Big Sky Drive

Cloncurry has always been a mining town. The original copper mine is still in operation over 100 years later, but there are a lot of other minerals in the area. Mary Kathleen was a town where uranium was mined, and there’s an outdoor exhibition of some of the equipment from that mine at the Mary Kathleen memorial park. The museum next door is devoted to the mining industry and the inhabitants of the area. They have a really comprehensive collection of aboriginal artifacts - including more worked stone than I’ve seen anywhere. They also have one of the largest collections of minerals and stones in Australia. And it’s all very accessible. This was one of the few modern museums that I think does a good job of providing a depth of information.

John Flynn is deservedly well known in Australia. He had a vision for the outback to have just as good education, health and communication as the urban areas. He didn’t succeed, but he did more than anyone, possibly in the world, to achieve this in remote regions. He became a Presbyterian minister, and selected the most remote parish as his ministry. Firstly, he developed an outback medical guide that was distributed throughout the outback and became the medical bible for remote Australia. He managed to convince people to finance a one year trial of a flying doctor service. This was based in Cloncurry, and the plane took doctors to remote communities and stations within range of the aeroplane. The flying doctor service expanded to sixteen centres and still runs today. They provide medicine chests to places across outback Australia, so the flying doctor service can advise what to do immediately (this was initially done by pedal radio), regular clinics to remote communities (for instance, when I visited wanaaring many years ago I was told the flying doctor visited every second Monday), as well as emergency flights when a doctor is needed. Having distributed pedal radios throughout the region, Flynn then started School of the Air, where children could be in a classroom across a wide area. The classes initially ran for one hour a day, complimenting the Queensland remote syllabus. School of the Air also still runs today. Since it all started in Cloncurry, there’s a fantastic museum here dedicated to John Flynn and his work. It’s over three levels and it’s well worth visiting.

On my way out of Cloncurry, I visited Chinaman’s Creek Dam and the Big Eagle and the Eagle painted on a tank (evidently in northern Queensland they paint tanks rather than silos) at the lookout.

Then I drove to Mount Isa. It was an extraordinarily beautiful drive. As road trains use the road, and the only places I could stop were stopping places at some of the least photogenic locations on the road, my photos don’t do it justice. The road winds through hills of very weathered rock. I’d say it’s one of the most beautiful roads in Australia. I’d rate it better than some of the others that are famous. I looked it up later, and the whole drive from Cloncurry through Mount Isa and on to Camooweal is called Big Sky Drive. Evidently, there is an audio app you can get that gives you three hours of recordings, based on your gps location, that you can listen to on the way. I’m going to try it for the drive on to Camooweal.

On the way there were several side roads that I could have gone down, but even though it was a short drive, I was tired and didn’t go down them. 

I did stop at the Burke and Wills memorial, even though I’m not a fan of their expedition. In my opinion, Burke was an idiot and should never have been in charge of the expedition and the Victorian Royal Society was obviously full of academics without any hands on experience. If you don’t know about it, there was a race to cross the continent from south to north, so that an inland telegraph route could be developed. There was nothing in the north, and almost all the population was in the south, and no one had crossed the continent before. There was a successful team from South Australia, lead by Stuart, and there was Burke and Wills from Victoria. They created a travelling circus, complete with boats, to cross the several deserts on the way. They seem to have been wined and dined at every Victorian town on the way. They were the first Europeans to successfully cross the Sturt Stoney Desert. They did succeed in traversing the continent. Burke divided the group twice, and only one of the people who actually traversed Australia survived. Burke didn’t. Unfortunately, Wills didn’t either. Yes, I’m biased. There are commemorative stones in many places in Victoria that Burke and Wills camped there for a night. I’ve even come across a memorial that says that the party trying to find Burke and Wills camped there for a night! Anyway, Burke and Wills camped a night at a place on the road between Cloncurry and Mount Isa.

I also stopped at an aboriginal memorial to the tribe that once lived in the area.

And then I hit Mount Isa. It’s a big mining town, dominated by the enormous mine you can see a few kilometres before you reach it. Cloncurry is no longer home to the flying doctor service. It moved to Mount Isa in 1965. Mount Isa has deep underground tunnels.