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This was the first time Shovel and Gumby had flown together since meeting in 2016. Over land is how we'd previously travelled until a trip to Geelong to celebrate Gumby's step dad's 70th Birthday had us flying south. The view leaving Mount Isa following the recent heavy rains was spectacular and we felt grateful for the opportunity to witness this from the air. Shovel loves planes and flying and was completely in his element sitting by the window.
Museum of Play and Art (MoPA)
An outing with Shovel's Niece provided us with a great opportunity to visit the Riversleigh Fossil Centre in Mount Isa. This museum and subsequent display of fossils from the Riversleigh World Heritage area provides visitors with an insight into the type of fossils collected and discovered at Riversleigh. We had a fabulous few hours being shown around the display and laboratory by Alan an old mining colleague of Shove's Dad and a dedicated volunteer of thirty-three years, who has worked and continues to work tirelessly in the laboratory searching for fossil fragments and hosting daily tours.
We found some interesting specimens, although not a perfect Maltese Cross, we’re still pretty happy with our finds.
 Gumby’s parents came to the Isa for a visit so we took them on the “Mount Isa City Deluxe Tour” created by Shovel and Gumby. We started the day watching the sun rise at Telstra Hill, then after breakfast in Florence, drove around seeing sites such as the Mica Creek Power Station, Casa Grand, the Copper Mine and Black Rock open cut and the Lead Mine where Shovel works. We grabbed pies from Grant’s the best pies in town and headed to Lake Moondarra. Next on the Deluxe Tour we ventured out to Three Steps for a bit of Aboriginal rock art viewing then back into town for some r'n'r before dinner. We had a lovely dinner at the Ibis with the parents and Shovel’s sister. We finished off the night at the lookout, marvelling at the brightly lit city.
 Meet Cherry our new Holden Trailblazer.
Unfortunately Rex was having technical difficulties and becoming a money pit, so we went car shopping, found Cherry and we couldn’t be happier with our decision. Rex will go down in history as a beast. He took us off-road to places we didn’t think he’d go and towed Florence to the Isa. He was an awesome car, but was becoming a bit unreliable. Farewell Rex. Welcome Cherry to the Shovel and Gumby family. 
2017 marks 150 years since Ernest Henry discovered rich deposits of copper and kicked off the Great Australia Mine, that put Cloncurry on the map. To celebrate Cloncurry’s mining success, the council has been hosting a series of special events and we were grateful to be a part of one - a ride on a Steam Train! Gumby and I surprised my (Shovel’s) mum for her birthday and brought my Parents out to Cloncurry to experience a bit of history. The train was manufactured in the 1950’s and was the last steam train ever built. The carriages were all different, their build dates ranged from as early as the early 1900’s up to the 1970’s. Every carriage was beautifully preserved, it was a moving history museum and the outback Queensland scenery outside filled the windows with endless bush colours. Fascinating experience and loads of fun. We also pulled up at the Chinaman Creek Dam lookout for some rock chucking and views, then stretched the legs at Burke and Wills memorial.
 The Herberton Historical Village gives you a feel of what Herberton was like in the early days through its Tin mining era. Being founded in the 1880s, it is the Tableland’s oldest town. The village takes you back in time with everything a town offered in those times, a pub, bank, school, chemist, butcher, car garage and many more. We had a pioneer camp oven lunch which was beef stew, damper and a pannikin of billy tea done over the fire, bloody delicious! Gumby was in her element with antique sewing machines and furniture while I discovered what being a teacher and a radio technician was like back in the day. We also came across a whole collection of Mount Isa Mining Magazines from the 1950s to the 1970s, which we could’ve spent hours looking through. After 2 days there we could’ve stayed another day discovering the village.
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The JourneyChoose Curiosity The Catalogue
November 2023
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