road train that stopped to let us pass him. Just before lunch we came across the Gregory River crossing which had water flowing over it. I wanted to stop for lunch here, as it was cool and shady, I was out voted, the others wanted to push on to the Riverleigh Fossil site, so we did. Next time they will listen to me, Riverleigh was hot, dry and windy, not a pleasant place at all. Adels Grove was our campsite for the next 2 nights. The first site they gave us was right up in the back corner of the camping area. We complained, so they suggested for us to find a more suitable site and then tell them where we were. The swimming hole was the best we saw all trip. Deep cool spring feed water with a pontoon moored in the middle. This was a magnet for all people at Adels Grove; it kept big and small kids happy for hours.

 Day 8, Sunday 30^th September        After a short dusty drive we arrived at Lawn Hill NP. Here we hired canoes and paddled up through the gorge to the waterfalls. A natural spa is formed at the base of the waterfalls; I now know what it feels like inside a washing machine. Back to Adels Grove, lunch and then swimming again at the pontoon. Chester and Wade became friendly with 2 girls from Cloncurry and were invited to play spotlight that night. My flat tyre was fixed that night. It was a team effort, I supplied the flat tyre, John supplier the repair kit, Leo did the repair and Wade connected up the air compressor.

 Day 9, Monday 1^st October              I had run out of gas, so after getting a refill, we all had a swim before leaving for KFC (King Fisher Camp). We stopped at the Bowthorn homestead, KFC is on their property, and we were asked to deliver a letter to the family living at KFC. The campsite at KFC was the best of all the campsites we used; green grass, shade, water and amenities close by. The only drawback was that a salty had been seen in the water hole, so no swimming, so we sat under the sprinkler instead. Wade had found a mesh bag during the day and proceeded to make a yabby pot out of it, with help from John. Wade put in overnight, next morning the bait was gone but nothing was caught. An Aboriginal family arrived in a Daihatsu Rocky to go fishing, the Daihatsu sounded like it was only running on 2 cylinders, it also had a 4 person power starter motor.

 Day 10, Tuesday 2^nd October          We hired a couple of tinnies and motored up the waterhole at KFC, a couple of fresh water crocodiles were seen, but not the salty. We then headed towards Wollagorang Station to meet up with Clint, Charleen and David. We stopped at Hells Gate for lunch and free coffee. The locals are very environmental, they believe in greening Australia, with empty VB cans of course. Stuart, the owner’s son visited late in the afternoon and showed us his collection of Subarus. We were also told that because of the grader breakdown, the track to the corner had not been repaired, we could still go if we wanted, but the last guy who tried gave up after 7 flat tyres.

 Day 11, Wednesday 3^rd October     Paul the owner gave us a talk about the history of the area in the morning, before going out mustering. We decided not to try for the corner, but go to the beach instead. Clint and Charleen left this morning and went their own way. Fuel here was $1.44 per litre. The track to the beach was interesting; there were good sections, bad sections and very bad sections. I have never seen bull dust as thick as it was on this track. When we arrived at the beach, we could see a Morning Glory out to sea. It then broke up and the clouds raced towards us, the wind was very strong when it passed over us, so strong in fact that we had to retreat inland and hide in an old shed until it passed. We then headed northwest to Tully inlet for lunch, 10 km short of our target.

The sand was very soft and gave us a hard time, John and I had to let some air out of the tyres at one stage to get moving. We found a not so mighty HiLux and trailer bogged on the beach. After dropping his tyre pressures from 45 to 20 p.s.i., digging sand away from in front of the tyres, he was off again. He drove a couple of hundred metres to a hard section of the beach, turned around and headed back, passing us on the way. A kilometre or so down the beach, we found him stuck again. This time a double snatch from Leo and me towed him to hard sand. They were going to spend a week there fishing, but were about to change their minds, because of all the problems they were having. We found a good campsite for them, gave them some driver training and convinced them to stay. Over a beer, they told us that one of them was a journalist and doing a story on Barra fishing for Ralph magazine, we were told we would get a mention and he would send us a copy.

 Day 12, Thursday 4^th October                     Leo and Chester left us this morning, they only had 2 weeks holiday. Leo has a very good swag; he never heard the roosters at 4am in the morning, the road trains idling outside the caravan park or the trains that travel through town at night. We drove to Burketown, took the scenic tour of the town and its history and had a beer in the Burketown Hotel. Petrol was cheaper here, only $1.12 a litre. A Brolga, a large long legged bird that lives in the gulf country, wandered about the caravan park, not worried at all by the people. Wade also gave his radio controlled 4WD a work out and attracted the attention of all the local kids, big and small.

 Day 13, Friday 5^th October               No Morning Glory this morning and we are off to Normanton. Stopped at Leichhardt Falls, very windy, so we did not stay long. Next stop Burke and Wills most northern camp on the Flinders River. We set up camp in the Normanton Caravan Park and went for a swim before lunch in the pool. After lunch we drove to Karumba. We visited the Barramundi farm, where we were educated on the life and times of a Barra. Do you know Barra start life as male and turn female at about 3-4 years old. The farm has many large Barra in its tanks, Wade and I also hand fed a couple. Barra don’t have teeth, they open their mouth very wide and suck in the food. We took a lot of interest as we were going Barra fishing tomorrow. I had promised Glenys fresh Barra for tea one night, she thought that if I was up to my usual form, I am not a fisherman, we would have to buy it. So we had fish (Barra of course) and chips for tea over looking a water sunset. Next day she took it all back.

MY DETAILS:

Total of 5700 km using 782 litres of petrol, average fuel consumption of 13L/100 km.

The further we traveled away from Brisbane the dearer the petrol. Mt Isa was the only exception.

Dearest petrol 1.44c/L at Wollagorang, cheapest petrol 84.9c/L at Dalby.

Longest day’s travel 896 km from Charters Towers to Roma.

I had the only flat tyre and developed a leaking fuel tank.

Ron Penfold SC002 

The rest by David Martin:-

 Saturday 6^th October – Normanton

 Our first stop for the day was the historic Normanton Railway Station where the Gulf Lander Rail Motor runs on the state’s only line not connected to the main system from Normanton to Croydon, about 150 km away. These days, it is run only as a tourist attraction. The old rail motor is diesel powered and is based on what looks like a truck chassis complete with a gearbox and clutch plus a tiller instead of a steering wheel.

 We spent the afternoon doing a guided fishing trip on the Norman River, our aim was to catch a big barra. Things started off well with Ron soon hauling in a catfish, which was used for crab bait. The final tally was 10 barra – Ron with two plus the cat fish and a big one that got away, Wade with three, Big John with two plus a barra skin, and myself with two, including the only one large enough to keep. It was about 650 mm in length and a sheer fluke as it was the first fish that I have ever caught. The fish easily fed five people that night after our guide kindly filleted it (by the way that was the fish skin that John managed to catch). We were glad to have our expert fishing guide as he supplied all the gear and knew where to fish. The boat was an alloy tinny about 5 metres long with a full canopy and seats and powered by a very quiet Yamaha 80 4-stroke outboard. Part of the deal included a freshly caught mud crab and spotting a good sized saltwater croc on the riverbank. The day finished off with us all enjoying our barra expertly cooked by Glenys.

 Sunday 7^th – Bathurst Day

 Today we were on the move again, travelling on a mixture of good bitumen and corrugated gravel through the towns of Croydon, Georgetown and Forsayth, all old gold mining areas that are now cattle and tourist areas. At Forsayth, Glenys was not feeling well so we all booked into air conditioned ex miner’s huts for the night. Big John and I then spent a relaxing afternoon watching the Bathurst coverage via satellite TV at the pub. It worked out well, thanks to Glenys’ misfortune. That night, we ate out at the pub – local steak, chips and eggs. All you could eat for $12 – a bargain.

 Monday 8^th

 We had a later start today as we only had 40 km to travel to Cobbold Gorge. Thankfully, Glenys was better, but now Wade was off colour with a migraine. For lunch at Cobbold Gorge we feasted on our freshly cooked mud crab. It was delicious. During the afternoon we had a chat to the owner of Cobbold, it is a working cattle station of about 300,000 acres. They started the Gorge tours and camping in 1994. It is one of the better set up operations with a good shady camping area, slab hut style shop, bar and facilities, plus ex Sydney Olympics fully contained huts. In the late afternoon we drove to a nearby large quartz rock outcrop, which was interesting, as we could climb it and gain good views of the surrounding area.

 Tuesday 9^th

 First thing today we all set off on our guided tour of Cobbold Gorge. We boarded an interesting vehicle, a 15 seat alloy bodied bus built on a LandCruiser ute chassis, it looked way out of proportion to the ute's chassis, but it did the job at the Gorge and we boarded an electric powered outboard alloy boat for the trip up the Gorge. Because the Gorge is so narrow (3 metres) in places the boat can not turn around so there is another electric motor at the other end. The Gorge is unusual for the area because it is made up of layered sandstone and is spring fed. We saw a fresh water crocodile and plenty of small fish, Ron and Wade gave their electric model boat a run and I had a quick swim that was cool and refreshing.

 From Cobbold we set off for the Undara Lava Tubes again on a mixture of rough gravel and good bitumen. At the lunch stop at Einasleigh, Ron and Glenys decided to head for home because Wade was not getting much better, they would only miss the last day.

 Wednesday 10^th

 After a cool night, the coldest on the trip mainly because the altitude of around 700 metres, that is what Big John’s GPS said, and a strong breeze. We set off on our half day guided lava tube tour. Going through 3 tubes all formed from volcanic activity around 190,000 years ago, there is about 160 km of tubes in the area, only 9 of those can be visited. The whole area was once a cattle station and is now a National Park. Most of the tubes are blocked at one end by rocks and silt; access is by formed boardwalks, which take you right into the huge tubes. They are very dark and we were all supplied with torches and our guide had a battery powered spotlight, their temperature is a pleasant 16 C. The only wildlife in the tubes were small bats, small native frogs and you guessed it, the odd cane toad. Rock wallabies live around the tube entry points where remnant rainforest trees still remain because of spring seepage. The Undara Lodge is built outside the National Park and most of the buildings are all old Queensland Rail carriages that blend well into the native scrub. It is owned and operated by the original station owner. After lunch we set off for the long run home via the Inland Way, stopping at Charters Towers for our overnight stop. By this stage Big John had caught the dreaded bug and was not feeling well so we booked a cabin for the night. Later that night while out collecting some get well potions for Big John, he noticed all the Pie Van’s brake lights were out, (Subaru’s have dashboard-warning lights to tell you these things).

 Thursday 11^th

 Next morning with Big John now feeling much better and us thinking we had the brake light problem fixed by fitting a new fuse, later that day they were out again. So we had to use hand signals through the towns, which was a funny sight. Luckily, the towns were all small and spread out on the long and lonely stretches to Roma, our planned overnight stop. Between Charters Towers and Clermont the road started to improve, becoming wider and smoother. In the middle of nowhere we passed some keener travellers.  A bloke was pushing a shopping trolley and a pushbike rider. We finally reached Roma just after dark travelling through much needed light rain from Springsure to Injune, again we chose another overnight cabin.

 Friday 12^th

 We did not like the prospect of travelling to Brisbane without brake lights, so we spent 2 hours fixing the problem. There was a major short with broken and exposed wiring, thanks to Big John’s trusty small gas powered soldering iron the problem was fixed. It was an easy run home, with the Rodeo Pie Van performing well doing the over 6000 km round trip at around 12 litres per 100 km. The brake lights, Ron’s puncture and Leo collecting a roo in the door near Longreach were the only problems encountered. On behalf of everybody on the trip thanks to Ron for doing all the organising, he put a lot of work into it doing all the bookings, mapping to route, and each car received a detailed booklet of the trips itinerary complete with fuel economy and notes pages.

 David Martin SC180