Tour Australia

We left Porcupine Gorge and headed back down south to Hughenden then west towards Mt Isa. We made it to Richmond and decided to stop in at Kronosaurus Korner. We have a friend from church who is the curator and luckily for us he was at work. We found him and had a good chat and catch up. He then gave us a tour of his lab and showed us around the museum.

He then directed us to the publically open dig site nearby. We drove the 11km down the road and had a bit of a fossick. On arrival we noticed some dark clouds and the sight of rain in the distance so we knew we wouldn’t have long. We found many small fossils and it wasn’t until we were leaving that we found a nice big fossil of a fish and something next to it. It was almost 30cm in length and had been uncovered by the graded surface. We would highly recommend that if you are passing through Richmond to take the time to stop in at Kronosaurus Korner and head out to the dig site.

The rain began to fall so we packed up and left. As we made the sealed road it started to pour. We drove back to Richmond and there were big puddles starting to form on the road and alongside the road. We took the road for Mt Isa and made our way west.

Not far out of town we saw a Commodore by the side of the road. After a quick chat he decided to wait for someone heading towards Richmond. He did have RACQ roadside assist but neither of us had phone reception.

We eventually made it out of the storm after an intense amount of rain (we heard rumours later of 110mm). As we settled in for the drive we hit another storm. Again we had to slow down due to the rain hammering down. It took around an hour but we made it past the storm and decided to try and make Mary Kathleen. Mary Kathleen is an abandoned mining town approximately 60km from Mt Isa. No structures are there anymore; all that remains are the formed roads and concrete slabs where a carport once stood which make great caravan sites. (images taken the following day)

We arrived at Mary Kathleen at a bit after 6pm. We were a little worried as the previous 2 rest areas were absolutly packed with campers. After negotiating our way into the old town we saw that there were a number of people already there but there was plenty of space for us too.