Winton, Cloncurry and Mt Isa

Winton sunset

Winton is dinosaur country. The oldest fossils found in Australia of dinosaur roaming our country were found in the Winton area. Lark Quarry, 110 klms from Winton is a very interesting historical record of an actual stampede millions of years ago.

Mel and Susie, bush poets.

Winton camp

Matilda Country Tourist Park is $35 per night; they put on a roast dinner, soup and dessert for $20. I had the meal and saw the two resident bush poets, Mel and Sue. We have seen these ladies before and they put on a good comedy show. We met some new friends from Tasmania and will probably see them again as they are going up to Darwin.

In Winton

 

Waltzing Matilda centre

John drove the 350klms to Cloncurry, stopping a couple of times for a break. It is very windy in Channel Country, we sat at the table and chairs at the rest stop but nearly got blown away.

We went to the supermarket and booked into the park about 2.30pm. This park has seen changes since our last visit two years ago. It is now mostly accommodation for the miners.

Today was a short drive to Mt Isa. We booked into the park for two nights, at $34 per night and went out to Lake Moondarra for a picnic lunch. John has booked the City Tour tomorrow. I have been to the underground hospital before and the city lookout we saw today, so thought I would spend the two hours reading etc.

Lake Moondarra

July 29^th

John enjoyed his tour this morning. Mt Isa hasn’t seen rain since February, it Is very dry here. It was warm last night, today is expected to be about 29c. The tour went to the mines, the city lookout and the underground hospital.

 

 

The Underground Hospital

 

The underground hospital was built in the event of an attack by the Japanese during WW2. They had already bombed Darwin after Pearl Harbour; and the city sustained more damage and loss of life than Hawaii. The hospital was never used, however the nurses coming off night duty at the Mt Isa hospital slept underground during the day to escape the heat.

We were back in the park after doing a bit of grocery shopping and having lunch.

Tomorrow we go to Camooweal , our first stop in the Northern Territory. Darwin is still 1600 klms away, it will take us about a week to get there. Our nightly stops will be roadhouses, usually with no mobile or internet reception.

We are booked into Darwin for 4 nights. Then we will head south towards home.