Next town was Georgetown (Temps in mid 30’s)  Landscape hot & dry – all the creeks and rivers that we passed over were bone dry  –Georgetown is another small town established in the gold rush.  All these towns are surrounded by remote cattle stations.  Cattle are exported from Karumba.



 

Lunch at Georgetown

Bridge over dry river bed
at Georgetown

20km west of Georgetown The Cumberland Chimney is all that remains of the gold crushing plant built by Cornish masons.

Cumberland Chimney

 

Arrived at Croyden after a long, hot drive.  Another small town which in the gold rush days boasted 36 pubs but now has only one.  Croyden was established in 1886 after Walter & Dick Aldridge struck gold while digging holes for fence posts while working on Croyden Downs Cattle Station.

The caravan park is lovely with a very welcome pool although the water was warm like bathwater.  The manager here doubles as the local garbage collector and drives the Council truck one morning per week!  4km outside Croyden is the beautiful Lake Belmere.  Definitely an oasis in the hot dry landscape.  It is used for boating, fishing and swimming.  (See notice below).

Steve at Lake Belmere

 

In other words - swim quietly!

On a visit to the amenities block I found some new friends in the form of 4 large Green Tree Frogs looking up at me from the toilet pan.  (They are quite harmless but I changed to another toilet needless to say)!

Croyden is an interesting town with many old buildings with lots of relics from the gold rush days.

The Poddy Dodgers Bar at the local pub

After a pleasant overnight stop at Croyden we then moved on  to Karumba via Normanton.  We had hoped to see The Gulflander but missed it in the scrub.  Will have to see it at Normanton.

Normanton – once again a gold and cattle town. It has quite a colourful history. The Purple Pub shown below was relocated from Croyden. Also below is an account of what happened when  Burns Phillips - the local trading company ran out of 1 & 5 pound notes.




The Purple Pub which was relocated
from Croyden to Normanton

Rail Bridge over dry creek bed

 

The largest crocodile ever shot - details listed in the sign below.  The model in the picture is tue to original size 

 

This tells you what happened when Burns Phillip Co
had a shortage of 1 & 5 pound notes

 

The restored vintage Gulflander train travels between Croyden and Normanton providing a tourist attraction.  It has covered this route for approx. 50 years.  (Pix under Normanton)  The Savannahlander mentioned earlier is a similar train.  Its’ route was from Cairns to Forsyth via Chiliago and Mt Surprise.