Territory Trekking

We left Mt Isa at midday and continued down the Barkly Highway. Two hundred kms of nothing, then a town called Camoweel. I say a town, but it was more like a petrol station and a pub. Fuelled up and continued.

Twenty kms later we hit the border of the Northern Territory. We had been preceded by a group of four young men in a "Juicy" van having a little party, with music and all, in front of the sign, and recording it on video for posterity. The sign was a bit old and faded, as compared to the "Welcome to Queensland" sign for those coming the other way. Would this be an omen of things to come? The next thing we noticed was the speed limit sign. We had been told there is no speed limit in the Northern Territory, but there is - 130 kms/hr. Not that we, or anyone else, ever got close to that.

We drove on, and on and on and on. Flat ground, scrub, miles of emptiness. This went on for several hundred more kilometers, as we approached a place called Threeways. This was where the Barkly Highway ends at the Stuart Highway, so from here you could go north to Darwin, south to Alice Springs, or east to Mt Isa where we had just come from. Our road lay north, of course, but 20 kms south was Tennant Creek. We had heard of this, and thought since we were so close, we should go and check it out. Bad move. As we approached the town, the sign was old and faded, a fitting introduction to the town.

Tennant Creek is a gold mining town, like Charters Towers. But apart from the fact that they both had gold, this is where the similarity ends - they could not be more different. Charters Towers is a town with real community spirit and pride in their town. Tennant Creek has no community spirit and no pride. It is dry, dusty, and dirty. The buildings are square, plain and utilitarian. There is no attempt to beautify or make anything pleasant or pleasing to the eye. The streets are full of aboriginals just loitering, with nothing to do. There is a real sense of purposelessness. They could not even be bothered wiping their children's noses. And this is not an aboriginal issue - we had seen aboriginals in several other towns who were clean and friendly.

We wondered why things were so different here. Gold was not discovered until the 1930s, and not fully developed until the 1950s. So it never had a gold rush as such. And they still produce gold today. But nothing seems to be put back into the community.

The best thing about the town was the caravan park we stayed in - it was basic and quite cheap, but it had full TV reception, and free wifi from the motel across the road.

The next day we set off north, couldn't wait to get out of there quick enough. This was another day of full on driving - several hundred kilometers, on and on, interspersed with the occasional roadhouse for refueling. As we traveled north we found the terrain changing, with a bit more green. Scrub gave way to actual trees. We thought we would get halfway to Katherine, and stop in a rest area overnight, but George got really zealous and drove on and on. By the afternoon we had reached a little town called Mataranka, about 100 kms south of Katherine. This was famous for its hot springs, and the caravan park we pulled into was right next to them. So we stopped the van and jumped in - a very relaxing way to end a long day of driving. But more on the springs in the next entry.

GeorgeY's bit

If I am to put a title for this entry about Tennant Creek it would be "The Gold and the Pitiful." A place of contrasts - sitting on the richest gold deposit on earth, this town oozed of misery. Later a seasoned grey nomad laughed at me for stopping there saying, "It is a sh*t hole." And, as harsh as it sounds, there is some truth in it.

While the gold museum focussed on the tough life the early settlers/workers and their wives found living in the town, there was no reference to how that had turned around to become a nice livable place. Sorry no such luck. The museum displayed a collection of photos from about 5 families, and some memoirs of one wife surviving by learning to ignore the dust and the flies. A practice still seen on children's faces, with some snot added to the mix.

The library did not provide WiFi inside, which is weird for a public library. In contrast, the motel broadcast unsecured internet access for a long distance across the road.

Referring to me driving on and on, it was not because I got zealous. I just wanted to get to a nice place, and did. Mataranka it is.