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This week was again a
pretty busy week. We started it by driving from Normanton thru Cloncurry onto
Mt. Isa. On the way we found one or two pretty Australian statements of Life,
the purple Pub in Normanton and the Gulflander Train. This Train once intended
to become a part of a Train System covering all of Australia, leads an isolated
existence between Normanton and Croydon. In Mt. Isa booked an underground tour
through the Mt. Isa Mine. There they take you to real underground working areas
to show how the Ore is won and what the procedures and involved equipments look
like to get up to the ground where it is processed and smeltered. Refining then
Takes place in Townsville for Copper or for Lead and Silver near London in the
UK. Sadly it is not allowed to take any cameras underground. On the next day we
then booked an overground tour thru Mt. Isa, the Mine and as well to the Mt.
Isa Mine Visitor Center and Museum. Mt. Isa Mines is operating since 1924 when
it first started to win lead. Basically now a days copper, lead, silver and
zinc are mined here. The orebodies underground are found on an area of 5km
length, 1.2 km width and 2.4 km depth. Within this area today roadways and
drills of up to 950km in length and about 133 km railways can be found. Once
Mt. Isa was worlds biggest lead Mine, the lead ore is now almost completely
mined. Today more ore lead is brought from the nearby Hilton mine then from the
Mt. Isa Mine itself. It was a very interesting excursion, even my wife did
agree on this one. Usually she's not so keen on technology or museums.
Leaving Mt. Isa, we visited lake Moondarra which is the water resource and a
recreation area to the population of Mt. Isa. From there, we drove via
Camooweal to Barkly Homestead, and on towards Cape Crawford. Here we visited
the Lost City Rock Formations at Carrabirini. The Next Day we drove
via Nathan River Station to Roper Bar to our destination Mataranka. About 400m
of Gravel Road through a very scenic and ever changing Landscape, and about 130
km of Bitumen (Teer). We camped at Mataranka Homestead and went for a swim in
the hot springs there. Actually not really hot springs, more a huge underground
water reservoir that is replenished during the yearly monsoon. The underground
reservoir fills the pools with unbelievable 16'000 liters per minute with a
temperature of 34.5 degrees celsius all year round. The next day we explored
the Elsey National park of which these pools are now part of. These waters are
fed into the Roper River. Along this River a number of walking Tracks lead from
one Visitor area to another one and as well to the Mataranka Falls. During our
visit it was 38 degrees celsius and very humid. So we refrained from taking the
long walks. |
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