This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Monthly Archives: October 2018


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2003 Travels May 30

FRIDAY 30 MAY     ADELS GROVE

I was on tents. There was only one to do – things were still rather quiet on the DBB front, although the numbers camping were building slowly. Given that this was only the second season of operation of the place under this ownership and resultant improvements, all connected were working hard to promote the destination.

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Entrance to Reception/shop and walkway to dining deck

I managed to do some of our washing as well.

Spent most of the afternoon on the shop, freeing the boss for other work.

John was on canoes. When he got back – quite early as it was very quiet on the canoe front – he worked on building proper storage shelves in the linen bus. That would  make a big difference for those of us who worked on the tents. Would  mean we no longer had to scrabble through cartons, looking for matching sheets and the like.

The bridge to the island was finished today.

The baby had started to crawl. That was really going to change things now! Staff quite often minded  him while we were sitting waiting for tea, or after tea. John played his “Mr Music Man” game with him, which involved pretend piano playing – banging on the table – then being applauded at the end. Baby loved it.

There was a considerable build up of cloud through the day. Not the norm for this time of year, up here.


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2003 Travels May 29

THURSDAY 29 MAY     ADELS GROVE

I was on tents again. There were only two to do, so it did not take me long.

The boss was cooking, as it was H’s day off. I helped in the kitchen. I cut up all the makings for pizzas for tea. The menu seemed to have departed this year from the rigid offerings of company tour nights, of corned beef and then barra, that we had to do last year.

There was only one couple in the company tour, and no other outside dinner guests, so pizzas were a feasible offering.

M and D started work on constructing a little footbridge from near the swim beach, across the creek back water to the little island that the split in the creek had created. It would be another nice stroll for our guests, and would give a good view from the island, back across to the tent area.

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The supply truck arrived just after midday. In theory, it was now to come in the morning, but this time it had gone to Doomadgee before here. Our goods were a bit battered and dusty. I helped with the unpacking and checking off.


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2003 Travels May 28

WEDNESDAY 28 MAY     ADELS GROVE

I was on tents. Did the baby’s washing. So many nappies!

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The rapids by the laundry – great outlook while doing the washing

John was on canoes. A camper asked John where all the staff had gone to, in the bus, last night. Apparently, one group of guests had decided there was a mass staff walkout and we had all gone to Mt Isa!

The mail came in. I was finding that, recently, I was not even getting time to read my paper properly, but it was still comforting to have some idea of what was going on in the world outside.

We heard from L. She’d been offered a job in the tavern at Karumba, but there was no work on offer for daughter, so they both decided to keep going and go pick tomatoes at Bowen.

Company tour group came in. The guide this time was the company owner, and part owner of Adels. He always stayed in “his” room – partitioned off at one end of the old coolroom donga (which was now a general storage area). So I had to make sure, in the morning, that his room was clean and ready for occupancy.


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2003 Travels May 27

TUESDAY 27 MAY     ADELS GROVE

I was on shop. John on yard cleaning, driving the water truck around, keeping water tanks filled.

Before starting work, we hooked up the van to Truck, manoeuvred out of our tight space and moved the rig down into the Grove. It was so good to be back down there and away from that infernal noise and the fumes.

F had rigged up a rail of bamboo around the area we regarded as the staff compound – to keep out the paying campers – after he’d knocked off one afternoon, to find a tent set up virtually under his awning!

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Our van in the Grove – finally!

Now we had  an outlook into the lush greenery of the Grove. We would have the birds performing their assorted antics around us, to watch. Birds didn’t come where we had been parked!

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Part of the outlook from our van in the Grove

At dusk, we could hear the pair of barking owls that live further across the Grove. They continued calling at times through the night. Wonderful! They really do sound like a couple of little yapping dogs.

After tea, when it was almost dark, Boss ordered that we all pile into the now-repaired Coaster. He drove us across to the airstrip, to go through the drill for setting it up for an emergency night landing.

We had to collect the battery powered lights from the shed, then M drove, and we hooned down the runway, stopping to put out lights every 80 metres. The strip was 1100 metres long. It was stressed that it was really important to remember to put two red lights across the end of the runway that the plane was to come in from. Not, as might seem logical, where he should stop. Mixing them up could make it rather messy!

Then, we had to turn around and gather all the lights up again and put them away.

We actually had great fun doing this. It was light relief after the usually routine days of working, and there was much hilarity. Anything out of the normal  really put us on a high, it seemed. But the purpose was serious; I suspect that all were thinking like me – hoping like hell we never had to put the drill into practice.

Then we drove back in the dark, with no bus headlights on, so as not to disturb the campground too much – nearly hit the parked canoe truck.

Thought the people in the campground must have wondered what was going on, with the Coaster going out, and then sound carried across from the airstrip.


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2003 Travels May 26

MONDAY 26 MAY     ADELS GROVE

I was on shop, John on cleaning amenities, campground, and the rubbish run.

Cook and daughter left. I think that, in the end, they were a bit sad to go.

Little Lulu, the orphaned joey, had been doing well. She went with them and would go on to an animal rescue place.

Today was H’s first day of cooking. She was very serious about it, too.

Before starting work this morning, I wrote a note to friend M, about her visit, to go out on this week’s mail plane.

The people from Hire Tent 1 came over to the shop, just on dusk. There was a “snake” by their camp fire! Boss went over to the rescue. It was a baby olive python – a cute little critter. Boss relocated it well away from the tent areas. I wondered if our friend in the workshop had been active in more ways than one!

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Tent Hire 1

I had an exciting phone call, from an former work colleague, who has done some outback travel. He  was interested in our adventures, and planned to drop in for a couple of nights in July. Another friend to share the place with.


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2003 Travels May 25

SUNDAY 25 MAY     ADELS GROVE

We were on the same jobs as yesterday.

B and M arrived back from NSW, via Cloncurry.  Most importantly, they brought with them the six casks of wine and slab of beer that we had asked them to get for us. That sounded a lot, but we didn’t know when the next alcohol run would be! They brought similar supplies for the other staff.

Until now, they had been staying in a room in the staff donga, but now brought their 4WD and camper trailer back. Having the vehicle will allow them to explore the area more in their times off.

They set up the camper in the staff area down in the Grove, across towards where D and H were.

We had now secured agreement from boss that, once cook leaves, we can move the van down into the staff area in the Grove – away from that bloody generator! It would seem that the power being drawn by her bus was such that two lots of us could take her place.

At tea time, we farewelled cook and daughter. That brought back memories of our farewell, last August, as we left for the ill-fated sojourn at Doomadgee.


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2003 Travels May 24

SATURDAY 24 MAY     ADELS GROVE

I was on tents, John on canoes – his favourite job.

In the evening, after tea, we had a bonfire down by the swimming beach area – the shallower backwater that is safer for younger children than the main part of the creek. The bonfire was to celebrate V’s birthday, which was also the old Empire Day.

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Seats down by the children’s swimming area

The boss put bamboo stalks on the bonfire – there were lots of large clumps of bamboo scattered throughout the Grove. Burning, it sounded like fireworks going off.

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Clump of bamboo growing in the Grove

Tour guide H arrived during the day. He brought the two old “aunties” up from Isa for a trip. One of them cooks the food his tours use for their first day – smokos and lunch.

I had a really interesting talk with H about the Riversleigh country and some of his Waanyi people’s stories about it. It is not surprising that the aboriginal history in this area goes way back in time, given the abundance of water and foods. The Waanyi name for the National Park – Boodjamulla – refers to the ancestral Rainbow Serpent, who created the Lawn Hill Gorge by slithering along the land, and the permanent flow of water that fills it, to keep his skin from drying out.

Harry chose his words carefully. I got the impression that there were many sites around the area that he could not talk about for cultural reasons, and stories likewise.


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2003 Travels May 23

FRIDAY 23 MAY     ADELS GROVE

I was on shop today. John on campground/amenities.

A camper came up to the counter and said: “This might sound like a silly question, considering the thing is so huge, but do you know there is a white bull down by Site 17?”

The bull was back!

Boss chased him out – yet again – and some way down the road, hoping he would keep going in that direction. I thought he was probably so old that his role in the herd had been superseded by a stronger youngster, so he had become a loner. Maybe he liked the company in the campground? He seemed to be a gentle old giant, but with the potential to frighten the campers – just by being there.