North Queensland - 27 Aug 2021

Packing up to leave Porcupine Gorge Campground

We had a pretty early start, leaving camp just after 8am. Although our destination was south then west, there were a couple of landmarks to see just north up the road. The first was Simpson's pinch, then the interesting Mailman's grave & Bottle Tree lookout. 

It doesn't really look all that steep, but this is where the sign was...

I bet this view is also over the remains of the Eromanga Sea

Going south again we got to Eaglehawk Gorge lookout (Darryl remembered being there in 1979 when we did a walk with the Townsville Bushwalkers). There were also some unmarked graves here.

This appears to be sandstone layers under layers of the basalt

Is this pile of rocks marking one of the graves?

Back on the road we saw a big black snake trying to get out of the way. 

We filled up with water at a park, had morning tea and bought fuel at Hughenden. 

I was really impressed by this roadside toilet block. The plants really improve it.

Couldn't resist a close-up of the flowers on the tree

Fred Tritton Dam at Richmond was our lunch stop. It seemed like a nice Lake. Around the other side I noticed an Indigenous food garden walk. It was ok, but needs work. 

We had decided we wanted to have a look at Maxwelton, where Darryl's grandfather was Station Master in 1935 and 1939. There's nothing much left, just 5 or 6 houses, most of which seem to be rubbish collectors. One building looked like an old school but had a cross on the side and is now private property.

This really looks like the old school building to me

Julia Creek had an excellent little community Museum. 

This looks exactly like our Belemnite Fossils, but it's embedded in sandstone

Darryl checking out the railway display

At Cloncurry we purchased fuel at the 24 hour BP Depot, then went to our destination, Wal's Place Caravan park, just down the road. It was $20 for an unpowered site on nice gravel, not many people, very quiet, and fabulous hot showers in a shower donga. There was a Train at 2am, and we saw one satellite and a falling star.