We were surprised that such a large mining town could be so clean - nothing looks dusty and air quality was good. The skyline is dominated by the huge smoke stacks and from the lookout you get a great view of the town.They've been mining here since early 1920's and the copper lead and zinc ore is transported to Townsville for shipping by rail.
The mining company established lovely Lake Moondarra for a stable water supply for the town and its maintained beautifully for a recreation area. We enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch there on the foreshore.
We were very happy at our farm stay on West Leichhardt Station. We were initially surprised to be set up virtually on the front lawn!! In other station stays we've been tucked away far from the homestead.
However, it was lovely - the station is huge with hundreds of thousands of acres and they run beautiful Brahman stock which are in excellent nick. We watched as they worked on some cattle in the yards - no dogs barking, no yelling, no mooing - just quiet movement and the cattle weren't stressed at all.
In its hey day it would have been a show piece station with an airstrip and planes, rodeo circuit and numerous outbuildings. However, the owner is getting on in years and family are not here yet to take over - if they ever do - so the place operates largely on travellers staying on and helping out plus a few employees. It seems to work and everyone is happy and it's like being part of a large family. It took us a while to work everyone out!
You could feed your scraps to the pigs: the kids would love them 🐖🐖.
Tops and I had access to the washing machines free of charge -- so we made good use of them, we were able to fill our water tanks and we were gifted some home grown, home butchered mince steak as we left. It was far more relaxing and peaceful than being in a caravan park that's for sure!
The weather has been great - warm sunny days and good nights for sleeping. We're lucky all that bad weather isn't up this way. We'll really notice it when we strike cold weather as we've been warm for so long. We're now having morning tea and a look around Cloncurry - before heading Winton way.
The drive from Mt Isa to here was beautiful as we drove through a range - I tried to take a photo but it doesn't do it justice! I imagined it would be flat. You do however come across lots of road trains like this one - 4 dog trailers!!
Bourke and Wills were the first Europeans to come to this area and Bourke named the Cloncurry River after his cousin. It's mind boggling that such an ill fated expedition could have actually come this far - it's a long way from Melbourne!! The Flying Doctor service was established here also so it's quite a historic town.
This weekend some of the family are converging on Riverview - and we won't be there! Hope you all have a great time and miss us just a little 😏. Love for now from us xxxxxx
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