Nogoa River Campground

The Great Artesian Basin is fed partly by the Carnarvon Gorge and the escarpments because they’re a porous sandstone. There are also springs along the escarpment and two of them - the Belinda Spring and the Mitchell Spring - feed the Louisa Creek which meets the Nogoa River at the campground. The river goes on to become part of the Fitzroy River which ends up flowing into the ocean near Rockhampton. These springs provide 4 million litres of water per day to the river, and the Belinda Spring is the greatest spring in Queensland. The Louisa Creek flows over a four metre thick deposit of peat, forming the only peat bog in Queensland, so this area is pretty special.

The locals in the Ute yesterday said that the Mitchell spring has stopped running these days.

After the river crossing, the road goes on to the springs and a couple of climbs to the top of the escarpment, so you can see the whole area. However, I didn’t do this. Areas that are added to national parks, like this one, are usually old properties that the government has bought when they came up for sale. Often they’re a bit decrepit - places that retain natural habitat tend not to have been changed much and are often on marginal farmland which is difficult to earn a living from. The campground is near a house that was probably the homestead. I walked there, and it was very small and run down. I took the path to the river from the house. There was a pumping station on the way.

I then walked up to the top of the rocks around the campground and on the way encountered another monument to major mitchell (there is one at the entrance to the campground). This one said that during his tropical expedition he passed through this valley twice. He discovered the Mitchell spring, and they were desperate for water at the time, so I guess he decided to come back this way because of it. Although we’re not in the tropics here, the Tropic of Capricorn is about a hundred kilometres away, so we’re very close to the tropics.

Not long after I’d finished my exploration of the surroundings of the campground, the first new campers arrived. They had a trailer tent. Then came two more cars with caravans, a camping truck (which has TWO folding tents on top), and a car with a trailer van. So tonight we have 10 vehicles!