This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Category Archives: 1998 Travels


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1998 Travels July 24

FRIDAY 24 JULY     WEIPA

We did some shopping in the morning. I picked up the three lots of photos from the films I’d put in yesterday for processing. John browsed the hardware store, and spent $42 replenishing his fishing gear.

We walked a little in the afternoon – around the campground and environs. I also read the paper and finished a letter, and walked to post it.

We drove over to the town wharf and watched a tanker unloading fuel, for a while. All the fishing boats have to go anchor out in the channel whilst it is in, in case of accident.

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Loading bauxite at a special wharf

Early tea was bought chips and a packet of frozen fish that I cooked.

We then went to social bowls. This was extremely casual. Most people played in bare feet and there was much drinking. I think the drinking was far more important to most there, than the bowls was. There were aboriginal kids running everywhere and much noise from a band that was playing. I felt very insulted because I was totally ignored by the five guys I’d played with, in the drinks round after the game, even though it had been my bowls that won my side a round of drinks. I have not before been in a club with such rude people. On the strength of that, told John I wasn’t going to play in their crummy old Calcutta game on Sunday!

We got home about 9.30pm and played a few rounds of cards before bed.


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1998 Travels July 23

THURSDAY 23 JULY     WEIPA

In the morning, we did the Comalco bauxite mine tour. This cost $15 each. We were collected from the campground office and travelled in a bus. We crossed the very long bridge over the Mission River to get to the current mining area. The bridge had a single road lane, with a couple of places where a vehicle could pull over to let an oncoming one past. Beside the road lane was the railway line for ore trains.

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Inside the area that has been open cut mined for bauxite

The tour was quite interesting. The mining is open cut and large scale. The machines are huge! A couple of drivers of big machines amused themselves by playing tag with our bus and directing hoses our way. I guess it is a case of anything to alleviate the boredom.

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These big machines played tag with our tour bus

There was a lot of emphasis placed, by the guide, on how they regenerate the land, and work well with the aborigines.

The bauxite mined here is shipped around the coast to Gladstone, where it is refined into alumina. This is then shipped on to refineries that turn the alumina into various forms of aluminium, like sheet and ingot. These latter two processes require large quantities of electricity, so it makes exonomic sense to take the bauxite ore to places where power is plentiful and cheap. Weipa’s power is diesel generated locally.

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Inside the minig area – loading bauxite ore onto haul trucks

The mine workers average a wage of $55,000 a year, work 12 hour shifts, and have equal numbers of days on and off. They get subsidized rent and power and their air fares south are paid twice a year.

Apparently, they are regularly affected by cyclones here, in the season.

The guide also told us that there are lots of crocs around.

In the afternoon, we went and practised bowls.

Tea was soup, salads, tinned tuna. I am eating a little more.

The Hamilton people came over to tell us that they phoned D today and are going to Silver Plains tomorrow. I am pleased to have put some more people D’s way.


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1998 Travels July 22

WEDNESDAY 22 JULY     WEIPA

In the morning, I did the washing, including the sheets and towels. Two loads, at $3 a load. Everything is getting more expensive.

I walked to the shops and checked at the PO, in optimism – no mail. I got the paper – Australian. Bought some groceries.

After lunch, we went for a drive around to the wharf area. We watched some guys trying to load a barge. The barge landing is not sealed and its loading ramp just drops down onto the sand. A semi with trailer being backed on, got bogged. So they backed up a front end loader to try to tow the truck out. That didn’t work, so they attached a truck to the front end loader. The antics, with much head scratching, examining of vehicles, were hilarious. When we left, the semi was still stuck and we wondered what would be attached next? We only left because we figured that amused spectators were probably not really welcome!

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Back wheels of semi well and truly bogged. Front end loader coming to the rescue

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Bogged semi attached to front end loader attached to truck……what next?

In the afternoon, it got really windy.

From the “security” of our tent verandah, we took part in the campground’s afternoon entertainment – watching newcomers hunt for a power outlet they can reach! Yesterday, it was us.

I made soup, veggie and barley, and some salads. It is good to have salad materials again.

Tea was soup and salads, and I had some sliced ham and stras sausage; John had frankfurts.

After dark, a guy came across to ask us about the Defender. In talking, he turned out to be the man who used to run the Hamilton Swimming Pool, when I lived there. He recognized me, not the other way round. Then he went and fetched his wife and we talked for a while. They left Hamilton in 1980 and now live on the Sunshine Coast. They have been up to the Top and are now on their way back. They have a tinnie, and fish. They camped at Vrilya Point, but said the aborigines came and camped there and they were made uncomfortable and felt they really should not be there. We told them about Silver Plains.


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1998 Travels July 21

 TUESDAY 21 JULY     WEIPA

We did not get to sleep in late this morning, with campground noise all round.

After breakfast, drove round and did some exploring of the town, beginning with – naturally – the bowls club.

We spent some time in the library, looking at historical information and displays. Although there were some missions around the area, Weipa really was established only in the 1960’s, to mine the bauxite. The library does not lend to visitors, unfortunately.

There was no mail for us at the PO! They told us that anything big or bulky would come on the weekly barge – from Karumba. So much for Express Post. You would think they might at least put that category of mail on a plane. No – it goes by plane to Cairns, road to Karumba and barge to here. It could be quite some time before our mail arrives!

At the shopping centre, bought food for lunch and tea and some reading matter from the newsagent. We have had a fairly frugal couple of weeks, so I lashed out and spent $35 on reading matter. They get the newspapers here a day late – by plane.

Weipa is essentially a constructed mining town, so it is built along similar lines to other such ones that we have seen, like Paraburdoo in WA. There is one central set of shops. The hotel is nearby.

There were numbers of aborigines at the shops; the community of Napranum is nearby. We were struck by the number of those with amputated lower limbs that we saw. The effects of diabetes, I think.

We talked with other travellers in the caravan park. Broken vehicles were quite a common theme! Two lots near us were waiting for repairs. Apparently, there is a delay of days to get anything welded, such is the demand. A neighbouring camper “drowned” his Jeep Cherokee in the second creek crossing on the Overland Telegraph Track. He did not have a snorkel. The crossing “looked easy” so he did not walk it first, as he was feeling a bit pressured by vehicles being behind him. He went into a deep hole in the middle and that was the end of that. He had to be towed back to Weipa. He will be here, waiting for repairs, for at least 3 weeks, due to having to wait for parts. So that was a very costly error that has stuffed his holiday plans right up. There’s a lesson or two in all that – check all the crossings, regardless, and have a snorkel. There are a couple of caravans here – a Phoenix and a Jayco. The Phoenix will be barged to Karumba, not towed back south; that was not their original intention, but they have decided against towing it any more on these corrugated roads. That makes me wonder what we are in for, further north!

After lunch, John went to practice bowls. I read.

There was a little rain during the afternoon.

Tea was spaghetti with bol sauce for John. I just had a little plain pasta. Have decided that it is a bug that I am suffering from, not the effects of heat.

Phoned K. He sent the mail last week, so it is questionable whether it will be on this week’s barge, damn it. We have to wait for the Group Certificates that are in the mail, so we can send off the tax stuff John worked on before we left Wonga. Now, I am wondering just how long we will have to hang about Weipa for.

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Weipa dusk. Smoke from dry season fires.


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1998 Travels July 20

MONDAY 20 JULY     SILVER PLAINS TO WEIPA   369kms

We did a nice, smooth pack up. Our last act at camp was to extinguish our camp fire with water. It has been a good camp spot – but not one we will ever be able to return to.

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Camp pack up. The tin screen round the “dunny” is visible down the track in the distance

We had coffee, at the house, with D, on the way through. He seems lonely. I do feel sorry for him, facing an uncertain future, and having to leave this place he is clearly so attached to, and where he has lived for so long.

So it was after 11am when we left him. He did confirm that the distant motor we heard would be a fishing boat, operating close inshore, inside the Barrier Reef.

It took us 90 minutes to get to Coen – faster than on the way in, as we had been on the road before. We stopped there, briefly, to phone the Weipa campground about camping. They said there was plenty of room and that they did not take bookings. So, we are not committed to being there at any set time, and can stop along the way, if we want.

I thought we might camp at Archer River where my book said there was a lovely camp spot amongst paperbarks. But when we got to the Archer River Roadhouse, John decided to press on to Weipa, as he couldn’t be bothered setting up camp for one night. We topped up the fuel at Archer River – 89cpl.

The Archer River. as we crossed on a series of culverts, looked really lovely.

It was a slightly boring, hot, dry, dusty drive. There were more of the deep dips and the roller coaster effect of the straight road over low rises and hollows. The 145kms road from the main road to Weipa was very corrugated. A few kms before Weipa we came to a haul road – a road that big trucks use to cart bauxite ore from the Comalco mine to the port; it has Give Way and Stop signs facing traffic on the ordinary road. Went past some mining associated buildings, interspersed with scrubby land, then eventually came to a “normal” town area and our destination.

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Today we crossed from one side of Cape York to the other

We reached Weipa about 5pm. With hindsight, we would have been better to have stayed at the Archer River – discovered that this is not a great time to be arriving at the campground.

Booked in at the Pax Haven Caravan Park for a week, which gave us a slightly cheaper rate of $14 a night for a powered site. They assured us that there were plenty of powered spots left. Hah!

When we drove to find ourselves a site, discovered that there were not sites set out in any way. There were simply scattered power poles, with 4 plug holes in each. I guess the theory was that each rough circle around a pole would be equally shared between four camps, but that did not account for human nature! Earlier comers had spread out greatly, some had 2 or even 3 leads plugged in – thus taking most of one pole area for one camp! It was obvious that there were a number here for very extended stays – they even had chest freezers set up. No wonder there was a discrepancy between what the office said was available and the reality on the ground.

We did a prowl around, closely inspecting poles, and eventually found a free plug point. Luckily, John carries really long extension leads, so we were able to get enough space for our camp, at quite some distance from the pole, weaving the lead around the spread-out camps closer to it. Of course, while we were hunting for an available power point, we were studiously ignored by all those campers who had spread themselves out so far as to make any access to power poles impossible!

While I started the set up, John walked to Woolworths, a small block away, to get things for his tea. I was not really hungry. He came back with veggie fingers, crumpets, chocolate and camembert!

It was dark by the time we finished the set up.

At least, the camp ground is grassy, the amenities block is excellent, we are close to the beach, so may get a bit of a cooling breeze.

There was a really red sunset – and here, the sun does set over the water of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

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Sunset over the Gulf of Carpentaria

John ate the crumpets and veggie fingers for tea. It was good to have electric light again – and a lovely warm shower!

We have to get used to urban noises again, after the bush, and to the noises of a busy campground. But we were tired enough to sleep well.


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1998 Travels July 19

SUNDAY 19 JULY     SILVER PLAINS CAMP

I made sage and cheese rolls for lunch, and extra for tomorrow’s lunch, as we have decided to leave then. We have had enough of the biteys. If it wasn’t for them, might stay longer.

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Camp oven bread

D arrived as we were finishing lunch. His guests left a couple of days ago. He indicated that he was very happy that the kids had gone from the house!

D came to check that we were alright, as he hadn’t seen or heard from us for a couple of days. He said that the group with boats, who were camped by a more suitable creek for putting their boat in, had packed up and left earlier than they’d planned. Apparently, a couple of crocs had a big fight, in the night, near their camp! The women were not prepared to stay there any longer.

He bought a pile of women’s magazines for me to read – I don’t think he can fathom a woman who is happy pottering about in a bush camp! He was also surprised at how little rubbish we had – he was going to collect it and take it to his tip. I do wonder what type of campers he usually gets!

D was amused by John’s account of his fishing exploits, He had a cup of coffee with us and stayed for over an hour. He then went down to do some work on his boat.

Later, John left to go down to the boat area, but met D coming back, so came back for me and we drove up to the homestead for water.

I fed Louis, the pet bull, and took his photo. He looked like he was quite prepared to climb the steps onto D’s veranda, after bread.

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Feeding Louis

D had some more bait fish for John, and lent him a big hook, Size 9  – actually, it seemed huge! Obviously, John does not really have the right gear for fishing in these parts.

John went fishing for the rest of the afternoon and didn’t get back until 7pm. It was a little spooky in the dark, at camp, without a vehicle, hoping he would come back. He’d strung a few more baitfish into the trees and lost the big hook!

Tonight’s barra was done in flour and oil again. I stewed some tomato and onion to go with it.

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Silver Plains homestead area, the airstrip, McIlwraith Range

In our conversations today, D provided a lot more insight into the views of pastoralists like him, in these parts. He says the treatment of whites is inequitable, compared to aboriginals, on the Cape. He says the aboriginals were not required to hand in their guns, when the whites were. Only 18 people will get Silver Plains, and they already have been given Old Silver Plains/Port Stewart. The government, in effect, paid $2.2 million for “Merapah”, which had been on the market, on a walk-in, walk-out basis, for $1.2 million. Our taxes at work. Even where things are done through some sort of indigenous organization, it is still with money given by the government.

D reckons the aboriginals really do not want white tourists up here at all. He reiterated that the ultimate goal is a black state on the Cape. He told us that there have been acts of aggression against whites, including a “whitey hunt” at Kowanyama, not long ago, which terrified the Telstra repair crew that was hunted, and ensured that Telstra now refuses to send crews there. The unwillingness to force inspection of mango and pawpaw trees at places like Port Stewart is another inequity, as he sees it. He says petrol sniffing is really bad amongst the kids at Lockart River.

We could hear that motor again, all through the night. I’d forgotten to ask D about it.


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1998 Travels July 18

SATURDAY 18 JULY     SILVER PLAINS CAMP

We are eating orange halves for breakfast, instead of grapefruit, which we ran out of in Lakefield. I was able to buy some oranges in Coen, but not grapefruit. We are taking longer on this southernmost portion of the Cape than we had anticipated, when shopping in Cooktown.

John drove off to the fishing area in the morning, to try to dibble for more bait. Then, he got tempted to try a little exploring. He followed a track that led to some bare, dry, mudflats, and ventured onto them, thinking he might find a way closer to the sea. After a very short way, fortunately, he thought it didn’t “feel” right, so reversed back off the flats. This turned out to be a wise decision as D told us later that those flats have already claimed a Hilux – it is still down there somewhere, under the deep mud below the seemingly dry crust.

Whilst he was away, I worked on a letter, and baked foccacia for lunch, in the camp oven.

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Our camp at Silver Plains. The green trees mark the line of the small creek behind us

When we were doing things around camp, after John got back, found his bath soap on the ground – flattened in a tyre tread pattern, and with muck all over it. John has gotten into the habit, when he is showering, of putting his soap on the top of the nearest tyre. Handy shelf. But he obviously hadn’t put it away, afterwards.

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John with his squished soap and the solar shower bag. We have a very handsome termite mound as a near neighbour too

In the afternoon, we went for a little walk, up the track from our camp to where it joins the main track between the homestead and the fishing area. Probably a 3km or so, walk. A big lizard saw us coming up the track, and stood on his hind legs to get a better look. I didn’t know they did that. Don’t think I’d like him running towards me!

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Big reptile watching us approach

John carefully selected and cut two thin sapling lengths, that he wants to smooth and shape to make us a walking support stick each.

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Relaxing in the shade at camp. The “tables” come with the site.

Tea was more barra – this time to the “Happiness Crocodile” recipe I have written in my travel cookbooks. It was good, too, despite the change of protein, from that specified in the recipe.

We are both extremely itchy from the sandfly bites.

Before we went to bed, realized that we could hear, quite clearly, a motor in the distance. It did not sound like the type of engine noise that would come from a car or a generator at one of the other camp spots – and it went on all night. We wondered if it was a fishing trawler, working close inshore? As we do not really know where the sea is, in relation to our camp, it was hard to be sure.


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1998 Travels July 17

FRIDAY 17 JULY     SILVER PLAINS CAMP

We had the usual slow morning start. It takes a while to get the fire going and boil up the water for breakfast washup – and chores like that.

Late in the morning, when we judged the tide would be out, we went back to the fishing area. John crossed the river on the exposed muddy bed, and managed to retrieve the rod, which was tangled up in the thicket of roots. He thought the culprit might still be on the end of the line, but pulled in only its broken end. Fish, hook etc all gone.

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The fishing rod is lodged in the root tangle

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John ploughing through the muddy creek bed, using piece of tree as support

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John retrieving the rod

Obviously, the big fish that took the rod had swum upstream and around the bend, towing the rod, which caught in the roots when the fish went round the corner.

We lingered on there, to watch the tide turn. It comes in quite quickly. It was after 3pm by the time we got back to camp for lunch. Measured it today – it is 5.5kms from camp to the fishing place on Breakfast Creek.

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Low tide in Breakfast Creek

John cleaned up the rescued reel. Hopefully, it will work properly again, after its immersion in the salty water.

Tea was barra – coated with flour and oil. Was ok, but not my best method for cooking it.

Another solar shower for John. Bucket and flannel in the tent for me! We have been getting water from the nearby creek for washing and cleaning purposes – it is ok for that.

Another sound night’s sleep was had. We are definitely getting used to the night time noises here. Lots of insect noises and some birds.


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1998 Travels July 16

THURSDAY 16 JULY     SILVER PLAINS CAMP

We pottered about in the morning. It was a hot day.

Drove back up to the house to get drinking water. Also – to check that we could find our way back there! Des has guests staying at the house and the men were away, fishing. We talked with the lady visitor staying there, for a while. She has three young children, two of whom have the flu, and one a baby of 4 months. So she is not having a great time!

She told us that the lease was owned by an American, who inherited it from his father. To meet the lease terms, he’d had to spend money on the tourist operation, hence the new house, but he was not really interested in the property. Guess the buy back has done him a favour!

Her husband has been coming here for 17 years, to fish, from NSW. He better make the most of this trip, then, because it may well be the last!

D used to live in the old homestead, next to this one, a tin clad job. She said that even that was flash by Cape standards. D’s wife died not long back and is buried here; we saw a grave marker as we came in. I wonder what will happen to that when D has to leave?

In the early afternoon, went down to the tidal boat mooring area. We were there when D and his guest returned from fishing downstream, in the small tin punt. They had barramundi and crabs. D asked us if we had a fridge. Upon being told yes, he gave us a barramundi. He also had some bait fish to give John. He still had some of the bait he uses in his crab pots – great chunks of topside steak, still frozen!

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John with the gift barramundi. D all wrapped up against the sandflies.

We took the fish back to camp, where we measured it at 80cms long. John cleaned it and I cut it up into pieces that would fit in the fridge – after that, there was not much room left. Certainly, there is enough for at least four good meals.

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Measuring the barra before it is cleaned

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John cleaning the barra, at a distance from camp. They have really large scales.

We then drove back to the tidal creek reach. John really wanted to catch one of these specimens for himself! Though part of the challenge is now gone, since we now have as much as we can eat, anyway! The size of the barra rather makes the Hann Crossing yellow belly look puny.

John fished. He did not find this easy, with lots of trees around to get tangled up in, plus the several mooring ropes in the creek, for the big boat. He managed to decorate some trees, and mooring ropes with assorted tackle items and bait fish!

I remained in Truck, knitting, with the windows up, because of the sandflies abounding in this area.

John had two rods going – both pretty light weight, in my view, for the size and aggression of fish in these parts. I have some knowledge here, having fished on Melville Island and caught big fish. John had one rod propped up on a folding camp stool. I ventured out of Truck and warned him that tropical fish do not usually give polite little tugs and nibbles, like the ones down south – so such an arrangement might be somewhat naive. No – he knew what he was doing, I was told!

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Rod ready for take off

Suddenly, the propped-up rod took off like a javelin, straight out about 3 metres, before it landed on the water and sailed away upstream! It paused for a while, near some root snags on the other side, before disappearing under the water.

The look on John’s face when the rod flew off was hysterically funny. That old saying about the jaw dropping……I was laughing too much to use the camera.

We used the binoculars to try to see the rod, and thought we caught a glimpse – hard to tell in the roots. Nothing could be done to try to find the rod until the tide went out, and with it any nasties that might lurk.

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Trying to spot the rod in the distance. Last seen near trees on bend.

We speculated greatly about what fishy monster might have taken the rod. Barra? Mangrove Jack? Certainly something of the hit and run variety.

Fish bites were not all we gained, either. The sandflies didn’t stop to watch the comedy unfold, but zoomed in. This will become one episode in our trip that will never be forgotten – even after we stop itching.

We started  eating the barra for tea. Just lightly dredged with flour and pan fried in butter. John had a few fries with his – of course, I am now out of potatoes, just when I really need them. Good planning there, Wendy!

I am finding that my appetite has disappeared. Don’t know if it is the heat, or if I have picked up a bug. A small piece of fish was quite enough for me tonight, with nothing else.

After dark, we cracked a bottle of Yellow – bought from Yellowglen at Ballarat. This much travelled bubbly celebrated our first ever feed of barra.

Then John hung up the shower bag from the roof rack and removed all fishy traces from himself. At least, he does not have to worry about an audience here.

There were lots of frogs hopping around camp and many bush night noises again, but we slept well.


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1998 Travels July 15

WEDNESDAY 15 JULY   COEN TO SILVER PLAINS CAMP   90kms

It was another hot day.

Packing up was relatively easy, being only the small tent, and with most gear still in Truck.

We refilled a gas bottle in Coen – cost $12.50! And topped up the diesel – 85cpl.

We had an interesting drive out to Silver Plains. Had to retrace our way of two days ago, for 28kms, then take the Port Stewart road.

The road was very corrugated, in parts, and there were some rough-ish creek crossings. It was attractive country, especially where the way went over a low range. We had no difficulty finding our way – with a combination of our maps and the directions given to John on the phone.

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Our route from Coen to Silver Plains, skirting the McIlwraith Range – and our camp location

The homestead complex was impressive, with the usual many outbuildings and sheds, but a modern homestead. This looked new, with wide verandas, screened with insect mesh, all round. There was a young bull (steer?) grazing the house surrounds – tame, but huge – a Brahmin type. Chooks were pottering about.

We introduced ourselves to DT, the property manager, who lives in the house. Our stay here – in a bush camp – is going to cost $16 a night, which seems expensive to me, but I guess it is a unique experience?

D took us out to our camp, by a little freshwater creek, about 7kms from the house. He seems rather bemused that we do not have a boat. It seems his usual guests are keen fishing people who bring their own boats and thus have to camp where they can access a creek or river that will take them to the sea. Obviously, not many people come here just for the bush experience! I don’t know whether that is ominous or not.

On the way, we passed the large, well-kept airstrip, which D later told us was kept up to standard by the government, so that it could be used for military exercises.

D also showed us the way to his boat mooring area, on a tidal reach of Breakfast Creek, where John could fish. The tide had just turned and was coming in and there were big fish splashing and jumping!

We went back to our camp place and set up the big tent. We thought it was a great bush spot. There were some boards laid across 44 gallon drums as “tables”, clean buckets made from drums to use for water heating on an open fire, and a bush “dunny” – D’s term. This was a hole in the ground, with a seat, of sorts, and a bit of a screen. The creek seemed rather stagnant, though and D said we could get drinkable water from up at the homestead, if we wished.

After setting up camp, we went back to the tidal reach of Breakfast Creek, partly to make sure we remembered the tracks and could find it again, and partly for John to do a little fishing. He lost a lure, after snagging it on a mooring rope of D’s boat.

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John fishing the tidal reach of Breakfast Creek – mud and mangroves

It is quite a big boat. D said he can only get it right down the creek to the sea, twice a month, on the highest tides. There is a lower landing, but the track to it is washed out and he is not going to fix it because the land is being resumed – all 256,000 hectares of it – for the aborigines. It seems there is a real push on the Cape, for pastoral leases to be bought back and then passed to the aborigines – land rights claims and all that. Des reckons Silver Plains will become a drying out place for people from Coen, rather than a proper cattle venture. He says there are some local activists whose agenda is to gain a full E-W holding across the Cape, to add to the Top that they already have, and maybe set up a state within a state up here. He regards the National Parks people up here as tools of the aborigines. According to him, the government has already paid some very inflated prices for some of the leases. He says most places are de-stocked before hand over as the aborigines do not want the cattle. It is a pity that this is to become the fate of Silver Plains – presumably this will end the present camping access for tourists like us. We have seen in other parts of Australia, the adverse effects on property infrastructure when such hand backs occur.

There were horrendous sandflies at the boat mooring where John tried to fish, and there are plenty of mozzies and flying bugs in general, at camp.

Around our camp is typical dry season savannah country – longish, dry, grass and scattered trees and saplings.

Tea was a stir fry with tofu. I was not very hungry. Still feeling a bit off colour.

The stars at night are absolutely brilliant. There are many bush night time noises, predominantly insects and little critters rustliong in the grass.  I hope the cattle stay clear of our camp in the night!