THREE NIGHTS IN CHARTERS TOWERS

Charters Towers......  The only thing I could remember about it from Social Studies at primary school was that there are boarding schools there.  There was, so that vindicated my memory still works somewhat.  Funny the things you don't remember, like the fact that Charters Towers only exists because of the gold that was mined there from about the late 1800's.  Obviously that didn't resonate with me......

We arrived late in the day from the long trip from Moranbah.  The first day we went to Towers Hill, where gold was found and the goldrush started.  Towers Hill was also very important during WW2, there are many ruins of bunkers dotted all over the Hill, one of which we entered.  There was once a very tall chimney stack, but the Yanks insisted that it be blown up because it was too easy to see for the Japs!  The base is still there, Peter walked down to see it.  There was a very knowledgeable chap up there who told us a lot of facts.

Next day we went to Charters Towers Show, which was your typical country show.  Today we wished we hadn't, as we've run out of time to see more important things of interest.  Today I woke up very exhausted from the previous two busy days.  We had wanted to go to Undara Lava Tubes, but did not realise it was so far away.  That will have to wait for another day.

Tomorrow morning we take off to Townsville.  It will be nice to see the sea again.  We have a few things to do in Townsville as well as looking around.

Watch this space.............

Charters Towers Show Street Performers

Towers Hill view of Charters Towers

Towers Hill on top

View of Charters Towers from Towers Hill

From Towers Hill

Displays Towers Hill Lookout

Fireworks at the Show from my iPhone

Rotary Lookout Charters Towers

The story of the Venus Gold Battery

Inside Venus Gold Battery a mill for miners to take their ore for processing

Inside the Venus Gold Battery

At the end of the tour there was a projector sending pictures of the original mill owner.  The image was being projected onto two sheets of water squirting down.  You can see it in the middle of the photo.

FOUR NIGHTS IN MORANBAH

Last Thursday 25th July we drove from Theresa Creek Dam a fairly long way to Moranbah.  I know you are asking "why Moranbah?".  Well, in 1971, when we were newly married, we had this bright idea of buying a brand new caravan and travelling Australia working.  So we got the van with the money Pete saved working at Tennant Creek and Hatches Creek mining sites in the Northern Territory while we were engaged.   After we were married, Pete found that there was work at the Peak Downs Mine in the Moranbah area west of Mackay, so he signed up and off we went.  We had a few things to learn, but give us a break, I was just turned 20 and Pete was 21, so we were a bit wet behind the ears.

The first day off he had we drove to this "Moranbah" and found that it was just a couple of dirt streets with an old house, and that was the grocery store.  It was set up under the house, with just an earth floor and a few fridges and freezers.  There was no meat to be had, that had to be bought from the butcher's van which visited the company caravan park once a fortnight.  Culture shock!  Though we were resilient, after all we were brought up in the 1950's with no mod cons.

The work was arduous, though lucrative.  Life could be a bit dull out there, we made a few friends from the surrounding vans, one of which we still know today.  On the way home to Brisvegas for Christmas we found a very young pure white kitten on the side of the road at Rockhampton, she became our first cat (Winky).

After a year of this we had had enough, but neither of us can really remember why we chose to leave and forget this caravan thing.  Maybe my mother wasn't well, (she had similar heart disease to moi).
Things were moving along in Moranbah however, and on the last day we went there before leaving and found kerb and channelling, a pub called the Black Nuggett and a row of just finished unoccupied shops.  Nowadays it is a town 42 years old and looks it.  There is a mining downturn currently, putting rents back to $300 for a VERY basic OLD house and same age as Moranbah.  They had been $1000.00.  Moranbah has all services including an airport for fly in fly out workers.

SO.....  that is why we wanted to visit Moranbah again for old times sake.  Plus, recently at my friend Elspeth's wedding, we met a couple from Moranbah, Graham and Lorelle, deciding then and there that we must visit and go to their church while there.  Church was so great, musicians are sparse on the ground and the population is transient, so there is only music sometimes, but plenty of singing unaccompanied.  There were maybe 20 people there, the most friendly people and we stayed for morning tea afterwards for longer than we were in church!

The night before we had a lovely meal at the aforesaid Black Nuggett which was outrageously expensive, but they have a captive audience there, plenty of young mining staff living it up.  The noise and partying coming from the beer garden could be heard three blocks away.  Keeps the cops busy. As we were walking back to the car there were car boot parties along the way, goon sacks and all.

There is little to see in Moranbah, therefore no photos interesting enough to blog, apart from the Black Nuggett decor and the bill!

We left this morning intending to camp at Belyando Crossing, en route to Charters Towers, but Belyando didn't inspire us.  We got to Charters Towers about 5 pm and settled in quickly.  It is their turn to have the Show right now, so tomorrow is a Public Holiday and guess where we will be going....
It's a sizeable country city and I think we are going to enjoy it.  The driving was rather arduous, with a lot of places more of a jiggle along the highway rather than a smooth ride.  No radio signal, so we had to scratch up something to listen to from an iPod.  Must work on my Playlists.  It works through the Mazda, which is convenient.

Thank you for reading my blog, now for the photos and I will post again after Charters Towers (in Townsville)........... Cheers :)

A Mining Pioneer Tribute at the Black Nuggett

Thought the Sunshine Coast was expensive!

This random staffy kept running in and out of the side door of the church!

Belyando Crossing pitstop

Misty chillin' out....

Drinks and a chocky bar....

TWO NIGHTS IN CLERMONT AND THERESA DAM

We set off from Emerald this morning, along the Gregory Highway to Clermont.  We have this great app called Wikicamps, an electronic copy of the famous friend of all grey nomads, the CAMPS book.  This showed that one could camp cheaply, with power, at the local Showgrounds.  We are the only ones here tonight.  On a closer inspection of Wikicamps, I found that there were two more camps out at Theresa Dam/Creek.  So we set up camp and drove out there mid afternoon.  What a lovely place, countless caravans and motorhomes camped there for the night, mostly sitting around campfires enjoying happy hour by the time we left at sunset.  Needless to say we are going there in the morning.

On the way we called and looked at the last remaining chimney of a copper mine, which only stopped operating in 1988.  Photos are down the bottom.

25/7/2013

Well we did go back and camped a night at Theresa Creek Dam, which was a very pleasant spot indeed, though exceptionally cold at night again.  We met some lovely people there and spent the afternoon in the sunshine.  

Today we left there and drove to Moranbah.  This town goes way back with us, we were married in April 1971 and before the year was up were in our new caravan and heading up to nearby Peak Downs Mine for Peter to work.  The first day we came to get groceries at the area of Moranbah, there was just a track leading up to an old two storey house where they sold the groceries from underneath, with just earth floor and a few fridges and freezers.  Before we left in November 1972, there was a new kerb and channelled street and a row of yet to be occupied shops.  At the end was Moranbah's first pub, The Black Nuggett.  We'll have a drink there tomorrow!  The town is very different, we thought it was now bigger, unless we find more tomorrow.  Primarily this blog post is about the last two days, as we had no internet access out at Theresa Creek Dam.

Piano up a tree from a long ago flood - Clermont

Murals on rail wagons in Clermont

Clermont Showgrounds

Copperfield Chimney on road to Theresa Creek Dam.  There used to be four and a thriving townships with two pubs and banks, nowadays it's a disused copper mine with this last remaining chimney

Theresa Creek Dam "Lake"

Theresa Creek Dam "Lake"

A DAY AROUND THE GEMFIELDS OF QLD

Well, we thought about where next from Emerald and that was going to be Clermont, as we are aiming at being at Moranbah for next weekend.  Clermont was unlikely to be as interesting as Emerald, so we've stayed an extra day.  

The day is cold and overcast, but we headed on out to the Gemfields (aka Anakie, Sapphire and Rubyvale), only a shortish trip.  I was totally unprepared for what was there.  There are dirt heaps everywhere, which is hardly surprising.  Most of the dwellings are only shanties, surrounded by old caravans and some new, various earth moving machinery, and a few ancient dongas/dongers, however you prefer to spell it.  Some of the quirkiest sights!  I've taken a few photos which you can view.  Devonshire coffee and scones went down like a shower in a dust storm, we looked around one gem shop, but mostly just drove around slowly in wonderment at the scruffy, untidy way people live rough out there.  You can buy property out there (a lot of people who can't afford rent in Emerald are said to be picking up properties complete with the shanties and caravans for around $100g).  To be able to stay there on a mining lease they must have evidence that they are actually fossicking/mining.  Fascinating.....

A few facts taken from a brochure:  "Sapphires were first reported in the Sapphire Gemfields by J A Richardson in the 1870's.  By 1890 commercial mining had begun in Retreat Creek in the present town of Sapphire.  It was incredibly hard work in an isolated spot in harsh conditions with a lack of water.  Mines were dug by hand using picks and shovels in open pits or trenches.  The early miners also dug square sided shafts, which they climbed with their backs braced against the walls.  In the earlier days the main buyers were Germans, Russians and other European nationals.  After 1935 the Sapphire Fields went into a decline until the 1960's when a new phase began with tourists and recreational mining and fossicking becoming popular.  By 1970 an increasing price for rough sapphires led to large scale mechanised mining, which resulted in huge amounts of sapphires produced by a large number of miners, and purchased by buyers from Thailand.  During this period Australia produced over 80% of the world's sapphires.  High production continued until the early 1980's when an increase in productions from Asia and Africa led to a massive downturn in the Australian Sapphire Market, which continues today.  An active tourist industry was established in the early 80's and separate areas were set aside for fossicking, hand mining and large-scale machinery mining.  Sapphires occur in all colours.  They are all called sapphires except for the red ones which are called ruby.  Metallic elements occurring as impurities in the crystal lattice cause the colour seen in sapphire.  Sapphires are almost as hard as diamonds.

That'll do for today.....