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First stop |
Yes I know that Mackas is not the breakfast that you would associate with a trip to explore the wild west but what the heck the last fast food for 700k and its quick.
Breakfast out of the way we head off to Hughenden about 250k away, now Peter is a bit like me in as much as he likes to know what is down that road the difference out here is that Pete has been down most of them, so as we were leaving Hughenden Pete asked the question
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The jump up |
Even though the road is gravel in places it is better than the main road, my mate Pete used to drive road trains out here delivering fuel to the cattle and sheep stations, a pretty tough job especially in the wet season, Peter was telling me that one of the reasons for changing the road was that at the Richmond end there was a jump up that when it rained made it almost impossible for trucks to use the road, now a jump up is a section of road where it climbs over a short distance.
This particular piece of road jumps up about 100mtrs over about 600mtrs, Pete tells me that the top used to be about 2mtrs higher before they put some bitumen down to give the trucks a fair chance in the wet.
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Old shearing shed |
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Old Gidgee fence |
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Gidgee way (road to Mckinlay) |
Past Julia Creek we turn on to the Gidgee way, there used to be a great old pub down here, just a few posts remain I think that next trip I might spend the night here to explore, this is a dirt road but smooth you can realy get along here no traffic and better than the bitumen.
Out here you really get a sense of how vast this country is even with nothing to see this is still a beautiful place, in the photo above there is one tree in the distance but this was a heavily timbered area in the early pioneer days, the main timber here was Gidgee a very hard wood excellent for building fences and one of the best firewood's around and also the trees competed with the grass for water that was needed for the sheep.
We were on our way to Percoil Station a very large cattle property that "yes" Peter used to deliver fuel to, this was a sales call as Pete knows the owners, on the way down the station road we passed a turn off to another property, Pete says as we pass, this is probably the only place you will go to the local rubbish tip and find a Super King Air in the rubbish "yea of course" but an incredible coincidence! at the same time as we were there our sales rep in Townsville was talking to a chap who owns a air charter called West Wing, and he was the pilot of the plane, he was landing on the airstrip on his property and clipped the top of his wife's Land cruiser and flipped it sustaining very serious injuries (Story Pete 130 confirmed ) hmm I think there is a book here somewhere.
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The camp site |
About 7:30 Pm we set up camp and cook our tucker, now apparently this place has been put on a camper van web site so there were a couple of 4x4 caravans there as well big flash set ups so a couple of old guys rolling out their swags on the creek bank has the curtains fluttering.
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First camp |
Story 178 "Pete" did you see the cans embedded in in the clay wall at the intersection of the highway and the beef road to Georgetown, "audience" no what happened "Pete" (long story short) these two brothers were travelling from Georgetown to the Curry drinking rum and coke in cans they had drank over a carton and pulled up at the pub and got some more, when crossing the bridge at the intersection they clipped the guard rail and rolled end for end, the car hit the clay wall so hard that the rum cans embedded in the wall, "audience" how long ago was that "Pete" about 10 years "audience" that was terrible " Pete" as he was getting in the car Yep true story I still stop every now and then and dig one out and have a drink just to remember them.
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Rosebud Gums |
We pushed on a fair way before stopping as we had a early start and both of us had seen Mt Frosty and the gorge before.
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Lion rock |
While we were organising planking Pete we spotted a pipe coming out of the ground on a ridge so we decided to walk up the hill to see why it was there, the only explanation obvious was that it was a vent for an old
mine shaft, so we had a bit of an explore and found an abandoned mine that had probably been reopened a couple of times and showed signs of recent work.
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Open shaft |

There are some structures of sorts and probably from the last 50 or so years, one looks like it is used by prospectors or campers and a couple of old buildings to house winches to lift ore from the shafts.
There is an outside dunny with a solid steel toilet seat in fact the whole toilet is made of steel,tough but would be a bit cold in winter and you would not want to leave the door open in the summer and have the sun on it.
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lean to at the mine head |
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The Dunny |
There are so many different rock formations that you have to imagine this was a very active area when the country was formed it is not hard to imagine the Dinosaur's that they are finding around Cloncurry and Richmond hunting in this area.
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Ancient rock |
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Caves in the hills |
Or may be in more recent times before the miners came the Aboriginal tribes hunting and using the many caves in the area for shelter. By the time we had finished at the old mine and exploring the rocks we were starting to run behind time and we had not even got near where Mike and I had reached previously.
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Road to the mountain |
We arrived at the place that the map indicated for the Maltese crosses, so we had a look around but could not see anything like what we thought they should look like, so we dug around and found some stones that looked interesting which we have since found out were what we were looking for anyway.
From here on the road started to get interesting and we were starting to select 4x4 regularly.
We were starting to get to where Mike and I turned back last time and I was hoping that the new Cooper tires and the 40mm that I had raised the Mitsubishi would be enough to get up the fairly extreme rocky climb ahead.
We arrived at the WeeMacGregor mine after the first of the really rocky bit of track, after a bit of a look at the mine not to much as it was now the middle of the day and fairly hot we tackled the next bit to get to where Mike and I called it Quits.
Once we had got to the top of the first jump up we saw the stone pitched wall that Mike and I had seen when we turned around, as it turned out we were directly below the Tunnel that we came so far to see.
This wall is part of a road that was built for the rail line through the tunnel it was made from the rock dug out when the tunnel was made.
Now that we had got to this point we decided to walk the next section as now we had got to a bit of track that could hurt you if one was not careful.
We new from our map that we were not far away and real'y wanted to get to the top of the range and it was by now after 2 O'clock, we both walked up to the top and on the way found that when the road had been cut in to the mountain an old mine shaft had been revealed, this had been sealed but someone had wanted to see inside so the steel door had been ripped off, to give a bit of perspective to how to how the miners in this era worked
I took the photo of the open shaft kneeling down and I could not have entered the shaft except on my hands and knees.![]() |
Nearing Destination |
We were starting to get to where Mike and I turned back last time and I was hoping that the new Cooper tires and the 40mm that I had raised the Mitsubishi would be enough to get up the fairly extreme rocky climb ahead.
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First of the rock |
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First jump up |
Once we had got to the top of the first jump up we saw the stone pitched wall that Mike and I had seen when we turned around, as it turned out we were directly below the Tunnel that we came so far to see.
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Stone pitched wall |
Now that we had got to this point we decided to walk the next section as now we had got to a bit of track that could hurt you if one was not careful.
We new from our map that we were not far away and real'y wanted to get to the top of the range and it was by now after 2 O'clock, we both walked up to the top and on the way found that when the road had been cut in to the mountain an old mine shaft had been revealed, this had been sealed but someone had wanted to see inside so the steel door had been ripped off, to give a bit of perspective to how to how the miners in this era worked
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The open shaft |
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Pete walks the jump up |
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Hands and knees shot in to shaft |
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Last of the climb yes this is the road |
When we finally reached the top we got out the map to see where the road leading off to the tunnel was, we had two choices a road that was supposedly where we were, or one at point 4 of a Klm further on.
As it happens when the road was cut in to the mountain it was lowered by about 2mtrs so the top road was out so we headed down the other side to the other road.
We did not walk this next part, probably should have because the next point 4Klm made the last5Klm look like a drive on a Brisbane freeway.
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Highville tunnel |
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Tunnel entrance |
The tunnel is known as the Highville tunnel Highville is the abandoned town just a bit further on the track I believe that it was constructed in 1913 and was part of the small gauge (2 foot) rail line from Ballara which is another small abandoned town further on to the Wee MacGregor mine, the tunnel is included in the National Heritage listings, it is also the only railway tunnel in western Queensland , near the entrance to the tunnel is an area that you can park your vehicle and enough space to camp, looking out from the park you look down on to the old rail line and old rail structures it would be a great view early in the morning.
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No frills tunnel |
There is a colony of rare and endangered Bats here the Troughton's Sheathtail Bat, a very tiny creature and this is the the only area that they are found, these bats are on the critically endangered list.
You would think that being a train tunnel that it would be bigger,
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Troughton's Sheathtail Ba |
When you think about it and imagine what tools that the miners had in 1913, no modern drilling rigs and sophisticated explosives this would have been hard yakka digging through the rock and good solid rock it is to.
While we were walking through we could hear what I thought were wasps but we could not see any this went on all the way through, we were looking at what we thought were wasp nests on the wall and then Pete saw the insect that made them, these were native Bee nests and if you chipped a bit away there was honey in them the Bats and the Bees seem to cohabit just fine so after getting a couple of pics we left them alone.
You can still see after all these years the black soot on the roof and when you get to the other side the views are just awesome over the mountains stretching north and down to the Wee MacGregor Mine.
The last time when I came with Mike we met some people filming for National Geographic and they said that they saw us on the road now I can see what they meant, Mike and I were at the old mine when we decided to go back, from up here Peter and I could see how big this old mine was.
the mine started in 1910 and produced up until about 1920 the main ore was Copper and in its lifetime the mine produced over 36,000 tonnes of copper ore, that mean that
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Abandoned Wee MacGregor mine |
I suppose that meant back towards Cloncurry through Ballara but even today this is a very tough track.
Looking back down to the old mine you can see it was quite large there is a dam and extensive workings going back in to the hills, it is down in a valley and when Peter and I were there, even though this is still a cool month, we did not stay around because of the heat, it would have been a hot place to work in the summer as in the Isa the Temperature often gets in to the 40s in this valley with no breeze it would have been stifling and I bet these miners did not get $100,000.0 plus to work here.
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Wee MacGregor entrance |
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The Bats |
So we head back out to the car and say goodbye to the Bats and Bees, I am already thinking about the next time I am out here again.
The road out follows the old rail line and in so many places you can stop and see old bridge works concrete piers and supports for the line to get over the many creeks and gullies, now concrete was not a new thing in 1913 but there were no modern batching plants and concrete trucks to cart it around so I suppose that the workers would have to mix it up onsite and just keep going until the job was done, I once helped a mate lay a concrete slab in the bush using a concrete mixer and just mixing and pouring until the the job was done, these concrete bridge supports that are on this line make that job look mundane, Ill say it again tough men.
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Hightville cemetry |
There are still 5 graves that can still be identified but probably many more that have not been found, the road passes through the site of the MacGregor hotel and then on to Ballara, on this road which appears to be the old rail line are many remains of bridges and you can almost hear the little loco in the bush that used to service the mine.
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Change over loading platform |
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Old rail bridge |
Next stop is Ballara and the junction of a couple of roads, the highway, Fountain springs and the road down to China Wall, but its getting on we have been on this road for about 7hrs and we are hot and need to stop for a while, I take a couple of photos of the old railway station and we are off to Clem Walton Park where we camped on the first night.
From here on the road is pretty good in places we get up to 80Kph and now I am getting thirsty as well as hungry we have been so engrossed in this place we have not had any thing to eat since breakfast.
We get to the camp and a couple of the travelers are still there
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Getting the dust off |
A very satisfying trip with a good mate just dinner to cook roll out the swags and off home in the morning, the only thing left to do after that is to plan the next visit to Rosebud.