As the road from Palmerville Station to
Maytown was under reconstruction after the rains and closed by the
Cook Shire Council, we decided to take the Whites Creek Road off the Peninsula Development Road, 68km north of Mount Carbine on 30th June 2011.
There were no signs to the turnoff but we found it after overshooting and doing a u-e. The
Cook Shire Council has over the past year or so spent considerable time and money upgrading this road so as to facilitate tourism and to provide good access for mining operations in the area.
I did some research via links provided here on this
forum, kindly supplied by a
forum member. The advice was that the road was 2wd access, not suitable for the towing of caravans but that people may tow camper-trailers in at their own risk and that road construction was underway. Seeing as our mobile tent is a cross between a trailer and a van we decided to give it a go anyway.
The road winds its way over the rugged hills of the Sussex Ranges. It necessitated the use of Low Range, down and up the hills they were that steep in
places. A modern vehicle, turbocharged and computerised may do the hills with ease but my old diesel slug with a ton hanging off the back, needed to take it easy and therefor I took it slow. The 68km to
Palmer River Crossing took 2.5 hours to complete. The road surface is smooth without corrugations but the dips at the bottom of the hills are sharp and usually with some water, either ponded or flowing. So there is no hope of taking a run up from one downhill to the next uphill. Even without towing something quite a bit of care needs to be taken. The road can be driven by a 2wd but it would be pushing that type of vehicle to its limits and then there is the issue of crossing the Palmer River, with or without water. Still while we were camped I saw a 2wd ute come in and a large truck-type mobile
home. There is also a lot of bulldust along this road.
The last 20km to Dog Leg Bend on the Palmer River is heavily bulldusted with some of it becoming slippery as water. I ran my tyres at 28psi front and 32psi in the rear with the trailer-van at 28 as
well. The crossing at Palmer River was sandy and only about knee deep for a tall person. I walked it first and then drove through staying to the left of the crossing. Once over the crossing there is ample camping space along the northern river bank of the Palmer River set in about a kilometre of range, some of which has couch grass and one can pick and choose a spot. Our trailer-van had no bulldust or water ingress when we found our
campsite and this was very pleasing. There is prolific bird life along the river fringes, Red Claw Yabbies in the pools and wild cattle and horses roam around at will.
Immediately after crossing the river we came to an old bloke from down south who had dragged a 2.5ton single axle van in with a 4.5lt petrol tug. It is automatic to boot and he related a story about how he stalled it on one of the hills as 2nd low gear had run out of puff. He stopped and the heavy van started to drag the rig backwards down the
hill. What seemed like ages was only a few heart-stopping seconds, but at last it stopped the downward slide, and he was able engage first gear to continue the climb. There were three other camps further downstream and they were out of earshot. We did see them on their 4x4 quad bikes. Apparently they had some luck finding a good piece of the shiny stuff but not sure where exactly as personal mining activities within the Reserve are restricted.
From the
Palmer River Crossing it is 10km to
Maytown. The first half of the road climbs up on to a plateau and has been graded throughout the Palmer River Goldfields Reserve but the tracks still remain slow going and rough in
places. The last 3 km to
Maytown is washed out in
places and is slow going. Judging by the number of entries in the visitor’s book at the old
Miners Hut Replica around 200 vehicles have been in since mid-April this year.
Maytown and its surrounding mines is a fascinating place to explore and one has to wonder what type of hardships the community of that era must have endured, living in this rugged terrain. The ages on the headstones in the
cemetery show many died before the age of 50.
We explored as far north as the Chinese
Cemetery and North Palmer River. There is also current mining activity in the area and rough signs inform you of that. Road signage on the track to
Laura is inadequate after
Louisa Mine, so you will have to follow your nose or superior GPS to find the way. Along this way there is a lovely modern
shack with
solar power, big TV aerial and a large green front lawn. There is also a sprinkler system installed along the road so as to keep dust down as travellers pass by. Warning signs denote that the owner of this place is unfriendly.
Cheers
Spero