Lawn Hill National Park, Burketown and Doomadgee

A lot of decision making was made whether or not we should head north to Doomadgee... We decided in the long run to go for it and check out Lawn Hill National Park on the way up. A nice little oasis in dry desert country, which apparently stays flowing with water all year round! Only freshwater croc's here, so we went for a quick dip in a few spots. Gregory Downs was also a good spot coming back out of the park.

Artificial rock hut with info about the mammal fossil site, near the Gregory River.

 Inside the rock...


Gregory River crossing




 Lawn Hill Gorge area




Gregory Downs camp on the river



We stopped off at Burketown, but not much was happening there. later we got a text message from a mate in Isa and said the Doomadgee rodeo was on! So off we went to Doomadgee, where it was very busy with hundreds of Aboriginals from Burketown, NT, and other surrounding stations and communities. Nice mob of people and lots of fun and entertainment all weekend. We performed on Sat night with whips and fire dancing, which was a big hit and all the kids where silent in awe!!



Just a couple of cuddly kids... we enjoyed the company of many cute aboriginal kids and also had fun with some of the adults too :-)


Races in the arena for the kids.



Some of the local cowboys. Us girls also had the privilege of entering the arena right near the gates to take some good close-up photos!



Aboriginal Dances on Sunday night were very entertaining.



We all had a very enjoyable time with the people of Doomadgee.




The girls, Montana, Emalita and Telisha came over to the church where we were staying every day, they love to sing Sunday school songs so most days we had a singing session in the church:-)



The kids came over every afternoon after school and wore us out, haha!! or it might have been the other way around, although these kids have a mighty lot of energy.


Not much of a piano, half the keys are stuck and don't work, but this mob still had some fun and made some noise with it.

Mary Kathleen & Mt Isa

Mary Kathleen
An old mine site and the remains of a fairly big township. Now just a maze of old bitumen roads and concrete slabs!! Very dry landscape with some interesting rocks and minerals scattered in the bush, quarries and roads. The mine site was also very interesting with a mineral growing on the walls that looked like cream white and acid yellow cauliflower heads! The trapped water below was crystal clear but nothing alive! This Uranium mine certainly wasn't abandoned for nothing!!

Checking the damper under the moonlight!



Hmmm... maybe we could fix it!!

Yeehaa, here we go!


Mount Isa
Its been a long time since Mt Isa has seen some decent rain, so up here is very dry and dusty. The water is pretty ordinary too, but the locals are friendly and we have a good spot to camp. Our mate Trevor from Forrest Beach near Ingham, recommended for us to meet his nephew, who owns one of the local Butcher shops and also a large shelter/shed. This was the perfect spot for Nath to set up his workshop and make whips for an order.

 

First accident in Mt Isa, Nath spilt his yogurt lunch all around his crutch, while Jem drove around the corner!! Oops... All mess aside, we laughed a lot and continued to find our location to camp...

 Our camp spot under the shed

 



Some friendly Aboriginals from Lake Nash (outside Isa) enjoyed Nath's demo of whip cracking on their front yard :-)


Lake Moondarra (Isa's water supply)



 

Jessie's latest drawing for a new friend in Mt Isa

Porcupine Gorge

A nice spot off the beaten track... nice spot to walk, swim and dry in the hot sun!! We took the dirt road to Porcupine Gorge and confused a few oldies as to why we got there without going through Hughenden township.

While we sit in the shade of the shelter at the gorge, two people from Balingup WA, the small town right near our home town, think we are right ol goofs from Greenbushes. They didn't seem to want to associate with us at all!!!


Boab tree lookout on the drive up to the gorge.


This is some love for all our family & friends viewing our blog, we are blessed to have you all there for us and hope you enjoy the pictures we have put up for you so far:-)

 Pyramid rock


Really? Are you two sisters?? (Jem & Jess)


In the never never of North QLD



We weren't sure, but we all felt the presence of a croc lurking in these dark green waters! Don't think they were there but we didn't stay too long in the cave to find out!!