Clem Walton Park & Amethyst at Kuridala

Hi Again,
As I mentioned in our previous post we have had friends visiting here from Jimboomba, Ray and Gaye are on their way home from a stint working in a caravan park at Gemtree near Alice Springs. They are staying in their caravan at Gaye's sister and brother in law, Robyn and Brad's house in Cloncurry. It has been great to see them and we did some fantastic day trips with them while they were here. Our first trip was on Sunday the 26th August to Clem Walton Park and Corella Dam, we have driven past the turn off to this place many times on our way to and from Mt Isa and have always been in too much of a rush to call in. A lot of people from Cloncurry camp there and they have said it is a good place to camp and they are right as you will see.
Corella Dam is located approximately 54km west of Cloncurry on the Barkly Highway and was constructed as a water supply for the nearby Mary Kathleen uranium mine and township, nowadays it serves no water supply role and is purely for recreational purposes.

I have read where they say the dam was built in 1959 but I'll go with the sign.

The dam wall has a hole in it and it leaks , so it doesn't get much more full than this. But that's OK because it keeps water in the river below the wall at Clem Walton Park. 

There is plenty of camping around the waters edge but there are no facilities and not a lot of shade.

Follow the road on past the lake you enter Timburu Station and an excellent campground by the river downstream of the dam.

At Clem Walton Park there are a couple of shelters and behind them is a toilet block at this campground.

The track past the shelter sheds runs along Corella River to more campsites just around the bend.

 Looking from the shelter,campers along the water.

Ray doing a great job cooking lunch.

Looking back towards the wall.

 

Heading back to the cars the river on the left and plenty of  campsites.

 

The Corella River flows into the Cloncurry river which in turn flows into the Flinders  River and then into the Gulf of Carpenteria.

Sunday the 2nd of September saw us off to Kuridala and the Amethyst Fields. We have been there and covered this in a previous post but we were so fascinated by this interesting place we wanted to show Ray and Gaye. We won't go into the smelter again here but we wanted to share some photos of the day with you.

Heading out on the Dajarra road we came across these feral Camels, they are every where around here.

Stopping for morning tea at Malbon. Wonder if we can get her goin Ray.

The Cloncurry River just south of Malbon.

Even Pelicans in the river.

Causeway across the Cloncurry River. Not a bad camp here either.

 Looking out over the track into the old Consols mine.

Looking up the stack at the Kuridala Smelter.

Ray and Gaye getting ready to dig for Amethyst.

Ray hard at it.

Think they may have lost something.

You can often find pieces in the rubble other people have thrown out of the diggings.

Ray got some pieces from in the hole.

The track to the Amethyst Fields.

Some of the pieces we found.

Next weekend we head off to the Maltese Crosses, see you then.