Submitted: Friday, Mar 21, 2008 at 09:22

I thought I would detail the trips I have enjoyed around Australia . Some of the dates might be out by a year or two , as when you get to my age , things start to blur a bit .

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1959 - Age ten , my mother takes me on a three week Redline Bus camping trip to Coober Pedy , Ayers Rock , Darwin , Sydney and all points in between . The bus broke an axle on the Oodnadatta track and was sideswiped by a drunk in a ute south of Mt Isa, but we all made it back safely . Memories include climbing Ayers Rock before the chain was put in ( scared coming down ) , absolutely nothing around Ayers Rock then - just sandhills and nothing was closed off to the public .
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1960 - Age 11 , my mother takes us camping up to Fraser island . Nothing there then.

We went over on a barge from Maryborough with an old gent called Jake Lack . I was very excited because my mother bought me a bone handled knife with a sheath which had folding gadgets in the handle - I often wonder where it went . Memories of Maryborough were two - watching the Miss Maryborough beauty Queen waving from her float with very bushy black hairy armpits and not being able to buy salami anywhere in the town - most people did not even know what it was .

Memories of Fraser Island - finding Nautilus shells and glass balls with nets around them. Seeing heaps of brumbies and dingoes and having our soap eaten by rats in in the fishermans shack we stayed in . There was no other accommodation on the island in those days . We drove from one end of the island to the other in an open top blitz wagon - a great adventure for a kid .

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1961 - Age 12 , my mother takes us on a trip from Brisbane to Thursday Island and down to Weipa on the coastal steamer Waiburn ( spelt? - pronounced Why burn). The ship was only 1200 tons ( size of a Manly ferry ) and stopped at Townsville , Cairns , Palm Island , Portland Rhodes , Thursday Island and Weipa .

Memories include seeing the shell warehouses in TI with 44 gallon drums full of shells , seeing a big tiger shark being caught on the jetty where we were tied up , seeing a man at TI who had scars all round his neck where he had had his head in a sharks mouth , spearing fish from the side of the ship , with a fish spear bought at TI , after the crew rigged up an arc light over the side to attract them for me at night , seeing Weipa when they were just starting to build the town .

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1971 - My mate and I decided to drive to Perth . We had two weeks , but decided it was "doable". We only had two speeds in the V6 Capri and got to Broken Hill at 2.30 pm on the first day . We camped at Peterborough that night . We were sick of driving already , so changed our plans and drove up to the Flinders Ranges . We were there at 9.00 am on the second day . Crazy kids , but there was no radar in those days . We went all round the Flinders getting lost and bogged in the sand a number of times . Went back through the Barossa and had so much wine in the car my mate had his legs sitting on bottles in the front .

Hit a crow on the way back at 115 mph and lost a driving light and a windscreen wiper - what a great car .

A badly organized trip , with totally inadequate gear , which we enjoyed tremendously .

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1972 - My first 4WD trip . My best mate and I went halves in one of those old three speed , red and white Nissans . It was an ex-geologist's car with over 200,000 hard miles on the clock . It had a 20 gal water tank and 20 gal petrol tank in the rear area , leaving little room for gear and it let in so much bull dust , we had to wear wet cloth masks to breath .

We had three weeks holidays , so decided to go barra fishing on the Gulf at the Mitchell River Mission ( now Kowanyama ) . We received permission , and drove all day and into the night for three days - got to Normanton on the third day and headed North through Vanrook . Camped a night on the Staaten river and caught and ate a heap of grunter. Got to the Mission and received a warm welcome from the manager and his family who laughed when they saw our "barra gear ". This consisted of Penn 911 baitcast reels with 15lb line and Ugly Stick baitcast rods . They used venetian blind cord tied to a piece of wood with trebles screwed into it . They threw this into the middle of the snags and then jerked it out .

Our boat was a 10' ply dinghy , powered by an outboard which used a Victor lawnmower motor and had an aluminium prop - quality gear !

The Mission was well run , clean and everyone was friendly .

We were assigned to a Torres Straight Islander , who took us out in their putt-putt boat when we were not casting off the banks . The TSI was a bit of a problem , as he tried to spear every fish as we got it near the boat . We caught a heap of barra , and never considered crocs a problem . We used to wade around on the sand banks and were only cautious about stepping on sawfish . Imagine wading around in the Mitchell River these days . Our trip back to Sydney was uneventful and we sold the Nissan on our return .

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1974 - Decided to go fishing at Mitchell River again . Tracks were good last time , so we decided to take my mates V8 Holden station wagon .

When we got to Normanton , we found that the road north through Vanrook was closed and we had to take a "minor detour" over to Chillagoe and then head WNW back across to the Mitchell through Wrotham Park , Highbury and Dunbar .

Mitchell River had been handed back to the community for them to run it themselves , so we had written for permission to fish and got no answer . We decided to risk it and go anyway . Got there and the place looked like a cyclone had hit it . Rubbish and abandoned machinery everywhere . We were told we could not camp / fish without council permission and to go down to the river and wait for it . We waited for it for two weeks and caught a heap of barra again . Never heard from the council , but went in and said goodbye and thanked them all .

On the way back across the Cape , the wet started in September . It took us a week to get through the wet sticky black soil to Chillagoe . Memories of that section include having the wagon on full opposite lock with a trailer on the back sliding through a patch of black soil , running out of food and drinking water , building channels to drain off the track , the trailer wheels stopping turning when the black soil built up around them and driving the ridges alongside the road with me sitting on the bonnet looking for anthills in the long grass . Sold our 10' dinghy to a road gang after the roof racks broke .

Chillagoe was a great place in those days . It was like the wild west . There was a petrol bowser you pumped up with a glass bowl on the top and the hotel was run by a couple of old ladies who served breakfast with silverware .

Great trip .

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Every year we used to take our hot cars up to Bathurst for the 500 . We would camp out on the Turon River and go trout fishing . Great times .

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My next trip up to Qld was in a company car . As a rep , I had to put my mileage down on my report every week . I added a 100 klm a week to this until my holidays came up and then dissapeared with the Company Falcon for three weeks . I hit a roo on the way to Cooktown , but it did little damage and they never figured it out .

A great trip this one , and we fished in a number of rivers along the coast . Nearly drowned ourselves when we decided to take a little 10' tinnie out to Dunk Island from Tully Heads ( or was it Airlie Beach ?). Wind came up big time when we were out there fishing . I still don't know how we made it back . Silly boys ! My mate got a bush cockroach in his ear that night and we had to take him into Tully Hospital .

We fished all the way down the coast back to Sydney .

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I did no more long trips for about 15 years . looking back , I guess I was more interested in wine , women and song than bull dust and the outback . We used to go camping a lot with my two boys . We had an on site van at Providence Portal on Lake Eucumbene . From there we would fish in the summer and ski in the winter . About 1990 , we took the kids on a trip to the Flinders and up through the centre to Kakadu and Litchfield . That got me interested in the outback again , but by that time I was a partner in a fishing tackle import company and had little time for camping trips .

About twelve years ago I purchased 165 acres on the Abercrombie River . It is beautiful land , but useless for anything but camping , as it is so steep . It has over 4 klm of river frontages as it is in between the Abercrombie and Isabella Rivers . We go there for three day camping trips - I wish I was there now , this Easter .



Around 2000 I got very sick and nearly died . A month in hospital gave me plenty of time to evaluate my life and what the future might hold , if I was lucky enough to have one . I made plans to get out of the business as soon as possible , with enough money for my retirement . My plan was to do a lot of traveling around Australia in my 4WD .

In 2004 , I was able to retire . My wife was too , but she has a good job and said she would go crazy with me at home every day, so kept working . I decided I had to get to Western Australia as soon as possible .

I booked myself into a Murchison safaris Tagalong and left Sydney to meet them in four days at Meekatharra . That was the trip that set my life in the direction I wanted and was the start of five years of trips to the Great Sandy Desert , The Little Sandy Desert , The Kimberley and The Pilbara . My new life had begun .

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2004 July

Sydney , Norseman , Meekathara , Carnarvon Range , CSR , Calvert Range , Mungkulu Range , Cotton Creek , Rudall N.P. , Woodie Woodie , Running Waters , Oakover / Davis Rivers , Marble Bar , Nullagine , Norseman , Sydney .

Memorable Bits

The stunning aboriginal cave paintings and engravings in the Carnarvon Ranges , the Calvert Range and the Durba Hills . During this trip , I became very interested in exploring for , finding and photographing aboriginal cave paintings . Since then I have purchased a lot of books on the subject and have done a lot of reading about it . I am planning trips to Cape York in 2009 to have a look at some of the paintings there.

Running Waters on the Davis River was a real stunner - probably in the top 5 most beautiful places I have ever visited . Sadly , I went back there in 2006 and the springs were hardly flowing .

The beautiful pools at Rudall River and Desert Queen Baths , where we camped and swam .
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2005 June

Sydney , Norseman , Geraldton , Kalbarri , Carnarvon , Kennedy Range , Barlee Range , Hammersley Ranges , Marble Bar , Coppins Gap , Telfer , Rudall N.P., Hanging Rock , Christie Crossing , Carrawine Gorge , Running Waters , Nullagine , Norseman , Sydney .

Memorable Bits

The desert scenery painted in reds , whites and yellows in the Kennedy and Barlee Ranges , was incredible . The Hammerley Range was great as well , but heaps of people.

The trip from Rudall River to Hanging Rock was beautiful , as was camping at the base of Hanging Rock . We went out from there and discovered aboriginal paintings in the surrounding caves . The trip from there to Christie Crossing was very rough and we constantly lost the track and " navigated by the stars " ! - Great trip though .
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2006 May

Sydney , Quorn , Oodnadatta , Alice Springs , Cleland Hills , Alice Springs Sydney .

Memorable Bits



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2006 June

Sydney , Norseman , Meekathara , Wiluna , Gunbarrel Hwy , Eagle Hwy , Warri and Yatunga Site , across country to Mt Madley , Mungkulu Ranges , Calvert Ranges , Durba Springs , up Savory Creek to Newman , Norseman , Sydney.

Memorable Bits



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2007 June

Sydney , Quorn , Alice Springs , West MacDonald Ranges , James Range , Pt Augusta , Sydney .

Memorable Bits


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2007 June

Sydney , Mt Isa , Stuart Hwy to Dunmara , Gregory N.P. , Timber Creek , Kununurra , Mitchell Plateau ( wife flew in for 10 days at Kimberley Coastal Camp ) , Drysdale N.P. ( 14 day bushwalk ), Marble Bar , Nullagine ( 10 day Coiltek gold detecting tagalong ) , Punmu , Gary Junction Hwy , Alice Springs , Peterborough , Sydney.

Memorable Bits

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2008 June

I left at the start of June for a 10 day gold detecting tagalong at Cue WA with Gold Prospecting Australia . I took my 16' Bushtracker van which mad esure that I spent heaps on fuel , but lived like a king .

It was an uneventful five day trip to Cue and I met the rest of the tour in the main st . We camped for ten days in a stock reserve about five km east of the town . I could not believe how badly I did at detecting on this outing . In one year I had forgotten everything I had learned previously . Very frustrating , but as usual , it was a fascinating chance to exploran other old goldfield .

Mark , the owner and operator of Gold Prospecting Australia tours saw that I needed help and spent a lot of time re-educating me in the finer points of detecting . I ended up with less nuggets than anybody else , but still had a great ten days .

After the tour finished I hightailed it up to Newman, where I had arranged to leave my van in the backyard of Joe - an EO regular, who runs Pilbara tagalongs out of the town .What a great guy - helped me with info , helped me make repairs to my van and sent me on my way knowing the van was safe .

Arriving at Newman I met four friends who I had done the Drysdale NP bushwalk with in 2007 . We were in three vehicles and our plan was to go west via Balfour Downs , cross the Oakover at Christie Crossing and explore the area around Bocrabee Hill .
After a late start on Saturday we had travelled less than 4 km when my engine stopped dead . Nothing we could do helped , so I rang my mate at ARB in Sydney . He gave me a list of things that it might be , but we could could not get it started . We hooked up a tow rope and pulled it back into a mechanic at Newman . He tested the fuel pump and found it was OK , so I started glooking at the list again . Last thing on the list was "Check the performance chip/ computer by unplugging it and plugging the old Toyota one back in . Voila , it started immediatel . My after market computer had fallen over ( and still under warranty - amazing ).

So , off we went again. We called in to Balfour Downs to get permission to pass through . The owner was a bit standoffish , but agreed to let us through . We continued on through a maze of tracks and with the help of OziExplorer ended up at the crossing where we camped for the night . There was a lot of water in the Oakover River after the big rains a fortnight before . Two of the cars made it through OK , but the third one needed a snatch up the other side . We camped at the base of Bocrabee Hill for the night . That afternoon we climbed the Hill ( a mesa ) and had a good look around at the country to the north where we planned to explore next day. I found a beautiful big black headed python up there sunning himself .

Next morning , after we explored the waterholes of the adjacent creek , we headed out looking for the faint track to the north I had found on Google Earth . We found it with the help of OziExplorer and then set of north along a set of very faint tracks which constantly dissappeared . After many hours we finally arived at a creek with water still in it . The tracks we had followed belonged ( we think ) to a geologist who was collecting samples for a mining company . The next day we followed the tracks on foot for another five km . He was certainly an accomplished 4WDer as nothing seemed to stop him . He went up and down many gorges and we figured he must have been collecting samples .

There was a number of waterhole and claypans I had located using Google Earth and I wanted to check out in the area for aboriginal rock art , so over the next couple of days we went out locating them on foot . No rock art , but there was lots of evidence that aboriginal people had used the sites for many years .

At the end of the three days camped there we headed south for one day of exploring and then headed back to Newman after a night at Christie Crossing .

One night in Newman to do the washing and then off up to Nullagie for two days detecting and then on the road again for Halls Creek where once again I hooked up with Gold Prospecting Australia for another ten day tagalong . There was fourteen people detecting and they found plenty of good nuggets - at least six over 10 gm two over 30 gm . Of course as usual , I only got small stuff . But it was more good learning so I was not too unhappy . Mark had his own gold leases at the start of the Tanami Track and we spent the time camping and detecting there .

At the end of the tagalong I headed off down the Tanami . I had been informed that the corrugations were really bad , but took little notice , as I had come up there the previous year and it had been a breeze . BIG MISTAKE - the track was absolutely shockingly corrugated for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres . I stopped for a break about lunchtime on the first day and as a matter of course checked all the van bearings for heat . Bad news - one of them was very very hot . I set the car in low range and got out and walked along next to the wheel . A heard nasty grinding noises and new I was in the poo . Once again I thought of my guardian angel at ARB and wondered if there was any Next G coverage to ring him for advice . By an absolute fluke , there was . He said that as they had just checked and repacked the virtually new bearings , he felt that the heat was probably caused by the disintegration of the brakes . He gave me a heap of instructions on how to remove the bearing and the break cover and I got to work jacking up the beast . One hour and one more phone call and I had pulled out all the broken bits of brake gear and was on my way again .

The rest of the trip was uneventful - I camped on the Tanami for one night behind a telephone tower , well off the road . As I drove out of a service station in Alice Springs , an entire set of the van's leaf springs sheared all the way though . I drove slowly to the caravan park with a pronounced list to port , looking like the Titanic , just before it slipped beneath the waves . Next day I set out to find somebody who had a set of the springs and who had the time to install them . It took three days to get a set in , and on the fourth day I was out of there with the speed of a thousand startled gazelles . I still looked like the Titanic , but now I was listing to starboard . Apparently the old springs had flattened out and when I got back to Sydney , I had a new set put in on the other side - even keel again !

I travelled down through Coober Pedy and joined some other vans at an overnight stop . Then back through Quorn to say hello to Noel Fullerton , up to Peterborough to say hello to Judith and Willem and off home to Sydney .

Memorable Bits

It was all good except the Tanami - but even then I felt pretty good after pulling the bearings out , as I am a mechanical clutz and this was a major achievment for me !

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2008 August

Off up to Tibooburra , via Mt Grenfell Aboriginal cave painting site near Cobar . Then up through White Cliffs to Tibooburra for another 10 day gold detecting tagalong with Gold Prospecting Australia . Then I have to hightail it back to Sydney .

Memorable Bits

Mt Grenfell was a vey beautiful spot and National Parks are doing a great job building walking tracks with the local sandstone . The art is plentiful , but fairly low grade although normal for the area . There is a number of large overhangs which

Found 14 gold nuggets , 13 of which were very small ( under 0.05 gm ) but I got one decent one of 5 gm . Great trip . 14 people got 230 nuggets in 9 days weighing around 66 gm . We detected different spots around Tibooburra , but did not go down to Mount Brown .
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2008 October

I joined Willem and Judith and a chap called Fred from the Aus.Gold Forum and Peter and Mary - a couple I had met in WA on a gold detecting tagalong . We camped north of Dunolly in Victoria's Golden Triangle at a camping reserve ( with toilets ) called Waanyarra Picnic Area .

We had little luck at that area and only one small nugget was found . It was a nice camping spot though and it was a fascinating area to explore . Old mines , puddlers , dams , old machinery , water races , old stone foundations of huts , cemetries from the time of the gold rush and plenty of mine shafts .

After four days Mary and Peter and I moved to Avoca where we had been invited to meet a fellow detectorist who was going to guide us to a few spots . We stayed in the little Avoca caravan Park for five nights . Mary found about six pieces , Peter 2 or three and I got two bits on the last day . Boy was I pleased to find them - I thought I was going to have to go home with nothing .
On the last day we toured the Pyenees wineries and had lunch along the way.

Memorable bits

Good times around the campfire and finding my first specimen gold (gold held in a piece of rock) . Not being in Sydney watching my share portfolio lose value day after day was nice too .
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TO BE CONTINUED

PS . Sorry for any spelling mustakes .

Tags: 4WD, Camping, Travel Journal, Aboriginal
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