15 February 2000
As intimated yesterday, couldn't do too much today (or this morning, at least) with ute off the road so went to local tourist information centre which also contains Riversleigh Fossils Interpretive Centre. We went there on Saturday to get some tourist information but did not look at the fossils display firstly, because in our experience these sorts of displays are rarely as good as they are made out to be and secondly, why pay the $5.00 each admission charge to see rubbish. Anyhow, with nothing else to do and being limited as to mobility we went and had a look. To our pleasant surprise the centre was quite good and well worth the admission price. It is about a large fossil repository found by the Gregory River on Riversleigh Station which, because of the unique conditions there, contains fossils from a wide range of prehistoric mammals and other animal groups from 20,000 to several million years ago. There were plenty of photographs and fossil exhibits (both originals and casts made from originals) and a 15 minute video. Quite good, really. Next door to the centre is the Kalkadoon Tribal Council's Cultural Keeping Place (the Kalkadoon are the local aboriginal tribespeople). This was also quite good and we came away with a couple of very nice aboriginal paintings. By this time the ute was ready so we went and picked it up.
After retrieving the ute (which now appears to be OK) we went out towards Lake Moondarra to again try to find the way to the aboriginal rock carving site we could not find on Sunday, but this time we were in possession of better directions which were given to us by the chap at the Kalkadoon Cultural Centre. We did find it this time after 4WDriving over some pretty rough terrain for 5 or 6 kilometres. You don't really need 4WDrive to get there, but you do need the clearance a 4WD vehicle has off the ground. The site is high up on a rock face which you view from a platform you walk up to. Below the site is a tiered group of rock pools known as The Cascades, which all had water in them and which would look quite spectacular after heavy or prolonged rain when they would cascade down the rockface from the top pool to the one below, to the one below that, and so forth.
To give the ute a run and make sure (as far as possible) that it is OK before moving on tomorrow we then drove out of Mt. Isa back towards Cloncurry where the tourist maps show some sites we wanted to look at. It was showering by this time in "The Isa" and the road out was covered by around a foot of water from rain that had fallen further up in the hills. However after driving back to within 60 kms of Cloncurry (and going through some extremely heavy showers on the way) we gave up and returned back the way we had come. It was very frustrating not being able to find the sites we wanted to see and seems to confirm our suspicion of Mt. Isa's ambivalent attitude towards tourism: that they want tourists to come here but don't want to put in what tourists need - such as well sign-posted directions to points of interest. Or perhaps it is that they want these sites accessed only by local tour operators. Either way it was a source of frustration and disappointment to us and, I expect, to many other tourists. One of the sites we didn't see was where the town of Mary Kathleen used to be. This was a uranuim mining town of about 1,000 people and had a large open cut mine, however despite its being featured prominently in the tourist literature (including maps) as a site of historic interest there is no indication anywhere along the road of where it used to be. A total waste of time (and petrol) trying to find it. And this is only one of about half a dozen sites similarly featured in the literature but unable to be found. A bit apprehensive returning to Mt. Isa, fearing the water over the road may have got deeper thus preventing us from getting through but the level had, in fact, dropped to below road level.
Should be away to Tennant Creek in the NT tomorrow morning, a 672 km drive which should take around 7-1/2 hours. A cousin or some other relative of Mum's (I think maybe Aunty Kitty's daughter, Joyce Quentin) used to have the pub there. Will probably stay a couple of days as there are some interesting sites within a reasonable driving distance. Rain/floods may be a problem either getting there or touring around there. Just have to wait and see.
Had Mexican for dinner tonight. Lorraine had chicken burritos; I had carnitas (spicy meat balls with pickled vegetables - very mouth-warming, had with plenty of cream and sangria). Big storm with plenty of thunder and lightning (still continuing) while in restaurant, and torrential rain. Hope doesn't impede travel tomorrow.