The future of the town is a little uncertain at present. Bauxite is mined here and used to be smelted here too, but that has since closed down and ore is shipped to Gladstone - or you guessed it, exported to China. The mining operation is closing down in 2026 and speculation is whether BHP will come in, or the government step in to make it a tourist spot. They’d have to improve the road if that were to happen! This photo shows the slow demolition of the smelters.
The large storage tanks have been bought by the Navy so that’s a positive.The residents here love the lifestyle which is very laid back and relaxed, but there is a worrying trend of increased crime rates. 
The park we are in is small, quiet and has ocean frontage and the boat club attached serves lovely meals most days, so it’s an ideal spot. We’ve met some lovely people - especially a young couple travelling for a year, and the brother. We’ve had a lot of fun with them but they’ve gone out to a bush camp for a few days so unless we meet up further down the track, we won’t see them again. The beaches here are spectacular, however they are off limits so this is as much ocean swimming as we’ve done!!
Our swimming spot of choice has become the town pool, which is really lovely and we’ve not had to compete with many other people.The town has a central lagoon with a nature walk which we were looking forward to doing - however the recent heavy rains see it still closed. It’s a very pretty spot and supposedly hides crocodiles, snakes and birds.
We found a WW2 memorial with remnants of a plane which crashed, and at another location a memorial for a boat which attacked by enemies and sunk during the war.
We have realised now why we love to outback so much - there are no annoying sandflies!!Once again three of us are a mess with itchy welts - somehow Dennis doesn’t seem to be affected as much as us. So we have a whole heap of remedies, lotions and sprays but none really seem to work - except the anti histamine tablets do relieve the itching somewhat.
We have looked at the weather forecast and with rain expected to arrive on the weekend, have decided to leave a day early. We certainly don’t want to be on that road with rain. It’s comforting to know that three vans have arrived today - albeit a little dirty and tired just like we were - so the road is passable! So tomorrow will be a pack up day and we’ll head off early Friday morning, spend another two nights on the road and arrive in Katherine on Sunday. We send love to all the mothers for a very happy Mothers Day on Sunday and hope you are all made to feel special. I don’t know if Tops & my Mother’s Day celebration will be envied by many as we bump along peering out for holes and bumps. But we do realise how fortunate we are really to be enjoying these memorable experiences together. So we sign off from Nhulunbuy and will reconnect in Katherine. ❌❌❌❌
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