Posts for July, 2025

I could have called this post familiar territory as Nina and I have travelled the road south from Katherine a few times and are now familiar with the tourist stops along the way. The first one is Mataranka about 100km south. It is famous for its pools of blue fresh water that make great swimming holes for locals and visitors.

As promised in yesterdays post, I will include some photos of the Daly Waters Road House, below. The roadhouse has a lot of accommodation, at least 60 rooms in addition to a caravan park. Perhaps the most interesting (or unique) feature of the roadhouse is the wrecked aeroplane.

While researching the Tablelands Highway I discovered that it was built in the 1960s to facilitate the transport of beef, there are absolutely no services available anywhere along its 375kms, it is mostly a single lane of paved road, the pavement is in poor condition, and there are many large and small pot-holes.

From Barkly Roadhouse this morning the road (which is called the Barkly Highway) heads towards the border with Queensland and the town of Camooweal. Along the way there are a few rest areas which I remember from our last trip to this part of the world. At the last of these rest areas about 60km from Camooweal I met a guy named Norm who was on an expedition to walk from Townsville to Darwin. He is carrying his survival gear in a modified garden troller.

The first order of business today was to stop at a camping shop in Mt Isa and get myself a new functional sleeping mat. On the 100km drive into Mt Isa I stopped at a rest area that had a very nice red/pink flowering plant next to one of the picnic shelters. This rest area was a memorial to the completion of the Barkly Highway joining Camooweal and Mt Isa.

The first stop of note on todays ride was the town of Cloncurry something like 60-70km from last nights camp at Mary Kathleen. This town is famous as the birth place of QANTAS. At the local airport the original hanger building still exists and is labelled with the original name of the airline Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service, from which the initials QANTAS were derived.

For much of this morning Nina and I were still dealing with the electrical issue from yesterday. So my mind was not really on what I was seeing while traveling along. Mind you the scenery was cooperating with my level of indifference as for much of the first 150km the land was flat grassland.

Todays ride was notably different. Firstly the country side was made up of gentle hills, and covered in Eucalypt forest as compared to the grassland of the past week or more, and there were more towns (or at least villages). In the 250kms of todays ride I stopped at 3 intermediate towns, Prairie, Torrens Creek and Pentland. I also stopped at Balfes Creek but it seems to be abandoned. I did not stop at the village of Homestead. All those places in 250kms, I must be getting close to civilization.

Before getting underway today I did a very quick visit to the main street of Charters Towers to see the old Stock Exchange building which is now a shopping mall, followed by a visit to Tower Hill for a view of the city from above and to note the conical hills in the distance which are (according to some theories) responsible for the "Tower" part of the towns name.

On todays ride I saw lots of bright green fields. I think it is some form of vegetable oil plant but cannot be sure. Even google did not help me as it came up with a list of about a dozen things it could be from sorgum to wheat to cotton. I did see evidence of fluffy white cotton on the road side.

Today was cold, thanks to a strong cold southerly wind, and the result was a destinct lack of enthusiasm on my part to stop and take photos. The stretch of road south of Rolleston to Injune (about 165km) was interesting with views of the mountains of Carnarvon National Park for much of the stretch. South of Injune the terrain was forested rolling hills.

I did not spend any time this morning looking around Roma, that may have been a mistake, but it explains why there are no photos of the largish town that I stayed in last night. South from Roma the fist stop of the day was the town of Surat which is located on the banks of the Balonne River. On the north side of the town is a large free camping area which was well occupied by caravaners. In the town the river provides a great setting for a walking trail.

Before hitting the road this morning I walked the few meters to Dirrenbandi's town park and photographed the metal relief-statue of a charge by Australia horse soldiers in WWI, and some coloured poles (which I think have some aboriginal significance). After that I had coffee at the town bakery which is run by a Russian family.

Todays ride passed through a series of towns with names that mnight seem unusual to those who did not grown up in Australia. So I decided to share those names in this post in the photos below. Some of the towns also have icons other than their names, suchs a grain silo art. I have included those icons after the name of the town. I started the day at Coonable and Finished at Kandos.