Outback Adventure 2019
Day 19
Mount Isa - Cloncurry - McKinlay (Walkabout Creek Hotel)
We went mining today so we needed to get up early to get underway. Unfortunately the flies also decided to wake up at the same time!
We left our campsite just before 8 to head into Mount Isa to see if we could do the Hard Times Mine tour. It’s a tour we couldn’t do last time we were up this way because Cayla was too young. The 9am tour was booked out but they had asked a current miner and guide if he wanted to come in on his day off and he agreed so we had our own private tour at 10am. It’s a 3 hour tour!
We all donned our orange mining overalls and mining boots , helmeted up and got our mining lamps and then checked in to the mine via our tags. We had a go at drilling a blast hole and even leant how to set the blast charges and learnt about mining equipment through the ages in Isa.
At the end of our tour we had morning tea in the crib ( lunch spot) and then blasted our charges. From there we piled into the Toyota for the ride back up to the surface. We all enjoyed the tour and leant a lot about copper, lead and zinc.
We had lunch at the visitors centre where the mine is also located and then hit the road heading towards Cloncurry.
Cloncurry is a beautiful Qld town. Lovely Queenslander homes greet you as you enter and the history is quite fascinating. It’s still a big mining town as well! We drove out to the Airport to see the original Qantas hangar from 1922. Wow the airport has changed a lot since our visit in 2012! There is now a terminal next to the original hangar and there is a car park and even paved roads now rather than the dirt when we last visited!
We fueled in town and then continued towards Winton way. Knowing that we wouldn’t make it we planned on stopping at Mckinlay at the Walkabout Creek Hotel made famous in the Crocodile Dundee movie. It’s changed a bit as well. The memorabilia is still there but it has more these days and we decided to stay the night behind the hotel.
‘That’s not a knife!”. We had a couple of drinks at the bar and the staff even brought out the replica Dundee akubra hat and even his knife for us to have a pic with! Good times! Try a schooner of the Dundee Draught by the way - is a good beer! We had a couple!
Spag Bol for dinner tonight outside with the Qld bugs! Always attracted to the outside lights, these are bigger and still as annoying as the flies!
Tomorrow we continue our track towards Winton and Longreach. We will see where we get to.