On to Townsville and Cape Hillsborough

After our stay at Cobbold Gorge, we had a long day’s drive to Townsville via Einasleigh and The Lynd, much of it on gravel roads. It was pleasing to finally see the coast as we came down the Hervey Range into Townsville, six hours later. Castle Hill is in the centre of the photo with Magnetic Island off to the left.

We got a closer look at Magnetic Island when we got to Townsville and walked down the Strand that afternoon. A statue of a green sea turtle is in the foreground. Green sea and fatback turtles come ashore to nest on local beaches. Sea turtles exhibit a strong homing behaviour to return to nest on beaches where they themselves hatched from eggs. A female turtle hatched in the Townsville region is highly likely to return to breed here again in 30 to 50 years when she matures.

The following morning we set off for a bracing walk up the Goat Track to Castle Hill. I’ve seen various suggestions as to how many steps there are anything from 1000 to 1300. I only counted about 800 but it’s a tough walk under any circumstances.

The view from the top makes the climb worthwhile. Morning sunshine glistens down on Cleveland Bay next to the port where ferries for Magnetic Island jostle with ships full of copper and zinc bound for China.

The view north is towards the airport and Cape Pallerenda, the latter where we were headed for walking trails later in the day.

We came back down the track to seek out coffee in the city. Street art is an important outlet for tourism in the city with council putting out a street art trail. This massive goanna is on an Ogden St wall. Belgian artist “ROA” said it was inspired by an encounter during a previous trip to Australia. “The last time I was in Australia I witnessed my friend Keith, who lives in the Pilbara region and is native to the land, catch a goanna to barbecue with his family. It was amazing to witness how he caught the lizard – he asked the goanna for permission to kill him and feed his family, all in his traditional language”.

After coffee we headed out to Cape Pallerenda. I’d been there before but was keen to do the Freshwater Trail. It had an appealing setting between the hills and the wetlands.

The main reason we chose this trail was because it had two bird hides. The view was enchanting but sadly we didn’t see any birds at either hide. That was probably because we were doing the walk at midday but two young P-Plate hoons driving their car illegally down the vehicle-free track to the hide didn’t help.

Heading back to the carpark we looked out to the Town Common where in the distance we spotted brolgas (Grus rubicunda) and a black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus). In northern Australia, the stork is traditionally called the Jabiru. It’s a beautiful word but is not Indigenous. Jabiru is a Tupi–Guaraní language name which refers to a different species of stork found in South and Central America. Brolga, however, is a genuine Indigenous word from the Kamilaroi language.

Back at the carpark there is a slice of history that feels bang up to date. The Cape Pallerenda quarantine station was built in 1915-16 to deal with diseases coming in to Australia from Townsville port. The 1918 flu epidemic did not get to Australia until January 1919 and it didn’t take long for it to arrive in the busy port. The Townsville Daily Bulletin of May 21, 1919 said the population of the quarantine station was gradually increasing. “Two more cases, one mild and one suspicious were yesterday added from Wodonga,” the paper revealed.

Afterwards, we retired to the city for drinks and dinner. The following morning it was time to leave Townsville and head south. First stop was Bowen 200km south, a town I’ve written about before. The photo below is from Bowen pier looking towards a hill behind the town.

Our destination was another two hours south at Cape Hillsborough, which I’ve also written about before. This is a beautiful spot on a peninsula 40km north of Mackay. Like many east coast spots it was named by James Cook, for Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, secretary of state for the colonies. On June 2, 1770 Cook wrote “A pretty high Promontary which I named Cape Hillsborough bore W1/2N distant 7 Miles – the Mainland is here pretty much deversified with Mountains, Hills plains and Vallies and seems to be tolerably cloathed with wood and Verdure the Islands which lay parallel with the Coast and from 5 to 8 or 9 Leagues off are of Various extent both for height and circuit, hardly any exceeds 5 Leagues in circuit and many again are very small besides this chain of Islands which lay at a distance from the coast there are other small ones laying scatterd under the land. Some few smoaks were seen on the Mainland.”

We were staying at the resort directly behind the beach, which as Cook noticed were “tolerably cloathed with wood”. It reminded us more of south-east Asian beaches than Australian ones.

We did the Andrews Point walk which climbs over the Cape with five great lookouts including this one out to Wedge Island. Because it was low tide we could get out to the island and then return along the beach.

Butterflies patrolled the Cape in great swarms. These were Blue Tigers (Tirumala limniace), one of 25 species in the area. Blue Tigers are a mostly tropical butterfly seen nearly all year round in North Queensland. They fly south during spring and summer reaching southern Queensland, NSW and even Victoria. Their main larvae host plant is the Corky Milk Vine (Secamone elliptica). Corky Milk Vine contains chemicals poisonous to many animals but not to Blue Tiger larvae. When the larvae eat the vine, the poisonous chemicals are passed on to the pupae and adult butterflies. These toxins protect adult Blue Tigers from being eaten by birds.

Cape Hillsborough was formed from eruptions 30 million years ago, when lava flows covered the area creating the dramatic rhyolite rock and cave formations that book-end Casuarina Bay. Below is the view from the top of the Andrews Point track back to the beach.

We were soon stopped in our tracks. I almost trod on this green tree snake basking in the middle of the path in no hurry to move. The green tree is non-venomous but when threatened, this diurnal snake secretes a smelly oil from its vent glands. Found predominately in trees or shrubs, it will also inflate its throat to display blue skin between his scales. It will bite, but only as a last resort. I resorted to a stick to prod it and it scurried away into the bush.

This was the view from Turtle Lookout looking back west towards the hills behind Belmunda.

At Turtle Lookout, there were indeed turtles in the water below. Though I couldn’t be sure, I think this is a loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) named for their large heads that support powerful jaw muscles, allowing them to crush hard-shelled prey like clams and sea urchins. Loggerheads are carnivorous, feeding on shellfish, crabs, sea urchins and jellyfish in Queensland and WA waters.

When we explored Wedge Island, the birds were in full evening voice. More than 130 species of birds have been identified in the national park. These olive-backed sunbirds (Cinnyris jugularis) enjoying the foliage with a sea view.

The following morning we were up at dawn to watch the kangaroos on the beach. The dawn was lovely and the kangaroos were a delight. But there were more people than kangaroos and it didn’t seem right that someone was feeding them out of a bucket.

Later we took the walk to the Diversity Boardwalk. The area was the home of the Yuwi people. The Yuwi were wiped out by settlers but evidence of their habitation can be seen in numerous shell middens like this one.

There was further evidence of their practices on the Yuwi walk south of the Cape with this stone fish trap at Hidden Valley. A line of stones sealed two rock outcrops which were collected from at low tide.

When we returned to Wedge Island later that day, the weather was turning. Dark grey clouds were about to pour rain that would follow us all the way to Brisbane in the coming days. The sunbirds lived up to their name and were nowhere to be found as the rains came. Nonetheless Cape Hillsborough’s beauty shines through regardless of the weather. 

A day at Cobbold Gorge

There were three places I hadn’t been to that I wanted to visit on my latest north Queensland driving adventure. I ticked off Adels Grove, then Undara Lava Experience and now we were finally arriving at the gate of the third one, Cobbold Gorge. Set in the Great Dividing Range 90km south-east of Georgetown, it was another place I’d written about a lot in recent years and was constantly vying for Outback, Queensland and Australian tourism awards.

Ideally we would have done Cobbold Gorge after Adels and Karumba before heading to Undara but when we booked the trip back in pre-COVID times it was busy and only available after we finished at Undara. So after spending a night at Forsayth, we drove up a very bad gravel road 50km to the resort. Arriving early in the morning, we were too early to check in so hit the hills on one of their local bushwalks up to Russell’s Lookout.

Below was the view from the lookout north back to Cobbold Gorge resort. The Gorge itself was off to the east about a 10 minute drive away and not accessible on foot. The processes that created Cobbold Gorge started 1.7 billion years ago. Sand and mud sediment was deposited on the ocean floor, until layers built up 10km thick. Movement in the Earth’s crust caused the sediments to compress, forming the Hampstead Sandstone. Endless wet seasons spilled torrents of water through the narrow fractures of sedimentary rock, creating deep gorges and permanent springs and seepages.

That we would discover later, for now we walked back to our boundary hut which was ready to check in. It was in a nice spot overlooking the restaurant area, infinity pool and dam.

After lunch and a quick dip in the pool, we booked into the 1.30pm three-hour tour as people cannot access the gorge independently. There was 40 of us split into four groups, with two groups taking the boats down the gorge first while we did the bush walk first. Positions were reversed for the second half of the tour. As we set off, our knowledgeable guide spotted a resting crocodile off to our right. We would get a better look later when we returned to the boats.

For now we headed towards the mighty boulders of what our guide called “conglomerate country”. Conglomerate is a clastic sedimentary rock that contains large rounded clasts, washed downstream in swift currents. Situated east of the Robertson River, the rocks are part of a sequence called the Etheridge Group and were deposited in a shallow sea as fine sand and mud. As the sediment was deposited, the Earth’s crust beneath the sea-floor subsided, and eventually, a pile of sediment 10km thick accumulated. In places, flows of basalt lava erupted onto the sea-floor, or flowed into the sediments. The rocks were formed in the Precambrian era, when the only life forms in the sea were simple single-celled algae and bacteria.

Just like Undara Experience, Cobbold Gorge is private property. Traditional owners, the Ewamian People, were dispossessed by colonists in the 1800s and this area was settled as Robin Hood station (so named because it adjoined Sherwood mining lease) by the Clark family. The Terry family bought the property in 1964.

The Cobbold Creek mouth with its permanent clean water, was always a popular watering hole for cattle but was isolated in the south-west of the property and was narrow and hard to get to. Simon Terry and two friends first paddled up the creek in the 1990s and were amazed at what lay before them, the magnificent Cobbold Gorge. In 1994 Simon and wife Gaye first started a tourism venture with tours from Georgetown, then added a camping area. They acquired accommodation units from the Sydney Olympics site and later the closed Kidston Gold Mine in 2002/03. They are still adding to the site, the latest attraction this wonderful glass bridge opened this year.

Below is the view of the narrowest section of the gorge from the Glass Bridge. I was the first to arrive at the Bridge in our group and immediately rushed out to take photos before being admonished by the tour guide. A quick look down showed me why, as my dusty boots left prints on the glass. I quickly got off and put surgical slippers over my boots. The tour guide turned down my apologetic offer to wipe the dust off the bridge floor.

The view on either side of the bridge was magnificent despite my lack of social graces. While the rocks are 1.7 billion years old, the processes that formed the Gorge are far more recent. Minor movements 10,000 years ago contributed to the formation of the lower reaches of Cobbold Gorge. The gorge narrows to just two metres in places, which indicates it is the youngest known gorge in Queensland today.

Below is the view looking towards the glass bridge and a second connecting bridge. Cobbold Creek used to join the Robertson River 1.5km upstream. Above the gorge it previously turned and flowed east to southeast through a relatively wide gorge. This gorge is now abandoned, and is a dry valley without any major stream. Instead, all the water from Cobbold Creek and its tributaries is funnelled through the very narrow slit in the sandstone now known as Cobbold Creek Gorge.

The exact reason why this happened is uncertain. One possible cause is stream capture. Aerial photographs of the sandstone show numerous dark lines, fractures etched out by weathering with the larger ones forming deep gullies. Over time and erosion the head of the gully retreated until it met Cobbold Creek. Because its mouth was at a lower point than the old mouth, the gully captured all the water flowing down Cobbold Creek and its tributaries.

It was time to explore the Gorge from creek level. As we started off in our boat we got a close up of the freshwater croc basking by the side of the water. Our guide identified it as a female. These are freshwater Johnstone River Crocodiles, Crocodylus johnstoni. They enjoy the gorge’s permanent water supply and stock of native fish, birds, bats, reptiles and amphibians. They have have a slender snout and sharp teeth and the males can grow up to 1.5m long and on average, weigh about 70kg, with females slightly smaller.

Cobbold Gorge Tours uses a crocodile on their logo and further on we spot a second croc, swimming across the creek before disappearing below the waterline. These freshies do not attack humans unless provoked and stand up paddlers who also use the creek need not worry about becoming part of the menu.

We approach the glass bridge from below. The bridge is one of many reasons why the site has grown from 200 visitors annually in 1994 to over 10,000 today.

The gorge got very narrow in places and occasionally you had to watch out in case a protruding rock hit your head. The creek and gorge get their name from Frank Cobbold (1853-1935), an English-born pastoralist who managed many properties in his years in Australia including Robin Hood Station. Cobbold, I learned, is pronounced COE-bold and not COB-old as I thought.

As we saunter through the creek in our silent solar-powered boat, the shadows of late afternoon painted different colours onto the gorge walls.

This moss garden reminded me of a similar one in Carnarvon Gorge. Water from rainfall percolates down the joints into the sandstone until it meets an impervious layer like a shale bed. If the impervious layer is exposed in the side of a creek or gully, the water will seep out as a spring. Some springs can be seen along the walls of Cobbold Creek Gorge.

After the tour we returned to the lodge and went down to the dam. The water level was well down due to the lack of big rains in previous years. One egret had the dam to itself with watchful wallabies behind.

Afterwards we retired to the bar for dinner and drinks. I popped down to the firepit to check out our guide from earlier showing his fire-making skills. Sitting in front of a roasting fire was a pleasant way to bring the day to an end.

Undara lava tubes

Some 50km east of Mount Surprise is the Undara Lava Experience, a privately owned resort with access to the Undara lava tubes. I first heard of the place at a tourism event in Karumba a couple of years ago. I was chatting to Bram Collins who spoke enthusiastically of the place founded on the Rosella Plains Station property owned by his father Gerry Collins and three generations before him. Gerry applied to develop a tourist facility to showcase the lava tubes in 1987. Gerry and now Bram believe the best way to protect these ancient formations was to develop a sustainable visitor experience to lessen the environmental impact and highlight the unique ecology and geology of the cave system. Ever since that chat I’ve been keen to check it out.

We came all the way from Karumba and were booked in on the signature lava experience tour the following morning as it was not accessible privately. Having checking in and admired the open central restaurant area we decided to take a walk through the ancient granites to Atkinson Lookout about 2km away.

The path was dry but there was enough water nearby to attract this pale-headed rosella.

The Undara Volcanic National Park lies within the McBride volcanic province. There are 164 volcanoes, vents and cones in this area. Millions of years before these volcanoes formed, the area was a shallow granite valley. Over the past 7-8 million years the granite valley has been filled with lava and ash flows.

Some controlled burning was taking place in the Undara National Park east of the Lava Experience property. Park managers are keen to bring back Aboriginal firing practices applying planned fire at varying intensities, scales and times to create a mosaic of burnt and unburnt areas that change over time. It also reduces the fuel load to ensure there are less devastating fires that burn everything.

We continue our walk for another 5km along the Bluff Circuit where this agile rosella was not going to allow simple matters of gravity from getting its favourite seed.

We returned to the accommodation area where we saw more examples of Undara’s signature style of eco-accommodation. In December 1989, Gerry Collins discovered eleven decommissioned 1900s Queensland Railway Carriages on a siding in Mareeba. He bought and restored the carriages and in May 1990, he placed them between the trees beside an old teamster’s trail.

The centrepiece is the Fettler’s Iron Pot Bistro with its huge arched roof looking out to bushland and a roaring firepit as its centrepiece. The food was good too.

In the morning we walked 500m to where the bush breakfast campfire was cooking. We enjoyed tea from the billy, decent coffee, bacon, eggs and beans with toast you make yourself over the open fire. I began to see why the place has Experience in its name.

A kookaburra was on guard ready to laugh and swoop whenever we drop a bit of breakfast on the ground.

After breakfast we took the bus to the national park to begin the two hour archway explorer lava experience tour. Some 190,000 years ago Undara volcano erupted and molten lava flowed into nearby dry river beds. The external lava quickly cooled and hardened while the fierce flow snaked its way through underneath a thickening surface crust. After the eruption the centres drained away, leaving only the hardened exterior, and long, dark, hollow tubes. The Undara crater spilled out 23 cubic kilometres of lava. One flow travelled north-west for 164kms, the longest single lava flow from one volcanic vent on Earth in modern geological time.

The first stop is into the signature Archway Cave. A stack of at least five lava flows are exposed in the walls of the collapsed tube.

The vine-thicket is thought to be a remnant of a more widespread vegetation type in Gondwana 300 million years ago.

The Undara lava tube system is one of the longest in the world. It is also unusual in that it developed on a granite basement. As well as the vine-thicket the lava tube caves contain internationally significant specialised ecosystems. Four types of insectivorous micro bats roost in the caves and they provide food for snakes and birds, such as the nocturnal barking owl Ninox connivens.

As well as the Archway cave, we also go down into nearby Stephenson Cave.

It was time to move west towards Cobbold Gorge on completion of the tour but there was time to visit the Kalkani Crater on the way out back to Mt Surprise. Parking at the bottom of the crater, there is a 2.5km walk including a 600m climb to the rim walk around the crater.

From the top of the rim you can see south towards the original Undara volcano and the outcome of other eruptions around the area from the last seven to eight million years.

The view below is from the rim looking into the crater. Unlike Undara which was a gentle oozing explosion creating the lava tubes, Kalkani’s eruption was explosive. The scoria cone was created 190,000 to 400,000 years ago when magma moved up to the surface and dissolving gases expanded bursting through, producing fountains of red hot volcanic rock. As the rocks fell they built up in layers around the edge creating the cone.

The view east from Kalkani showing the Undara airfield.

The view north from Kalkani and another volcanic crater. Traditional owners the Ewamian (pronounced “your-amin”) People say Undara means “a long way”. It may be a long way from anywhere, but is worth the journey.

Karumba to Georgetown and Forsayth

Having left Adels Grove we had a couple of days to get to our next destination Undara Lava Experience and took a detour up to Karumba. There’s a couple of ways of getting from Adels to Karumba but starting early in the morning we stuck to the mostly bitumen track via the Wills Development Rd from Gregory to Burke and Wills and then the Burke Development Rd to Normanton both roads I’ve taken before.

There’s not much traffic about as Queensland’s easing COVID travel restrictions take a while to percolate this far north. But there is always plenty of cattle on the move. They appear on every road, bitumen or gravel, and they could be going anywhere in Queensland or the Northern Territory or even to the port of Karumba for live export. The only rule for other drivers is that if they are coming your way and you are on dirt road or a single-lane blacktop then get out of their way. Might in this case is right.

We arrive in Normanton fours hours into the journey and pay homage to Krys the Croc. The Norman River has a long history of big crocs, most famously the Savannah King, measuring 8.63m, killed by Polish migrant Krys Pawlowski in 1955. Pawlowski survived a World War II Siberian prison camp before hunting for crocs in Queensland’s tropics and killed up to 10,000 reptiles over a 15-year hunting career with her husband. The Savannah King earned her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest croc captured in modern times. As I fit my head into the mouth of the replica with ease it is terrifying to imagine meeting something like this in the nearby river.

Outside Normanton on the road to Karumba is the beautiful Mutton Hole wetlands. They are part of the largest estuarine wetland aggregation in northern Queensland with superb wildlife observation opportunities. The area has diverse and complex habitats from fresh to hypersaline and is a crocodile breeding ground. The wetlands support many waterbirds including these lovely brolgas. It is a significant breeding, feeding, resting, and moulting site while also an important dry season refuge for waterbirds and water fowl.

Around 70km north of Normanton is Karumba, our base for the night. Karumba is the end of the line on the south-north Matilda Highway from Cunnamulla and an important spot on the east west Savannah highway from Cairns to Broome – the only one on the Gulf of Carpentaria. The water looks blue and inviting though modern mates of the Savannah King would make short work of you if you were foolish enough to go for a dip.

We were staying on the Point for its lovely seaside setting but we detoured the 5km to Karumba Port. I mentioned cattle export earlier, but it is also home to prawn fisheries. Wild-caught in the beautiful waters of the Gulf, Karumba prawns are highly sought after. Chances are that if you are eating Australian banana prawns, they came from Karumba. The port is also where zinc (which followed us all the way by pipeline from New Century mine near Adels Grove) is exported overseas.

After checking out the nearby Barramundi Discovery Centre, we head back to the Point and the whole point of the exercise. Sunset at the Karumba Point hotel with a beer and barra and chips is a rite of passage in these parts. With Gulf views like these, who were we to turn our noses up at tradition?

The following morning we backtracked to Normanton before heading east on the Savannah Way. The first stop past Normanton was Croydon, 150km away. Croydon is a sleepy town of 250 people but was once a thriving wild north west outpost. Gold was discovered here in 1885 and within two years the population grew to 7000 making it temporarily the fourth-largest town in the colony. The Townsville Bulletin reported in 1885 the country between Croydon and Normanton was “in a dreadful condition, the heat fearfully intense, and travelling by any means positive torture.” A railway was built 1888-1891 linking the towns and the Gulflander train still plies the route today. But little else remains of the rush today except lovely heritage buildings including the hospital (below) built in 1894.

Another 150km east of Croydon brings us to Georgetown. Just 30km before Georgetown is an important stop at the abandoned township of Cumberland. There’s two reasons these days to stop there. First is the Cumberland Lagoon. This human-made lagoon is a haven for waterlilies and waterbirds. Nearby Cumberland Creek was dammed to build the lagoon to collect water for a gold mine.

The second reason to stop is the only remains of that mine, the Cumberland Chimney. Gold was discovered here in 1872 – even earlier than Croydon. By 1878 the Cumberland Company was a major gold producer in the Etheridge region and the township rivalled Georgetown with 500 residents. There was a post office, police station, telegraph office, and four hotels by 1894. The chimney was built in 1889 to disperse smoke from the large steam driven engines that powered the batteries and associated tramways. The gold petered out by the end of the century and the town was abandoned by 1899 though the school stayed open until 1915.

Cumberland was overtaken by neighbouring Georgetown which remains the biggest town in Etheridge Shire with just 250 residents. Like Cumberland, Georgetown began with a gold rush in the 1870s. Originally known as Etheridge, the town’s name was changed in 1871 to honour gold commissioner Howard St George. By 1900 grazing had replaced gold as the region’s main industry.

Etheridge survives in the shire name and also the river that passes through Georgetown. Dry during the winter, it flows north in the wet season to meet the Einasleigh River and then the Gilbert River which empties into the Gulf, north-east of Karumba, at the site of Nevil Shute’s fictional Willstown, the “town like Alice”.

Heading initially east to Mt Surprise and Undara Lava Experience we pass through the Great Dividing Range at Casey’s Rest. Southwest the view extends to the Gregory Range where the Norman River begins.

Our destination for the night after Undara was Forsayth, 40km south of Georgetown. This is a common stopping point for Cobbold Gorge (which we also checked out). As the name of the pub suggests, this area was also found on 1870s gold. Originally called Finnegan’s Camp, it was nicknamed the ‘Poor Man’s Goldfield’, as nuggets were all ocer the ground and a prospector did not need expensive equipment to search for gold. After a slump in the 1880s the town flourished again in the mid-1890s, with five hotels, a school and a courthouse.

Today Forsayth is much quieter. At Caschafor Park wood carvings are creatively worked into the trees by a local artist.

We had a visit from the train that evening. Forsayth is the final stop on the Savannahlander from Cairns. In the late 1890s, the Chillagoe Company bought promising copper deposits in the Etheridge district which led the company to build a rail link in 1907 from Almaden to Einasleigh and Charleston. Charleston was renamed Forsayth after the railway’s commissioner, James Forsayth Thallon. Though the Chillagoe Smelters shut down in 1914, Forsayth remained the railhead for transport west. Plans in the 1930s to extend the railway to connect to the Croydon-Normanton line did not proceed. Queensland Rail opened the line to tourists in 1995 and it has been a private operation since 2004. It travels from Cairns every Wednesday via Kuranda and then Chillagoe before overnighting in Almaden. The second day travels to the heritage listed Etheridge railway line at Mt Surprise before arriving in Forsayth late Thursday and leaving for the two-day return trip on Friday.

The train and its full load of tourists affected our itinerary, forcing us to double back to Undara and then Cobbold Gorge in that order either side of our night in Forsayth. I’ll talk about those places in upcoming posts.

Adels Grove and Boodjamulla National Park

Adels Grove has been on my to do list ever since I arrived in Mount Isa in 2016 but for one reason or another, I’d never found the time to go there. It has always been a popular spot and even more so since Chris Hemsworth lent his star quality to a tourist ad filmed there which featured in the 2018 US Superbowl. I thought I might have missed my chance when Adels’ main building was destroyed by fire last year but it was miraculously kept open and a rebuild commenced.

We planned this trip for July this year as part of a journey around North Queensland and booked it back in November when no one had heard of the word COVID. When the pandemic hit in late March and everything started to shut down, the prospect of our trip actually happening seemed remote. Even when the rest of North Queensland started to reopen in May, Adels Grove remained steadfastly shut as part of the pandemic declared area of Burke Shire, with its vulnerable Indigenous population.

We left the booking open as long as we could and the state government finally relaxed restrictions a week before we were due to travel. Adels Grove reopened just two days before we went. But that was good enough for us. After a 370km journey that took us past Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil site we arrived at the Resort at the edge of Boodjamulla National Park. Boodjamulla is the Waanyi word for rainbow serpent dreaming.

Adels Grove Resort occupies 30 hectares from Lawn Hill Creek (pictured) to Louie Creek at the other. It was gazetted in 1904 as a miners’ homestead lease in Waanyi Country. Albert de Lestang took up the property in 1920 as an experimental Botanical Garden and his initials gave the Grove its name. De Lestang planted many species of trees and shrubs and supplied the Botanical Gardens of the world with the seeds produced by his nursery.

2019 wasn’t the first major fire at Adels Grove. An even bigger fire swept through in the early 1950s while de Lestang was absent. He lost his building complex, all his written records of plants and hybrids, his stores and most of the plants. He died broken-hearted in a Charters Towers nursing home aged 75. However the remaining vegetation recovered including natives gums and acacias and exotics like African Sausage trees, bamboo, Fried Egg Flower trees from South Africa, Gooseberry trees from India and the Cassia Siamea from Indonesia providing great habitats for birdlife. Adels Grove camping ground opened in 1984 and has been run as a resort since.

After a quick swim in Lawn Hill Gorge (there are freshwater crocodiles about but we didn’t see them), it was time to take a short evening walk to the lookout before dinner and check out the National Park from a distance. We would be taking a closer look in the morning.

The kitchen is operating again after last year’s fire but we brought our own food which we cooked up on the camp stove. The following morning was fresh but warmed up quickly. We were soon ready for the 10km drive down the road to the entrance to the National Park.

Boodjamulla National Park, formerly Lawn Hill National Park, features spectacular gorge country, sandstone ranges and World Heritage fossils. Lawn Hill Gorge is formed by Lawn Hill Creek, fed by freshwater springs from the limestone plateau to the west. The sandstone cliffs lining the gorge form a stunning contract with its emerald waters and lush vegetation. The Park lies on ancient sandstone of the Constance Range, between the Barkly Tablelands to the south-west and the black soils of the Gulf Savanna Plains to the east. Lawn Hill Creek and the Gregory and O’Shannassy rivers flow all year round, contrasting starkly to the dry, parched landscape during the dry season.

The red, hard sandstone was originally a blanket of sand deposited in an ancient shallow sea, one and a half billion years ago. Ripple marks from that ancient seabed are still visible in places. Surrounding life was just bacteria and algal-like stromatolites. Around 530 million years ago a new shallow sea formed, lapping up against the old sandstone. Sediments rich in lime and silica and remains of sponges and trilobites formed layers of limestone.

Water continually alters the Boodjamulla landscape. Over millions of years the sandstones and limestones have been stripped away by erosion. The Constance Range is being eroded westward by the Gulf streams. Lawn Hill Creek has cut down through the limestone and sandstone along prominent fractures, forming gorges. Pictured below is the view from the Duwadarri lookout over Middle Gorge.

At Riversleigh younger pale-grey limestones, deposited 25 to 15 million years ago lie on the older Cambrian limestones deposited in small rainforest lakes that flourished in a wetter climate. This limestone has become home for innumerable fragments of fossil vertebrate animals. Early relatives of today’s fauna fell, or were washed into those lakes preserved in the lime-rich sediments.

Our first walk of the day is a long one. We head west to Duwadarri Waterhole climbing up to Duwadarri Lookout (pictured below) then down to Indarri Falls before climbing again to the Upper Gorge lookout and then back to the camp site.

Where lime-rich water flows over rocks or vegetation debris, it evaporates and deposit skins of calcite (calcium carbonate). As the calcite is deposited in the creek, plant and animal matter can be trapped and fossilised. The calcite forms a porous, brittle rock known as tufa and builds up into fragile formations. Indarri Falls (shown below) and the Cascades are tufa formations.

You can swim in the creek at the base of Indarri falls and spot turtles, catfish, long toms and barramundi.

We then walk for a kilometre along the creek bed of the Middle Gorge keenly watching out for freshwater crocodiles. But like the turtles and long toms they kept their social distance.

Time to catch breath before another climb to the lookout of the Upper Gorge (pictured below). We then walked back to the information centre a different way to complete an 8km morning walk.

After lunch we went trekking again, this time eastward to the 2.6km Island Stack circuit. It starts with a steep climb up the prominent sandstone stack before a circular walk on the tabletop with great views from every angle.

The plan was to do the Wild Dog Dreaming walk on completion of the Island Stack walk. But as we looked down on the Middle Gorge below and saw the kayakers head up we decided we had to do that too. So there was an abrupt change of plan.

Adels Grove hire out kayaks from the information centre and for $54 we had a two-person canoe for two hours. The route took us down the Middle Gorge to Indarra Falls. From here there is portage that allows kayakers to paddle up to the Third Gorge. Gliding through the gorges was a magic feeling. It was a lovely way to end a great day in one of Queensland’s natural wonders.

Riversleigh Fossil World Heritage site

We were on our way to Adels Grove, a 380km drive north west from Mount Isa. There’s 110km of highway towards Camooweal then another 50km of bitumen on the Thorntonia-Yelvertoft Rd and a short blacktop section on the Gregory Downs-Camooweal Rd before the gravel kicks in. Just before the end of the bitumen, the clouds put on a show. It’s not quite Burketown’s Morning Glory but it is spectacular none the less.

The road is quiet with Burke Shire only just reopening after its COVID-19 pandemic declared area status was lifted the week before we travelled. There were a few cars about but the only real traffic was this herd of cattle being mustered near Thorntonia station.

After 150km the road turns to red dirt and it’s bumpy the rest of the journey with an average speed of 60 to 80kph depending on variable road quality. We turn off the Gregory road onto the equally bumpy Riversleigh Road to take us to our destination. Here we see the only building on the entire route: Riversleigh station. This is one of two stations run together as part of Lawn Hill and Riversleigh Pastoral Holding Company owned by the local traditional owners the Waanyi People.

Near Riversleigh station we encounter the first of two river crossings, this one the O’Shannassy River, which feeds into the Gregory. While I had a high lift vehicle and it was the dry season, the current was deceptively strong and I felt a strong tug as I drove through wanting to drag me into the stream.

About 250km in we cross the boundary from Mount Isa City to Burke Shire and enter the Boodjamulla National Park. This magnificent national park is most known for Riversleigh Heritage Fossil site and Lawn Hill Gorge but stretches through a vast landscape for 2820 sq km towards the NT border.

Around 260km into the journey and 100km from Adels Grove, we arrive at the Riversleigh Fossil World Heritage Area. According to David Attenborough, Riversleigh is one of the four great fossil sites in the world which keeps on giving when it comes to fossils, including a new marsupial lion identified this year.

Riversleigh covers 35 sq km and there are 280 sites identified but D-Site is the most famous. D-Site is easily seen from the road with this mound visible for kilometres in all directions. It was one of the first major fossil deposits found at Riversleigh and is the only publicly accessible part of this World Heritage area. Its fossils are from the late Oligocene period, dating back 25 million years. Turtles, fish, snails, crocodiles, lizards, pythons, birds and many types of mammal fossils have all been recovered here.

There is a small interpretive centre on the site and an 800m walk showing off some of the finds. Riversleigh is the richest known fossil mammal deposit in Australia and has been on the World Heritage list since 1994. The carvings are of a 25 million year old thunderbird which grew to 2.5m and a freshwater crocodile which killed using its blade-like teeth.

Riversleigh is barren and dry but 25 million years ago it was full of ancient lake deposits. It was a time when the ecosystem was evolving from rich rainforest filled with lakes and waterways to semiarid grassland community. The high concentration of calcium carbonate in the water ensured that fossils were extremely well preserved. When the skeletons of dead animals came into contact with water, the bones were quickly coated in limey mud. Later the bones were replaced with hard minerals from the limestone-rich water. Millions of years later, the fossilised bones have been exposed as a result of weathering by wind and water that dissolved and removed layers of surrounding soil and rock.

Fragments of limestone are scattered around the area and provide excellent examples of fossilisation. The fossil above belongs to the flightless thunderbird, Dromornis stirtoni. They weighed up to 300kg and enjoyed swimming in the lakewaters of the era. The fossils are surrounded by small pebbles which the bird swallowed to help grind food before digestion.

These rocks are 530 million years old. Called “Cambrian pancakes” they are remnants of what was once a continuous bed of limestone. Ancient fossil trilobites – the earliest arthopods alive – are preserved in this marine limestone from a time when Australia was part of Gondwana.

Above is the view from the top of the rise looking north towards the interpretative centre, the road, and the carpark with only our car in it. It is a vast and empty country.

The circular fossil is the cross-section of a limb bone belonging to baru wickeni, one of Riversleigh’s largest crocodiles. Baru was five metres long and an apex land predator. It killed its prey by shaking them with its jaws and slicing them with razor sharp teeth. The skull and jaw adaptations indicate it was specialised towards subsisting on large vertebrate prey of similar size to itself, ambushing victims close to water sources. Baru resembled a modern crocodile, but the deeper head and alligator-like overbite was more pronounced.

These fossils above are from a group of turtles called chelids which still live in Australian freshwaters such as nearby Gregory River. Other extinct turtles include the 200kg meiolaniid which had a horned skull and an armoured tail in a bony sheath.

On completion of the walk it was time to head back to the road north west. We were keen to see more of the national park and our bed for the night at Adels Grove Resort and it would take some time to get there on this beautiful but difficult dirt track.

Kevin Barry and his sister Katherine: the siblings behind the song

Katherine Barry and her brother Kevin.

I’ve known the name Kevin Barry since my youth though I did not know his sister Katherine (known as Kathy or Kathleen). Kevin Barry was one of the schoolboy heroes of the Irish War of Independence (though like North Cork Flying Squad leader Tom Barry he is no relation to me) and the song celebrating him “Kevin Barry” was always a popular rebel ballad.

But I cared little about the man or the song until my interest was piqued twice in recent times. Firstly I got a strange and amusing phone message. Rather than identifying himself the caller launched into the first four verses of Kevin Barry. I struggled to contain my laughter as I tried to work out who was singing. Only when the person finally started talking did I realise I had been serenaded to my namesake by my eccentric local MP Bob Katter. He did a decent job with the lyrics too.

Meanwhile I had been catching up with RTE’s History Show podcast and its excellent coverage of the centenary of the Irish War of Independence. In November its episode Music of the Revolution featured an unexpected and an excellent live version of Kevin Barry (superior even to Katter’s) performed by none other than Leonard Cohen.

Cohen’s version was recorded in Israel probably in 1972 which places it in the interregnum between the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars. Cohen lifts the song from its specific past in Ireland to make a more general point about war. “Not that I want to burden you with another war, another cause,” said Cohen, but they all amounted to the same thing, “men of 18 and 19 getting killed”.

Barry was “a lad of eighteen summers” when he was executed in Dublin in November 1920. He was convicted for his part in an attack upon a British Army supply truck in which three soldiers died. Coming in the heightened war atmosphere days after Cork mayor Terence McSwiney died on prison hunger strike, the Republicans quickly turned Barry’s death to propaganda purposes, though the three dead soldiers were just as young. The song Kevin Barry was written by an anonymous exile in Glasgow and later became famous when the great American singer Paul Robeson recorded it.

Dying aged 18, Kevin Barry left little personal legacy. However his sister Katherine Barry-Moloney, the eldest of seven children, later gave evidence to the Bureau of Military History. Their parents Thomas and Mary were strong farmers who ran a prosperous dairy in Tombeagh, Co Carlow and a retail outlet below the family home in Fleet Street, Dublin. When Thomas Barry died in 1908 the family was split between their homes in Dublin and Tombeagh. Katherine said she and Kevin were Republicans before 1916. As a member of the republican women’s movement Cumann na mBan, Katherine helped out where she could during the war.

Kevin joined the IRA as a schoolboy at Belvedere College towards the end of 1917 when he was still under 16. He joined 1st Battalion “H” Company and was quickly made a mobilisation officer “of which he was very proud”. This meant getting on his bicycle late Saturday night and mobilising the Company for route marches and Sunday morning parades. After a few months he was promoted Section Commander. He was ready for action as war heated up.

On September 20, 1920, Barry joined an IRA operation at Bolton St, Dublin. Their orders were to capture weapons from a British army truck as it picked up bread from a bakery. When the ambush happened, Barry covered the back of the vehicle and ordered the five soldiers to lay down their weapons. A shot was then fired probably from an uncovered soldier in the front. The ambush party opened fire. Barry’s gun jammed and he dived for cover under the vehicle. His comrades fled while he was left behind and was arrested. Private Harold Washington, aged 15, was dead and two other privates Marshall Whitehead and Thomas Humphries, later died of their wounds.

Katherine said Kevin was living with their uncle Patrick Dowling and that afternoon she was at work when she got a telephone call from Dowling’s manager. “He told me that they had just had an intensive military raid in which every piece of Kevin’s property had been taken away,” she said. “The manager had gathered that Kevin had been arrested”. Although no republican had been executed since 1916, she had a bad premonition. “From that moment I knew by some obscure instinct that Kevin was finished…I knew there was no hope.”

On her way home she bought the Evening Herald which had a garbled account of the action. It was their youngest sister’s birthday and there was a gathering at the house including Kevin’s closest friends. Between tea and curfew Katherine and her mother tried to find out where Kevin was jailed. Next morning their uncle found out he was in the Bridewell and had been tortured. Later that day Kevin was moved to Mountjoy prison.

The IRA told the family not to contact Kevin in case they were implicated. After a few weeks his distraught mother ignored the directive and went in disguise to see her son. Katherine’s boss Ernest Aston got an appointment to see Chief Secretary for Ireland Hamar Greenwood through Freemason connections. Greenwood told Aston that Kevin would be tried for murder and when Aston protested he was only a boy whom he knew well, Greenwood replied, “he may be a child in years, but he is a long time mixed up with that crowd.” Greenwood told him Kevin would be tried under a new Act which enabled courts martial to pass a sentence of death by hanging.

The court martial was scheduled for October 20. A lawyer was present but the defence was hampered by Kevin following IRA orders to refuse to recognise the court while the family refused to entertain a plea of insanity. Katherine and her mother attended the court martial with IRA permission and Kevin entered the room with military escort. “This was the first time that I had seen him since his arrest,” she said. “He looked well and very cheerful and desperately amused when he saw the table full of British officers.”

When the court started Kevin read aloud from a newspaper. Every time a witness spoke, Kevin refused to answer questions about their testimony. “You are wasting my time asking me,” he said. During an adjournment Katherine was allowed time with her brother and he gave his account of the raid. He arrived in town from Tombeagh that day for an exam at 2pm but hearing about the proposed action, he insisted on being allowed to take part and persuaded his officers it would finish before the exam. The ambush was scheduled for 11am but the truck was late.

Kevin was issued with a newly reconditioned .38 automatic and stationed on the pathway outside the bakery entrance. His job was to keep the truck covered. He shot three times and his gun jammed on the third round. He knelt down beside the truck and discarded that round. He stood up and lifted a flap on the truck, fired and killed a soldier. The gun jammed again on the fifth round. He knelt once more and was busy with the gun when he realised he was alone. He dived between the wheels of the lorry, hoping to escape in the confusion. The soldiers were about to drive off when a woman on the opposite side of the street shrieked out, “There’s a man under the lorry.” He tried to escape through the wheels on that side, but the soldiers captured him and took him to the North Dublin Union. After Kevin finished talking, his lawyer and a priest advised Katherine to take her mother home as the prosecution was about to bring in prejudicial character witnesses and they would also likely pass sentence.

The bad news was confirmed when Katherine returned to Mountjoy the following day. “Kevin told me quite calmly and rather proudly that about 8 o’clock the previous evening the District Courtsmartial officer – who had visited him frequently in connection with the summary of evidence – had entered his cell, handed him his sentence, burst into tears and left the cell.” He was to be hanged on November 1. “Mind!’, he said, ‘There is to be no appeal,” “No”, Katherine replied, “we would not do that.”

Kevin said the sentence might be changed to shooting. “I must say I’d rather be shot,” he said. Being on death row he had only to ask for any kind of food and drink and it was supplied. There were two Auxiliaries with him until the end and he was allowed four visits every weekday. Katherine was the last visitor on October 28. The death sentence by hanging was confirmed. Kevin’s first words to her were, “I suppose they told you they’re not going to ‘let me like a soldier fall’, but at least ‘they’ll hang me like a gentleman’.” It was a reference to the last play they saw together that summer, Shaw’s “Devil’s Disciple“.

On Friday October 29 Katherine visited Kevin with his lawyer and a JP to get his affidavit of torture after his arrest. Kevin thought if it was published in the English newspapers on Saturday, it would rouse the English conscience. During the taking of it, when Kevin was at a loss for a British military term, one of the Auxiliaries guarding him helpfully supplied it. The report didn’t make the papers until Monday November 1, the day of his execution. Derby Labour MP Jimmy Thomas read out the affidavit in a House of Commons debate. He got it from Katherine’s boss. Ernest Aston had taken the affidavit and Kevin’s photo and dashed over to London to lobby to stop the execution. Through a friend of Lloyd George he met the prime minister who apparently assured Aston the sentence would not be carried out.

Meanwhile Katherine saw her brother again on the Saturday. There was a vague plan to rescue him from prison, authorised by Michael Collins, but Katherine thought it had no chance and talked the IRA out of it saying he would “prefer to die for the Republic”. She had little memory of their penultimate conversation. “As Kevin was saying good-bye to me, he said that he was not going to write farewell letters to the immediate family. He said he was writing to friends who had written to him and visited him; but that for the family he would rather say good-bye on his feet.”

On Sunday there was a stream of visitors to their house with one lady wanting Kevin’s mother to send a telegram to the king. She angrily refused. There were appeals from the Archbishop of Dublin, lawyers to Dublin Castle and a petition of doctors. All were in vain. The family went to Mountjoy to see Kevin a final time. They found Kevin in a cheerful mood though warders were crying. Katherine gave him a message that University friends would be outside in the morning praying. He became serious and replied, “Tell them that is foolish. They’ll be all shot”. Katherine said he then suddenly began to swing his foot and whistle, “Steady Boys And Step Together” which lightened the mood and they began talking naturally.

A jail official told them it was time to leave. “So we said goodbye and the last thing he said to me as he kissed me was, ‘Give my love to the boys in the Company’,” she said. “We turned at the door for a last look and he was standing at the salute. When the door closed, my mother was battling with her tears. The hall was clear of Auxies except for a group at the end. But she was heroically determined to show no weakness in face of the enemy.”

A chaplain said Kevin was so cheerful he could not possibly realise he was going to die. Katherine said her mother drew herself up and said “Canon Waters, I know you are not a Republican. But is it impossible for you to understand that my son is actually proud to die for the Republic?” After attending Mass that night they were walking home when saluted by a passing Cumann na mBan branch. “Eyes right” their commander said as Mary Barry passed by.

After hearing two Masses in his cell, Kevin was executed on Monday morning and buried at Mountjoy that afternoon. Among the mourners to the house was Canon Waters. “He was full of kindness and sympathy and appreciation of Kevin’s bravery,” Katherine said. “Any little bad impression of himself that he might have left on my mother on the Sunday afternoon was completely wiped out on this occasion.”

All the Mountjoy men executed by the British are buried in the same plot. In 1922 and again in 1932 the question was raised of moving Barry’s body from the prison grounds. “On both occasions, we said that, as Kevin had died for the Irish Republic, his body could remain in Mountjoy until the Republic was restored. The relatives of the other men followed our lead,” Katherine said. “I am the only member of the family who has visited the grave since 1921, as I was once allowed to see it without a permit from the Minister for Justice. The little plot is beautifully kept and the National Graves Association has now (1940s) marked the graves.”

In April 1922 Eamon de Valera asked Katherine to accompany Countess Markievicz in a republican delegation to the US. When she returned the Civil War started. There was no doubt which side Katherine was on, or Kevin, had he survived. “Mick Collins and I were having one of many arguments about the Treaty. Mick listed a number of very fine soldiers who supported it and said, ‘How do you know your brother would not have supported it too?'” She told Collins what Kevin said before his arrest: “When this damned Dáil takes Dominion Home Rule, they need not expect us to back them up”. She said Collins replied “with characteristic generosity, ‘That is good enough. I won’t say that any more’.”

Katherine fought against Collins during the week long siege that ended in the death of Cathal Brugha, organising communication between Dublin and General Liam Lynch in the South. In December 1922 she was asked to reorganise the Irish Republican Prisoners Dependents Fund and acted as general secretary of the fund until September 1924, a position held in high regard by de Valera.

That year she married Jim Moloney. After travelling to the US to raise money she returned to Ireland in April 1925 and retired from active service, settling into married life and raising her family. She remained a committed republican, campaigning against the executions of republican prisoners between 1939 and 1947. Katherine Barry-Moloney died in Dublin on January 10, 1969, aged 72. On October 14, 2001 her brother Kevin Barry and nine others executed were given a state funeral as their remains were moved to Glasnevin Cemetery.

Proudly standing to attention
While he bade his last farewell
To his broken hearted mother
Whose grief no one can tell
For the cause he proudly cherished
This sad parting had to be
Then to death walked softly smiling
That old Ireland might be free.