Around Australia - Queensland

On 30 June, we set off for our second trip around Australia - different car, new Cub camper-trailer, much the same itinerary, though less time in our home state of Queensland.  We headed for Lawn Hill by the fastest route, going north-west with mostly overnight stops.
First stop was a new place for us, as we wanted to avoid Miles itself.  Judd's Lagoon is a free camp with new toilet and great camping places which we shared with about 15 other campers, all spread out allowing privacy.  These pics. show our setup for overnight stops - car stays hitched, awning left on top, table & chairs inside in cold weather (there was ice in our washup dish the next morning).  This camper has 2 single beds.  David made a wooden slide so we can push the mattresses together (though they can and do separate - years ago I sewed velcro on sheets to prevent this with our first camper but it's not worth the trouble).

  

 

 

Next stop was Tambo caravan park.  Had ice on windscreen at 7:30am.  Walked for an hour beside the Barcoo River which had a few waterholes and some interesting birds, especially several hovering Restless Flycatchers. A black kite with food in its claw successfully defended against a determined crow.  

 Also saw Plum-headed Finches, peaceful doves, crested pigeons, a red-winged parrot, one black-faced cuckoo-shrike, many galahs and several magpie-larks. Great specimens of River Red gums.  Labelled trees – Ac stenophylla, Black Wattle; Hakea leucoptera, Needlewood; too much Mimosa, Ac. farnesiana.
On to Barcaldine where the Botanical Walk had a variety of well-signposted trees.  Overnight there at the Tourist Park (good!) and to Winton the next day, seeing emus and a bustard en route.  We stopped  at the excellent Age of Dinosaurs complex, founded by David Elliot.  He uncovered Elliot, Australia's largest dinosaur, in an area the size of 4 football fields in 1999 and by 2003 held the first big fundraising dig.  Scientists and volunteers work on specimens collected at nearby properties.  Volunteers pay for the privilege of lab work or on digs.  
A carnivorous dinosaur, Australovenator, (known as Banjo) was found in a 10 x 10m waterhole.

Dinosaur bones in plaster jackets

Volunteer working on a specimen in the lab

Holotype specimens of Banjo

Holotype specimens from Matilda, 15-16m long

Banjo and Bernice

Jump-up country near Winton

Later saw a Painted Honeyeater at an unattractive place, Long Waterhole.
Spent the next night at Cloncurry, a pleasant town.  Visited Chinamans Dam there and saw many birds including red-kneed dotterel and great cormorant.  Another bustard, alive, on the road next day.
Reached our last Queensland destination on 6 July, driving on the Burke Development Road to Adel's Grove, a private camping place 10km from Lawn Hill National Park.

This Great Bowerbird was not worried by tourists and continued to arrange his bower on the Upper Gorge track.  Several females watched but did not come down for a closer look.

 We stayed 5 nights there, completing the Upper Gorge, Cascade and Wild Dog Dreaming walks, all enjoyable.  We also used our kayak and swam in Lawn Hill gorge and at Adels.  I had some problems getting out of the water and kayak because water levels were much lower than before and the ladder rungs didn't reach far enough.  David fell in at Adel's trying to manoeuvre the kayak to make it easy for me.  He succeeded!

Indarri Falls from above on Upper Gorge walk

 

Close encounter with 3m freshwater croc

Coming into portage point where we swam

Cascades area

The first night a free talk was given at Adel's Grove by a paleontologist working at Riversleigh.  She specialised in koalas.  Too much detail.  However, we signed up for the bus trip there after a good experience in 2008 and learned a bit more.  The guide gathered a seed bundle of speargrass, wet one strand which immediately started to corkscrew and tried to embed itself in his hand.  Great demonstration explaining why it became such a pest for sheep farmers. He told stories of past history.  In 1907 Sam Ah Bow and his Aboriginal wife Opal started a market garden.  Travellers would stop to get fresh fruit and veges.  He had 11 children and died in 1932.Prickly Moses along roadsides was brought here by Afghans as camel fodder. Afghans mined for silver and lead.

Animals from Riversleigh

We drove north from Lawn Hill to Doomadgee which surprised us with its neat clean appearance.  The road there was OK, despite one section where we had to drive along a creek beside a barbed wire fence for 100m.
The Savannah Way, by contrast, was worse than we expected.  Creek crossings were not a problem but corrugations leading to Hell's Gate and afterwards were horrible.

Creek crossing Savannah Way