Charters Towers

Cowboy country!

Thought I would write up my blog while I am downloading the photos as tomorrow we head off so that involves a bit of a pack up. Plus we have Rifter booked in at the vets at 8.30 so we'll have to get going. He's not sick but has been crazy itchy...probably allergic to some of the different grasses up here. Thought it might be best to get something to help before we head further away from civilisation ...and vets. From here we go west to Hughenden and Winton, then the next day south to Longreach. I know nothing about these places apart from the fact they are station country, so no doubt we will see more cows....and bush.

Charters Towers was built after the accidental discovery of gold by a 12 year old Aboriginal boy searching for horses who bolted after a flash of seeing lightning. That started a rush which peaked in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.  The population increased to about 30 000. At one stage it had 65 hotels. Currently the  population is about 8 000. The gold was found in very rich seams, 34 grams per tonne, which was double that of Victoria and much much higher than Kalgoorlie. I continue to be amazed at the impact that gold discovery had on the development of Australia.  What a rush of building, population growth and development ... probably never to be repeated. Anyway Enough of the history lesson!

First stop was the lookout. There are two and it was at the second that Greg realised that his glasses were missing and then rethinking remembered he'd left them on the bonnet of the car.  An anxious return to the show grounds where we were camped and luck was smiling on us today as we found them intact lying on the road. Phew!! The workmen who were driving about hadn't , managed to drive over them

We checked out a couple of the local parks. Rifter likes that bit. There were lots of flying foxes hanging around in the trees in public gardens, they are a nuisance and stink. Later on in the evening we saw hundreds and hundreds fly over head. They streamed past on dusk for about twenty minutes.

We walked up and down the main street which was full of elegant heritage buildings. I really loved the shop that is now used by Target with display windows, fancy glass and pressed tin ceilings. There were so many beautiful buildings.

After lunch we went to the cemetery which contained 5000 graves of pioneers from 1872-1895. A new cemetery was built after 1895. Many are unmarked and are just a ring of stones. Others indicate just how hard life was.... Like the family where Mary died ..probably giving birth to twins at 31 and prior to that she lost William (2 and a half) and Robert (11days) within two months of each other. The twins lived for 8 months and died in the month of March.

We drove out to the Burdekin Weir. The Burdekin is Australia's fourth largest river by volume and provides water for the town. Plenty of bird life about. On the drive out we almost skittled a pair of bush turkeys who wandered onto the road.

Lots of the homes here have an interesting vent on the top of their roof and the shire had a drawing as it's symbol so took a few photos to remember it.