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| Drying out the 'tent' cover, as there was a heavy dew overnight |
From Irvinebank we drove to Petford via Emuford, and stopped by a large shady wattle tree for morning tea opposite Lappa.
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| There is very little left at Emuford |
There is only one house (which is actually a pub) at Lappa and apparently the old man has the whole thing for sale.
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| At Lappa this is the road we 'would' have come out if we had gone the way we planned originally |
We saw Pale headed rosellas, Blue Wing kookaburra, skinny horses, and a car off the road at Gibb Creek crossing, and stopped to see if anyone needed help, but there was no-one around.
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When we came across this, we obviously checked it out, but there was no-one inside
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https://athertontablelandnetguide.com/irvinebank/history/johnmoffat.htm
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| The Marble Works |
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| Blocks of mined marble |
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| Marble from Chillagoe is in our National Parliament House, and was sent to Italy for polishing |
After checking out Chillagoe Tourist Info, we had lunch by a weir, then went on to the smelter.
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| What the site looked like in 1906 |
It was starting to turn warm up when a busload of schoolkids from Mareeba arrived, most seemed more interested in returning to the comfort of the bus. We chatted to the teachers.
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| Now a guesthouse, but this looks like an old post office |
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| Vault from the bank |
Then we went out to the Caves.
There are Ranger-guided tours (which we have been on before), so this time we did the self-guided walks. Darryl went into the first one, Bauhinia Cave, and he thought it was too dangerous, so went to the next. I followed and convinced Dell to also come into the huge cavern of Pompeii Cave.
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| Darryl is dwarfed in the huge colourful cavern |
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| A dragonfly takes refuge in the cool cave |
After that we went to see Balancing Rock and some aboriginal art.
Al and Dell headed off while we went to the cemetery, as I wanted to find the resting place of my great uncle, Herbert Hillgrove Bray, who died 2 Dec 1926, aged 19. Unfortunately, there is no headstone, but I found the position (as for once the markers in this cemetery are still in place), and even the marker wasn't in great condition. But, I have to commend Mareeba Shire Council for the excellent index of Burials and map which made it very quick to find the grave.
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| Headstone marker of Herbert Hillgrove Bray RIP |
We met up in Dimbulah, and I found a beautiful, if out of the way, spot to camp the night at Collins Weir.
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| The view was so serene we left off the tent so as to enjoy the scenery |
My father worked at Chillagoe during the slack season (sugar mill) until it closed. On the weekends he would help break in horses for one of the pastoralists. When Chillagoe closed he was sent by train to Mount Isa but jumped off to work for Main Roads filling pot holes with white ant nests.
ReplyDeleteGiven the distance, it surprised us to learn that some of the minerals were sent from Glassford to Chillagoe for processing.
ReplyDeleteAlways so interesting .. thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI already knew John Moffatt was the main driving force behind the mines at Irvinebank and Chillagoe and was very respected in North Queensland's development but I was unaware he was involved in the the popular Moffatt-Virtue engine. We used a Moffatt-Virtue engine on our property for a few years to pump water from our dam to a gravity feed tank.
ReplyDelete