"The Nobbies" , Cloncurry, and 'Friendly' Reunions

Although our "Adventure of Exploration" to FNQ and the Gulf  was almost over, we did not get home until the end of June 2016. The latter part of our Adventure included a stopover at The Nobbies station near Cloncurry, four nights at the Pera Court Hilton, Townsville, the four weeks as volunteer caretakers at Nairana NP and 5 weeks housesitting at Peregian Springs on the Sunshine Coast.  In all we were away from home for a total of 134 days and we travelled a distance of 8388kms, not including our short day trips around the Sunshine Coast.  It was certainly an "Adventure of Exploration".

"The Nobbies"
Leaving Lawn Hill NP behind our journey today would take us to "The Nobbies" - a cattle property just north of Cloncurry. The owner, Peter, had invited us to visit if we were ever in the region, after the OWO had assisted him at Nairana the previous year. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with Peter and his wife and to spend a little time on a cattle property. The property is about 42,000 acres in size and they have some wonderful Drought-Master cattle.

The road into their property was all dirt and about 35kms from the main bitumen road. It was in reasonably good condition despite recent rain and took around 35 minutes to get from their property entrance gate to their homestead!

We enjoyed a very pleasant evening with them and the OWO had the opportunity of going out with Peter to see some of the property first hand.

Road to The Nobbies

Property entrance - 35kms to Homestead

Sunset over The Nobbies

Sunset at the dam

Something special to see

Cloncurry
Leaving "The Nobbies" around 9am we stopped in Cloncurry for a short coffee break before continuing east along the Flinders Highway.  There is some fascinating history in Cloncurry and I would have liked more time to explore. This is where John Flynn started the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) - his image is on our 20 dollar note - and this is also the home of the Mary Kathleen uranium mine.  This was an open cut mine operating from 1954 to 1982. The town was built for the mining of uranium oxide and there is a wonderful museum at the Info Centre about the mine and the development of the town.


Although we had planned to travel as far as Prairie, east of Hughenden, we had lingered a little longer in Cloncurry than expected and after five hours on the road we found a great "free" camp beside a billabong away from the main road. About 50 kms west of Richmond it provided a very peaceful place to rest our weary bodies  -- not to mention the beautiful sunset provided free of charge!  This is "Dinosaur" Country and the surrounding countryside eventually changed from flat open plains to mountain range as we passed through Richmond, Hughenden, Charters Towers and on to Townsville.

John Flynn - our $20 note adventurer

Cloncurry - the "Uranium" Mining town

Cloncurry history museum park

Taking flight at night

Dusk at the Billabong

More superb sunsets in CQ

Divine moonlight

Paluma Range into Townsville

Richmond Info Centre

Changing landscapes

Hughenden CBD

Billabong "free camp"

Pera Court Hilton
From the billabong to the "Hilton"!!!!  What a delight to be visiting Miss Carmel and "Paddington Bear" once again. Three days of "girlie" delights for me and "man-time" for the OWO. Craft classes, retail therapy, fabric shopping and stitching - wonderful company and delicious meals and good wine  - what more could weary travellers ask for! So love my annual visit with my Stitching Sister.

There was a bonus for me with this little visit though. On the last morning of our visit Miss Carmel and I spent time at Lincraft and at the behest of the OWO we bought me a light weight sewing machine for travelling.  Woohoo!! The OWO is the best and I am now the happy owner of a Toyota Quilter 99 that can travel with us.

As always our time at the Pera Court Hilton was perfect and we hope we can continue our annual visit (and maybe fit in a few others) for many more years to come. But for now it was time to move on again to Nairana NP for our annual volunteer caretaking duties - only this time there was a promise that Miss Carmel and "Paddington Bear" would join us for a few days in two weeks time.