Richmond, Queensland

Birdlife Lake Fred Tritton Richmond Queensland

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.  

                                                                                                                                                                     Marcel Proust 

Each time I stop in Richmond I promise myself that once

 a.  I have more time, or

 b. a better car, or

c. the weather cools down

 I’ll do the tourist thing and go fossil hunting in this area.

Kronosaurus Korner Richmond Queensland 

In the meantime as it seems to be my luck to travel the Flinders Highway during periods of high heat, often in the early 40s, a break at Kronosaurus Korner is always a treat.  It has a fossil museum, a gift shop, and a café that employs a brilliant pastry chef.  This is the best café between Townsville and Mt Isa, with Cloncurry coming a reasonable second. 

Like so many Queensland towns Richmond has had a chequered history.  Its main income has been from sheep and cattle grazing.  But today it is not sheep and cattle that visitors come to see.

In the late 1870s Richmond Downs, named after the Richmond River in New South Wales, was taken up as a pastoral lease.  During this time the Queensland gold rush was on and gold was discovered at Woolgar just north of Richmond Downs.   Coaches carrying miners to the gold fields stopped where the road met the Flinders River, near the station.  In 1882 a township was surveyed at the coach stopover.  The town was named after Richmond Downs.

Lake Fred Tritton Richmond Queensland

During the cretaceous era an inland sea covered this region.  The first major dinosaur fossil discovery (of Kronosaurus queenslandicus) was made in 1929.  After the 1989 announcement that the 100-million year old remains of a pliosaur had been found on a nearby pastoral station interest in this area increased and a viable tourism industry was established.

Six years later ‘Kronosaurus Korner’ was set up as a fossil museum and has since expanded to include not only the café and gift shop but also research facilities. Two major recent finds of dinosaur fossils have enhanced the town’s reputation as a centre for fossil hunting and research.

Fossil tourism has changed the face and fortune of this town and slowed the population decline that has afflicted so many Western towns, especially during the recent drought.  

There is shaded parking in the centre of the street outside the café - a bonus for the traveller with a dodgy car air conditioner and an aged dog as the occasional travelling companion. 

Shaded Picnic Table & BBQ Lake Fred Tritton Richmond

If I arrive in Richmond early morning (on my way East) or late afternoon (heading West) the shores of man-made  Lake Fred Tritton on the Eastern edge of town is a great spot to stop for a picnic.  Any other time of day at this time of year and the lack of shade for vehicles turns the car into a heat death trap.  The picnic tables on the lake shore are covered against sun and rain and the birdlife is wonderful to watch while relaxing in the cooling breeze off the water.  Black winged stilts and black fronted dotterels were breeding on the edges of the lake the last time I stopped there. 

Roadsign Richmond Queensland

Richmond also has the best road signs I’ve ever seen.  It’s almost worth the 500k trip from Townsville just to be astounded, then enthralled by them as you manoeuvre over the road ridges caused by the black soil base on this section of highway.  This said, the traveller is warned well in advance of the rough surface and if the recommended speeds are abided by then the trip is pleasant and quite smooth. 

When you visit the museum, have refreshments at the café and order the homemade apple turnovers – the best I’ve tasted – ever. 

Claire Wood

longlines

Email:  longline8@gmail.com

Just Claire Wood, In the Atmosphere

For more information on Richmond go to:

http://www.richmond.qld.gov.au/

http://www.kronosauruskorner.com.au/

http://www.queenslandplaces.com.au/richmond-and-richmond-shire

http://www.fossilfestival.com.au/

Cloncurry North West Queensland

Cloncurry: Meld of Architectural styles & eras

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
― Ursula K Le Guin, The Left Hand Of Darkness

Cloncurry Post Office Hotel

When I was a young mother of two small white haired children I longed to live in Cloncurry.  My reasons were practical.  Cloncurry had a permanent doctor, a hospital, and fresh milk and vegetables  were available on a regular basis. 

Awning Cloncurry Central Hotel

It was outside, or so we were told, the plume from Mt Isa and the lead- laden air of that city.  There were regular flights in and out of Cloncurry, and there was a sealed highway all the way to the coast.  It was all about good healthcare, nutrition and safe travel in those days.

During that time I was told about a man who walked into a Cloncurry pub and announced he had just been bitten by a king brown snake.  No one took any notice of him until he fell dead in the doorway on his way to look for help elsewhere.  That story did cool my desire to some small extent, but still, Cloncurry was top of my wish list.

I never lived in Cloncurry and I have no regrets that I did not.  However I have a sneaking affection for the town that was my benchmark for a family friendly town in the West in the long gone days of my innocent youth. 

Cloncurry Central Hotel

There was also a time when I longed to live in Normanton, but that is another unfulfilled dream that is not regretted, and another story to be told. 

Cloncurry is only one and a half hours west of Julia Creek.  With a population of about 2,500 it is more than six times the size of Julia Creek and has more facilities.  However most of them I have no need of nowadays.  Still it is a lovely town to visit, except of course for the dearth of shaded parking in the town centre.  What is the story behind that town planning decision I would like to know. 

Cloncurry Mary Kathleen Memorial Park Sign

The Mary Kathleen Memorial Park on the eastern outskirts has shaded parking, undercover picnic facilities, a playground, an outdoor museum, gift and souvenir shop and a wonderful geology museum that is highly recommended for the tourist and a must for the amateur rockhound.  It would take days to properly absorb all the information it has to offer, to view all the meticulously labelled specimens.  Congratulations to all those involved in the upkeep of this valuable asset. 

Cloncurry Mary Kathleen Memorial Park Childrens Playground

The small air conditioned theatre beside the information centre and souvenir shop presents a history of Cloncurry which is both informative and enlightening.

Mining and beef have always been the mainstays of the economy of this city with tourism a later addition.  So I decided to duck out to the cattle saleyards to try to gain some insight into the beef industry.  I was in luck and thank those people out there who were so helpful with information.

Cloncurry saleyards cattle being loaded

The saleyards operate mainly as a transit point for cattle being shipped to feedlots before export or for cattle being transferred elsewhere in the state.  They are set up with loading and unloading ramps, dipping facilities, etc to cater for this use.  Cattle sales are only held at these yards intermittently – about every two years.    

While I was there a road train was being unloaded in one area and another was being loaded elsewhere.  Utilities were delivering bales of hay to the occupied pens, each of which was provided with long deep and full concrete water troughs.  In an industry that comes in for criticism, often with good cause, it was pleasant to come across a humane and well set out facility. 

Cloncurry Saleyards Road Train being loaded

Back in town I cooled off in the very comfortable and well equipped library and then took in an excellent exhibition in the art gallery adjoining the library.

I may no longer desire a Cloncurry life but it was great to lunch at a café with a choice of good healthy food on the menu and to enjoy a latte before heading home to the East along the Flinders Highway.

Cloncurry Saleyards Road Train being loaded

  

Claire Wood

longlines

Email:  longline8@gmail.com

Just Claire Wood, Inthe Atmosphere

I intend spending more time in the Cloncurry area once the cool weather sets in after Easter.  At the Tourist Information Centre at the Mary Kathleen Memorial Park I found Cloncurry Trails:  A Guide to Off-Road Touring around Cloncurry and Mt Isa (2013) by Gary and Wendy Baker.  The book is copyright to Baker Photographics and is printed by Hamilton Printers, PO Box 520 Charters Towers, Qld, 4820.  This book will be of great use for my future travel plans.

There is a wealth of information on the net about Cloncurry and the town and the area have been written about from many points of view and over a very long time. 

Fullarton River North West Queensland

Life is like the river, sometimes it sweeps you gently along and sometimes the rapids come out of nowhere.  Emma Smith  http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/river

Bridge Over Fullarton River North West Queensland

 A few years ago my children presented me with a pair of ruby earrings for my birthday.  My grandmother and my mother both loved rubies.   My mother had to settle for garnets as a substitute and she developed a love of both of these stones.  I too love these gems.  Last year, l decided to find a ring to match my earrings.

A friend, tutor, skilled facetor and jeweller had spent time on holiday with his wife in the Fullarton River fossicking area.  Fortunately for me he found garnets and cut and set one in a gold ring that was perfect for my needs.  It is a rich red garnet with the distinctive purplish tinge that is a mark of a Fullarton River garnet.

Jewellery is more than mere decoration.  It is a means of remembering those who have given it, or made it.  It is a link to people and places.

My garnet ring is a link to my forebears through memory, to my children through the earrings it matches, and is a link to the person who made it.  Is also a link to the Fullarton River which crosses the Flinders Highway 67 ks west of Julia Creek.  

The fossicking area in which my ring originates is far to the south, upstream of the river off the Landsborough Highway.  However each time we cross the bridge on the Flinders Highway I feel a certain emotional tie to this long and complex river. 

The eastern side of the Fullarton River Bridge is a lovely place to stop.  Kites have been flocking here since the rain stopped.  Bee eaters and apostle birds are busy nesting along the banks. 

Bee eaters at Fullarton River North West Queensland

It has a history, the Fullarton River.  Like all watercourses in Queensland it has been crossed in many places, by many people, by various means.  It has been the site of numerous untold stories.  In flood and in the Dry it meanders from its source in the Selwyn Ranges.  Its channels and tributaries flows into the Cloncurry River system and then into the Flinders from where it debouches into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

In November 1883 a surveyor, using the pen name ‘Christophus’, wrote about a trip from Dalgonally Station to Cloncurry in the previous months.  His party camped on the banks of the Fullerton (sic) River, probably not far from where the bridge on the Flinders Highway is now.  

Ninety nine years later Tony Jones was believed murdered in the same area.  An unidentified woman alleged he was shot and his body disposed of in the river bed on the southside of the highway.  

It is thirty two years since Tony Jones disappeared and in that time the extreme climate of this area has left its mark on the country.  Drought has turned the floodplains to dust.  Floods have washed through hundreds of kilometres on the circuitous journey to the Gulf.

Kettle of kites over Fullarton River

Since ‘Christophus’ and his party hobbled their horses and laid out their swags on the banks of the Fullarton, through extremes of heat and cold,  through Dry and Wet, during drought and seasons of abundance the kites have wheeled in the sky.  Ascending and descending on currents of air, vigilant, ever watchful for prey, they are utterly indifferent to the human memories, longings and dramas taking place beneath them. 

Claire Wood

longlines 

Email:  longline8@gmail.com
In The Atmosphere   Just Claire Wood

There is an abundance of material on the web about both the Fullarton River area and Fullarton River garnets.  Below is a list of some of those:

YouTube video about digging for garnets at Fullarton River:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-g6K46Klpg

 Other websites of relevance

http://www.exploreaustralia.net.au/Queensland/Outback/McKinlay/Fullarton-River-Rest-Area

http://www.bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=213512&cmd=sp

http://gemfossicking.com.au/fullarton_river.html

http://www.geodata.us/australia_names_maps/aumaps.php?fid=145217&f=144&name=Fullarton%20River

http://www.mindat.org/loc-257928.html

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/264101823_Gahnite-Sillimanite-Garnet_Mineral_Assemblage_from_the_Host_Rocks_of_the_Cannington_Deposit_North_Queensland_Australia_Relationship_between_Metamorphism_and_Zn-Mineralization

 Useful map to garnet fossicking area:

http://www.frostysaussieadventures.com/Fossicking/QLD-FullartonGarnets.htm

 Detailed and interesting article on the Fullarton River area, the Selwyn Ranges and the Cloncurry area on the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland website: 

http://www.rgsq.org.au/21-141c