THE ROAD TO TOWNSVILLE

We left Carnarvon Gorge and headed for Emerald, a 3 hour drive. It was 50 mins out to the Carnarvon Highway and then 62km to Rollston, a very small town on the junction of the Carnarvon and Dawson Highways.We had stopped here for the toilets last year when heading south and had found a wonderful coffee van set up in the park. They had enhanced the area with cushions on seats, flowers on the tables and it was manned 7 days a week by volunteers. We stopped again and it was the same – a friendly local off a nearby property, home made carrot and chocolate cake and properly made coffee. She said the park used to be a dust bowl and they have been using the money they make to beautify it. She had a steady stream of customers. Well done.

It was then 70km to Springsure – a small town but perhaps a little bigger than you initially thought. It did have the impressive Minerva Hills National Park towering behind it. Another 66km to Emerald and our destination for the day. 6km before the town we saw grapevines – seemed out of place.

Emerald is a big mining town on the Nagoa River – lots of motels and a serious shopping strip – 2 shopping centres, one anchored by Woolworths and the other by Coles. Our accommodation was almost in the Coles carpark! Convenient if you needed milk, like we did. Our studio unit was big by our previous places and we managed to bring all our things in and spent time repacking and sorting what we will take to Orpheus, as we have a weight limit. Given the magnificent weather we had had so far, it was a complete reversal this afternoon. The rain started when we reached Emerald and continued on and off into the night. We went and had a Stone and Wood beer (thanks Greg for introducing us to it) at the Irish Pub in the main street. What a great place – it was huge but in a very cosy way – lots of booths, alcoves, a couple of bars and lots of Irish photos and memorabilia. We bought pizza and decided to take it back to our place, conveniently picking up a ready made salad in Coles.

The downside of the accommodation I learnt about at 3am, 4am, 4.30am, 5am when the workers all left. Entry to the block is a door code and the units had a door code, so the heavy doors closing made quite a sound. We had suspected that it might be workers accommodation by the facilities, and it was. Anyway…

Next day and a lovely cloudless blue sky, and it is Emerald to Townsville via Charters Towers on the Gregory Development Road. We knew we were in for a big day when the “talking man” said to turn right after 350km and then shut up for a very long time. The road to Charters Towers is 475km and very flat, dark soil in a lot of places, ploughed and ready for a crop, but on a grand scale. We pass quite a lot of cattle trucks, they seem to travel in pairs and you get the smell, a minute or two after they have passed. The small town of Capella, 52km north of Emerald, is a surprise. It is a lovely little town with a well maintained and pleasantly landscaped swimming pool, cultural centre, the silos that most towns have and is on the turnoff for gem fossicking. It is then 220km to Belyando Crossing, a possible coffee stop. The land we pass is very very flat. Once again there are vast areas of black soil awaiting crops. We pass Mazeppa National Park, but this appears as mostly flat black soil. We reach Belyando Crossing – initially flying past, not knowing that this was it. An old building, a couple of petrol pumps, several cars pulling caravans and 2 police cars. Inside is very typical outback fare – a couple of pies, of indeterminate age, cold drinks, lolllies and a few ice creams. Paul orders a coffee, which was instant coffee in a 1 litre cup, a big cookie and then we feel able to ask for the code for the toilet.

The road to Charters Towers became more vegetated in parts but there were lots of floodplain signs and dips for floodwaters. The road for much of the time is raised a bit above the verge, presumably for when it floods. It does make it very difficult to pull off the road and there are not many made rest areas.

Charters Towers was a much bigger place. We had lunch in a park and headed for the centre of town. We parked and walked along the main street admiring the beautiful old buildings – very much from a time when this was a big gold mining town. We had coffee in the old Stock Exchange building – now with an atrium roof over a mosaic tiled floor. Very pleasant, but there were no people around. The centre of town was dead at 2.30pm? I can only surmise that a suburban shopping centre might take away the people?

It was only then 135km to Townsville, our destination.

Townsville has grown! The suburbs started 8km out! The traffic was pretty heavy (although was Friday afternoon). We were told that the population is now 185,000 people. The “talking man” helped to get us most of the way to the Mercure and then we had to wing it a bit. It was good to have finally made it to Townsville and our accommodation. There was a wedding taking place so it was pretty busy. Dinner was in the restaurant – open on one side to a covered deck. Very pleasant. During dinner a procession passed through, young girls, then lots of men, all pulling their luggage. Shortly after they made their way back to a separate room for dinner and massages. They were the Cowboys and their cheer squad, getting ready for Saturday’s game.