August 6 Mt Isa

Not much went on – a “look around” day! We went up a lookout in centre of town – quite a spectacular view in all directions. There was also a good view over Buchanan Park where the rodeo and race-course are located. We drove down and had a look at the rodeo venue – VERY, VERY impressive! It’s called Kalkadoon Stadium after the local aboriginal people – I read somewhere it had cost sixteen million dollars to build. It has a two-tiered grandstand on one side, another grandstand at one end and a covered “hill” area at the other. Opposite the grandstand are the chutes and yards for organising the stock. Put down a turf surface and it would make a magnificent footy stadium.

Tonight it’s the venue for the Bull Ring – this was described to me as the “20/20 cricket version of Rodeo” – should be good fun!

This morning we paid a visit to the Riversleigh Fossil Centre. If our plans hadn’t been hijacked by the car problems we had planned to visit the actual fossil site while we were at Adels Grove so this was some small consolation. It was interesting to see some of the fossils which have been uncovered and also models of the creatures which inhabited this part of Australia twenty million years ago.

After lunch we paid a visit to the Underground Hospital. During World War 2 with the Japanese threatening invasion, they built a hospital under one of the hills in Mt Isa. It’s been set up and furnished just like the original, complete with hospital beds and equipment.

We made a decision in relation to the car today. Originally we had wanted to continue on to Cairns by following our scheduled itinerary. However we both had a fairly sleepless night worrying about the “what ifs” so this morning I suggested to mum that we leave here on Monday and head to Townsville to get it repaired. Mt Isa Automatics had given me a contact in Townsville and when I rang them they were able to book the car in for next Wednesday. The only thing to worry about now, is to hope that nothing goes wrong before we get there, as it’s a bit under 1000 km! Following the original plan and going to Cairns would have been 1600+ km.

We’re booked into The Lakes Holiday Park from Tuesday night, for a week so hopefully that will be long enough. If not, we’ll just have to extend. In any case, I’ll get in touch with the NRMA and activate my premium membership benefits for when we get there.

Action Automatics in Townsville were quite helpful and indicated they may be able to get an exchange torque convertor in 1 or 2 days or have ours reconditioned in 3 or 4 days. Brisbane will be the centre of the action in this regard. It turns out that the guy who helped us out with advice on Monday did his apprenticeship down there. Seems a better plan than the original.

Once the car is back on the road we’ll have a think about where to go next. We could go back up to Atherton and do what we were originally planning; we could go up the coast to Mission Beach or we could just start making our way back down the coast. Obviously the cost of the repairs might be a determining factor.

August 5 Mt Isa

This morning we spent three hours on a tour of the Hard Times Mine. This is a replica mine constructed as a tourist venture with the guides being retired miners. It is set up and operated just like the real thing although our guide did emphasise a number of times that it wasn’t representative of how mining is carried out today. He spoke sarcastically about all underground machinery now being air conditioned and fitted with a CD player!
The tour started off with us being rigged out in miners gear – overalls, miners’ belt, hard hat and boots. Before going down the mine we were given a battery to attach to the belt and a helmet torch. We looked authentic if nothing else! Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take cameras down the mine but we had our photos taken at the entrance to the cage before descending into the mine. Yep, you guessed it – if we wanted a souvenir photo then we had to part with $10.
Once descending into the mine we were loaded on to a personnel car and taken to the crib room. For the next hour or more we were taken around the mine and shown the various equipment used in days gone by. We each had the opportunity to do some “work” and use the machine used to drill holes in the rock-face. The only lighting was that provided by our helmet lamps. The guide also started up and demonstrated a variety of other mining machinery. The tour was fabulous and quite a few of us commented on just how hard and dangerous the miners’ work must have been. I never had any ambition to be a coal miner, now I know why.
This afternoon we went through the Isa Experience Gallery/Museum, another one! This was quite good and wasn’t just a building stuffed full of old junk. Actually it was the sort of museum I don’t mind, complete with informative wall panels and displays where the items were identified. Graeme, they even had an art gallery and for $1000 I could have bought something very nice to hang on your lounge room wall. It was basically aboriginal art with a modern touch as opposed to traditional aboriginal art.
We found a Gloria Jeans here too and shouted ourselves afternoon tea. It made us wonder whether Jack has been getting any babycinos since we left!

August 4 Mt Isa

Not a lot to report for today – bit of a disaster actually!

We got to the Toyota place at 8.30 am wanting to talk to someone about the repairs and how long they might take. The girl on the service desk went to find someone and came back with the question, “Is it an automatic?” “Yes!” Off she went and came back to say, “We don’t do automatics, you have to take it to Mt Isa Automatics.” Allan’s blood pressure reached boiling point and asked to speak to someone in charge – out came a guy who repeated the line. I explained what had happened in Emerald, that I had contacted them myself to confirm they could do the work and his only response was that there must have been some mis-communication between the Service Desk people who were not technically qualified and therefore couldn’t have given the correct information. The apology was really only half-hearted, in fact I didn’t really regard it as an apology at all – he gave the impression the problem was more of an inconvenience to them and apart from directing us to Mt Isa Automatics, was of little use at all. To rub salt into the wound they couldn’t even find our car key and it took them about 10 – 15 minutes before it was located in someone’s pocket.

The mechanic at Mt Isa Automatics was excellent. He said they couldn’t really do anything until the end of the week or early next week due to work they already had in hand – fair enough. He did however take time to check out the noise, checked the transmission oil level, took it for a test drive and even rang someone he knew in Townsville to ask their opinion. When I asked what he would do if it was his vehicle, he said he’d keep driving it until he noticed a problem in the way the transmission was functioning. Apart from the noise, he couldn’t find anything wrong with it.

So, our big dilemma is, do we take his advice or not? If we do I suppose it becomes a calculated risk. My only concern is that we are heading into some more isolated country once we leave here with about 2000 km until we would reach Cairns. Leaving here and going to Townsville is about 1000 km but we are heading towards and through more populated areas. Some serious thinking to do!!!!

I rang the guy at NRMA and told him the story and that we wouldn’t be accessing our Premium Care at this stage. His advice was to call them straight away if there was a problem and they would organise towing or whatever.

We did spend some time shopping – bought some mats to go down outside the door of the van (keeping the van floor clean is a nightmare – everything gets walked in – grass, gravel, small stones, dust); bought some books; had all our prescriptions made up and bought a new towing mirror.

Mum had another swim today (bit over 30 laps) and declared the water isn’t getting any warmer. The forecast for today was 30^o but there’s supposed to be a change on the way with temps dropping to the mid-twenties!! Will have to get out the heater!

Tomorrow we’re booked in for a tour of the Hard Times Mine – apparently we have to get dressed up and go underground etc. Should be fun.

August 3 Mt Isa

We had an easy run across to Mt Isa and were onto our site early. The country we passed through was quite hilly and basically reddish in colour with lots of rocky outcrops. It is still hot – the forecast for Mt Isa today was 280. As soon as we’d settled in I put in a call to RACQ and although it took a while until the patrolman turned up he was quite helpful once he did. In no time flat I was talking to Premium Care at the NRMA and got the lowdown on what help is available. It turns out I could have had the Prado and van towed anywhere to a total value of $3000 – probably not far given the cost of towing! Alternatively I can have accommodation up to a total of $700 and care hire for 7 days also to a total value of $700. I’ve already paid for 9 days in Mt Isa so if the car takes that long to fix they will reimburse me what I’ve paid – if it goes longer than 9 days NRMA will pick up the tab until the $700 limit is reached. I’m going to have to jiggle the 7 days car hire after the Toyota people have had a look at the car and given me an estimate of how long it will take – at the moment I’m thinking of picking up a car on Tuesday (The RACQ guy said he wouldn’t be surprised if it took a couple of weeks to fix). Perhaps I would have been better off going from Emerald to Rockhampton in the first place! Mum had a swim in the pool at the caravan park this afternoon – the water was quite cool she said but bearable – its length is a bit short of 25 m so it’s not too bad. I guess the water is cool because although the days are hot the temperature drops down quite a bit at night.

August 2 Cloncurry

Talk about coincidences. I was heading to the amenities block this morning when I heard, “What are you doing here Mr Miller?” At first I didn’t recognise the speaker but a closer look revealed it was Laurel Fisher from Thirroul. I taught Bronwyn at Thirroul and coached both her and Shellie in softball so our friendship with the Fisher’s goes back a long way. It turns out Laurel and Terry have been away from Wollongong since March with most of the time spent in Qld. They’re leaving here for Longreach tomorrow and are basically heading south. We chatted with Laurel for a while before agreeing to catch up later in the day.

This morning we paid a visit to John Flynn Place and Museum (I know, I know – another museum!). The RFDS began here in Cloncurry so it was a fitting place to establish a memorial/museum to him and his work. We also toured around the town taking photos of things we’d missed in the last few days. After lunch we caught up with Laurel and Terry for an hour or so before heading off to the rodeo, or to give it its proper title, “The Cloncurry Merry Muster”. The time with Fisher’s was valuable as they have come across from Cairns to here, so were able to give us some information about the places we have yet to visit.

The rodeo, sorry, Merry Muster, was quite good and mum and I both enjoyed it although we left long before it finished. Barrel races for Ladies and Juniors went on and on forever with a total of 80 competitors – after every 10 competitors they had to drag the arena to level it out. Then someone pulled the plug on the lights so that lost another half hour. The other events were very entertaining and well worth the price of admission. The crowd favourite was a 10 year old boy who competed in the Junior steer ride and did a fabulous job.

Before we front up to the Mt Isa rodeo we’ll have to go shopping so we can be dressed appropriately – we need a check-patterned shirt, RM Williams jeans, riding boots (spurs optional), a wide belt with a big silver buckle and a hat, preferably white. Even the little kids, down to Jack’s age and younger, had all the right gear.

I know next to nothing about horses but they looked spectacular. All in all it was a very enjoyable event and we ended up with lots of photos before it got dark.

What do I think of Cloncurry? Not a bad place – good sense of community. I suspect there’s probably quite a bit of escape shopping to Mt Isa. The streets, like some other town we’ve been in recently, are very wide – it seems to be a feature of these towns. The streets are so wide that turning and straight ahead lanes are marked at intersections – the only problem is nobody takes any notice of them. The most outstanding feature of Cloncurry is the HUGE number of triple road trains – they are everywhere and roar past the caravan park at all hours.

August 1 Cloncurry

Hot! Hot! Hot! Am I complaining, not really. It’s just strange that yesterday morning we had the heater on before leaving Winton and today we put the fan on while we were having lunch. Yesterday the temperature here was 31 and they were predicting 32 for today. Must be a cold change on the way because the forecast for tomorrow is 28. As you could guess, we’re into shorts and short sleeve shirts!

Yesterday we discovered there was a mine tour scheduled for today but we were too late to book. Fortunately there were two seats left on the bus when I rang first thing this morning. The tour was to Ernest Henry Mine about 40 km north east of here. The mine is owned by Xstrata, the same company that operates in Mt Isa and has been in trouble over lead levels found in local kids.

The company provides the tour “free” of charge to the community with the proceeds actually going to the local tourism organisation. The tour itself was interesting but we had to go through a whole health and safety rigmarole before being allowed to go on the tour of the mine site. It was a bit over the top actually as we had to advise our next of kin contacts, medication and health details and answer safety related questions following a presentation.

The size of the open-cut pit was quite impressive but not on the scale of the Super Pit we saw in Kalgoorlie. The thing that impressed me was that out of 350 000 tonnes of ore they get 100 000 tonnes of copper AND 120 000 ounces of gold. At nearly $1000 an ounce for gold that’s quite a bonanza.

The Cloncurry Merry Muster started tonight with a Mardi Gras and street parade. Mum and I went and had a look – for a small place (4 000 people) it was OK – the kids certainly had a ball! There were lots of aboriginal kids and lots of people in “cowboy” gear (hats, boots, belt buckles etc) but then there’s a rodeo on tomorrow so I guess all the cowboys will really be out in force.