Julia Creek

After a fun stay with family in Mount Isa the time had come to say goodbye and leave this Outback City.

Have you heard of the statement 'According to Murphy's Law'? Well, it applied to us at this time. Having driven from Longreach to Cloncurry into W/NW 'head winds' on the way out to 'The Isa', we now face 'head winds' on the way out of 'The Isa'. From Cloncurry to Julia Creek we were punching E/NE winds gusting to 25 km/h. The wind was only one factor against us, the outside temperature was hovering between 43 C and 44 C as well.

I didn't like to push the car this hard, towing the van, so I slowed down our speed to relieve the stress on the vehicle. We were only 20 km from Julia Creek when the engine temp gauge shot up and the Auto Transmission Temp Warning Light came on, the first time I've ever seen it glowing it's red presence. We pulled off the highway and left the engine idling for about 8 minutes. All temperatures 'normalised' and we drove into our free camp 1.2 km east of Julia Creek. Very relieved to arrive without damage to us or the vehicle. The XXXX Bitter tasted wonderfully refreshing.

Julia Creek, a free camp and picnic area 1.2 km east of the Town of Julia Creek. Picnic tables and wood fired BBQ's aplenty. Nature Trail to walk, if you are inclined. We walked around to the other side of the creek and saw the 'slither' marks of a very large snake. We were very happy to not make acquaintances with it.

Our camp from a different aspect.

Jude resting in the shade of the van. Cattle flies were a bit of a nuisance, Jude donned a fly net but that makes drinking your XXXX Bitter too difficult.

Longreach Waterhole

Well chaps and chappies, I don't mind saying we expected to be a lot further up the highway than this today! The Landsborough Highway changes direction from more westerly before Longreach to more Northerly heading towards Winton and that means the prevailing breezes were now full-on head winds. Plus add into the equation Winton was expecting thunderstorms and flash flooding, well we decided to stay here and sit out the weather woes. We will see what eventuates with the weather tomorrow.

We didn't fully set-up because we were hoping to continue with our journey. Well that didn't eventuate, we are here for the night. Camping is permitted at a distance of 20m from the Picnic Area, one can stay for up to 4 days. 

The Thomson River, aka "The Longreach Waterhole". It wasn't long ago that the river was up to and over the 6m flood marker here.

There is a fairly extensive picnic area here at 'The Waterhole' but the grass is a bit thin with out much rain lately.

The Thomson River looking East, there is a railway bridge just at the end of vision.

From the North bank of the Thomson River looking back towards the Picnic Area.