The North West Star covers an enormous territory, almost a half a million square kilometres of North West Queensland. As editor I’ve set myself the task of seeing as much of that territory as possible, a not inconsiderable task in an area larger than Spain but with very few people and fewer serviceable roads.
To get to many places you need a four wheel drive, a bit of planning and a sense of adventure because if you do get into strife, the options for help may not be there with very little traffic and no mobile reception. The picture above is barely 25kms from Mount Isa, after leaving the highway and heading north on the dirt road to Lake Julius and Kajabbi. Every time I drive from Isa to Cloncurry I see the turn-off but until this Saturday, I’d never taken it.
The winter dry season terrain is red with pockets of green. There’s not much traffic but you see it well in advance thanks to the huge amount of dust vehicles raise, a plume rising 20m into the air. One particular plume went higher still and when I got up close I found it was a slow-moving cattle truck. I had to wait ages for an opportunity to overtake it as the dust made the view ahead negligible. 
After 70km on the dirt road, I came to this junction signpost. The kilometres are wrong in both directions. It’s 90km to the Isa while it’s at least 50km to Kajabbi. My destination was Lake Julius and that one was accurate. The Dam was 14km away to the left.
Looking at the road in that direction it was clear some climbing into the hills lay ahead.
Lake Julius is carved out of the Leichhardt River and there is not much water in the river at this time of year. None at all in fact. The trip to the Dam heads over the causeway of the river as it winds its way north to empty into the Gulf (well, it does in summer anyway).
Above is the view from the middle of the causeway looking at the river south towards to the dam. It’s empty now but locals say it doesn’t take much rain to fill and when it does the Dam workers are cut off, sometimes for weeks or more, with access only from the air.
Finally I got to the house which overlooked the dam. It was a private house but it had access to visitors, picnic tables and a lookout with a great vista over the dam.
And what a view. Julius Dam is located at the junction of Paroo Creek and the Leichhardt River, 70 kms north-east of Mount Isa. There may not be any water in the Leichhardt upstream but there was plenty dammed in. The latest figures from the Mount Isa Water Board (August 14, 2017) show Lake Julius is 87.9% full. Sometimes the dam is well over 100 percent full and the water rushes over the top. That would be a sight to behold although difficult to capture without air transport as the access road is cut off.
Lake Julius was built at the height of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen construction era in the mid 1970s and opened on October 8, 1978. 
Lake Julius has a full supply capacity of 127,000 megalitres, a surface area of 1255 hectares with an average depth of 8.9 metres. The concrete multiple arch and buttress structure is unique in Queensland.
I walked from the lookout down to the boat ramp. Lake Julius supplies several mines in the region via the Mount Isa Water Board and North West Queensland Water Pipeline Company, which pipes water from the Dam to customers. It also acts as a back-up supply for Lake Moondarra as a supply of Mount Isa town water but its distance from town makes it expensive to pump outside times of drought. The state government is providing money to use a solar pump to get the water to town more cheaply.
Assuming the Dam is not overflowing, it is a perfect spot for boating and recreational fishing. It’s also miles from anywhere so you’ll likely have the wilderness of the lake to yourself.
This map shows the many channels of the lake formed by the Dam.
The dam cost $30m to build and was financed by the Mount Isa City Council with assistance from Mount Isa Mines. According to the Canberra Times of April 30 1977, the council was $6m short and could have faced bankruptcy if it didn’t get the extra money from the federal government. The feds eventually came to the party.
This is the view looking downstream as the Leichhardt makes its way to the Gulf of Carpentaria past Augustus Downs station. The road leading up to the dam is visible centre left.
I drove back to the junction and believing the sign I thought Kajabbi was just 32km north and set off in that direction. One of the many hilltops in this region (though unlikely this one) is Battle Mountain, scene of the Kalkadoon people’s last stand against settlers and native police in 1884. The rough terrain meant their independence lasted longer than most but the might of European Snyder weapons was eventually too powerful.
I got to 32km where Kajabbi should have been according to the sign but all I found was a cattle outstation. I drove further north a while until I got to an unmarked junction and not willing to gamble further I drove back to Mount Isa. Kajabbi will have to wait for another trip.
The
Woolly Days 