Mt Isa / Gulf Country?

Any body know if there is much going on up this way? i'm closer to Bourketown than Isa but anyhting will do?

You mean much to see?

There is plenty to see, but not so much 4 wheeling ..... more touring

Lawn Hill National Park is amazing.
The Lost City, just inside the NT is pretty cool.

Is that the sort of thing you are after?

As per above, Lawn Hill is a good place to visit. The pub in Burketown is a bit of a site to see in its own right and the publican will point you at all the right areas to go and look at. Otherwise, the drive around the gulf through Hell's Gate to Borooloola is also quite interesting. There used to be a van park, or a "resort" called Escott Lodge, on the Nicholson River, that opened up some excellent fishing opportunities, but may have closed, not sure. Leichhardt Falls is always worth a visit and some of those creek crossings between Normanton and Burketown are so full of Redclaw at certain times of year that it is simply amazing. They cover the causeways completely and can be scooped up in buckets or in the cast net!

That's awesome guys. Just moved up here and busting to get out and about.

When I finally get the Patrol up here it will be easy to see all of those sights Ben. I'm only 70km west of hells gate, so not far from NT also, and about 100km to Bourketown.

I will be working in Gregory Downs during the dry and coming back to Doomadgee for the weekends so I suppose a weekend or two at Lawn Hill would be easy enough too.

Thanks for the help guys

Alright,

Karumba is just a fishing town, but since you are so close, it is worth a look.

There is a heap of old gold mining history at Croydon, which I found fascinating.

There is the Gulflander Rail between Croydon and Normanton, which if you like old trains and train travel is great .... if not, you just decide to see the train off at one end,, wave to everyone like you know someone, and then as soon as they are moving and on the way, jump in the car and set yourself up for the next spot to stop and then get out and wave at everybody, and so on, and so on. Pretty soon you will have everyone looking for you and waving back .....

Burketown and Normanton are Ok too, but I cant remember too much about them as I havent been there for a while

Camped at Hells Gate before, and then got back to Alice to find that the owners were relatives of friends of ours and we didnt know it

Undarra Lava Tubes are pretty cool, back toward the tablelands

It is all fascinating country, but not super remarkable in its own right with the exception of Lawn Hill, which is an oasis in the middle of absolute nothingness....

Mic

I have a couple of years up here so I might jus plod along and see the sights. We are trying to plan the Cape for the June holidays and Kakadu and Darwin for the september holidays. Then Brissie sights over the Christmas holidays. might be all toured out by then though

Lawn Hill is best, like many places, at the beginning or the end of the season. Less tourists. We spent 10 days camped at Lawn Hill & had the place totally to ourselves except for one other couple on one night. Was brilliant. Spend an arvo lazing under the big fig tree next to where the canoes are. It gives good shade just metres from the water & attracts a huge assortment of birds when fruiting. With no one else around, we took our own Kayak up the gorge & camped out for a night. Paddling back a little after dawn we watched large flocks of budgies doing aerobatics just above the water, & turtles checked us out.Price we paid to have the place to ourselves in late October was high temperatures, up to 47 degrees, but we reckon it was a bargain. When you have water you can get into whenever you want, the temp isn’t too hard to bear. The tufa formations are interesting too, had never heard of them until we went there.

Camping/swimming down by the creek at Gregory Downs is special. Clear, warm, safe water, shaded & surrounded by Pandanus. Sit in the water & watch the rare Purple Crested Fairy Wrens.

Fishing on the Albert River a bit out of Burketown isn’t bad, but watch for crocs. There is a small jetty which provides a safe spot. If you are lucky (as we were) you’ll get to see a ‘Morning Glory’.

Oh yeah, there’s a canoe marathon on the Gregory River each year which I reckon might be worth checking out. Coming up soon. http://www.northwestcanoeclub.org.au/thegregory.htm

Re the Albert River - there is a track that runs down the river and across some of the salt pan. You can actually camp down there, right on the river, and again, if you have a small boat, you can do quite well. Right down further and on the same Western side of the river, there are a couple of shacks where occasionally someone will stay. After a good dry season, it is supposedly possible to actually drive there across the salt pan, but you'd be gamer than I was to give it a go.

The Nicholson is also well worth a fish if you can get into it. In fact, I rate it a lot higher than the Albert. Again, there is a track from the Escott Station homestead heading out towards the mouth. If you can get access, the drive down as far as you can go. The land flattens right out and is only a foot or so higher than the river high tide levels. I once camped down there for a week, with an electric cattle fence around our camp at night (in case of mud-ghecko visits) and had a ball with the blue salmon. The whole river was teaming with them for as far as you could see as they smashed into a massive movement of pop-eye mullet. It was awesome stuff. The Nicholson also has a number of billabongs closer to the homestead that generally produced a fish or two.

Lawn Hill and the Gregory are special places thats for sure, I have camp a couple of times at Leichhardt falls closer to Normanton, changed everytime I went there and is good for a swim on the high side NOT down the bottom, to many fatdogs down there.

Travo