Christmas In Cloncurry

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are another year gone and Joanne and I are well settled in to life in The Curry. We have had a fantastic Christmas and New Year and would like to share some of it with you. We had Nakita come up here for seven days over the Christmas period  and I managed to organize ten days off with public holidays, RDO's and a couple of days annual leave (just can't believe you actually get paid for days off) so our Christmas started off with a trip to Mt Isa to pick Nakita up from the plane. Mt Isa is 119 km west of Cloncurry and is our nearest big centre, it has K Mart, Woolies and Coles and heaps of other speciality shops servicing about 20000 residents. Of course Mt Isa is largely dependent on mining for it's existence and Mt Isa Mines is one of the most productive single mines in world history using figures based on a combined production of lead, silver, copper and zinc. The road trip to and from Mt Isa is very scenic as there is lots of rocky outcrops and rocky low mountain ranges along the way, every time you travel the road you see some thing that you have never noticed before. The picture below is on the outskirts of Cloncurry but is typical of the countryside between here and Mt Isa.                                                                        

Looking east from the airport.

This rock wall is at the airport.

We had a great Christmas lunch followed by a few drinks with our friends Ross and Jana at their daughter and son in law's place. The next day we went for a swim at a place called Fort Constantine, it is a station just to the north of Cloncurry that was named by Ernest Henry in 1866. He had fought in the Crimean war and thought an isolated rocky peak on the property resembled one of the forts of Sebastopol. Anyway we had a top afternoon swimming and a few drinks in the Cloncurry River.


Joanne with Ross and Jana in the background.

Nakita keeping an eye on Warren.

Would be a great camping spot when the weather gets cooler.

We took a trip out to our local dam, it is where our water supply comes from, it is a very nice place when it has water in it and would be a great place to camp, but it's not allowed. Cloncurry used to get it's water from bores and wells in the Cloncurry River before the dam was built in 1994 on Chinaman Creek a tributary of the Cloncurry River only 3km from town. It covers about 120 hectares when full and with a series of pumps can be replenished from the river in times of good flow.

One of the locals on the access track to Chinaman Creek Lookout.

Looking east  over the Cloncurry River and Ernest Henry bridge. Cloncurry is in the distance.

Chinaman Creek Dam and Mt Leviathan locally known as Black Mountain because of it's black ore.

Chinaman Creek dam wall.

The picnic area beach and boat ramp.

We went yabbying over Christmas in the dam, here is Ross pulling in a trap.

 We ended up with 20.We put the traps in one afternoon went back the next morning had 10, put the traps back in and came back again in the afternoon for another 10.

Nakita went with us but she wasn't sure about them.

Ross was on cooking duties.

Cannot believe how big these birds are, the locals call them Bush Turkeys but I don't know if that is their real name. They are protected and only indigenous people are allowed to hunt them.

We had a great New Years Eve, we were invited to a fellow trainee's house for the evening. He is on the same shunt team as me and we get along just great.Here are some photo's of the night.

Joanne and I with Emma. Joanne and Emma work together.

Julie with Emma and her partner Gavin who is Julie's brother.

Gavin and Emma. Gavin is an advanced trainee driver.

This is Jeff he is hilarious, Jeff is a Train Driver. We have to learn from him!!!!

This is Dave and Keithie. Dave is a train driver with 30years experience and Keithie is an advanced trainee with Gavin.

This is Nathan who is on the same team with me. They have had to many Black Russians. Nathan's partner is Julie.

Cassie started the same time as Nathan and I, she was a cane train driver in Mackay.

Here's Jeff again, he's a mad bugger.

I hope you enjoy our second Blog and we will bring more to you soon. We had an excursion to Karumba just recently and we will bring that to you shortly.

Bye for now.

Joanne and Paul.

Cloncurry a town in the Outback

   Hi Everyone,

Well here we are at Cloncurry and we are settling in quite well now, but it was a mission to get here and the first few weeks were a bit difficult. My training is going good and I am on the shunt roster now for the next couple of months, I have to qualify as a shunter before I can start on the trains. The shift work is going OK and we seem to get a lot of time off to recover, while still being paid(how long has this been going on). Joanne has started working at a new mining/tourist park and is enjoying the job and being able to meet other people who have moved to Cloncurry for the same reason we have. Joanne and I have put together this blog (and we hope it works) to let you know what we are up to an d show you around the the places we venture to. So this little tester is all about the town of Cloncurry and its history, We hope you enjoy it.

Cloncurry is a town of about 4500 people and is situated 785km west of Townsville and 119km east of Mt Isa, it's history dates back to about 1865 when Ernest Henry came this way looking for grazing land and discovered copper and the area has prospered ever since. Ernest Henry Mine was named in his honour and spends millions of dollars each year in the community. Cloncurry town took it's name from the river that flows beside it, the river was named Cloncurry River by Bourke and Wills on their ill fated expedition across Australia from south to north.Cobb and Co came to Cloncurry from about 1884 and their stop here was at the Prince of Wales Hotel. The old pub is still here but it is no longer a pub but a pretty good restaurant and bar called The Wagon Wheel they make a pretty mean takeaway pizza as well. Cobb and Co ceased operations about 1907 when the rail arrived in town.

Cloncurry is also famous for being the arrival point of the first QANTAS flight with a paying passenger. The flight from Charlivlle to Cloncurry occurred on the 2nd of November 1922. The original QANTAS hangar still stands proud at Cloncurry airport.

15th of May 1928 saw the birth of the Royal Flying Doctor Service after Reverend John Flynn went fund raising for some time to establish the first service. Alfred Traeger an electrical engineer invented the pedal wireless and enhanced the service with this communication. The Flying Doctor shared these radios with the first School of the Air and the first transmission was in 1960 from Cloncurry. As a tribute to Reverend John Flynn we have John Flynn Place here. 

The Cloncurry Post Office was built in 1906 and is still the same building since then.

Unfortunately the same can"t be said about the Post Office Hotel. Built in 1901 it stood for 13 years until it was destroyed by fire in 1914,it was rebuilt and in 1932 another fire consumed the old pub. It was rebuilt again and is still standing today as one of the 4 pubs in town.

The Cloncurry Shire Hall Was Built in 1939, Ernest Henry Mine are currently assisting with funding for a new hall next door and refurbishment of the old one. 

The best bakery this side of the Black Stump.The bread and pies, sausage rolls and cakes are to die for.

The main street looking east.

Cloncurry's first hospital was a temporary one built in 1879, it was replaced with a permanent hospital in 1884. I"m not sure if the current hospital is on the same site. 

The railway arrived at Cloncurry in 1907 and this is the site of the old station, not much left now. We still use the lines there to store trains and give us access to the loading facility where we load copper ore trucked in from Ernest Henry. In 1966 the present station was opened and is where I work today.

There are two trains stowed here both Townsville jetty bound. The one closest to the platform is loaded with copper anodes from Mt Isa, they are big plates of copper standing up in frames, the other train beside it is a fertiliser train from Phosphate Hill. these trains are stowed here until they get the derailment cleared up at Richmond. (another one).
We hope you enjoy our first blog and we wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.