AUC 1995 - Camooweal (Qld)

Camooweal (Qld)
(Barkly Highway) 188 kms

Main street, Camooweal

The wind had changed direction and this appeared to bring at least some of the contents of the fumes from the copper smelter over the city. My coughing got worse as the night wore on and at midnight I had to get up or keep everyone in the camp awake. With sinuses ablaze, I was guaranteed a weary day to follow.

However, that aside, we completed our pack up and were on the road by 9:30 am.

We had been warned the road to Camooweal was very poor, but the first 70 kilometres proved to be
excellent bitumen. However, after this, the conditions did indeed deteriorate to virtually single lane bitumen, but as we were in no hurry, this did not worry us.

Following our morning tea stop at a road side rest station, we came upon a character by the name of Jacob Baldwin, a Cerebral Palsy sufferer who is travelling around Australia by Route 1 in his electric wheelchair. He is raising funds for a multitude of causes, but mostly is doing his Ability Trek because it is there. His support crew gave us a pamphlet explaining his cause and we donated a small sum to assist him. As he had started in 1992, this has been a long endeavour, but he is currently on the second leg of the journey, having previously completed the Sydney to Perth stretch.

It was on to Camooweal and lunch. We took a cabin for the night as we had a long drive to Tennant Creek to face on the morrow. The kids appreciated the "veg out" time infrontofTV, having been away from the boob tube for three weeks.

We had planned to visit the Camooweal Caves NP to the south, but the 40 kilometre return trip did not seem justified as we would have been unable to do anything but view the cave openings. As the caves are sink holes, we were neither experienced enough or equipped to venture into them.

Business sector Camooweal

Camooweal is a very small village which has the claim to fame it is Queensland's western most town. It was formerly known as the gateway to the Northern Territory, but this claim has been usurped by Mount Isa. In fact, we were able to learn that Camooweal falls under the jurisdiction of Mount Isa City Council, hence the Guiness Book of Records recording Mount Isa as the world's largest city by area.

Milk was $3.20for a two litre bottle and our accommodation was only $6 cheaper than the high quality units we had booked for our time in Adelaide and believe me, it was nothing to crow about!
The sticker which was added to the collection on the trailer was about the most impressive thing in the place, but will evoke less significant memories, in the long term. The humorous saying "I spent a week there on afternoon" came to mind and both Sue and I had a far greater appreciation for the truth which often lies behind words said in jest.

Even the sticker proved to up to the standard of the place. It had peeled off by Alice Springs.