The
visitors centre at Julia Creek is a very good one. There are the usual array of pamphlets and a helpful guide at the counter but its the other infrastructure that leaves you really impressed.
For instance, there are the three old fettler's cottages which date back a hundred years to the coming of the railway. Single room and originally corrugated iron walls and roof
, these were the homes for the men who lay the track or worked the trains that so changed this area. The examples here are originals but their walls have been replaced and insulated and they contain short videos on different aspects of Julia Creek's history. A larger auditorium plays longer video presentations about the history and geography of the area and the star attraction, the Julia Creek Dunnart.
These dunnarts are indigenous to the area but were all but wiped out by the coming of non aboriginal settlers and their pets. They have been bought back from extinction by a specific breeding program and the provision of a large, pest safe enclosure.
The highlight of the facility is a viewing of a dunnart being fed, in low light condition and behind a glassed enclosure. Excited little humans and even excited wife-type humans and the low light, make photographs difficult so don't hold your breath when you get to the photos.
We took advantage of the hospitality of the CWA, Sue having a scone (notice I didn't say generosity ... one scone) and both having cups of tea. A long chat with one of the local fellows was colourful and informative.
Having been unsuccessful in finding out any local information, we drove the twenty odd kilometres to the west to the almost completely disassembled ghost town of Gilliat. It was there in May of 1908, that Robert Donald Stuart was killed in a shunting accident. Stuart was a fettler who had come to the area as the railway was extended into Julia Creek from Hughenden, transforming it forever from a one building Cob & Co Coach change over station, into a thriving little centre. The railways only employed married men, seeing them as "sober and hard working and unlikely to be attracted to the grog". However, that didn't mean their wives traveled out to these places to be with them. Stuart's "wife", Kate Margaret Knapman was Sue's great grandmother and although no record exists of a marriage taking place, they had lost a child earlier in 1903. The electoral records show Margaret living in Charters Towers in 1908, which would be consistent with the stories of railway marriages of the time. Whether they were married or just said they were married seems to be unimportant. Margaret was wearing his ring when she died in 1977.
We searched for the cemetery but any such record has long since disappeared under cattle hooves. Its not likely it would have revealed much anyway. Instead, we took shots of the siding and a burned out camp beside the tracks with artifacts that stemmed back a long way but whether it was a hundred years might have been a stretch. Sue made a little cairn of bluestone rocks beside the track and I found an old bolt which would have been part of the original track. Being in the place was enough.
The rest of the day was spent trying to escape the heat. We expected it to be hot but not perhaps just yet and 33C was a bit sudden. There is no shade in the caravan park, so the caravan air con struggles.
As the sun set, we enjoyed an artesian bath - literally. Four circular sheds have been set up at the edge of the park, two baths side by side in each and about a forty degree arc removed from each wall and half the roof. The result was a deep, hot bath under the stars, with drinks and nibblies. Not a bad way to finish the day.
