 Townsville was founded by 2 workers from Woodstock who were sent on a journey to find a suitable area for a shipping port, which then become a hub for exporting some of Australia’s richest resources. Entrepreneur and businessman, Robert Towns provided financial assistance to the development of the town, therefore being named Townsville in his honour. Townsville faced more changes and development over the years, WWII transformed the town into a military hub to defend attacks from the Japanese. The sugar and mining industry has also played a big part in Townsville’s growth today making it home to 190,000 people. We stayed at the locally known “Sugar Shaker”, one of Townsville’s iconic buildings that stands 76 metres high with 23 floors. It was built on the site of the old Grand Central Hotel, which was cleared in 1973 and began construction in 1976. It’s unusual design was influenced by the thriving sugar industry in the region. Staying there was a blast, we relaxed and enjoyed lots of amazing food and inhaled as much sea breeze as we could.🌴🌊
        Constructed in the 1960’s to service the Uranium mine and township of Mary Kathleen, Corella Dam feed by the Corella River is now home to an array of birds, reptiles, and grey nomads, although thankfully not too many of the latter at this time of year. The main camping area was named after one of the founders of Mary Kathleen, Clem Walton. The mine completely closed in 1982 with the town buildings being auctioned and dismantled in 1983. It appears you could once walk along the Dam wall, but this is now fenced, so we could only view from a distance.
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.
Armed with our tyre floaters we first headed in the direction of Camooweal to find a waterhole one of the blokes at Gumby’s work had spoken of. After venturing through some spectacular spinifex county we gave up on the search, instead returning to The Isa and headed out to Cloncurry instead to find Sun Rock. 
Sun Rock waterhole is located approximately 45kms east of Mount Isa and is a culturally significant site to the local Kalkadoon people. The site is only located a short distance (150mtrs) off the Barkly Highway, but feels worlds away. Given the importance of Sun Rock waterhole the tyres remained dry for this adventure.
 Steeped in history, this small township of only some 300 people located approximately 260kms east of Mount Isa, was a Cobb and Co change station back in the late 1800’s. During this time Cobb and Co stations were placed 50 miles apart with a journey from Richmond to Normanton taking approximately 5 days to complete. The original name for the river the township is named after was Scorpion Creek, but was renamed to Hilton by the surveyor who arrived to peg boundaries in 1870, not liking the name Scorpion Creek. Duncan McIntyre, whilst on an expedition of the area to find suitable grazing land, came across a tree with the letters LL engraved in it, this he thought must have been from the ill fated explorer Ludwig Leichhardt. It is said McIntyre renamed Hilton to Julia Creek. Many believe Burke and Wills passed through this area, but this is incorrect, however John McKinlay, leader of an expedition to find Burke and Wills did pass through the area in 1862 and so the Shire is named McKinlay. 
The population of Julia Creek swells annually from 300 to 3,000 for the Dirt and Dust Festival. The festival incorporates a Sprint Triathlon, Horse Race and Rodeo, including other events like cow pat throwing and bog snorkelling. Shovel, having grown up in Australia’s Rodeo Capital has been to his fair share of Rodeos, but this was my first Rodeo. I felt conflicted going as I don't believe animals should be used for entertainment, but was surprised how well the bulls were treated and seemed to be celebrities in their own right. We both agreed the Bull Fighters were the stars of the show, however as they threw themselves in front of the bulls to protect the cowboys. It was incredible to watch one Bull Fighter throw himself on top of a cowboy to protect him after he was knocked unconscious, whilst the other Bull Fighter, trying to coax the Bull out of the ring got slammed up against a wall. We slept on a camping mattress in the back of Rex over the weekend at their Show Grounds and were blessed with stunning sunrises.
 Approximately 180 kilometres west of Mount Isa is a small town with a population of approximately 187 people. The town was discovered by a surveyor that goes by the name of GT Weale, who apparently introduced camels to the region. We took a trip across to see the Camooweal caves and the Northern Territory Border, unfortunately the road was too muddy to the caves but the drive was spectacular. It was Australia Day (Invasion Day, Survivors Day) and the town come to life with ride on lawn mower races, telecasted by helicopter. Such a great atmosphere. 🚁🚁🚁🚜🚜🚜
Our first road trip with Rex and Florence pulling up along the way in Townsville, Hughenden and Cloncurry. Highlights included seeing Shovel’s family and playing frisbee in the park, eating pies for breakfast in Hughenden and watching the third Test Australia vs Pakistan in Sydney at a Richmond pub. It was slow going when only travelling at 80kph, but loads of fun and feels great knowing everything we need is right there with us. Shovel never stops amazing me with his deadly hidden talents and did an amazing job reversing Florence and changing her tyre on the highway just outside of Cloncurry. We were gratefully thankful to Will (a bloke with a ‘hill billy’ sticker on his Ford Ute) that helped us out by lending us his wheel brace. That age old adage played true as you should never judge a book by it’s cover. Will was driving from Brisbane back to his home town Darwin for work, he would travel the 3000+kms through the night and was doing this to support his wife and 2year old daughter who were both back in Brisbane. His daughter has cancer and would have to remain in Brisbane for another year receiving treatment. It completely broke our hearts that this guy would stop to help us when he himself had so much going on. I tried to offer him 50 bucks to go and buy dinner, but he refused, saying he was just happy to help. I wish government money could instead be spent providing Will and people in this circumstance with flight vouchers or greater support, rather than being used to fund the Political events calendar or the unemployed with alcohol and drug money.
 Sixty kilometres north of Hughenden is the Porcupine Gorge, which expresses millions of years of formation from volcanic activity.
Home to the discovery of the Kronosaurus fossil and many other prehistoric marine creatures. We thought we would do the usual Richmond thing and get a photo with the Kronosaurus.
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