Qld 09 - Week 4

Day 22 - Mt Surprise

Another excursion day - this time we were off to the Undara Volcanic National Park on a tour with Peter, our Savannah Guide.

The text below is not mine, but explains better than I could how Undara came into being and why it's so important. The full text is on the Qld Environmental Protection Agency web site: http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/parks_and_forests/find_a_park_or_forest/undara_volcanic_national_park/undara_volcanic_national_park_8212_nature_culture_and_history.html

For millions of years Undara was an active shield volcano. About 190,000 years ago, in the Cainozoic era, there was a massive eruption and lava flowed more than 90km to the north and over 160km to the north-west. An estimated 23.3 cubic kilometres of lava flowed from the volcano at a rate of about 1000 cubic metres every second. A lava flow this large could fill Sydney Harbour in six days. It is thought that the lava flowed at a temperature of around 1200 degrees Celcius.

The lava tubes and caves were formed when rivers of lava confined to a valley crusted over and formed a roof. Insulated in its casing of solidified lava, the lava flow carried on for many tens of kilometres before draining out, leaving an empty tube of lava. Weaker sections of the roof of the tubes later collapsed to form caves and depressions. More than 50 caves have been found in the park.

The Undara lava tube system is Australia's longest, and one of the longest in the world. It is also unusual if not unique in that it developed on a granitic basement. The lava tube caves in this national park are the finest examples in Australia and contain specialised ecosystems that are internationally significant. Bayliss Cave is considered one of the world's most important, biologically diverse caves. Other examples of well-preserved volcanic features in the park include craters, lava ponds and flows, and perennial springs.

The first part of the tour involved walking to the top of one of the craters (Kalkani) to get an idea of the surrounding countryside.

Peter was full of fascinating information and tales about the area. Here we're standing on the Kalkani crater rim looking into the crater. As there have been no eruptions for 190,000 years, it's grown over a bit.

All this exercise put us in the right frame of mind for a cup of billy tea and cakes on our return to the bus!

Then it was on to a series of walks through some of the 50 lava tubes/caves that have been discovered.

Here we're standing on a layer of sediment that's been washed in through the opening. The actual rock floor is another 10 metres below us.

Here's another tube with less sediment. It's about 20 metres high. The patterns on the roof and walls are marvelous.

The entry into some caves was a bit physical. Covered, sturdy footwear was a must.

Just more fabulous patterns in the roof.

There is quite a bit of wildlife in the tubes. Lots of small native bats live hanging from the ceilings (sorry, no pics - too small, too fast and too far away)

This little brown Rocket Frog was another inhabitant. It was about 35mm (1.5") long.

After going through 3 different tube systems, it was time to break for lunch. As part of the tour, we had lunch at the Undara Experience Lodge. One of the attractions of the lodge is that a lot of the lodge buildings are old Qld Railway carriages.

The dining area had them around 3 sides under a typically Australian outback galvanised iron roof.

Lunch was accompanied by the calls from two red-tailed black cockatoos in a tree outside.

After lunch, it was back into some new lava tubes. It had been getting progressively hotter during the day (we found out later it had reached 38°C) and going underground was a welcome relief.

Even these butterflies thought it was a good idea.

Each cave or tube was different.

One had reflective particles (mica?) through it as well as the roots of some trees that had made their way through the rock looking for water.

More dazzling roof patterns.

In some caves, trees send down roots to get at the moisture underground. Some come through the roof as was shown a bit further back up the page.

Others come in through the entrance and just keep on going. These are from the big fig at the cave entrance.

And these are the same roots reaching out about 100 metres from the tree!

The usual suspects, photographed at the entrance to the Arch Cave. Note the swish high-powered LED torch on Sue's belt. These were given out at the start of the tour. Unfortunately, they wanted them back at the end of the tour. :-(

Same cave entrance, but without the people blocking the view. Note the strangler fig aerial roots in the background at the entrance to the 2nd part of the cave.

I just can't get over the patterns and colours in the roof!

OK, so I fibbed about the bats. :-)

There are 7 in this picture (can you find them all?) and each one would comfortably fit in a match box. As they were about 10 metres above us and in pitch blackness, I feel really happy that I got anything in the picture at all. Peter shone his (non-LED) torch at them so I could focus, then turned his torch off while I took the photo with flash.

This was in the last cave and we were about 300 metres from the entrance down a tube that had twisted and turned. Peter got us all to turn our lights off and put anything illuminated (like camera LEDs, watches, etc) in our pockets. It would have to have been the most complete 'dark' we've ever (not) seen. Quite a number on the tour couldn't wait to turn their lights back on.

The day ended with a late afternoon tea at a billabong.

Day 23 - Mt Surprise

Ever the gluttons for punishment, after a 38° day yesterday, we decided to go on a half day tour to a local cattle station.

I initially thought that it would be interesting if possibly a bit dull. WRONG! We were picked up by Mary (one of the owners) and she gave us an interesting synopsis of how they'd come to run this cattle station and what they were doing to make it better. She and her husband ,Doug, certainly have innovative ideas and they seem to be paying off.

The first item on the agenda was a demonstration on how they use dogs in controlling and moving their cattle.

Here's Mary with a bunch of weaners (cattle that have recently been weaned from their mothers). They introduce them to both the dogs and electric fences early in their lives and seem to have no problems controlling them later. Anyone say Pavlov?

Doug (left) arrived on a quad bike with three of the dogs. They mainly use Kelpies around the farm and have bred their own dogs for a number of years. When they took over the farm, all the cattle mustering was done with horses, but there are now only 2 horses on the property; they've been replaced with quad bikes.

After the demo, we then were given a tour around the property, complete with 'Jake' (?) acting as guide in the tour bus and making sure we stayed in our seats.

With the tour around the property finished, it was time for morning tea down by the river that runs through the property. This river is one that is fed from water coming out of the Undara Lava Tubes further to the east.

One of the pups who had not yet been trained as a working dog, decided that it was just too hot, so went and flopped in a puddle. We all envied him as it was getting a trifle warm again (another 38° day!).

After a very interesting chat with us all, Doug had to get back to running the farm. Here he is telling the rest of the dogs that life does not consist of getting patted and fed by tourists!

After a quick lunch back at the caravan, we decided that the best place to be was in the air conditioning. As the van air conditioning was producing less that Arctic conditions, we decided that the air con in the Toyota was satisfactory so we went exploring.

There is a gorge called the Copperfield Gorge at the junction of the Einasleigh and Copperfield Rivers. This was about 80kms from Mt Surprise. The first 30 kms was on the highway. Then we turned off south onto a very average dirt road to Einasleigh.

Einasleigh is the terminus of a very old train trip from Cairns. This is called the Savannahlander and runs once a week. The rolling stock consists of a restored 1960's rail-motor and it's a favourite with train buffs from all over the world. The only problem is that the track has to withstand searing heat in summer and floods in the wet season.

This is part of the track. Obviously this is NOT suitable for high speed trains!

The Einasleigh pub is typical of outback watering holes. Both walls and roof are made from corrugated iron. Note the mosquito net and bed on the upstairs verandah.

What we came to see - Copperfield Gorge.

There were 2 freshwater crocodiles sighted here the previous week, but there was no sign of them when we looked. Mind you, at 40° in the shade, we didn't spend too long wandering across the gorge's rocks.

Day 24 - Mt Surprise -> Croydon

We said goodbye to Jo and Joe, owners of the Bedrock Caravan Park and set off west again for Croydon.

Croydon has a special place in Ross Family history as my Grand-father was born there (1886) and my Great-Grand-father died there (1910). We thought we might be able to find out some more about this part of our family tree. We were not disappointed.

Croydon (pop ~300) has a brand new Visitors' Centre. This has a local Genealogy Database, with over 15,000 names of families that once called Croydon ‘home’. It also has a most knowledgeable person called Chris Weirman who seems to be able to put his finger on all sorts of facts and figures from the past. When we entered the Centre, and casually asked about family history, we suddenly found ourselves in his office and were amazed as he produced items from the Ross Family history. We have now proved that my G-G-father was manager of Croydon Downs cattle station from 1887 to 1896, at which time one of my great-uncles took over the position. At the time, this cattle station was huge (20,000 sq miles) but has subsequently been cut up into smaller and smaller pieces.

Croydon's claim to fame is that it was the scene of Queensland's last major gold rush in 1887.

Much machinery still exists in the surrounding area and signs warn not to go walking around in the bush as there are still many unfenced mine shafts. I don't know about you, but I rarely make a habit of walking backwards in the bush...

Day 25 - Croydon

At the height of the gold rush there were around 90 hotels in Croydon.

This is the only one left.

The shire has preserved four buildings in the main street of Croydon that are open to the public.

This is the police residence, ...

... the police station and cells (at the back), ...

the Court House ...

and the Shire Hall.

Croydon's water supply is also a favourite recreation area, Lake Belmore.

We spent a pleasant hour there bird-watching, then came back to town via Diehm's Lookout to watch the sunset.

Day 26 - Croydon -> Normanton

Today was a short day from a distance point of view, but we wanted to get to Normanton by lunch time so we could park the van and drive on to Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The first thing that strikes you about Normanton is the replica of Krys, the largest recorded saltwater crocodile in the world. Krys was named after the woman who shot it, Krystina Pawlowski. This happened in July 1957, in the Norman River downstream from Normanton. Krys' statistics are impressive - it was 28' 4" (8.63m) long and weighed more than 2 tons.

After leaving the caravan at the caravan park, we immediately set off on the final 80kms to Karumba. By now we were on the flood plain for all the rivers that run north and north-west into the Gulf of Carpentaria. This meant that there were lots of water birds around in the many waterholes.

Other than the usual ducks and egrets, we saw Magpie Geese for the first time this trip.

A couple of Sea Eagles were circling overhead.

We started coming across lots of Brolgas. This group were dancing. This consists of the birds jumping up in the air while their wings are out-stretched. It was originally thought it was a mating ritual but this has now been replaced by the idea that they just like to dance! The Brolga's dance is an important part of Aboriginal culture.

One of the reasons to go to Karumba was to watch the sunset over the ocean. Karumba is one of the few places in Qld where the sun sets over the water. Now for those living on west coasts, this is no big deal, but to those living on an east coast, it's a nice change.

So for the second time in as many days, you get another sunset picture. This time it was accompanied by fish and chips. :-)

The poles are shipping markers for the prawn fleets and the zinc ore carriers as they enter the Norman River. Zinc slurry is piped 304km to the port from the Zinifex Century mine near the Northern Territory border, dewatered, and loaded onto a 5,000 tonne transfer vessel for the 40 km journey to export ships that anchor in deep water further out in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The trip back in the dark was done at a very leisurely pace as the kangaroos were out in force and seemed to by just 'dying' (sorry) to try out the 'roo bar on the front of the 4WD.

Day 27 - Normanton -> Cloncurry

As some of you may know, in April/May we travelled through South Australia. Towards the northern end of the trip we were roughly following the trail of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition of 1860/61. This was an expedition to unlock the secrets of the arid interior of the continent. While on our trip, we visited The Dig Tree and the initial grave sites of Wills and Gray along the Cooper. Thousands of kilometres north of the Cooper, we finally arrived at the most northerly point that the expedition reached.

From the Victorain Gov't's web site:-

On 16 December, Burke, Wills, King and Gray set out from Camp LXV. They were lucky in their choice of route, and in the weather - the rains were good, and fresh water was abundant. Their encounters with Aborigines were benign, and the terrain was not difficult. Despite these good conditions, after six weeks' march - their projected point of return - they were still short of the northern coast.

They pressed on, and around 9 February they found themselves on the Flinders River. The water was salty, and showed a strong tidal rise and fall which told the explorers that they were near the sea. Leaving King and Gray with the camels, which could not be got through the swampy mangrove country, Burke and Wills took three days' supplies and set out to break through to the coast. They advanced another 15 miles before admitting defeat. As Burke wrote in his notebook during the return, 'It would be well to say that we reached the sea but we could not obtain a view of the open ocean, although we made every endeavour to do so'.

http://victoria.slv.vic.gov.au/burkeandwills/expedition/to_carpentaria.html

While there are differences in where Burke thought he was, versus where he actually was, it would seem that they missed the 'open ocean' by only about 5 miles. The fact that they were trying to do this in mid-February, the hottest and most humid time of the year, beggars belief.

This is the memorial at Camp CXIX (119), the furtherest north encampment, describing the final push and with trees still showing marks left by the 1861 party. I think we counted about 5 trees, one of which still looks alive, but...

... judging by their condition, I suspect they won't be with us too much longer. The plaque at the bottom reads :-

"BURKE & WILLS CAMP CXIX

BLAZED TREE"

This is the river that Camp CXIX overlooks.

The ground is a bit dry and hard at the moment!

One of the things you become aware of when towing a caravan is that the force on the frontal area of the van increases exponentially as you go faster. When we had got back on the bitumen after our detour to Camp CXIX, I felt that the Toyota was working very hard for the speed we were doing (85kph). It wouldn't even stay in top gear but kept changing down to 4th. I stopped to double-check that I hadn't left the brake on the caravan and found that there was a strong (25kt) headwind blowing (no trees to see blowing in the wind). We reduced our cruising speed to 80 kph and still had to stop at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse as there was no way we would reach Cloncurry without reaching deep into our fuel reserves.

The bottom line was that the wind had really chewed our fuel up and sent my calculations out the window. A quick calculation showed that we had set a new and rather dubious record for consumption: 26lt/100km or 10.8mpg! OUCH!

Day 28 - Cloncurry -> Richmond

We had decided that between the very early and unexpected arrival of Summer (it was only the 6th day of Spring!) and the inability of the van's air conditioning to cope, we'd start back for home. As the Qld Outback was still in the mid to high 30s, we decided that we'd head straight for the coast near Townsville and then go home back down the Bruce Highway.

Today's journey was not especially memorable, but the destination certainly was. We booked into the Lakeview Caravan Park and then walked (a mistake in the 35° heat but I didn't want to unhitch the caravan) to Kronosaurus Korner in the middle of Richmond.

During the Cretaceous Period (120 million yrs ago) this part of Qld was covered by a warm shallow sea. In the last few decades, some important fossils have been unearthed in the area and this centre has been built to display them. The Kronosaurus Queenslandicus modelled at the front of the museum, was the largest marine reptile living in the sea at the time, and may have been the largest marine reptile in the world. The head was over 2m long - twice as large as T. Rex, and each flipper was also about 2m. As an air-breather, it would have had to keep returning to the surface to breathe. The original find on which this specimen is modelled was discovered by a team from Harvard University in 1932. It is 12m long.

The two most important fossil finds are the Pliosaur, ...

... and the Minmi Paravertebra - an armoured dinosaur.

One thing that makes Minmi important as a find, is that impressions of the skin have been preserved as well as the bones.

In keeping with the dinosaur theme, all the rubbish bins are appropriately modified. :-)

We were really impressed by the museum and the way the displays and audio tour commentary was handled. It is a world-class exhibition in a town of 750 people half way from Mt Isa to Townsville.

Continue on to Week Number 5 -> Qld 09 - Week 5