Chillagoe An outback experience

 16/10/2011
  Started the day clearing the debris from around the garden after last nights storm, lots of branches to be removed and pool furniture to be put straight. Phil and Julie were away at a concert last night on a barrier reef island somewhere. The storm didn’t affect them too much.

 17/10/2011
  Today we were taken out again by Phil and Julie, up over the tablelands to the outback town of Chillagoe, where Julie has some family  roots. Through Mareeba, the lush tropical land changes to rock and savannah with it’s scrawny cattle, the bitumen road eventually petering out to gravel. More corrugations, but in a 4W D vehicle it is much more comfortable.
  Chillagoe is an old mining town, which was rich in copper but that all finished many years ago and now the main industry is marble quarrying. However, mining for minerals has recently restarted, probably to do with the price of copper. It was obviously a very prosperous town with it’s own smelter used for converting the ore into copper. We went to look at the remains of the smelter, but there wasn’t a lot to see, just a couple of tall chimney stacks, some rusty old iron and a big slag heap.
 The men who worked here walked from Mareeba (145K) pushing a wheelbarrow with all their belongings in it, and the wife and kids walking behind. The road is named the Wheelbarrow Way.
 We had a look around town at the old buildings and booked into the Post Office Hotel for the night, an old pub with lots of Aussie atmosphere. The afternoon we spent swimming in the Bogey Hole, a deep water hole under a small cascade, in Chillagoe creek. We then went to look in the pioneer cemetery for some of Julies’ ancestors.
  It is very hot out here in the bush but not so humid, the sun being very fierce, so we adjourned to the pub for evening beers and later, tea.
  Our rooms in the pub have to be seen to be believed ( photos coming). They are on the first floor, with doors opening out onto a wide wooden veranda and not much bigger than a prison cell. They have a bed ( it was comfortable), a rack with a couple of coat hangers and an old rickety painted dressing table with 2 drawers, a fan, aircon, but no window. It’s like a ‘done up’ garden shed.
 Anyway we had a good meal and lots of beers whilst chatting to the landlord. They have produced 3 “Calendar Girls” type calendars over the years and were trying to think of a theme for the next one. They have raised $1000’s of dollars for local charity.
 We later put the world to rights sitting on the veranda ‘til late.

18/10/2011
  Our accommodation is room only, they don’t do breakfasts, so after a shower, of which there is only 1 each (male/female) we trotted off along the street to the garage/ roadhouse for bacon and eggs and lots of tea.
 Another look around town, which is teaming with wild life, lots of different birds, kangaroos and wallabies by the dozen, then we drove to the Chillagoe Caves for a tour of Trezkinn Cave. The tour takes 45 mins and is very interesting. The limestone formations are spectacular and the whole cave has lots of different species of bats. There are more caves in the area, but the one we visited was strenuous enough, and to do just 3 caves would take most of the day, as they are all guided tours at different times.
  We then drove out along the gravel road to the now derelict mining town of Mungana, the only thing left intact there are the railway lines. You have to admire those Pioneers of the late 1800’s who pushed their wheelbarrows all that way to dig for minerals in the harsh conditions. When you read the inscriptions on the gravestones , they were not long lived.  At Mungana we drove a short distance off road to look at some Aborigine Rock Paintings. Not as good as some we have seen in other parts but authentic.
 Picnic at the Bogey Hole before setting off home. We had 1 stop on the way back at the “ Hotel Espaniol” a derelict pub masquerading as a museum with a collection of rusty old junk. If there had been less dust over the glass cases we could have seen the junk more clearly. It was a typical wriggly tin building on stilts, which were getting a bit windswept. It was by the railway line and got it’s name from a Spanish proprietor in the early 1900’s. We were quite under whelmed for our $2 admission fee!
  It has been an eventful couple of days and we thoroughly enjoyed our Outback  experience.
  Back here at Clifton Beach it has been raining all day and still is. We are in for a wet night.