hannahsinthekingdom.blogspot.com: 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 :)