To Townsville – 1/22/2013
Jan 23rd, 2013 by admin
The morning in Julia Creek is humid and warm even at 7AM. We’re hoping to get to the coast at Townsville but it doesn’t look likely now.
A tropical cyclone, the east Asian version of a north-American hurricane, had crossed over the Cape York Peninsula in the far north of Australia and then turned north down the coast. We head back down the road to the roadhouse and ask a woman working there about the weather in Townsville. It’s not good. Townsville had over 100 mm (almost 4 inches) of rain yesterday. Expect flooding. And the forecast is for 70% chance of rain with thundershowers. Time for Plan B.
Plan B is to continue east on the Flinders Highway to Charters Towers and then turn south on the Gregory Highway. We’ll link up with the Capricorn Highway at Emerald and try for the coast in Rockhampton.
The road is dead flat and dead straight again. The only excitement is a suicidal cat slowly walking across the two lane road. Actually, the car probably isn’t suicidal. There’s probably no reason for the cat to expect a car since traffic is so sparse at this time of year. Nonetheless, the cat notices us swerving to avoid him and scampers out of the way, no doubt screeching feline epithets at us as we pass.
And then there’s the goanna. Goannas are lizards that can get to a meter in length. They look like a skink on steroids and are often confused with monitors. Large goannas are rarely seen and almost never seen on the road. Of course, at this time of the year they don’t need to warm themselves on the hot pavement. Last night’s overnight low was just about 30ºC (88ºF).
This one, though, was in the middle of the land. And, to make matters worse, the way he was positioned on the road made him look like a piece of debris or a dead bird. John decided to straddle him and at the last moment we both realized that the debris was a lizard standing high on his front legs looking back down the road at us. Luckily for the lizard and us, the car which is raised 3 inches for better off-road ground clearance cleared him. As we drove away you could see him looking at the receding car with the lizard version of a WTF look.
The debris we we see on the road are occasional road kills of ‘roos and wallabies with the odd bird thrown in for a bit of spice. There is no road crew cleaning the road of road kill. Rather the birds, ansects and other carrion eaters do the clean up. Out here it’s common to see a complete ‘roo skeleton on the side of the road, picked perfectly clean.
The ‘roos are hit at night by vehicles. There aren’t many vehicles but there are miilions of ‘roos and the roads are just loaded with them at night. There are so many animal/vehicle collisions that there are public service announcements warning people no to drive at night. And we don’t.
The roads are just teeming with ‘roos, wallabies, camels and cows (this is generally unfenced range land.) Hitting a ‘roos will cause serious damage to a car and kill the ‘roo. Hitting a camel or a cow will destroy the car, kill the driver and piss off the camel or cow. Think moose in North America.
Of course, things are different for the trucks and road trains. They can’t stop or even swerve so an animal in the road at night dies in the collision and the truck or road train usually keeps on going. A truck may sustain meaningful damage but not the road trains. They all have strengthened bumper systems (called bull bars) and armored suspensions. Road train 1, animal 0.
The only thing to break the monotony of the road is the occasional small range of hills. We turn south at Charters Towers and the road crosses into and out of the Great Dividng Range which is actually a collection of ranges of small hills. But we always end up in the huge flat plain that dominates the center of the continent.
It’s been getting more cloudy as we head south and closer to the coast. It’s not overcast but the cumulus clouds are starting to fill the sky enough so that we go for long periods without any direct sunlight. As it gets later in the day, the temps start to drop and the animals strat to come back from their shade.
The Gregory Highway is either the most deadly place in Australia for ‘roos or there are a hell of a lot of ‘roos here. I think we’re talking big numbers of ‘roos if the carcasses on the side of the road are any indication. And they we start to see them. A couple here; a trio there.
And in the wheat fields along to road we see flocks of emus, literally. This ostrich-like bird is usually seen in one’s and two’s. Here we’re seeing groups of 5 and 6. I don’t know why. The good news is that we’ve never seen them in the road and never seen emu road kill. Good thing. This tall bird would probably end up in a car’s windshield. That would be very ugly for us and the bird if the bird died. A wounded emu would probably be even worse.
We pull into Clermont at about 6PM. Clermont is an old farming and cattle center for this region. But since coal has become big business, the mining industry dominates. The town still touts its farming and cattle heritage but most of the businesses, vehicles and company signage (Rio Tinto, et al) point to the 800 pound gorilla in the room, the mining industry.
Some time back, we had seen a huge tailing field, a veritable mountain of overburden stretching for over a mile and running along the road, a couple mile long conveyor. We couldn’t see it but we could just imagine the size of the open pit coal mine on the other side of the overburden mountain. And that was just one of the mines operating in the area.
Not only is coal the major fuel used in the production of energy (remember that when an Aussie starts talking about greenhouse effect and CO2 gas emissions), it is also a huge exporter of coal to China, the other greenhouse effect denier in this hemisphere. The cheap coal produces cheap electricity and that hurts the adoption of solar powered electricity production in a country with large areas that are very favorable to the use of photovoltaics.
Of course, the battle is between money and the environment and, not unexpectedly, money is winning. The export of coal and other minerals generates huge foreign reserves and is the driving force behind the booming Aussie economy.
The economic slow down in China may have the financial and government quarters wringing their hands and worrying that the sky may be falling but there is no evidence of that in the economy that we’ve seen.
Things are booming, including inflation. The world-wide inflation standard, the cost of 2 cases of beer, has hit a new all time high here in Oz: AUD100 (about $112) for 2 cases of mediocre beer. I’ll probably do a rant on the state of Australian beer, disappointing for a country that drinks beer with almost a religious fervor.
We finally, find a hotel for the night. The Commercial Hotel, an old but very charming all wood building built around the beginning of the 1900’s. It was originally built down in the flats along the almost non-existent river that was once the location of the town proper. In 1912 a great flood destroyed the town but not the hotel. It was transported to it’s current location intact and has been operating continuously every since.
We get our rooms (only single available) and they both open out on to a huge 2nd floor veranda. Pull up a table and open a bottle of so-so cabernet merlot blended wine. There’s a good breeze blowing and the temperature has dropped significantly. And, with the cloud shield from the cyclone just starting to cover the area, the sunset is spectacular.
We have a good dinner and then back to our rooms. There’s a good Internet connection so I upload some pictures and blog posts. Then some Aussie Open tennis on the telly. Wake up to turn off the telly. Give up for the night.
Obi-wan