One Last Look Around (from the past two years) Part 2

Hi All,
Continuing on with our one last look around we have some storms, sunrises and sunsets, a very rare little critter and Mary Kathleen Park.

We have lots of storms in Cloncurry in the summer season. A lot of them are dry storms, lots of thunder and lightning, wind but no rain. This pic is taken from our back porch and the colour is how the sun was filtering through the clouds.

Another storm on another day.

And one more, that's a road train at the bottom of the pic.

Sunset from the front veranda.

Sunrise from Oorindi about 60km east of Cloncurry.

 

Water tower at Oorindi.

Just needs a buff.

The Julia Creek Visitor Centre where this rare little critter lives.

The Julia Creek Dunnart is an endangered species and "Digby" as he is called is part of a breeding programme to try and bring them back from the brink of extinction. They are mammals about the size of a large mouse and as such are very prone to predators like the feral cats that abound the area. 

 

The new Information Centre and Museum at Mary Kathleen Park in Cloncurry. I mentioned in a previous post about the police station and gates from Mary Kathleen Township, this is where they are. 

 

Thirsty work being a Galah.

Lots of old machinery at the park.

 

 

The house is all packed up and we are ready to go back to Brisbane.

The last couple of days we spent in the Oasis Caravan Park until my last shift had finished.

The day we left it was raining after being so dry for so long. anyway its back to Brisbane for the next chapter in my train driving career. Catch ya later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



One Last Look Around (from the past two years) Part 1

Hi All,
Well its time to have a last look around Cloncurry and surrounds before we make our way back to Brisbane and my new depot at Acacia Ridge. Thank you to all our friends old and new for making our stay so much more enjoyable and my radical change of career late in life so much easier.

This was home sweet home when we first arrived in Cloncurry.

Our railway house when we moved in. It took a lot of cleaning up.

Looking much better now.

A nice big backyard.

With a BBQ as well, we did many BBQ's and camp oven meals.

Friends from the Gold Coast came to stay for an awesome week.

HHA came to town.

Cloncurry's biggest festival is the Curry Merry Muster and it kicks off with a street parade.

Lots of floats and people.

And of course horses.

And some of the action from the rodeo.

 

 

Some of the wild life around our home. These guys had an argument to settle.

 

A pair of Red-Winged Parrots in a tree out the back.

 

Curious Butcher Bird.

This pair of Brolgas wandered around town all the time.

 

A Varied Lorikeet in the tree at the front of our house. They loved to eat the buds of the flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

Train

Well with this post I thought I would take you on a trip in the train. It was one of my last shifts in Cloncurry before returning home to Brisbane. I am going to miss this ruggedly beautiful landscape, so we'll start off with a pic of a train leaving Phosphate Hill  and then a run down to Nelia from Cloncurry.

 

 

Empty acid train on the balloon loop at Phosphate Hill, on the right is the fertiliser load out.

Station Homestead, we call this place Bookin.

The whole region has been in the grip of a severe drought for a few years and there is just nothing in the paddocks for stock to eat as you will see over the next few photo's.

The Tree.



Mob of cattle at a small water hole, still don't know what they eat.

 

At the controls.

 View from the drivers seat.

Gilliat Channels.

Approach to Gilliat.

Crossing the Gidyea Bug Byway.

Leaving Gilliat.

Eastern Creek.

Gunjoola Cattle Yards just before Julia Creek.

Approaching Julia Creek.

Julia Creek Station.

Julia Creek Hotel, one of two in town.

 Windmill in the park.

Approach to Quarrells to cross a track machine.

Going across Spellery Creek.

Bridge over Corella Creek, the bridge on the left got to this stage of construction and no further. They left the site for the wet season and when they returned most of the pylons had either sunk or been washed away so they just left it and started again on the current one.

Old house near Nelia.

Nelia township, the post office and residence.

The Brolga's, the sculptures.

The Brolga's, the real thing.

 

Never get sick of the outback sunrises and sunsets.