Had a difficult night parked at a caravan park very close the copper mine. I spent most of the night drinking water to try and unblock my nose, but to no avail. Have to get out of here. Its affecting our health. I don’t know how people can live here.
It does appear to be quite an affluent town though. Saw a Lotus driving out to the Mine on our way into “The Isa” as the locals call it. Also saw a baby Hummer and most of the cars are large 4WD vehicles and new. Most of the properties seem to be in the $350k price range, so not much cheaper than home.
Also learned that Isa is in water restriction mode. Odd street numbers can water on odd dates of the month and evens on even.
A story in the Brisbane paper today said that Cloncurry, (our next destination, approx 121km E of Isa), will be the first QLD town to have water trucked in. It appears climate change is hitting QLD bad. They say the cost will be millions and it’s a very small town. With a 33oC temperature forecast today, I’d hate to see how bad it gets in summer!
Cloncurry is a very cute town. With the traditional wide streets, lovely old buildings with large verandahs and I think I counted 4 double storey pubs! Originally settled in the late 1880’s as a Copper mining town, it seems to have a thriving community, and is largely supported by the large numbers of stations surrounding it in every direction. There were many people in town purchasing one or two shopping trolleys full of stuff; 8 loaves of bread, 5 3L cartons of milk, and large sizes of just about every product you could think off. Actually the IGA in Mt Isa also had 1kg jars of vegemite, peanut butter, giant bags of lollies, 20kg bags of flour, sugar etc. Sizes generally not seen in metropolitan equivalent shops.
We decided to head out of town to a rest area heading north on the Matilda Highway towards Normanton. The sun was going down and we hit the first dot on the map north called Quamby and stopped. It was a cute little pub in the middle of nowhere and we stayed the night and joined in the party. What a great little find. The most interesting pub I’ve seen on all our travels. The gem of them all. Small, local and not full of touristy stuff.
We were welcomed by the owners, an ex Painter and his wife Linda. They including his two brothers bought the pub for about $160,000! It was a pretty run down ramshackle old pub, complete with concrete everywhere, 60’s bathroom tiles for the sides and top of the bar and other horrid alterations. They had managed to change the place back into something fitting for the era. They’d installed lovely solid tree top counter tops, reinstalled timber floors, polished up the original timber French doors and added a huge timber decking to the outside area. In three years they had completely transformed the place. This was going to be even better in the next few years. We were told by regulars that a party of 150 on a Saturday night is not unheard of!
The other “locals” for the evening were Sam and his friends from The Isa for a night off from the town, Gerry the ringer from the station “down the road”, a Jillaroo from Melbourne who’s working during the season at a “station down the road”, a crazy yank driller, a geo and a TA also from a “station down the road”. There were also another couple from Yeppoon who were just returning from a weeks fishing holiday with friends at a station on the gulf, and others who came and went throughout the night. Those that were from the assorted stations down the road were driving home drunk as there were no cops in this neck of the woods, and the rest were staying in the hotel grounds in dongas, or sleeping in the vehicles.
The owners also “employed” a couple of girls from the station over the road to help behind the bar. Their payment was in drink. After the drillers lot started poll dancing on bars poll we knew it was going to be a good night. We were told that we’d have to join in as they stay open till the last one is standing. By midnight when we’d had enough there had been many a glass broken, many a stool fallen from and a few drunk barmaids reaching their limits and we retired to our van. What a night we had. Everyone was really interesting and had a story to tell. They were also really interested in talking and chatting to everyone there. This is a special place, but don’t tell anyone!
35 °C
