Arriving in Townsville the SatNav couldn’t find Kevin and Helen McCart
hy’s address – it turned out Sandra (my navigator) couldn’t read my writing and had entered the wrong street name – so we stopped the car, fired up the computer, went onto Google Streetmaps and Bingo. The Wonders of Technology!
Helen and Kevin are friends of my cousin Jean and we had never met them before. We arrived with the trepidation one always feels when landing upon strangers, especially when we interrupted their game of tennis, however all fears were unfounded as they welcomed us warmly and were excellent hosts. An evening of wine and chat then a bed with crisp white sheets
(I don’t know when we will see those again) was followed by a day of sightseeing in Townsville. We strolled along the beachfront promenade and watched an outrigger canoe competition with teams from all over Northern Queensland – followed by a city tour culminating in a trip to Castle Hill with fabulous views over the city and across to Magnetic Island.
Helen and Sandra discovered a shared interest in craftwork and, after lunch, disappeared for “half an hour” to go to craft shops. Several hours later they returned as Kevin was starting his weekly tennis tournament on his en-suite tennis court
with a group of friends who have been doing the same thing every week for twenty years or more.
After two excellent nights we set off again making for Charters Towers, a well known tourist attraction selling itself as an old goldmining town. One of the joys of being footloose and fancy free is the ability to change ones mind – so we went to Ravenswood instead, another gold mining heritage town which turned out to be an small but interesting time capsule. From a heyday population of 8500 there are now only about 400 many of whom are working to preserve the past
by turning the whole town into a tourist attraction – with mixed results.
We had lunch in the impressive Railway Hotel, visited the old court house and mining museum (worlds away from its Newtongrange counterpart) and looked at an old miner’s cottage which housed man, wife and nineteen children. The house was lived in until 1980 and the old outside “dunny” is still standing – just – however Sandra was a bit dubious about having a shot!
We eventually arrived at Charters Towers and picked up a leaflet from the tourist office and
started on one of the “heritage” walks. After a few minutes we came across an incredible old building which we couldn’t find on any of the walks. Called Aldborough, it had obviously been a grand old house with big windows and wide verandas but now looking sad, over-grown and derelict. Whilst debating whether to sneak in for a closer look we were accosted, in a reasonably friendly manner, by a passer-by. As luck would have it this was Diana who just happened to be the new owner of the house – she and her husband had recently bought it at auction and were in the process of renovation, with everything being restored to its original state. We were invited in for a tour of the property.
Despite external appearances a lot had been done to the house. It was raised about seven feet from the ground on wooden poles that had rotted and therefore these had been replaced. The ornate caste iron of the veranda was in the process of being sand blasted and repainted. All the electrics had been modernised although where possible all the visible
fittings had been replaced with original switches etc. A massive job.
We thanked Diana and decided that our impromptu tour of Aldborough was probably more interesting than the official tour guide – so we said goodbye to Charters Towers and headed for our next stop – Undara and the Lava Tubes.
Too far to do in a oner we headed for a speck on the map called Greenvale not even knowing if there was anywhere to camp . Over the next couple of hours we spotted lots of horseboxes with caravans on the road and speculated “Wouldn’t it be funny if there was some sort of
horsey event on in Greenvale” – needless to say there was! It was the annual rodeo and we just happened to arrive in the middle of proceedings. We camped next to the show ring - the air heavy with the smell of horses and cows with lots of tanned men wearing blue jeans and shirts with over size cowboy hats on their heads.
We had the main event described to us – a rider on horseback rounds up a group of cows then herds them round an obstacle course and through a gate. Sandra’s comment of “Oh, just like One Man and His Dog” was, I felt, not fully appreciated by the tanned men in big hats.
Greenvale’s other claim to fame is that it has one of only 4 sausage trees in Australia. The fruit is like giant sausages (interesting botanical fact from Sandra)
A quick overnight stop then back onto the Gregory Developmental Road for 50km then onto the Kennedy Developmental Road to look for Undara (of lava tube fame) and dodge Road Trains - scary stuff! They are upgrading this road and needless to say every traffic light was at red.
hy’s address – it turned out Sandra (my navigator) couldn’t read my writing and had entered the wrong street name – so we stopped the car, fired up the computer, went onto Google Streetmaps and Bingo. The Wonders of Technology!Helen and Kevin are friends of my cousin Jean and we had never met them before. We arrived with the trepidation one always feels when landing upon strangers, especially when we interrupted their game of tennis, however all fears were unfounded as they welcomed us warmly and were excellent hosts. An evening of wine and chat then a bed with crisp white sheets
(I don’t know when we will see those again) was followed by a day of sightseeing in Townsville. We strolled along the beachfront promenade and watched an outrigger canoe competition with teams from all over Northern Queensland – followed by a city tour culminating in a trip to Castle Hill with fabulous views over the city and across to Magnetic Island.Helen and Sandra discovered a shared interest in craftwork and, after lunch, disappeared for “half an hour” to go to craft shops. Several hours later they returned as Kevin was starting his weekly tennis tournament on his en-suite tennis court
with a group of friends who have been doing the same thing every week for twenty years or more.After two excellent nights we set off again making for Charters Towers, a well known tourist attraction selling itself as an old goldmining town. One of the joys of being footloose and fancy free is the ability to change ones mind – so we went to Ravenswood instead, another gold mining heritage town which turned out to be an small but interesting time capsule. From a heyday population of 8500 there are now only about 400 many of whom are working to preserve the past
by turning the whole town into a tourist attraction – with mixed results.We had lunch in the impressive Railway Hotel, visited the old court house and mining museum (worlds away from its Newtongrange counterpart) and looked at an old miner’s cottage which housed man, wife and nineteen children. The house was lived in until 1980 and the old outside “dunny” is still standing – just – however Sandra was a bit dubious about having a shot!
We eventually arrived at Charters Towers and picked up a leaflet from the tourist office and
started on one of the “heritage” walks. After a few minutes we came across an incredible old building which we couldn’t find on any of the walks. Called Aldborough, it had obviously been a grand old house with big windows and wide verandas but now looking sad, over-grown and derelict. Whilst debating whether to sneak in for a closer look we were accosted, in a reasonably friendly manner, by a passer-by. As luck would have it this was Diana who just happened to be the new owner of the house – she and her husband had recently bought it at auction and were in the process of renovation, with everything being restored to its original state. We were invited in for a tour of the property.Despite external appearances a lot had been done to the house. It was raised about seven feet from the ground on wooden poles that had rotted and therefore these had been replaced. The ornate caste iron of the veranda was in the process of being sand blasted and repainted. All the electrics had been modernised although where possible all the visible
fittings had been replaced with original switches etc. A massive job.We thanked Diana and decided that our impromptu tour of Aldborough was probably more interesting than the official tour guide – so we said goodbye to Charters Towers and headed for our next stop – Undara and the Lava Tubes.
Too far to do in a oner we headed for a speck on the map called Greenvale not even knowing if there was anywhere to camp . Over the next couple of hours we spotted lots of horseboxes with caravans on the road and speculated “Wouldn’t it be funny if there was some sort of
horsey event on in Greenvale” – needless to say there was! It was the annual rodeo and we just happened to arrive in the middle of proceedings. We camped next to the show ring - the air heavy with the smell of horses and cows with lots of tanned men wearing blue jeans and shirts with over size cowboy hats on their heads.We had the main event described to us – a rider on horseback rounds up a group of cows then herds them round an obstacle course and through a gate. Sandra’s comment of “Oh, just like One Man and His Dog” was, I felt, not fully appreciated by the tanned men in big hats.
Greenvale’s other claim to fame is that it has one of only 4 sausage trees in Australia. The fruit is like giant sausages (interesting botanical fact from Sandra)
A quick overnight stop then back onto the Gregory Developmental Road for 50km then onto the Kennedy Developmental Road to look for Undara (of lava tube fame) and dodge Road Trains - scary stuff! They are upgrading this road and needless to say every traffic light was at red.
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