Mt Isa to Birdsville

http://www.photography-village.com/

Gazza the guard dog

Micky the navigator

This is a part of a trip that Jacky and I did in August 2010, as usual we had the regular addons Gazza the watch dog and his nemisis our bird who was deligated as navigator, and who let us down later in the trip, I think she spent to much time  trying to look good and not enough time looking at the map.

This part starts at Mt Isa in western Queensland, In the winter months the Isa as it is known is a great  place to visit,  the night time temps get down in to the low single figures and the daytime is in the high teens to the mid 20's, and for most of this season the weather is magnificent.

This trip for us was to be a camping holiday we traveled to the Isa on business and the plan was to head down through Boulia to Birdsville then to Roma to visit my daugher and family and then travel to the Northern rivers in New South Wales for a week then home to Townsville a trip of over 3,000klm.

Dusky Morehen at Mt Isa

We stayed at Coconut Grove van park, this is an excellent park our site was right on the bank of a creek that divided the park from an indistrial area, the park owners have done a great job of cleaning up this creek on their property and the creek at least this part of it is the home to many water birds.

We had a couple of days to look around the Isa and take some pics, this is a mining town and the whole city of Mt Isa is there to service this industry. The town itself has an atmosphere that is only found in a mining comunity and is dominated by the mine, this is an old mine and has changed hands quite a few times, having said that this is a mine that is constantly being modernised and is a leader in some of the technology that makes the mining industry so strong in Australia.

There are several lookouts around the city and always worth having a look and taking a couple of shots.

Mt Isa from look out

Because of the location Mt Isa has to rely on the transport industry,  and if there is one area that the Queensland Government has let the Isa down it is with the level of maintenance that is put in to the roads,  in to and around the city, considering the amount of revenue that is generated by the mines in this area the level of money put back in to the area is at best piss poor, one day we might get a Government that not only puts back an amount of money that is in proportion to what is gets from an area,  but puts some protection measures in place so that some of the land in this country is kept from mining developers.  

I was watching a program on the idiot box last week about the land aquisition that is happening in Western Australia, and the program showed an area that was ablolutely beautifull, and there is going to be a Liquified gass plant put on the shores of this magnificent area and one of the people that were interviewed who was argueing for the area to be mined stated that the resorces underground were similar in size and content to Mt Isa, well if any one needs incentive to stop this they should go to the Isa and to Broken Hill and have a look at what it will look like in 10years time.

Mt Isa Mountain sunset

The Photo labeled "sunset on Mt Isa Mountains" should be a lesson because I took that photo 6months ago and already a large part of the range is already under mine construction, now I am not a "Greenie" but I appreciate this country in all its facets, from the harsh country around the Isa to the clear blue waters of our off shore islands  and especially our magnificent Rainforests, and I am begining to believe that if we dont get out and see this beautifull country soon,  then a Government will sell it,  some other country will  mine it,  and it will be gone.

Well I got that off my chest, enough of my raving, we left the Isa and headed South through Bourke and on to our first camp site, there is a lot of nothing in this area but a lot to see, so many birds and because of the big wet season that has benifeted this country plenty of wild flowers and water.

Sulleman creek camp site

Our campsite was at Sulleman creek, we arived mid afternoon and set about getting organised, I put a couple of Yabby pots in and got a fire going, pretty easy thanks to someone called "The Naked Nomads" who kindly stacked up enough wood to get the fire going and left a note, saying that this was their habit and trusted that the reciepient of the gift would do the same, which we did, but with our cloths on.

Bill with sticky shoes

Pacific Heron Suelliman creek

We have some great pics of this area, lots of birds and terrific scenery, including a trick shot by Jacky, which is a reflection and has not been altered.

Sunrise Suelliman creek

The wild life especially the birds at this spot were everywere, the family of Herons that had made their home here hardly had to move to get a feed at one stage there were 7 of these birds on the one small tree.

Sunset at Sulllema

Within a 5min walk from our camp there were  a family of eagles, countless parrots and honey eaters, Kites, and Falcons, the ever present Corellas and Emu, I tried to get close to a family of Brolgas but the country is so open that they would have none of it.

The road to Birdsville

This was a great camp and we reluctantly left mid morning and headed off to Bedourie, I was surprised at how good the road was after all the rain that this area had, so we made pretty good time.

There are so many things to stop and see,  the wild flowers were just starting to bloom and the colours of the landscape were changing so often,  I suppose that the thing that surprised me most was that we were driving through the edge of a couple of deserts and because of the amount of rain that the area has had and is still continuing to have the vegitation realy disguised the harshness of these areas.

Water birds Eyre creek

Every creek had water and every where that there was water there were birds.
We traveled an area called "Hillary plains" as flat as a tack and stones as far as you could see, then it was time to find a camp for the night, by this time the breeze had turned to a wind and the temperature had taken a dive and the land was not showing any signs of having a place that we could shelter just a flat plain with hills in the distance but as the light was fading we needed something to serve as a wind break.

Nightime camp spot

Finally a fair sized hill with a road leading over the top, and at the back out of the wind a fair camp site with a great views

We left our camp about mid morning when it started to warm up and

headed towards Birdsville.

We started to run into a couple of stretches of dirt and before long were on the red rocky soil that we had been expecting. There were plenty of photo oportunities, wild flowers and horses, birds and we were getting in to the sandy areas of the Simpson, Jacky has been getting into  her Macro Photography and is getting some great shots.

Desert wildflower

We camped this night at Carcooya Bore, this is an historic sit as the origonal bore was put down in the late 1800s and is still a major source of water for the area, like most artesian water the temperature as it comes out of the ground is over 90deg and on this afternoon when the temperature was about 10deg we were not unhappy to be camping near water that we dis not even have to heat up.

The water is surprisingly soft when you use it to wash with it leaves you feeling very refreshed and your hair or to be precice Jackies, because she has some and I dont is very soft.

The birds were everywhere and the baby Budgies, had just started to leave the nest, and they were everywhere, we had a family just a few meters from our tent and they were not worried by us at all.

Mother Budgie feeding one of her chicks

Zebra finch's

there were also hundreds of Zebra Finch around and they were camped in the bush over the bore drain I suppose so that the steam kept them warm.

Near the bore is another historic site, it is the origonal Carcoory homestead built in the late 1800s and was at one stage the home of the Kidman family untill it was abandoned in about 1920 because of drought, this must have been a hard area to bring up a family, when you enter the home you can get the feel of how difficult the task of raising children would have been, the rooms are very small and with only a window for ventilation in the summer it would have been stifiling.
The bulding has been made from local stone and rendered with a mixture of lime and sand, but even though this home is obviously an historic site the grubs of this world that cannot resist seeing their name plastered over any surface that they can find have made a mess of the walls and anything else that they could deface.

Carcoory homestead fireplace

We stayed the night at the bore and moved on to Birdsville, Jacky managed to find a piece of road that had some water over it and changed the colour of the ute from white to red in about 5seconds.
There is not a lot in Birdsville except four wheel drives towing camper trailers and vans, if you go there and end up at the bakery stay with the plain pies and you will be fairly safe, but dont get the impression that because of the size of the town that there is no culture, we managed to find an art gallery among other things.
Well this is where we depart from our trip for a while, I will put up the next part of our holiday from Birdsville to New South wales shortly.

Art Gallery

The transport

Cheers.

If you are interested in any of the photos or any others from our trip go to.
http://www.photography-village.com/